Monday, December 24, 2012

Isaiah 8:9


Copyright Ó 2012 J. Neely
Isaiah 8:9

9 Associate [ra`a`] yourselves, O ye people, [`am] and ye shall be broken in pieces; [chathath] and give ear, ['azan] all [kol] ye of far [merchaq] countries: ['erets] gird ['azar] yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; [chathath] gird ['azar] yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. [chathath] KJV-Interlinear

9 "Be broken, O peoples, and be shattered; And give ear, all remote places of the earth. Gird yourselves, yet be shattered; Gird yourselves, yet be shattered. NASB

Associate, ‘ra a,’ means to ally oneself, to connect with, to confederate with, to enter into an alliance with.

Here the prophet is speaking to the nations of Assyria, Syria, and Samaria, all of whom have aligned themselves against Judah, and thus have aligned themselves against God.

And here is the challenge.  Despite the magnitude of their military strength, for gird yourself is repeated, emphasizing that all of Gods enemies have spent their energy in building up their strength for this war.

But despite their overwhelming resources and power, as opposed to Judah, they are never going to be strong enough to defeat God.

The result of their invasion will be their ultimate and utter defeat.

Broken into pieces or shattered, means total destruction and annihilation and obliteration, such that they will never rise again.

Now, remember that many of these prophecies have their place in past history as examples of what is going to occur in the future.  The real prophecy is set for the Tribulation, and more specifically at the end of the Tribulation when Judah will be invaded from all sides, beginning from the north.

But more than that, the entire world will ally itself against Judah and God, and as a result, the entire world will end up in a shambles at the Second Advent.

By comparison with Judah, in that future date, the entire world will have more manpower, more firepower, more resources than one can even begin to imagine.  And poor little Judah, will be out-matched by far.

Judah will be overrun, and Judah will be hammered to near extinction, but in the end, it will be the world that will lose completely.