40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Isaiah 8:16-9:3 (Episode 451)

Episode Date: January 29, 2025

Don't ask the dead about the secrets of life. If you want safety flee to the Word of God. There are only two types of days. And a great light will dawn on a land of deep darkness. Have a listen. Show Notes: Support 1517 Podcast Network 1517 Podcasts 1517 on Youtube 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 Events Schedule 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education  What's New from 1517: Bible in One Year with Chad Bird Broken Bonds: A Novel of the Reformation, Book 1 of 2 by Amy Mantravadi Junk Drawer Jesus By Matt Popovits More from the hosts: Daniel Emery Price Chad Bird

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 to 1517.org slash podcast and check out all the other podcasts that are living over there. And while you're over there, of course, check out everything else that 1517 is doing. So much to check out, so much content for you to peruse. You're going to love it. Read some articles, watch some videos, take some academies. Whatever it is that you like to do, go do it over there.

And while you're over there, hit that Donate link. You can become a contributor. You can support the work, support this podcast, support Chad and myself doing this work. And we very much appreciate those of you who have done that. It makes it all possible. Chad, we are in Isaiah chapter 8. We got started on it last episode. And this is one of those sections that you have this little promise of the gospel come in

where it's like, hey, I'm going to send someone. It's going to be a someone, and he's going to be sent. And that's good news because, of course, that someone is Jesus. But then he says, that's good news, but I've got bad news for you. You're not going to like it. right that you should like it uh it's it's the best thing that's ever happened in the history of the world but you're gonna stumble over it uh this is not gonna be something that uh that you want or that you accept and uh and this is how we ended in verse 15 that that many shall stumble on

it and they shall fall and be broken and they shall be snared and taken oh this is uh sort of this prophecy of Jesus being what Paul will latch onto and say, a rock of offense. Yeah, exactly. So just like there's talk of a remnant kind of leading up to this, and you're going to pick up on that same idea of a remnant where verse 16 is going to focus upon those who are actually adhering to what God says, to what God's plan is, whereas the most are going to end up rejecting God's plan. so picking up here with 16

and I think I'll just read 16 through the rest of the chapter, 16 through 22 so we'll see what happens with those who are going to respond to this rock and to this trap and snare bind up the testimony, seal the teaching

among my disciples I will wait for the Lord who is hiding his face in the house of Jacob and I will hope in him behold I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts who dwells on Mount Zion. And when they say to you, inquire of the mediums and the necromancers

who chirp and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? To the teaching and to the testimony. If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. they will pass through the land greatly distressed and hungry and when they are hungry they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against

their king and their God and turn their faces upward and they will look to the earth but behold distress and darkness the gloom of anguish and they will be thrust into thick darkness so don't worry there's good news coming after that it's kind of a

heavy ending there but this is Isaiah this is the prophets We bounce from good news to bad news, from light to darkness. So he starts out here with this call to take what's been proclaimed and to seal it up, to bind it among those who are called here the disciples. Literally, I don't think I'd translate this disciples. This is basically students is the Hebrew that's behind this. These are the taught ones, which I guess you could say are disciples.

But these are the ones who are basically listening to Isaiah. Now, this might be a prophetic school, because we have examples of the bands of prophets. We've encountered those back in 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings. But I think what he's talking about here are, so these are the remnant who are actually going to stick with what God has revealed to Isaiah. They're not going to go the way of Ahaz. They're not going to go the way of idolatry. They're going to actually stick with the testimony and with the teaching. And in that way, they are the students of Isaiah. But, of course, it makes students of Isaiah.

Who are you really a student of? You're a student of God himself. So bind up the testimony. Seal the teaching among my students. So, in other words, to kind of paraphrase this, stick with what God has said. Stick with what God has revealed. And as you do that, what are you going to do? Well, that's when he goes on in verse 17 to say, I, so this is Isaiah himself speaking.

