ISAIAH’S END-TIME TIMELINE

ISAIAH Chapters 13-14

SATAN’S END-TIME ARMY USED AS GOD’S ROD OF JUDGEMENT

“And it shall come to pass in the last days….” [Isaiah 2:2]

We have contemplated the Word of God through Isaiah the last few lessons in chapters 10-12 as it relates to the future significance of the historic events therein typed. Namely in chapter 10, the prophet declares: The Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and in whose hand is the staff of His indignation, who shall smite the people of Jacob. (Verses 5,10 and 12) This is understood to be a type for satan as an instrument of God in the End Time, in league with the Anti-Christ and his confederation. Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, that is to say, the End Time consumption He has already decreed; For the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined in the midst of all the land 10: 22… after which there shall only be a sealed remnant (Isaiah 10:20 with Revelation 7:3)of all the tribes to repopulate the land.

After this decreed consumption on the people of Jacob then… I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks…. as God will/has raised up another with a rod of authority out of the root of Jesse. “…and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked one…. [Isaiah 11:4 with Revelation 19:11] And after this: And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, which shall be left.… And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left…. In type…like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. [Chapter 11:16] Although in history we have Assyria and Babylon as instruments of God’s judgments, with instances of partial fulfillments in Israel’s punishments and restorations, none come close to fulfilling the words that are being declared by Isaiah. Few would argue, including the Jewish sages and rabbis.

Assyria/Babylon/the Assyrian/the king of Babylon/Nebuchadnezzar/king of Tyre are all used as End Time types for the kingdom of satan and the anti-Christ. These then but partial fulfillments point towards what is to be finally realized in the Last Days.

Chapter 13 and 14 [Septuagint]

13:1 THE VISION WHICH ESAIAS SON OF AMOS SAW AGAINST BABYLON. 2 Lift up a standard on the mountain of the plain, exalt the voice to them, beckon with the hand, open the gates, ye rulers. 3 I give command, and I bring them: giants are coming to fulfill my wrath, rejoicing at the same time and insulting. 4 A voice of many nations on the mountains, even like to that of many nations; a voice of kings and nations gathered together: the Lord of hosts has given command to a war-like nation, 5 to come from a land afar off, from the utmost foundation of heaven; the Lord and his warriors are coming to destroy all the world.6 Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is near, and destruction from God shall arrive. 7 Therefore every hand shall become powerless, and every soul of man shall be dismayed. 8 The elders shall be troubled, and pangs shall seize them, as of a woman in travail: and they shall mourn one to another, and shall be amazed, and shall change their countenance as a flame. 9 For behold! the day of the Lord is coming which cannot be escaped, a day of wrath and anger, to make the world desolate, and to destroy sinners out of it. 10For the stars of heaven, and Orion, and all the host of heaven, shall not give their light; and it shall be dark at sunrise, and the moon shall not give her light. 11 And I will command evils for the whole world, and will visit their sins on the ungodly: and I will destroy the pride of transgressors, and will bring low the pride of the haughty. 12 And they that are left shall be more precious than gold tried in the fire; and a man shall be more precious than the stone that is in Suphir. 13 For the heaven shall be enraged, and the earth shall be shaken from her foundation, because of the fierce anger of the Lord of hosts, in the day in which his wrath shall come on. 14 And they that are left shall be as a fleeing fawn, and as a stray sheep, and there shall be none to gather them: so that a man shall turn back to his people, and a man shall flee to his own land. 15 For whosoever shall be taken shall be overcome; and they that are gathered together shall fall by the sword. 16 And they shall dash their children before their eyes; and they shall spoil their houses, and shall take their wives.

17 Behold, I will stir up against you the Medes, who do not regard silver, neither have they need of gold. 18 They shall break the bows of the young men; and they shall have no mercy on your children; nor shall their eyes spare thy children. 19 And Babylon, which is called glorious by the king of the Chaldeans, shall be as when God overthrew Sodoma, and Gomorrha. 20 It shall never be inhabited, neither shall any enter into it for many generations: neither shall the Arabians pass through it; nor shall shepherds at all rest in it. 21 But wild beasts shall rest there; and the houses shall be filled with howling; and monsters shall rest there, and devils shall dance there, 22 and satyrs shall dwell there; and hedgehogs shall make their nests in their houses. It will come soon, and will not tarry.

WITH THE 13TH CHAPTER a new player is added to the scene of God’s great End Time drama. A vision of Isaiah against Babylon. The continued Words of the visions of Isaiah here in these chapters introduce to us a prophecy of judgment. Historically speaking, one which is going to be partially fulfilled around 200 years or so from when Isaiah spoke them. Babylon was not a significant player on the World scene as these Words were first spoken. And thus have nothing to do, practically speaking, with the dire circumstances facing Jacob’s people at that time, nor in all the years of Isaiah’s ancient ministry. And of course the Medes and Persians have not hitherto aligned and become a World power for God to send out against Babylon either.

The great theme of Redemption prophecy is its consummation, not its history. Setting aside then the meaningfulness of the historical past partial fulfillments, we turn our attention to the heart of what the Spirit of God is in these chapters referring to. In the full redemption coming to pass in the last days. Chronologically…

  1. The decreed consumption.
  2. The judgments on the nations.
  3. The destroying of the wicked one(s).
  4. And then the restoration of all Israel.

