Monday, May 6, 2013

Isaiah 10:20


Copyright Ó 2013 J. Neely
Isaiah 10:20ues

20 And it shall come to pass in that day, [yowm] that the remnant [sha'ar] of Israel, [Yisra'el] and such as are escaped [paleytah] of the house [bayith] of Jacob, [Ya`aqob] shall no more again [yacaph] stay [sha`an] upon him that smote [nakah] them; but shall stay [sha`an] upon the LORD, [Yahovah] the Holy One [qadowsh] of Israel, [Yisra'el] in truth. ['emeth] KJV-Interlinear

20 Now it will come about in that day that the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. NASB

Isaiah has been prophesying the fall of Israel and Judah, followed by the fall of Assyria, but that series of events back then, is but a pattern of the invasion and destruction that will occur at the end of the future history of Israel.

When God laid out the divine plan, which is called the Divine Decrees, He partitioned up history into separate dispensations. Each dispensation having unique attributes of its own.

The Garden was unique in that only Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden.  That was the first dispensation, or the Age of Innocence.  That was followed by the next dispensation which spanned from their eviction out of the Garden, to the Flood of Noah.  These are unique time frames with obvious beginnings and endings.

The next dispensation followed the pattern of family rule from the post-flood days of Noah to Abraham.  Job would be the best example of family rule.

Then there was the Age of the Patriarchs, which separated the line of Christ making it unique from all other lines.  Then there was the Age of Israel, which spanned from the Exodus which defined the nation and continued to the time of Jesus and the Cross.

Old Testament prophecy states that the pattern and time of the sacrifice of the Messiah would be followed by the establishment of the Kingdom of God.  But that did not happen immediately.

Back then all of the Jewish people were looking for the Kingdom, but there was an interruption of the dispensation of the Age of Israel, which has seven more years remaining within it.  This is Daniels seventieth week or last week, in his seventy weeks prophecy.  Each week representing a year for each day of the week.

In his seventy weeks prophecy, each day of the week represented one year (70*7=490).  From the time of that prophecy, 483 years or sixty nine weeks of years (69*7=483) had passed, leaving one final week of years, or seven years.  That final week of years or seven years, was or will be, the great tribulation in which most of the prophecies of the Old Testament are to take place.  These years were to be the final years of the Age of Israel.

After the Cross, which occurred at the Feast of Passover, then fifty days later at the Feast of Pentecost, our current dispensation, which we generally call the Church Age, began.  We interrupted the Age of Israel which has seven years remaining within it.

So, the Kingdom of God was postponed in order to insert into history, and complete, our current dispensation.

Our current dispensation is generally called the Church Age, but it is also called the Age of the Bride of Christ, and is also called the Age of the Royal Family.  All of these titles refer to the same dispensation.

When our current dispensation ends, and it will end with the event of the Rapture, then the Age of Israel will resume in order to complete its last seven years.

That is when all of these final days of history prophecies, will occur.

So, in our verse, the phrase, ‘in that day,’ refers to the final days of history as they will occur within the Age of Israel.

Remember that the Church Age was never mentioned in the Old Testament.  Our dispensation was kept secret from history.  Therefore all of the prophecies from the Old Testament refer to and are contained within, the Age of Israel and never to our Church Age.

And so, these events from Isaiah’s day, are types or examples of the events that will occur once again, in the Tribulation.  The world will rise up against Israel to destroy it.  Assyria, the region, to the north will rise against Israel and will destroy Israel, but then it, itself will be destroyed by God.

The trend will repeat itself over and over again with Babylon, Persia, Greece and finally Rome.  And then one last time, at the end of history.

And here is the prophecy for specifically Jewish people.  The remnant that has escaped of the house of Jacob, is a reference to specifically Jewish people.  Other gentile believers will escape too, but this is one of many references wherein God promises that there will be a Jewish race in existence at the end of human history. Thus the obsession of Satan to destroy Israel and all Jewish people prior to those last days of history.

During Isaiah’s time, the nation was overrun such that most people were either killed or taken into captivity.  There are other prophecies that promise a return of a remnant to the land.  But here, the remnant will return to God.

They will not stay, on their oppressive invaders, but will stay, on the Lord.  To stay, ‘shaan,’ means to rely on, to depend on, to follow, to stay or remain with.

And so this remnant will escape, ‘paleytah,’ is in the feminine form and means to be delivered, or to escape the hands of their enemies, being delivered or rescued by God. They do not rescue themselves.  God is the masculine who rescues the feminine.

We know that in the Tribulation many will run to the mountains and hide out for some time, in many cases for several years.  But too, there will be those who will remain in Jerusalem and they will hold out against the most phenomenal invasion and attack against Jerusalem in all of history.  They will hold on until the Second Advent and will be rescued by Christ.

Therefore, not only will there be Jews alive in those last days, but there will be Christian Jews, who will hide or fight, and will be delivered by Christ.

They will not turn to the philosophies and religions demands of their enemies of their day, but will turn to Gods word, which is truth.

The Lord is defined here as the Holy One, which separates Christ from all other false deities or philosophies, and identifies Jesus Christ specifically.

Now note one thing.  This is a remnant.  Most of the Jewish race, along with most of the population of the world in general, will die.

The number of the remnant is not defined. It could be a few hundred or a few thousand people.  But these are the only people, plus other gentile believers, from every nation, who successfully hide and survive, that will remain alive at the Second Advent and will enter into the Kingdom of God.

The rest of the population of the world will be dead.

If these things were to occur now, then over seven billion minus believers removed in the Rapture, would be dead within seven years.  If this does not occur for another few decades or a century or so, then that seven billion will increase to a much bigger number, perhaps ten or twenty or fifty or a hundred billion people.  God only knows.

In any case, the surviving remnant will be a very small number by comparison to the entire world population.

So the promise here at the end of history, is that there will be Jews alive, they will be believers in the one true God, Jesus Christ, they will escape the clutches and intentions of the invading armies, they will be rescued by Christ, and they will be few in number. And by inference since they are alive in the Tribulation, they will begin the Tribulation as unbelievers, not having been removed by the Rapture, but will believe in Christ at some point during the Tribulation.