We have a focus on his students, so now what about him? He says, I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face in the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. I love, by the way, the parallel here, because I think it helps us to understand what biblical hope is really all about. He says, I will wait, and I will hope. and really when he says that he's saying the same thing because what are you doing when you're when you're waiting for the lord well you're hoping for him and what are you doing when you're hoping for the lord you're you're waiting for him built into both of these is the idea that my stance in the present is one in which i'm looking forward to what god is going to do in

the future not in a wishful sort of way like i really hope i really wish that god would do such and such it's with a confident expectation that we look to the future knowing and trusting that God is going to act in the future why because he has promised in the past what he's going to do and he's always been faithful to accomplish that which he promised to do so I'm going to wait and I'm going to hope and just to wrap up here with with verse 18 he says not just me but I and the children whom the Lord has given to me. We're standing here as we wait and hope as signs and as ESV has portents. You could, I guess, translate that that way. I mean, the word that's used here is used elsewhere for like wonders or even as signs. But anyway, we're signs and wonders or

we're signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts who dwells on Mount Zion. Well, in what way? Well, keep in mind, Isaiah's name means the Lord saves. So that's a sign. His one son is named Shear Yashuv, which means a remnant shall return. That's a sign. And then his other son is named Maharshal Al-Hashbaz. And that really is a, it's more of a negative name about God's defeat of Syria in the Northern Kingdom. But at the same time, it's also positive in the sense that God is going to defeat the enemies of Israel, of Judah, rather. So Isaiah's name and the names of his children stand there as signs that God is going to save, he's going to defeat the enemies, and that there will be always this remnant who

sticks around to do what Isaiah's talking about, to wait, to hope, and to cling to the testimony of God. Yeah, well, I mean, hope is very useful when God is hiding. This is when you need it the most, right? That's what I'm hoping the most, yeah. So Isaiah says, hey, God is in fact hiding his face. This isn't even one of those scenarios where sometimes it feels like God is hiding, but maybe he's not. So I've been in those situations before where you're like, God, where are you?

And it turns out he's like, I'm right here. That's just you imagining that God's hiding. In this case, Isaiah says, oh, he is in fact hiding his face, but I'm going to wait until when? Until he's not. I mean, that's what he's doing. And while I wait until he's not, him hiding does not diminish the hope that I have in him. Like, he is still the source of my hope, even though his face is not present right now. So this is really good.

I do like the, there's two kind of phrases in here that I like a lot. One, when he's talking about, like, all right, look, you guys are going to go inquire of these mediums and these necromancers. and like you're going to talk to the dead about matters concerning the living like they care i think they're not they're not uh involved in this it does no effect on them like why would you think they have anything to say about it and he says yeah they're gonna you're gonna go and they're gonna chirp and mutter yeah it's pretty good yeah there's a great pejorative words to use yeah we went grunt and groan right chirp and mutter i'm gonna start using chirp and mutter Like, next time someone, like, says, hey, did you talk to someone, and it was, like, maybe a conversation that nobody wants to have, I'll be like, I don't know, it's a bunch of chirping and muttering.

Chirping and muttering. I don't remember. That's a good one. So I like that, that speaking of this sort of ill-advised way to get answers or solutions, and all you're going to get is a bunch of chirping and muttering because you've not listened to God. And so what do you listen to? Listen to this other thing that is totally useless. uh but on the heels of that since this is just like a bunch of chirping and muttering like what what should you do though instead and i love the the way that it does this where in verse 20 where

it says to the teaching and to the testimony as if like i this is in my head like it's like if you had like a bunch of troops and uh all of a sudden they they decided they said like to the fort or whatever right to the to the safety to the sanctuary and like that's where you run to right uh this is what you should flee to there's a bunch of other things you could do that are going to amount to nothing uh but if you're going to flee to safety like you must return to the testimony and uh to the teaching man that's some contemporary stuff there you know well in this way so in the ancient world consulting the dead i mean that was that was the way to go so i mean It's kind of hard for us to understand because this isn't...

I mean, I know there's plenty of... There's necromancers that are still out there today or there's spiritists who, you know, you can get in touch with your dead loved ones or whatever it is that they're advertising. But, I mean, this was popular religion back in the day. I mean, necromancers, spiritists, all those who claim to have powers to consult the dead.

