Isaiah [Part 15] - "Awake, Awake!"

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Joseph Shulam.

Shalom. We have already done several teachings and lessons on Isaiah. It’s going slower than I wanted it to go, but the reason is this: Isaiah is one of the most Messianic prophets. Some of the most Messianic prophecies referring to Yeshua, to the Messiah, are in the book of Isaiah. That’s why it’s going slow, but also because Isaiah is a complex prophet that spans the pre-exilic years of his life in Jerusalem and the post-exilic prophetical projection to the future from chapter 40 on.

So now we’ve got to chapter 51, and I did the first eight verses of chapter 51. I don’t want to skip it because it’s part of a package that starts in chapter 49 and ends in chapter 53, which is a chapter of 12 verses with 33 different prophecies about the Messiah that identify him absolutely. And so, I’m going to go slow to the end of chapter 54, and then I’ll pick up again slow in chapter 63 to chapter 66. It’s taking a long time because it’s the largest book in the Bible text (not songs—songs are Psalms), but as far as narrative, Isaiah. Chapter 51, verse 9:

Oh, I have goosebumps when I read it. Why? Because the prophet now is addressing the people of his generation, the 8th century BC in Jerusalem, and he is relating the story of the salvation of the Lord by using a well-known and popular pagan mythical myth. I’m repeating: he is using a pagan mythical myth to relate the victory of the Lord and the Messiah over the culture, the religion, the paganism, and the idolatry of our neighboring countries that infiltrated inside Israel as well, just like globalism is infiltrating all the good, the bad, and the ugly from Western Civilization to the rest of the world.

So, the prophet Isaiah is addressing the people, and addressing the arm of the Lord, addressing the Lord Himself and calling on the arm of the Lord. When the Bible talks about the arm of somebody, it means the strength, the power of God. The arm of the Lord:

Okay, I wonder: the serpent. We’ve got that prophecy in the story of the Creation in Genesis, in which the heel of man will step on the head of the snake, of the serpent, and crush it. It’s a Messianic prophecy in Genesis, and it’s a reference to a Messianic prophecy here, probably the same source as Genesis. And the prophet now is addressing to explain to her who is this Rahab. He’s not talking about the Rahab of Jericho, the Rahab that is called a prostitute, a harlot, but according to some of the medieval Jewish rabbis, she was a restaurant owner, not a sex vendor. Yeah, because the word Zona can come from two roots that are the same root but historically they’re different. One is food, "T'zuna", and the other one "Zona".

So Rahab here is not that Rahab from Jericho. It is one of the idols, the sea idols of the Canaanite nations around us. So it says the arm of the Lord wounded the serpent, wounded Rahab, cut off Rahab, and now we are in verse 10 of chapter 51:

Verse 11. So, in these two verses, we’ve got the whole myth—more than a myth—the whole Canaanite and Middle Eastern para-historical mythological history. But it is based on the story of Creation in Genesis. I mean, even the ones who didn’t know the story of creation, they had parallel stories like the Enuma Elish and like the Gilgamesh epics of the northern Syrian Babylonian nations.

So he’s taking those myths of the war between the dry land and the sea, which are myths that appear in many, many ancient pagan cultures because they see the waves hit the shore, hit the shore, the sand moving, erosion. It’s considered to be a battle between the sea and the land. And the prophet knows, and the myths know also, something about the separation between the land and the sea, which is interesting because science today said that there was a time when the whole earth was covered with water. And that’s why if you walk in the hills of Jerusalem, that’s 800 meters above sea level, you find petrified seashells and sometimes even petrified fish walking in the fields and on the mountains of Jerusalem in the wild.

So it’s very interesting, but it’s more interesting to me what the prophet does with this. He is proclaiming here the victory of the Lord, not only over the myths of the pagans around us, but the victory of the Lord in the act of Creation. There are several references here, whether it is the separation of the land from the water, whether it is the victory over the snake, whether it is the arm of the Lord that wounds the serpent and brings the ransomed of the Lord to Zion singing. These things are not so simple.

But the point is that the redeemed of the Lord shall come back, marching to Zion, and the redeemed of the Lord here is not only the nation of Israel. All the redeemed of the Lord, if we read from Zechariah, the nations will have to come in the Feast of Tabernacles to Jerusalem in Zechariah 14. If we read Isaiah 2, the nations will say to one another, “Let us go up to Jerusalem to the God of Jacob, for out of Zion shall come forth the Torah, the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

Yes, verse 12 of chapter 50:

Now, you know, Isaiah is addressing the people of his time, not only us centuries and millennia after, but mainly the people of his time. And they are, under threat from Assyria, from Babylon, and from Egypt in the south, and they’re afraid because of the internal affairs of that period in which Isaiah is prophesying. The royal house of Judah and the royal house of Ephraim in that period is not exactly in good relationship with the Creator, with the Father of Israel and the Father of all mankind.

So he says, “Why are you afraid? Who do you think you are? Don’t be afraid. Men and the son of man are like grass. Did you forget that I, the Lord, am your maker? I created the heavens and the earth. I laid the foundation of the earth. You have feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, your neighbors, your enemies. You’re afraid of them. The real reason you’re afraid of them is because you don’t trust me enough. The real reason you’re afraid of them is because of the captivity of the exile that has captured you and enslaved you to that fear from the nations around you. You’re afraid that you will die in a pit, that your bread will fail. I’m telling you right now: No, you’re not going to die in a pit, and your bread will not fade.

He gave you the drink from His own hand. You’ve drunk the cup of fury. God had to punish Israel in the days of Isaiah. They were returning from the exile of 70 years in Babylon. Beginning:

In other words, you’ve paid for your sins. You’ve received the reward of your iniquity. You didn’t listen to the people that I sent to guide you, to the prophets, to the priests. He then turns to Israel and gives her the feminine voice.

But God, again, the third time, in the next chapter, in chapter 52, starts with the same phrase:

This will be in your next lesson. We are going to enter into the Messianic aspects in chapter 52 of Isaiah, and it will be very interesting.

But in summary of what I said, the prophet captures here in poetry this situation and the relationship of Israel with God. They started high up, but they descended very low in emulating, copying, taking the gods and the myths of the Gentiles around them, and forgetting the Rock from which they were hewn, the rock that is the rock of their salvation. We will have happier chapters in the next few lessons talking about the Messiah. So pray for us, pray for Israel. Israel needs your prayers right now, and stand with Jerusalem and with Zion and with the believers in this land and in Korea and around the world. Shalom from Jerusalem.