40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Isaiah 26:17-27:11 (Episode 468)

Episode Date: June 30, 2025

The Lord is coming, so shut the door until the fury has passed. The sword is a Word, and the serpent and the sea are defeated. And the sin of Jacob is atoned for as the altar is dashed to pieces. Have a listen. Show Notes: Support 1517 Podcast Network Fundraiser! 1517 Podcasts 1517 on Youtube 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 Events Schedule 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education What's New from 1517: Sinner Saint by Luke Kjolhaug The Impossible Prize: A Theology of Addiction by Donavan Riley Ditching the Checklist by Mark Mattes Broken Bonds: A Novel of the Reformation, Book 1 of 2 by Amy Mantravadi More from the hosts: Daniel Emery Price Chad Bird

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time to help us. Visit 1517.org slash donate dash podcasts and support the work of proclaiming Christ for you across the podcast network. Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go over to 1517.org slash podcast to check it out. There are other podcasts that are living over there. While you're over there, make sure you check out everything else that 1517 is doing. Academies. Chad's going to be working on a new academy this week.

The week that we're recording this, he's going to be working on a new one. Now, it'll be a little while before that's released, but, you know, get ready. Start anticipating. And then, of course, when it comes out, sign up for it. In fact, maybe you need to sign up for Chad's other academy right now. Take that, and then maybe by the time you're done with that, you'll have another one to take. While you're taking all these academies or whatever else you're doing over at 1517, of course you want to go to that right-hand corner and click that Donate link,

and then you can become a contributor and help make all those academies free. You know, how are we making those and putting them out there for free? Well, because people like you, chipping in, supporting the work. We very much appreciate those of you who do that. Chad, we are in Isaiah chapter 26. We got through the first 16 verses or so. The paths are needed to be made straight. That's what this is about.

The paths of the righteous are going to be made straight. We see the Lord lifting up people who need to be lifted up and casting down those who need to be casted down. Yeah, I think it's Augustine. Probably a lot of people have said this, But I think I read it first in Augustine that water flows downhill to fill the low places. And so God lowers us, humbles us, not to make us worthy, but to make us basically ready to receive the water of grace that he pours on us. So, yeah, that happens all over Isaiah, all over the scriptures.

And it's happened here in Isaiah 26. And I think where we left off this discussion last time was around verse 16, where we have this, I guess you could call it a prayer, a very short prayer. O Lord, in distress they sought you. They poured out a whispered prayer when your discipline was upon them. So we got them whispering their prayers, they're in distress, it's all because of this discipline. And then he switches the image from being in distress and discipline to a very familiar biblical image. We have this used in lots of different ways all over the Old and New Testament. Jesus uses this, the prophets use this, you find this in the Psalms.

And it's the image of a pregnant woman who is full term and is in labor and is about to give birth. So Jesus uses this, you know, he talks about, of course, the pains of travail, and then after those have ended, there's joy over the birth of a child. Sometimes prophets will use this image of men who are unnaturally writhing like they're in labor pains. And here it's used in a little bit different way. This is the only place where you find this in the scriptures. He says, like a pregnant woman who writhes and cries out in her pangs when she is near to giving birth, so were we because of you, O Lord. We, he's speaking, of course, here of the community.

They were suffering. They were in distress. And so they're like crying out and they're writhing like this woman who's about to give birth. So, so were we. We writhed. and then he goes on to say nothing happened we have given birth to wind which is quite a memorable metaphor you know we went through all of this pain all of this travail to to give birth and what came out well nothing we just gave birth to wind and then he switches from so that's kind of your parable, if you will, your metaphor, an extended simile, whatever you want to call it. And then right after that, he explains what he means. So metaphor, explanation. And the

explanation is this, we have accomplished no deliverance in the earth and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen. In other words, what we gave, this wind that we gave birth to is an image for us bringing forth no deliverance for ourselves. In other words, you know, we went through all this. We had this pain, all this travail, all these birth pangs. And in the end, we didn't bring forth anything because sinners can't save themselves. We can't deliver ourselves. Hope and deliverance and redemption have got to come from something, someone outside of us.