I mean, this was a very, very common practice because it was believed that, okay, if you die and you've now entered into the realm of the dead that you sort of had a you had a closer connection to the supernatural i think you're gonna get some secret knowledge right i mean you're gonna get some you're gonna get some secret knowledge surely someone who's dead can tell you something you don't know yeah you know uh this is this is an aside but you know i've been reading dante this is one of the strange things about dante's divine comedy when he gets to when he gets to hell in the first of these three he's talking to people down there and they sometimes know things that he

doesn't know now that's a that's a strange crossover of paganism and christianity there because that's that was kind of the uh that was the widespread belief in the ancient world all the dead know things that the living don't know they're able to you know they know some of the future they can tell you what's what's coming up and so you can consult them and find out you know from them they're in the know you can find out from them what it is you need to know or what's going to happen and the biblical witness comes along and says absolutely not not just here in isaiah but you know they're on pain of death you did that that's why there was such a scandal when saul did what he did yeah first of all he had to outlaw necromancers that tells you you don't

outlaw things that aren't popular right you say no to things to to which a lot of people are saying yes and then he ends up going to a necromancer because he needs answers so uh the biblical tradition stands against what was a widespread popular practice back then that you did consult the dead on behalf of the living and isaiah comes along or god comes along to isaiah and says should you do that no like you said you go to the fort you go to the castle you go to the to the teaching of the testimony if you if you want answers we'll talk to the living god and his living word there's your answer yeah i mean i think the idea here is that whatever it is that the dead would possibly tell you uh which of course here it says it's a bunch of chirping

and muttering uh which doesn't sound like they're going to give you any any you're not going to get like some sage wisdom from this uh but what it is is it's it's driving home the exclusivity of your salvation like if you want to be saved from what is coming there's only one place to go the dead are going to have nothing to say to you about this uh at all right and so what is it that you're seeking are you are you seeking refuge and safety and salvation definitely don't go to the dead for that uh you're going to need to go to the living god for that you have to go to his his word and uh and that remains true to this day replace necromancers and the dead with whatever but what is certainly still true is that to the teaching and to the testimony is where you need

to go yeah i mean what do people turn to today well they turn to yeah sometimes the the spiritual kind of stuff but a lot of times what they'll turn to is you know the latest talking head or the latest conspiracy theorist the latest pundit or the latest horoscope whatever it is i mean people turn to all kind of things to look for answers for security for someone to tell them you know what's going to happen or what they should do and all this time god sent and they're like i gave you i gave you my word yeah it's all right there uh it's in a book you can i'll seal read it for free online yeah it's it's it's all right there uh so to the teaching and to the testimony and uh yeah following that up if they don't speak according to this word it's because

they have no dawn that's pretty it's pretty powerful there in other words they're trapped in darkness if they speak contrary to what god has spoken they're just uttering darkness is it hey you go to the dead to get some advice and what advice you get you get dark advice uh of course I mean, this is the thing, too, about this is that when you go to the dead, in this case, his argument, of course, is that things aren't going to get better. They're going to get worse. So it's not just like this chirping and muttering just brings about, what, like thick darkness and all this. This is like the worst place to go. Yeah.

Yeah, and then speaking of worse places to go, that's kind of what he wraps up with here. We have verse 21 begins, they will pass through the land, and the they is not specified, but presumably this is going to be referring to people who don't go to the word into the testimony, to the teaching into the testimony. So they're looking for answers in all the wrong places, and what's going to happen to them? Well, they're going to pass through the land greatly distressed. hungry. And when they're hungry, they'll be enraged. I guess the first biblical recorded instance of being hangry. When they're hungry, they'll be enraged. They're really mad. They're

super hangry. And what are they going to do? They're going to speak contemptuously against their king and their God. They're going to turn their faces upward. And then they're going to look to the earth. And what are they going to see? So I think turn their faces upward. It's like they're looking for help up it's not there now they're going to look down and what do they see when they look down distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish and then as if we don't have enough darkness already we end the chapter by saying that we thrust into thick darkness so same same word by the way uh that's used back in exodus uh 10 to describe the thick darkness of the ninth plague so that you know those three days of this darkness so thick you could cut it

