Isaiah [Part 2] - Hope for Jerusalem

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

Shalom. Because it is a very programmatic chapter, we spent our entire first lesson on chapter one of Isaiah. It sets the tone for the rest of Isaiah and also chapter 2. Now, we're going to enter into it because it sets the tone also for the rest of Isaiah. I said in the introduction that Isaiah sandwiches some of the strongest words and reprimands of God against Israel and against Jerusalem in between two pieces of bread, two pieces of God's grace, two pieces of hope, two pieces of positive promises that are actually being fulfilled as we speak in the second half of the 20th century and in the 21st century as we speak now.

Not because we became righteous, but because God's grace and promises are showing us that He is not only angry with us, but He is also filling us with hope, with faith, with love for one another as human beings and that way expressing our love and relationship with Him. Again, chapter 2 starts with similar words as chapter one but this time it is positive, hope-building strong words that again are being fulfilled in our time and in our generation. For the first time in history, dear brothers and sisters, the first time in history we can say that we are experiencing, even in Korea, even from Korea, and from around the world, the fulfillment of these promises that were spoken in the 8th century before Christ.

Again, Isaiah saw a vision for chapter one, he saw a vision in chapter two as well, very different than the one in chapter one.

Chapter one ends with this terrible accusation against Jerusalem. It ends with accusations that I don't even want to use the words in English that Isaiah is attributing to Jerusalem. But chapter 2, totally different scene. He hit us chapter one to correct us, to bring us back to the Lord in repentance, to refocus us in our worship. But now, hallelujah! So, it's a vision also about Judah and Jerusalem but now the grace of God, the hope and the love that God has for us as a nation, as Jerusalem, as Judah, as Gentile disciples of God. “The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now it shall come to pass” When? “At the latter days” If I use the classical theological word in the eschaton, 'at the end'.

The Gentiles are going to come to Jerusalem to worship God and the house of God will be rebuilt and it will be here in Jerusalem and the Gentiles are going to come to worship God.

I'm going to stop here in verse 4. Some of these things are happening after the Yom Kippur War in 1973. There was established in Jerusalem the Christian Embassy by Jan Willem van der Hoeven, a Dutch pastor who was an anti-Semite and God convicted him and changed his heart and became a flaming Zionist, believed in God's promises to the people of Jerusalem and to the people of Israel, and believed this chapter and established the Christian Embassy. And every year since then in the Feast of Sukkot, based on Zechariah chapter 14, people from many, many nations, thousands of peoples, tens of thousands of people come to Jerusalem and march to the streets of Jerusalem, encouraging the Jewish population of Jerusalem with flags, with songs, with praise, standing with Israel and standing on the basis of God's word.

We all know, we Jews and Jewish believers in the land of Israel, we all know and even our prime minister knows and has said it: We don't have any better friends in the world among the nations. Our best friends are the evangelical Christians, Christians who believe the word of God and they stand with Israel, support Israel, believe God's promises to Israel in the prophets and we are all witnessing the beginning of the fulfillment of these words of Isaiah spoken 800 years before Christ. I'm going to continue in chapter 2 a little bit more.

Two thousand eight hundred years ago, how true it is.

I could also say tanks and airplanes and rockets and weapons. You realize that the word for chariots are 'merkavah'. Israel's tanks engineered, fabricated, designed in Israel is 'merkava'. We have Merkava 1, then version 2, version 3, now we're in Merkava 4, one of the best tanks in the battlefields. Yes. So it says their land will be filled with chariots, no end, 'Merkava'.

Ah, we studied Hosea, ah, Hosea chapter 9 where Israel repents and says,

Isaiah is saying that they're still in that position. They worship the works of their own hands that their own fingers have made. The call of Isaiah is, People, humble yourself, come back, return, repent. Your haughtiness is going to bring your destruction. The Lord shall be exalted from your humility, from your simplicity, from your heart, not from your manufacturing and designs of architecture around the world, of weapons, of high tech, the high tech nation Israel. Now from there, is not your salvation. It's not going to come from there. Why?

Wow, this, idea of the prophet Isaiah are so relevant not only for Israel, dear brothers and sisters, they're relevant for the churches, for the pastors of the big churches that make themselves many kings and expect their people, the parishioners in the church, to treat them as kings, lofty, mighty, but they oftentimes are brought low in a minute. Yes, they're brought low in a minute.

Yes, we are in bad shape, folks. Isaiah predicted these things years ago. They've happened more than once in our history, but not to the same level as they're happening today. Yes, you can go up and build temples and buildings and beautiful things and bring gold from Tarshish and the lofty:

Verse 17, chapter 2. Why? Because:

It's better for you right now. Get rid of your idols, get rid of the things that you worship. Yeah, people go to church to worship God, to worship Jesus, but what they really worship is not in church, what they really worship is not in the fellowship of the saints, it's in other places. Maybe in Wall Street, maybe other places because the day you cast your idols, the idols of gold and the idols of silver, the things that you think will serve you on that day, God's presence and fellowship with you will be felt, known, available, truly, for real. But again, I said that Isaiah sandwiches his hard messages together with soft messages. Chapter 2 was a soft message and chapter 3 was a hard message and it goes on like that, sandwiching. Yeah, God doesn't want us to be in despondent and enter into depression. The prophets report God's vision, God's desire, and condemn the bad things that we do and that our forefathers did then. To bring us to repentance, to bring us to a living relationship with the Almighty God.

The leadership of the country is provided by God. This is a message that Christians have in Romans chapter 13. God is the one who makes kings, prime ministers, and governments. In chapter 3 of Isaiah, makes it clear, God anoints the kings and the priests and the rulers of His people, of the world, not only with people and He could take a child according to chapter 3 verse 4:

If God wants to, He can make a baby your king, your ruler. This message in Isaiah goes from the beginning of the book to the end of the book. "This is My world, you're My people. I have chosen you in order to bring the world at your feet, in order to make you a holy priesthood for all the nations. That's what I said to Moses when I gave the law on Mount Sinai,” God says. “But you say, you see that somebody's dressed nice, has a dress, and you say, 'You'll be a ruler over us.'" You choose your rulers, but it's futile.

You know, the way they behave, the way they even look, the rulers of the people of Israel, their look itself declares “the sin of Sodom”. Oh, how true, how sad today, not only in Israel, but in all the West, where you can't see a show without the abominations that are mentioned in the Torah, like homosexuality and other things, sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. And Isaiah is addressing this again. I'm repeating this over and over, 2,800 years ago. God knew what the future holds and revealed it to His prophets.

Yes, these are the messages of Isaiah and these are the messages that not only Isaiah but other of the prophets have spoken. You know, feminism is growing and I am 100% for the women that work to get equal salary with the men, to have the same privileges as the man, to be equal in the marketplace, 100%. But these were ancient words Isaiah addresses the women, the daughters of Zion. Verse 16 and on, the Lord says,

Oh, there's a long list of jewelry that God is going to take away from them. Yeah, Isaiah is very tough, very tough, very hard prophet. But at the end, he's the one who prophesies the coming of the Messiah. He's the one who prophesies the victory over evil. He is the one who prophesies that the Gentiles and the Jews are going to serve God together as equals, as priests in God's house. Yes, in the beginning of Isaiah, very hard condemning and rightly so. And his condemnation should reflect on us where we are today. So may God have mercy on all of us, on our leaders, on our pastors, on our politicians, and by His grace, may we find a way to get close to each other and to God as brothers and sisters. Because God's word is eternal and God's grace is everlasting.