Well, that's – I mean the key word in this sentence is we, right? Yes. We have accomplished no things. So we went through – I mean a lot of pain, a lot of anguish, a lot of turmoil. The end of it all is that we accomplished nothing. And that's the key thing here is that, yeah, you cannot achieve your own salvation, your own deliverance, and nothing like that. This is a fruitless endeavor. It doesn't mean that while you're trying to accomplish this grand thing,

that there will be immense turmoil and suffering. That is for sure true. God can and does work things together for good. You don't possess this at all. Your ability to turn bad things into good things doesn't exist. and so and uh this is that usually it's the opposite right yeah they just make bad things a good thing good things that's right yeah god gives you a good thing now you do possess the ability to to turn that into something terrible but uh yeah so yeah this is just um some people

trying to save themselves has never happened will never happen yeah and i think i think where this kind of intersects with our lives the most is when people think you know they're they're suffering and they think they're kind of atoning for their sins. You know, I'm helping Jesus out here. I know he's affected atonement, but, I mean, look at how much pain and suffering I've endured, and this has got to count for something. So this is me sort of adding my little bit to the salvation,

atoning for my sins. And it doesn't work that way. I mean, certainly God uses your sufferings. Of course he does. But not to add to the atonement of Jesus. that's taken care of. And then we have a perfect transition because the very next verse,

which is verse 19, says that there is going to be redemption. There is going to be, in this case, resurrection, in fact, all the way to life again. And it's going to happen because of what God does. So verse 19, one of the passages,

if you're talking resurrection resurrection and the afterlife and the hope to come. From the Old Testament perspective, this is one of the verses that people always go to, along with Daniel 12 and some others. Your dead shall live, their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy, for your due is a due of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead. So great, great play upon the earlier image of we as a pregnant woman writhing and giving birth to wind. And here we hear of another birth. It's the earth who is, as it were, opening her womb to give birth to the dead

in this resurrection birthday for all people in which their bodies arise from the dust. The dew as the dew of light, I think it's just a perfect way of expressing this because dew coming down from heaven, giving life to the earth as it waters it, and light, of course, is an image for life itself. They kind of combine these two together in this picture of the life that springs forth from the earth. It's worth saying, I've been thinking about this more and more over the last, probably, I don't know, two or three years. You know, I kind of, early on, I suppose, I bought into this idea,

kind of almost unquestionably, that, you know, in the Old Testament, you really don't hear much about the afterlife or resurrection until much, much later in the Old Testament narrative. I mean, that's kind of your Google it sometime, and that's the answer that you'll find all over the place. Yeah, you know, it wasn't until very, very late in the Old Testament where you have a rising, and usually people will say from outside influence, this perception that there is a life to come, that there is the possibility of resurrection. And People will point to passages like Daniel 12 for this. And I don't, I 100% reject that now.

I think, in fact, that from the very beginning, in fact, this was part of the hope of Israel. I've got this, ran across this great quote from Alec Mateer, where, it's real short, just let me read it. He says, the evolutionary supposition that the Old Testament thought progressed from poor beginnings to brilliant endings has led to the conclusion that this doctrine of death and resurrection must be late. How insubstantial is all this? The Egyptians had an intricate theology of life after death centuries before Isaiah. Even Canaanite religion, for all its brutishness, depended on the annual triumph of Baal over

death. in the name of all logic how could israel with its foundation of belief in the living god lack what others arrived at by wishful thinking and natural religion so yeah i mean yeah you so you've got the egyptians they believe in an afterlife you get the canaanites they believe in afterlife and you really think that israel who has the revelation of God is much later on going to stumble upon this idea. I mean, it's preposterous. So, like Jesus said, at the very burning bush,

God testified to the reality of the resurrection. I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He's not the God of the dead, but of the living. But this is a great, great text for kind of this foundational belief in resurrection from the Old Testament. Well, and this is the thing. So you have all this, yeah, we went through all this stuff, and we could not give birth to any sort of salvation or deliverance. And it turns out what you need is a promise.

You need a proclamation, right? So verse 18, hey, we are futile. Verse 19, you have God breaking in and saying, well, let me give you this word. Okay, you've told me what you tried to do. And how that worked out. Now let me tell you what I'm going to do. Yeah. Yeah, it's a perfect transition there from our inability to God's not only ability,

but certainty of working our redemption and the hope that we have in resurrection. All right, then he wraps up this chapter with two more verses, which actually are going to pull upon images, I think, from earlier narratives in the Scriptures, in particular from the flood narrative, Genesis 6 through 9, in particular the closing of the door of the ark, and then also from the exodus, or rather from the Passover, when the people go into their homes and they shut the doors behind them, doors which are painted with Passover blood.

