Isaiah 11:16
16 And there shall be an highway [macillah] for the remnant [sha'ar] of
his people, [`am] which ['aher] shall be left, [sha'ar]
from Assyria; ['Ashshuwr] like as it was to
Israel [Yisra'el] in the day [yowm] that he came up [`alah] out
of the land ['erets] of Egypt. [Mitsrayim] KJV-Interlinear
16 And there
will be a highway from Assyria For the remnant of His people who will be left,
Just as there was for Israel In the day that they came up out of the land of
Egypt. NASB
Assyria here, is not the
specific country of Assyria as it was known in Isaiah’s day, ‘Ashshuwr,’ was
the second son of Shem who was the first son of Noah.
The empire at one time
spanned from modern day Turkey to Iran, from the Caspian Sea down deep into
Egypt. So it pretty much covered all of
the Middle East and then a bit more, or all of the known world back in the
early days of Mesopotamia.
We have already seen that
the nations all around Israel will have been defeated and destroyed by Christ,
verse 11.
We saw in yesterday’s
study that the geographical barriers such as the rivers and gulfs will be dried
up or divided up into many smaller streams, allowing people to walk back to
Israel without the need for special vehicles or boats or such.
And in this last verse of
the chapter, the result is a vast highway, coming from all directions, allowing
people to return to the Lord, and to return in as easy a way as possible given
the nature of the world in that future day.
So we look a bit at how the
world will look.
First there will have
been a huge final war called Armageddon which will see the deaths of all evil
people.
People who have but one
purpose, which was to kill off all Jews and Christians and then finally all of
humanity.
Second the world will be
in a shambles. All mountains, all
islands, entire continents will be reshaped and changed if not gone completely. So people will be walking back to Jerusalem
and to the Lord by passing all of this death and destruction.
Also, we need or note one
more item within this verse.
There will be
similarities to the exodus when the Israelites came out of Egypt. God did so by means of miraculous
achievements such as in the parting of the Red Sea. But too, God provided them with all that they
needed, including food and water.
Also, this verse states
that it will be like the remnant that came out of Egypt.
Back then, when the
Israelites left Canaan and went into Egypt they numbered only about 75 people. When they left they numbered about two-million.
When the tribulation
begins, depending on when that happens, we know that the population of the
world will most likely be larger than it is today and today we number well over
seven-billion. That total number will of
course be reduced by however many Christians are removed at the Rapture.
Today the estimated Jewish
world population is about thirteen million.
In the future, in several more decades, that number could advance to well
over a hundred million.
Historically in recent
centuries the Jewish population has grown slowly with lots of setbacks due to
one holocaust after another, but prior to the Exodus, the Israelite population
rose dramatically. So, if that same
attribute holds, then there could be a big jump in their population in coming
decades. Time will tell, I suppose.
So, if the Rapture does
not occur for several more decades, then the world population could easily be
into the tens of billions of people. At
the end of the Tribulation, that number will be significantly reduced by well
over ninety-nine percent.
The end of the Tribulation
will see phenomenal destruction and death for all people. And the primary target of the world will be
the Jews.
Yet still and in spite of
the great effort to destroy Jewish people, there will still be a remnant that
will come out of the mountains, out of their hiding places, coming out of the
woodwork so to speak, and they will come from all over the Middle East and beyond.
The number of delivered
people could be in the thousands or even the tens of thousands. Perhaps even a couple of million as was in
the exodus. In any case, survival of
anyone will be nothing short of a miracle, but there will be a significant
remnant of people coming from all over and they will begin moving toward
Jerusalem when the way is clear and safe.