with a knife so that's the same word that's used here so bad things are coming uh and these bad things are coming because people were not turning to the teaching into the testimony like ahaz they refused to believe in the word of god and a lot of those who followed ahaz and followed the path of idolatry were going into this place where there was going to be nothing but anguish and darkness and thick darkness and distress and so on and so forth. Now, it's important to keep in mind, especially as we transition into the next chapter, that this is rooted in history, of course. Historical Isaiah is talking to historical Ahaz and to historical Israel and Judah. but there's a there's something else going on here that's even bigger than this particular

epic of history because a lot of what isaiah is talking about transcends the particular time in which he lives even the stuff he's talking about is still coming it's on the horizon it's not there yet and now what's going to happen as he steps into chapter nine is his horizon is going to extend even further out where he's not going to talk about the coming darkness of the assyrian invasion and the darkness that follows that invasion, but he's going to look even further and not just look further in the sense of historically, but also this overarching darkness of unbelief and distress and this feeling of being cut off from God that's going to, like a dark cloud, just roll through the centuries that are coming after that.

And I say all that because what we're going to encounter as we step into chapter 9 is a move into what's happening in the first century A.D. Yeah. Because we're going to get right to what happens when— Get right up in there. Go right to the New Testament. Right to the New Testament. You're here in Isaiah.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we're—so we feel maybe like we're talking about 8th century Isaiah. Here we are, you know, this prophet in this century talking to this king in this century. And he is. But as happens often with prophetical literature, there's a bigger picture that's going on here. He's looking much further down the road. One of the things, too, that happens, and you see it in this text, is that people reject God. They won't listen to God, which, of course, is always the thing.

They won't listen, won't listen. They won't hear that teaching. They're not going to hear that testimony. And then everything goes horrible, and who do they get angry with? God. mm-hmm it's like this is like spelled out where it's like hey flee to the testimony and the teaching nope not gonna do that and then thick darkness rolls in and you're like what do you do it like i'm angry with god now i mean uh you you refuse to take the way of escape uh and then are

upset uh and then but but thus it is uh throughout all of human history that this is how this works yeah that's exactly what i was thinking uh my mind i talked about this a number of times when genesis 4 comes up who was who was cain mad at he wasn't really mad at abel he was mad at god but he couldn't get his hands on god but he could get his hands on his brother and so when cain kills abel abel is nothing but god and effigy yeah and that becomes the archetype for a lot of i would say the vast majority of human anger people are angry at god but they can't get to god so they take out their anger on other people and you have the same thing happening here i mean people that no one's taking out their anger here on somebody else but who are they really angry they're angry

with god yeah they will say it explicitly says yeah they're gonna be like raise their fist at god but the thing that's that's great about that is that as we as you move into chapter nine even though people are angry with god this doesn't stop god because part of the the teaching and the testimony is promise that he is going to bring about salvation uh now you would know that if you had like fled there but you didn't uh and now you're angry with god but that anger does not stop him from fulfilling his own testimony and teaching? Yeah, it's almost like God is always

the only adult in the room. He's got a world full of children who are mad, and they're shaking their fists at their parent who has to remain the only adult in the room. He can't put himself down on the level of the children.

He's got to realize, all right, they're acting stupidly, they're acting childlessly. I have to be the adult here, and I'm going to be the one who actually fixes the situation. I'm going to stick by what I said, I'm going to do what's best for them, and hopefully in the end they'll realize that I've done what's best for them. Well, he's certainly the only one that is faithful in the room, right? That's definitely the case, yeah.

Like, I said it, so I do it. This is how God works. So, yeah, let's see what happens. Now, you'll hear there's a bridge between these two. So you hear the same language that's picked up here in chapter 9. This is one of these cases where, you know, I wish we could just take these chapter divisions in this case and just erase it. That way you'd see how it flows from one to the next. Let me just pick up with verse, the last verse of chapter 8. I'll reread that, and then I'll go into chapter 9 so you can hear the echoes of language.

