Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Isaiah 22:8

Copyright Ó 2014 J. Neely
Isaiah 22:8ues

8 And he discovered [galah] the covering [macak] of Judah [Yahuwdah], and thou didst look [nabat] in that day [yowm] to the armour [nesheq] of the house [bayith] of the forest [ya`ar].  KJV-Interlinear

8  He has taken away the covering of Judah.  In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest,  ESV

The covering of Judah, and the house of the forest, are two phrases that actually contradict the attitudes that will prevail in that future day.

The first is one of indifference toward God and the many principles that are taught in the scriptures, namely being prepared both spiritually and prepared in this temporal world.

Spiritual preparation occurs only with a daily study of the Bible.  Temporal preparation comes with academic or experiential education, but on a national scale it here refers to the preparations of national defense.

The Jews will lack spiritual resources because of the lack of spiritual studies, but they will have some semblance of military preparation which is more of an establishment principle that applies to all people, both Christian and non-Christian.

We have seen historically that the Jews have been militarily unprepared throughout their history, until after World War 2.  And now they are one of the most prepared nations militarily, throughout the Middle East.

The covering of Judah refers to that which covers the privacy and security of ones person.  And here the covering of Judah, is from a national sense, in that the covering is that of God and their heritage in Christ, but now uncovered, exposes their lack of that protection from lack of spiritual preparation.

So they see enemies advancing, and therefore turn to their military preparations, or stores of military equipment that have been placed in storage as some prior time.

The house of the forest, refers to the armory or military storage place or places.  These were built by Solomon, 1 Kg. 7:2, 10:17, wherein he placed large portions of the arsenal of Israel's military equipment.

So, on the one hand the Jews do not turn to God for their defense, but on the other hand they do turn to the principles of military preparation for their defense.

Now there is one thing here that needs to be noted.   When the anti-christ comes along in the Tribulation, he will vow to protect Israel.  This we know is a lie.

And as such he will convince Israel to remove all of their military defenses.  This is the trap.  Evil always wants to disarm a people, making them vulnerable.

A defenseless Israel, or any nation for that matter, is more vulnerable to being destroyed.

But, here we see that the defenseless Israel is not so defenseless, for they, or someone who is wise, will put all of their defenses in secret storage, and those secret places will be inside of the city of Jerusalem.

Thus, when the enemies advance and are at the gates of the city, so to speak, then the many other prophecies of the defense of Jerusalem will become a reality, as there will arise an army inside of the city and they will become a stumbling block to all enemies, frustrating those enemies, as we have already studied in our prior studies in Isaiah.