Let us place these events of Isaiah in their respective places in the End Times according to Scripture. Isaiah says a military ensign is lifted. The call goes forth. An End Time army He has appointed comes forth. Command is given to His Angels to open….The Lord mustereth a terribly fierce army from far, far away, weapons to exercise His indignation, to destroy the whole land/earth. This, in type, is understood to be the forces of the future evolving empire of Babylon and its king Nebuchadnezzar. But the question before us is: Who are these and what is to be opened as it relates to the future End Time anti-type clearly being portrayed by the Spirit of God?

As we read these verses, we look to additional Scriptures for their meaning. Isaiah 13:6: “Howl ye; for the day of the Lord, is at hand: it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.” We find this specific predictive sentiment in Joel 1:15: “Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction form the Almighty shall it come.”

Joel 2:1 “Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm. This answers to the raising of the ensign and the call and opening, for His fierce army of Isaiah 13:1. As does “.…let all the inhabitants of the land tremble..” Trembling in response to the emerging army, answering to Isaiah 13: verses 7,8,&9.

Further comparison is found in the next verses, 9 & 10 of Isaiah. “Behold the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.” This clearly corresponds with Joel 2:2,10,11,30,31. “A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness…. The earth shall quake before them: the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible: and who can abide it?. And: I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.”

Through Joel the trail leads to the Book of Revelation in that it also portrays this call and opening up. That the army of God may come forth in great destruction in His indignation, the army of End Time Babylon just before the Day of The Lord. Revelation 9:1,2 and events following correspond with Joel chapter 1 and 2:1-11 and Isaiah 13 & 14. “And the 5th angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth; and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit: and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace: and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. 

See also Psalm 78:49…. “He sent evil angels among them.” The “opening” of Isaiah 13 corresponds with this opening of the pit, as the darkness of that day corresponds to it. As does the calling of the supernatural “giants” or mighty ones, referred to in Isaiah and Joel. Which is further evidenced in the description of these evil spirits in their countenance and appearance. [Joel 1:4,2:3-9 with Revelation 9] These are the days of the first two Woes (Revelation 9:1-11:14) that specifically target Jacob’s seed and Jerusalem.

GOD HERE GIVES THAT ENSIGN SIGNAL TO HIS END TIME ARMY for judgment. First against Jacob’s wayward people, that corresponds with the breaking of the Seals of His redemptive new covenant with reunited Israel. The consumption decreed of final judgments on Israel’s seed, wherein are found these Old Covenant Scriptures’ fulfillment on the last day Jew, beginning in Revelation chapter 4 through chapter 11:14. AND THEN WHAT IS ADDITIONALLY IN THE PROPHET’S VIEW IS THAT IN THE LAST 3 ½ YEARS OF THE 7 YEARS OF THE TRIBULATION PERIOD, after Israel’s judgments comes, come BOTH MYSTICAL BABYLON AND LITERAL RESTORED BABYLON’S JUDGMENTS. As the Seals now opened, with 6 trumpets and two woes complete, here then we turn to a new phase of prophecy. In that God’s indignation / consumption of Israel is complete. They have tasted of His Last Day Wrath, but now He turns to have the Wicked drink the entire cup of the 7th trumpet with 7 vials.

This then is the order of judgments in the Second Coming of the Messiah. First Jacob and Jerusalem must drink of the cup of Gods Wrath, then apostate Christendom. The Anti-God Mystic Babylon the Great judgments are expounded in Revelation 17 & 18 and to whom Isaiah now speaks, faces full force the prophetic judgments in the last of the 7 year, End Time, Vintage Wrath. These Judgments on the Gentile nations and the Wicked of the unseen World are SEEN and declared in Revelation chapter 11: verse 15 in the 3rd Woe. In the (beginning) sounding of the 7th trump with verse 19 in the opening of the Tabernacle, seen as that same corresponding opening in chapter 15:5 and then on through chapter 20:3. Skipping over the parenthetical insertions of chapters 12, 13 and 14, we shall see the contradistinction between the “hosts” of armies of God. When we see the juxtaposition and destruction of those who would have totally destroyed the people of Jacob, the destroyers of the earth in the final judgments, the seven vials.

AS A RESULT, it is recorded in Scripture, “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be….” This being the state, then it can be understood that it would be possible that even the “elect” to be lost, except those (end) days be shortened. [Matthew 24:21,22] It is clear from context that we should assign the title “elect” as meaning the people of Israel at the End Time. In that they might possibly be completely destroyed, by then released intent of the supernatural forces, in the over exercising of indignation judgments appointed by God, unto His righteously decreed purpose of restoration to Him as wife. [Hosea 2]

So it was in the days of Elijah when he was the lone great witness of God before the nation, and there then was yet 7000 elect that had not bowed their knee to Baal. SO similarly it is, when we turn to the 11th chapter of Revelation, we find that in the Last Days, to which these Scriptures in Isaiah point to, the two Great Witnesses of God to Israel, along with some 144,000 End Time sealed who have not bowed their knee to the Anti-Christ. These two witnesses, having been commissioned by God, are in the likeness of Elijah’s and Mosses’ authority, in that they both resisted the dark authorities over Israel, and wrought miracles of destruction upon their enemies, in the stopping of rain, the calling down of fire. So do these two, for the first of the 3 1/12 years of the Tribulation.

See last chapter of Malachi for further understanding in the purposes of the two witnesses, along with the exampled two lamp witnesses of Zechariah chapter 4. Those who encouraged a weak over-matched remnant in remaining faithful unto Yahweh in the face of huge opposition, to prevent the complete destruction from being visited upon the nation.

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