Isaiah 12:6
6 Cry out [tsahal] and shout, [ranan] thou inhabitant [yashab] of
Zion: [Tsiyown] for great [gadowl] is the Holy One [qadowsh]
of Israel [Yisra'el] in the midst [qereb] of thee. KJV-Interlinear
6 Cry aloud and shout for joy, O
inhabitant of Zion, For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. NASB
Inhabitant, ‘yashab,’
means to dwell, to marry, to sit down, to continue, to establish.
Zion, ‘Tsiyown,’ means a
permanent capital, zion, a mountain of Jerusalem, conspicuous, monumental,
guiding pillar.
The Holy One of Israel
is a reference to the one and only God of Israel, the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
The word for Israel, ‘Yisrael,’
means he will rule as God, it is also a symbolic name for Jacob who was renamed
Israel, to prevail, to have power, prince.
And the ‘el’ part refers to God or the Almighty.
Midst, ‘qereb,’ means
center, among, nearest part, inward, within self.
And so we completed the
previous chapter, chapter eleven, which taught the basis for how one may grow
up and survive in this life. The primary
purpose of that chapter is for those who will live in the Tribulation, to be
able to learn and to know and to survive those terrible last days of history.
This chapter, then is
the praise issued to the Lord who will return at the Second Advent, which is
the culminating event of the Tribulation, having defeated the anti-christ and Satan
and all of the evil forces that have been doing everything in their power to
destroy humanity which too culminates in the last great war of Armageddon.
Of course all of this is
off in the future at the end of history, but Isaiah has been preparing Israel
and all of humanity for those future dark days.
Beginning with the trouble
that Judah was having with Samaria and Syria, and using those events to provide
signs of a savior, a child who will be born, from Isaiah’s perspective and has already
been born from our perspective in history.
That same child is human but also is God.
And the close of this
chapter describes the celebration of those who will survive the Tribulation,
and who will enter into the Millennium, which is the promised Kingdom of God,
wherein Jesus Christ will rule for one-thousand years, and that will finally
lead to the completion of human history and this universe.
But at the Second
Advent and shortly thereafter, there will be a celebration in the hearts and
minds of those who survived and this is why they survived.
They were inhabitants
of Zion. Which is to say that they were mature
believers, established in doctrine.
Zion is a mountain in Jerusalem,
but not all who survive in the Tribulation will be residents on that high hill.
Zion also means
dwelling of God. And God is truth so it
is the dwelling and location of truth, which is Bible doctrine. Zion is used symbolically for Bible doctrine.
Dwelling in doctrine means
simply that they studied and learned doctrine and it was doctrine that lived
within their soul, making them an occupant or resident of doctrine, and it a
resident in them.
The Holy One is the
Messiah, who was born a baby boy, but is referred to here as the Almighty, or God.
This is not a play on
words but an accurate description of exactly who Christ is, namely both man and
God, the unique person of the universe.
In the midst of thee,
carries two connotations.
The first, is that
Christ having returned, is, or will be, living in this world on planet
earth. He will be here physically,
walking and talking to everyone and anyone who wants to interact with Him.
And second, since
Christ is the living word, the word being the written words, then anyone who
learns doctrine, has doctrine in their soul and thus has Christ resident within
their soul as a part of the knowledge and wisdom base.
So, who is delivered?
Spiritually mature
believers.
How did they get there?
They studied, read,
listened and learned doctrine. Then they
used what they learned in their daily life in order to accelerate their
spiritual growth to maturity.
And since they began
the Tribulation just like everyone else, being unbelievers, since the Rapture will
remove all believers and leave behind only unbelievers, then they will have to
learn and grow while living under the most horrifying circumstances in all of
human history. Not the easiest of times
for learning anything, especially learning from scratch.
But many will accomplish
this feat.
So, what is your
excuse?
These are not the hard
times that people will see in those terrible days. Most folks today get upset when they read some
derogatory post online. Hardly a
comparison to the Tribulation where people will be dying, literally, like flies,
during that seven year period, and living in total fear of gangs and starvation
and such. But they, some, will still succeed in their spiritual life.
Victory goes to the
prepared. Victory goes to the
mature. Victory in life goes to those
who God delivers, and God delivers those who pursue His mandates. And His
mandates are that you study daily, that you study doctrine under instruction,
just as you are right now, that you function in your spiritual life in
fellowship, by means of confession, that you use what you learn in your daily
life, and that you do this day after day throughout your entire life so that
you will be complete as God intends for you to be, and have a great and
phenomenal life both now and in eternity.
The world will swirl out
of control all around you regardless of what you think or do, but doctrine will
give you the edge for surviving all of the nonsense and turmoil that the world
will bring.