So 20 and 21 read like this. Come, my people, into your chambers and shut your doors behind you. hide yourselves for a little while until the fury that could also be translated curse until the fury or the curse has passed by for behold the lord is coming out from his place to punish literally to visit but to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it and will no more cover its slain Actually, I think there's another, I just thought of this, I think there's another Old Testament narrative behind this, Genesis 4,

where you have the blood of Abel crying out from the ground. So yeah, we started this chapter by the verse 2 saying, open the gates, so people going in. And now we're going to end the chapter with people shutting the doors behind them. Why are they shutting the doors behind them? Because you're about to have this, we would say, final judgment. God is going to pay a visit to the earth and you're going to have this punishment

of those who have rejected him and at the same time of course when his fury or the curse has passed by there's going to be redemption for his own so shutting the doors behind you of course God shut the door of the ark after Noah, his family, and all the animals were aboard the Israelites shut the doors when they were in Egypt

when the angel of death passed by and that that verb for pass by at the very end of 20 until the fury of the curse has passed by that same verb that occurs in exodus to describe god passing by uh the uh the homes of israelites exodus 12 12 so god shows up and his people are safe they're secure and this little while of judgment is going to pass and then you know implicit in this is that after this has happened And they can come forth because they will usher forth into now a place in which they are safe and at peace because God has done his work of redemption. Yeah, I mean, I think that, I mean, the Passover imagery here is like pretty stark, right? I mean, you're saying, so, you know, the Passover, you'd say, get in your house, make sure you get that blood above the door, and just stay in there, right?

Like, you're going to stay in there all night, and then God's going to do what he's going to do. uh here it's a so enter your chambers this spring has been like the stormiest spring i can remember like where i live maybe where you live too chad i don't think most of the storms have come up like it's just the amount of rain the amount of like warm weather and cold air like clashing and we've had crazy amounts of tornadic activity like way more than i remember I mean, we always have some in the spring, but it's been pretty wild this year. And every time that happens, and it's happened a lot, which is why it's fresh in my mind, you have the meteorologist, and he's on there, and he's got his charts,

and he's showing you all the things. Oh, we can see debris here, and look at that. We have circulation here. And eventually, he'll call out an area, and he'll tell you, hey if you're in this area right here between this highway and this town you need to get in your safe space that's what it'll tell you like you gotta get in your safe space man like wherever that is you got a cellar you got a basement you know whatever it is bathroom wherever wherever the best place for you to be you got to get there because uh something's coming that this is how

that reads to me that that he's like all right you got to get in your safe space and of course like Like he says, come my people. So where is their safe? He is their safe space. So, hey, you got to get in me like you stop saving yourself and all this kind of nonsense. So you got to get with me, and I'm going to shut that door behind you just like the days of the Exodus when the angel of the Lord passed by. But the safe space here is not like the call to go into, as it was in Exodus, a literal house. but to call the people to

get you need to get with me right you need to get with God so that the judgment will pass you by yeah that's perfect he is the safe space right when the judgment

come when the storm drops and there's going to be destruction well there's one safe place and that's with the Lord of the storm He's the one who's going to keep you safe. And that's a great way to end the chapter, chapter 26, and to transition into actually some more good news.

We're going to get to some more not-so-good-news chapters down the road. But right now, chapter 27 has some great stuff in it. It's got some law, but it's got a lot of gospel too. So we'll pick that up now. I'm just going to read the opening verse because we're going to, we're going to hear about serpents and dragons and Leviathan right away. And then he's going to, as Isaiah is, loves to do, evidently, he's going to radically shift, pivot to another image, a vineyard image. So here's the way it starts. In that day, this is a, I don't know which, if this is like the fourth in that day,

but we have this whole string of in that days. So this is another one. In that day, the Lord with his sword, what kind of sword? It's hard and it's great and it's strong. So that's the sword. Hard, great, strong sword. Pretty much all the qualities you want in a sword. Maybe sharp is the other one.

But other than that, that's pretty much, like if you're looking for a sword, that's what you're looking for. Pretty good three adjectives that you want to describe your sword. So God's got this hard, great, and strong sword in his hand. What's he going to do with it? Well, he's not going to be attacking the Edomites or the Ammonites or anybody like that. Now we're switching here to a different kind of image. With this sword, the Lord will punish Leviathan.

And who's Leviathan? He's called the fleeing serpent and the twisting serpent. His name is repeated twice there. And then he goes on to say, and he will also slay the dragon that's in the sea. Now, we've encountered this a couple of times. I know we talked about this when we were in the book of Job, because Leviathan comes up a couple times, a couple times there. So Leviathan is here, you know, also this dragon in the sea. He's mentioned seven times in the Old Testament, Job chapter 3, Job chapter 41.

