Isaiah
29:8
8 It shall even be as when an hungry [ra`eb] man dreameth [chalam], and,
behold, he eateth ['akal]; but he awaketh [quwts], and his soul [nephesh] is
empty [reyq]: or as when ['aher] a thirsty man [tsame']
dreameth [chalam], and, behold, he drinketh [shathah]; but he awaketh [quwts],
and, behold, he is faint [`ayeph], and his soul
[nephesh] hath appetite [shaqaq]: so shall the multitude [hamown] of all the nations [gowy]
be, that fight [tsaba'] against mount [har] Zion [Tsiyown]. KJV-Interlinear
8 As when a hungry man dreams,
and behold, he is eating and awakes with his hunger not satisfied, or as when a
thirsty man dreams, and behold, he is drinking and awakes faint, with his
thirst not quenched, so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight
against Mount Zion. ESV
The multitude that fights against Zion, is symbolism
of all that is in opposition to truth, all that people pursue in place of
truth, and therefore they are asleep, in effect, and dreaming of all that they
have or want, but when they awaken, they have nothing.
Bible doctrine is the doorway to truth. It is much more than the words that are in
the scriptures, it is the process by which God wants us to live. Namely in fellowship, learning, growing.
There are two environments in which you can live. The first is in this temporal or physical
world, and the second is the spiritual realm.
We can see the temporal world around us. We cannot see
the spiritual world.
But we can be oriented to the spiritual world when we
comply with Gods mandate to study, to learn and to live in accordance with His
spiritual process.
That process is first of all, to have believed in
Christ. That gains you salvation and
entrance into the access of the spiritual world.
The spiritual world is lived in, when you confess your
sins. We call that being in fellowship.
Commit a sin and you are out of fellowship. Confess and
you are in fellowship.
Living in fellowship, then your soul is under the
control of the Holy Spirit, who makes clear all truths.
You cannot see or hear or otherwise detect the Spirit,
but it is simply there.
Living out of fellowship, you are disconnected for the
spiritual realm, and therefore disconnected from the reality aspects that it
offers.
So, we have here, the Jewish people who have lived in
a dream. The live in the beliefs of
their own making, as when a person is asleep, is hungry and thirsty and eats
and drinks in his sleep, but when he wakes up, he is not filled, but hungrier still,
because the dream is not reality.
So the point here is, that God offers doctrine which
is the food for the soul, the link to reality, the door to all that is truth
and so much more.
When you reject doctrine, then you are living in a
dream, under a delusion, in an environment that cannot and will not, gain you
truth or reality or fulfillment of what it is that you seek.
The Jewish people are the object of this verse, but
you too are an object, of a sort.
They will live through all of history, right up and
until the final days, weeks and months of history. And suddenly history will culminate on them and
it will not be pretty.
In order to get a stubborn person to wake up, he often
times needs an extremely difficult or violent shaking.
And the Tribulation and Armageddon will be that
extreme.
It is so much easier to listen and hear and learn now,
while things are relatively pleasant in this world.
But often times indifference, stubbornness,
procrastination, and especially arrogance stand in the way, and then the hard
times are just around the corner.
Ignore doctrine and you will have nothing. Pursue doctrine and you will gain fulfillment
and more.