So they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish, and they will be thrust into thick darkness. but there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish here the echoes there in the former time he brought into contempt in the former time we might even kind of insert parenthetically here back in the days of isaiah around this historical epoch in that former time what happened he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the latter time, now think here first century AD, the prophet's looking forward to what has come. In the latter time, what's going to happen? Well, if he brought into contempt formerly, now he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, or the nations. And let me just read

one more verse. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, and those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them light has shone. And of course, that is probably familiar to most of our listeners, that is quoted in Matthew chapter 4, when Christ moves into that region around the Sea of Galilee in order to actively engage in this ministry of teaching and healing. But keep in mind, kind of geographically, what's going on here. So it says, in the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali.

Now, those two tribes were right around the Sea of Galilee. So you have Naphtali, which is, I mean, basically bordering the Sea of Galilee, if you can kind of picture that in your heads, bordering the Sea of Galilee, and then going over the north side of the Sea of Galilee, so that, for instance, places like Capernaum were in the tribal allotment of the land of Naphtali. And then you have Zebulun, which is basically directly to the west of Naphtali. Both of these tribal allotments, in other words, are way up north in the northern part of Israel. They're around the Sea of Galilee.

And one of the things by which they were brought, one of the reasons that they were brought into contempt is because of their location. So if you're a Babylonian, or if you're an Assyrian, or if you're a Persian, or if you're anywhere from around the Tigris and Euphrates, and you're going to, for instance, invade Egypt, or if you're going to not even go all the way to Egypt, you're going to invade the area of Syria or Judah or Israel, who are you going to hit first? You're going to come in from the north, and then you're going to come down, and the first places you're going to hit are around the Sea of Galilee. So Naphtali and Zebulun, those tribal allotments, would have borne the brunt of the Assyrian assault that came around the time of Isaiah. And this is one of the ways they were brought into contempt. And not just contempt, but darkness and anguish and distress and all these other things that are being talked about here. So that's kind of the history behind what's happening in Isaiah's day. Then he goes on to say, a change is coming, because in a time which is to come, which he calls the latter time, this place which was in distress and deep darkness is going to be made glorious.

This way or road that's by the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. And then he has the description of people walking in darkness, seeing a light, and the land of deep darkness having a light shining on it. Yeah, but one of the things that is instructive here is that Isaiah thinks, of course correctly, that the last days and the latter days, those start like the second Jesus' sandal hits the dirt in Galilee. last days have begun right and so you'll hear lots of talk about uh are we in the last days and of course the answer to that is yes but maybe not for the reasons you think we've been in the last days for a while quite a while now yeah but uh that's what isaiah thinks isaiah thinks those latter days uh as jesus walking around by the jordan we're in those latter days buddy and uh and that and and the reason it is that is because uh there's only

There's kind of only two days. There's the promise and the fulfillment, and this is the way these days are divided up. And Isaiah understands that the second Jesus shows up on the scene, the days are different. We just heard some language. When Jesus shows up, you're not in those days anymore. You're in different kind of days.

Our calendar is perfectly divided between B.C. and A.D., right? That's right. That's correct. Two different days. Every time we say what year we're in, we give, probably most of the time, unconscious testimony to the fact that with the coming of Christ, everything changed. Yeah, that's exactly right. And so, yeah, for the Christian, there's, you know, and if you're reading the Bible, yeah, there's just two kind of days. And your Bible kind of divides it up for you, lets you know which days you're in.

in the old days or in the new days. You can kind of think about it that way. Yeah. Yeah, I was going to point out one thing. Speaking of this, this kind of fits in too. One of the unique features that you're not going to see only here, but throughout the prophets, is that very often when a prophet will talk about something happening in the future,

where we, in English, would use a future verb, will, something will happen. It'll be translated correctly so, grammatically so, in the past or in the perfect tense. So for instance, he says, in the latter time, he doesn't say will, but has made glorious the way of the sea. Now in Hebrew, this is called the perfect aspect. So, which is usually translated sometimes as a present, but often as a past. And the reason I think this is significant And it is the prophets, as they are looking forward to what God is going to do, are so certain of its ultimate fulfillment that they will speak of it as if it's already been accomplished. Yeah, yeah. So it will be happening in the future from Isaiah's historical perspective.