Psalm 74 talks about God crushing the heads of Leviathan. Psalm 104 talks about Leviathan being a sea creature who's playing in the sea. And here we have Isaiah 27 using it once more. so leviathan is part of a whole cluster of images that isaiah and other biblical authors have have co-opted and used in their own sort of way but they've co-opted it from from mythology you know just like today people people can draw names or images from greek or roman mythology to to talk about, you know, something good or something evil. C.S. Lewis does this in his Space Trilogy,

especially the third book where things get kind of strange. But he's, in the third book, he's drawing upon biblical imagery and mythological imagery. If you're a fan of Dante's comedy, he does this throughout the Inferno and the Purgatory and Paradise. And this is a pretty common thing that Christian writers have always done, and they're doing it because the scriptures themselves have done this. So they're not, as it were, putting their stamp of approval on the veracity of mythology. They're simply borrowing these stories and these names, these images from the common parlance of the day. And here what they represent is basically just both worldly powers as well as demonic powers. So sometimes you'll have like Egypt pictured as a sea monster, or the leader of Egypt pictured as a sea monster, because the sea is connected with the Gentile world. And so you kind of have this worldly perspective, but you also have the dark forces that are represented here.

In fact, the word in Greek that's used to translate dragon here, in Hebrew it's tannin, and in Greek it's dracon. Dracon becomes dragon in English. So all those occurrences in the book of Revelation where you have the dragon mentioned talking about Satan, that Greek word that's used is the same Greek word that's used to translate this Hebrew word in the Old Testament. so leviathan who's called a serpent who's called a dragon this is an image both for the powers of the world opposed to god as well as the spiritual forces who are opposed to god none of them stand a chance because god has his great and strong and hard sword with which he's going to punish all of all of his adversaries i mean it's hard to read you know fleeing serpent twisted serpent and

not and not connect that you're talking about the devil himself uh to some degree right i mean this goes all the way back to the opening chapters of the bible where you're like who yeah who is the serpent here uh when the serpent comes up who are we talking about and you're like well this is this is the name for the devil the the first name for the devil is just there's a serpent right uh this is the first title he gets is there's a serpent and and then you and with the sea too i mean so you have the gentile world you also have just like to see and this is all over we've brought it up many times but being um this symbol for chaos and uncertainty and and all that stuff and so that you have like a what is it that makes the sea that way you know it's well there's a dragon in

there uh and this is why jesus calming the storm is a big deal this is why jesus walking on the water is a big deal it's not just that people don't walk on water i mean that is a big deal but there's some there's symbolism there that is also at play that we probably don't think about but for them um the sea is representative of all of uncertainty and chaos and it's a good place to go die and sea is a great place to not come back from uh they don't have meteorologists they don't they can't predict storms like you could just be out there one day and oh yeah bad day to be out here right um but the thing that i think is cool about this is that you have like okay so what's what's god saying like he's going devil and chaos hunting uh with his sword but

the sword is just a word i mean we we know this that christ has a sword in his mouth this is what john tells us uh that there's a sword in his mouth it's uh and so it's not as though uh god is up there like well let me get my weapons out and um this is going to be a real battle like no i'm i'm going to go and destroy the devil and i'm going to destroy chaos and all this other stuff and i'm just gonna do it with my tongue but i'm just gonna speak and that's all that's so this is not like a fair fight as we would say this is not um well you get your troops i'll get my troops and we'll find out what happens he just is going he's like i'm gonna find him i'm gonna speak to him and that's gonna be the end of it yeah there's like one there's one one one great

line in a mighty fortress one little word can fell him yeah yeah yeah people i think people sometimes because because people uh erroneously tend to read books like revelation literally they kind of get the impression sometimes that there's going to be an actual fight and all the forces of heaven are going to have to give it all they got jesus is going to have to literally show up on a horse, and there's going to be these armies in this great battle of Armageddon, and yeah, we know we're going to win, but man, it's going to be like all-out warfare. No, I mean, yes, that's the poetic, metaphorical, visionary scene that's given to us, because that's the way the Bible speaks. But all that's going to happen is basically God is going to speak his word,