But from Isaiah's, we might say, faith perspective, from his truly divinely prophetic perspective, it is so certain that it's going to occur that he writes it, even with the aspect chosen in Hebrew, as if it's already taken place. So this is often called a prophetic perfect, this particular grammatical form in the Hebrew. But you'll see this all over the place. Isaiah 53 has this. A lot of the Messianic sections of Scripture have this written in the past, but it's talking about something that's going to happen in the future. And the one more thing that's unique about this is Isaiah alone is the one who calls this place Galilee of the Nations. I think there is one other, there's another reference to Galilee.

It's back in the time of Solomon. It seemed like he gave to the king of Tyre some of the area around Galilee. But to call it Galilee of the Nations is unique to Isaiah. And I think this is Isaiah. Isaiah, why would he say that? I think this fits with the key theme of Isaiah. He's always looking beyond what God is going to do for Israel to what he's going to do for all the nations.

It's like too small a thing, as he'll say later. It's too small a thing for the servant just to be taking care of Israel and Judah. It's too little, too small a range for his activity. He's going to be a light to the nations. and so already here you see a hint of that and of course when you read matthew 4 and you begin to see what's happening in the ministry of jesus that's precisely what he begins to do he has all kind of interactions with people who are of the nations of the gentiles and of course he has more interactions with his fellow jews but still he has a cybernation woman come up

to him he has a centurion come up to him he has other people who are outside of the jews who come up to him who as we've remarked before always shock jesus by their faith they're the only ones who shock jesus by their faith is gentiles it's here you have a kind of a hint of that that when the servant comes that we're going to hear more about in just a minute that he's going to be not just sent as the messiah to the israelites but he is the messiah the servant of the king for all of the nations. And then we see, you know, the bringing of illumination is what happens in the ministry of Jesus. And that's why Matthew quotes this section from Isaiah. Everywhere Christ goes, he brings light. He brings the light of healing, the light of hope, the light of life,

the light of the truth of God. I mean, he is the light of the world. So everywhere he goes, he brings light into these places of deep darkness or people who are walking in darkness. Now they see light, and it's something you can't miss, right? I'll take walks in the morning around my neighborhood when it's still dark outside, and it doesn't matter where the light is, if it's a porch light or whatever it is, I can't not look at it. It's one of the unique features. When you're in darkness, if there's light, you're going to notice it.

And that's, of course, what happens in Christ's ministry. It's unmissable in that respect. yeah i always think about uh the the story of when when jesus goes across the the sea and then uh he has you have the the demon possessed man that like no one can bind and all this stuff and uh and so he he like cast the demon out of the sky um and then they have the story about these herds of pigs or whatever and this lets you know right away that like these aren't jews because like jews don't like they're not a lot of like pig farming jews you know and uh and uh yeah so like and the reason that comes to mind is because like

there's maybe not like a better story that you would think like this guy is in some deep darkness you know i mean that guy that poor guy seems like he is i mean he's living in amongst the tombs i mean he's like i mean he's like he's cutting himself and i mean this guy is uh plagued by the thick darkness and assumingly not in a Jewish place. He's out there with the pig farmers and stuff and Jesus shows up

and there you have this light shining there. Yeah. That's one of the beauties of the Gospels I think really is that Christ is open to whoever. It's like Dane Orland wrote in that book, Gentle and Lowly, that Christ,

his overall Paul's movement is always toward suffering, toward the needy, toward those who are, whatever they're burdened by, his primary move is toward them, whether the Jews or Gentiles, to help them. Yeah, this is sort of how Jesus works. We actually, in 30 minutes in the New Testament, we're just going over Jesus and Matthew, making his way to Jerusalem. He does this thing where he tells us about his death and resurrection for a third time. And the third time he does it, he gets real specific about the details. Like, you know, these guys are going to turn me over, and these guys are going to prosecute me, and then I'm going to be mocked and whipped and all this stuff, crucified, buried, raised again.