just like he spoke his word and brought everything into existence and the foes are demolished are defeated jesus shows up in the battlefield and just says enough that's the end of it just like when he you know when he uh was on the sea you know peace hush be still that's all it took and that's the way the that's the way the battle will be won all right so that's that's verse one uh verse two verse two really through six is uh going to give us a a nice counterpoint to what we saw way back in isaiah 5 isaiah 5 is where we had the vineyard song that famous parable of the vineyard where god says i i planted this vineyard i i planted of the choicest fruits. I cleared out everything. I built a wall. I built a watchtower. I built a

vat. I mean, I did, there's nothing I left undone. And when I went to get its fruit, instead of, you know, good grapes, I found stink fruit. So that's the way Isaiah 5 depicts the unfruitfulness of Israel. Now we're going to have the counterpoint to that, in which you have this very positive vineyard song so two through six let me read those verses in that day there's another in that day a pleasant or a beautiful vineyard sing of it i the lord am its keeper every moment i water it lest anyone punish it i keep it night and day i love this line i have no wrath. Would that I had thorns and briars to battle, I would march against them. I would burn them up together or let them lay hold of my protection. Let them make peace with me. Let

them make peace with me. In days to come, Jacob shall take root. Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit man i love that there's there's so much that's so much that's there uh so isaiah 5 had this song of the vineyard and here we have a pleasant or beautiful vineyard that isaiah says sing of it and uh what makes this vineyard so special well because the Lord is the one who is its keeper. We have that verb repeated two times in verse 3. I, the Lord, am its keeper. And then he says, I keep it night and day.

And there's like nothing that he's not doing for it. Every moment he waters it. Unless anyone punishes it, he keeps it. He's the keeper, the watcher of the vineyard. And that one line is so awesome. I have no wrath. I don't have a little. He doesn't say, I just have a little bit.

I have no wrath. That perhaps might be the line that Paul was thinking about when he wrote in Romans 8, 1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You have God being like, all right, so I've got this vineyard, and all day long I'm watering and guarding. That's what I do. uh and man it's actually getting a little boring uh because i would there's not even so much as

like a thorn or like a thistle for me to go to war with here you know i'm just like waiting for an opportunity to to defend this vineyard and i know nothing's coming against it yeah and then he It says, you know, even if there were, you know, say, oh, I found a thorn in a briar. Well, I'll even make peace with them. Let them lay hold of my protection. Let them make peace with me. And I'll turn that thorn into a vine. And I'll turn that briar into a grape.

So it is kind of a funny thing. Like, man, would that I had thorns and briar. I wish that there was a thorn or briar that would dare to pop up in my precious vineyard. Man, I wouldn't just uproot it. I'd go to war against it. I'd burn it up. Yeah, so there's almost this feel of just this passionate, zealous love of the vineyard. I mean, you can't get enough of it.

You can't do enough for it. And this, of course, is just a picture of the completeness of our God-given security in Christ. And the salvation is won for us. I mean, we're in the vineyard. And I love the way it ends, too. Verse 6 is saying that in days to come, Jacob and Israel, of course, these are just different names for the community of God. Jacob and Israel, they're going to take root. They're going to blossom.

They're going to put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit. So if you think of the first vineyard as the Garden of Eden, just in the sense of this is God's special place, right? You've got God's garden. Well, what were Adam and Eve supposed to do? Well, they were supposed to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. Well, they were supposed to Edenize the world. That was eventually what was the plan, you know, to expand this, subdue the earth, bring it under their dominion.

Well, of course, that didn't happen. So you have this image that's picked up over and over in the rest of the scriptures where God establishes a land or a kingdom or a vineyard. And eventually the goal is for that to spread from where it's at outward. That's what the book of Acts is all about, from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the uttermost ends of the earth. Well, that's exactly what's happening here in Isaiah 27, verse 6, where the kingdom of God, which is pictured as a vineyard, is going to fill the whole world with its fruit. It's expanding outward and outward and outward as the gospel progresses from place to place to place. Yeah, and when you can't find any like thistles or briars or thorns to contend with, this makes you believe that sort of sin has just been dealt with, right? And you're going to see him go into that where it's like, man, there's no sin to deal with here because it's already been dealt with when I spoke this word and won everything, right?

So there's no sin to deal with here. Yep, I've done everything necessary to eradicate it. So all we have is a beautiful vineyard. All right, so that's the first six verses. Now he's going to switch gears a little bit with verse 7 and following. It's kind of a strange line here. Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? or have they been slain as their slayers were slain so what what he's saying in this verse is

has god struck his own people in the same way that he struck the adversaries of israel who struck israel well no he hasn't or have they been slain as their slayers were slain no god god has not dealt with israel as he has dealt with israel's strikers and slayers and then he goes on measure by measure, or whatever that Hebrew means, if you look at your notes, your commentaries on this, this particular word is unknown, doesn't appear anywhere else in the Bible. It's what we call the hop ox. So people just kind of guess as to its meaning based upon cognate languages and things like that. But we'll just go with measure by measure. Measure by measure, by exile, you contended with them. So God did, in fact, exile his people, the northern kingdom to Assyria, the southern

kingdom will happen after isaiah but in the time of jeremiah measured by measure by exile you contended with them he removed them with his fierce breath in the day of the east wind so he sent them into exile he sent his east wind which is always an image of of discipline or punishment yeah i mean the idea here is that okay you didn't uh strike them the same way that you struck those who struck them you didn't slay them the same way that those who slayed israel but it wasn't as though you didn't do anything right you still contended yes yeah yeah you uh you contended discipline you you didn't wipe them out like you wiped out other nations but you did contend with them and then he uh he says in verse nine therefore by this the guilt of jacob will be

atoned for so now we've moved to how's this atonement going to take place i mean there's you gotta you gotta take care of these sins somehow there's got to be atonement so how's this gonna how's this gonna happen and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin when he makes all the stones of the altar like chalk stones crushed to pieces no ashram or incense altars will remain standing now there's a couple different ways i think this can be taken these altars or altar can be understood either as the nice in hebrew it's singular so he makes all the stones of the altar like chalk stones crushed to pieces so either you can understand this altar as an illegitimate altar that is one of these

altars on the high places or and this is the way that i lean understand this altar to be the legitimate altar there at God's tabernacle or temple. Well, that altar, the stones at the altar, what's going to happen to them? They're going to be like pulverized, just crushed to pieces like chalk stones. Now, why would you do that to an altar? Because it's no longer needed. That's why. That does in fact happen. It does in fact happen, yeah. It happened decisively, in fact. We know exactly when that happened, in fact.

It happened in 70 A.D. when Romans came in and they demolished that altar because it was no longer—well before then, in fact, it was no longer needed for atonement because atonement had already been effected. Yeah, it seems to me that two things can be true at once. So I take this as that altar, too, that, hey, how am I going to atone for your sins? I'm going to make this altar unnecessary. That's how I'm ultimately going to do it. And what I'm also doing, I'm doing two things. I'm going to make this sacrificial system, I'm going to fulfill it so it's no longer needed. And then I'm also going to deliver you from all your idolatry.

So you're not also whatever this other stuff, incense, altars, whatever. It's just going to be me. Like, no more, you know, false gods, no more sacrificial system, no more lambs or bulls or goats, none of that. Just me. That's how I'm going to remove all this sin. It's kind of a John 4 scenario, right? No longer shall they worship on this mountain. He's talking to the Samaritan woman.

This mountain or in Jerusalem. There's no more Samaritan worship going on. There's no more Jerusalem temple worship going on. There's no more any kind of worship going on that means anything because it's all been fulfilled in Christ, the ultimate sacrifice. And then just to finish up this section in the couple of minutes we have left, 10 and 11 goes on, to now move to the very common image of a city, a fortified city, which we've seen in just recent episodes is a picture of worldly power opposed to God. the fortified city is solitary a habitation deserted and forsaken like the wilderness there the calf grazes there it lies down and strips its branches when its bowels are dry they are broken women come and make a fire of them for this is a people without discernment

therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them he who formed them will show them no favor so this fortified city is the the world city uh it's the image of opposition to god and its citizens are they're fools they're fools because they reject god they reject him as their their only hope and they will be destroyed and the city will be uninhabited except by cabs and this is another stock biblical image you know you have deserted cities that you have owls and you have goats and you have other animals like her living where people used to live because it has been completely forsaken. So this is just one more of Isaiah heaping up image upon image upon image of what God is going to do when he steps in to rescue his people and at the same

time to destroy here called the fortified city in Revelation and elsewhere referred to as Babylon. Just the image of worldly power opposed to him. Sounds like some people didn't get in the safe space. Yeah. The tornado happened. They were in the front yard filming it while the tornado came. Right. Not a good place.

And we've got two more verses to go, which we'll pick up next time. It'll actually be a good way to begin next time with 12 and 13 at the end of 27. And then we're going to jump into a new section in chapter 28. We'll hear more about Ephraim and Jerusalem at that point. All right. Sounds good. Well, hopefully you will join us for that. Chad, I will certainly join you for that.

I'll see you next time. All right. See you then. Thank you.