So that's what we're going, then this is about to happen. We're making our way to Jerusalem to meet this event head on. And right after that, immediately after that, he says, all right, here we go. Two blind guys are like, can we get some sight? And everyone's like, hey, shut up. We're on the most important mission in the history of the universe. We're about to fulfill all kinds of prophecy here. Jesus is on his way to do the most important thing that's ever happened or ever will happen in the history of the world.

And what does he do? He says, hey, hey, no, no, no, no, don't be talking to them like that. And, of course, touches their eyes and gives them sight on his way to go do this. Because there's this thing about Jesus that he cannot help himself. Yeah. He sees this. They ask for mercy, and he gives it. Yeah, I mean, that's one of the beautiful things.

Even on, I mean, he's hanging there on the cross, dying. And he makes sure he takes care of his mom. Yeah. I mean, just that alone is just, I don't know, gives me chills even thinking about it. He's also making promises to criminals. Yeah. I don't know where I – I don't know if this was – this is one of these things I've said so many times. I don't know if it was original with me or if I stole it from somebody else.

But that we – I think we tend to focus – the thief on the cross, we tend to focus wrong. What always comes up when you talk about thief on the cross, baptism. Yeah. Which has nothing to do with that narrative at all, but that's what always comes up. I like to focus upon the fact that what that teaches us is that to his dying breath, Christ's ministry was in reaching out to save the lost. Yep. I mean, you see that. He could have ignored him.

He could have said whatever. But instead, he gives him this promise. Today, you're going to be with me in paradise. I mean, I think, obviously, Jesus' willingness. If you want to know about some mustard seed faith and how Jesus is just willing to latch on – just the tiniest – I mean like a don't-know-what-you're-really-saying, uneducated, have-zero theology. The testimony of the thief on the cross is, I'm bad, he's not, remember me. and jesus is like good enough like that's all it took like like that's like there's not a lot of deep theology there or anything like this guy can't explain the trinity to you or whatever like

he just knows like one thing like i deserve this he doesn't deserve this so remember me when you come to like that must be god that's that's that's the only thing uh i know and jesus says man later today that's gonna really pay off yeah that's one of the uh incredible things about that he the thief on the cross whatever he was wrong about he was right about one thing it's that guy is my only hope yeah and if you got that then you've got everything necessary uh even if it's a quarter of a mustard seed you've you've got the faith that receives what uh what god is all about yeah It's pretty great. Yeah.

So we got like a minute and a half. I'm going to read one more verse. Do it. We'll wrap up there. This is verse three. You have multiplied the nation. You have increased its joy. They rejoice before you as with the joy at the harvest,

as they are glad when they divide the spoil. So you got a couple of different seasons here, right? You got warfare season. What happens when you win the war? Well, you get the spoil. You get the booty of war, right? And then you also have the harvest going on. So you've got soldiers and farmers.

You've kind of got the, we might say, the two extremes of life. You've got the harvest, you gather the crops, it's a time of joy. You have warfare, you win the battle, you get the spoils. A lot of joy, a lot of gladness, a lot of rejoicing, a lot of receiving that which comes from either the earth or from these other people. And here, God is saying, there's going to be so much joy, I'm going to multiply the nation, I'm going to increase its joy, everyone's going to be joyful

because of what is going to be coming with the Advent and the Messiah, so that they're going to rejoice like at harvest and at dividing of the spoil. He has to include the Gentiles in this, right? Because otherwise, what are you talking about?

Because, like, what joy? There's a lot of rejection and stuff going on, but of course he is speaking about, like, well, this is not going to be exclusively for you, but because I broadened this out and expanded, this is going to be really good news for some, even though so many of you will stumble over it.

Yeah, and I think that's built into the Multiply the Nation, this expansion of Israel to include not just physical descendants of Abraham, but this is the spiritual Israel, that's all those who have faith in jesus as the messiah whether they are of jewish or gentile descent so the nation multiplies because the message goes out from jerusalem to dugea to samaria to the uttermost ends of the earth and that's why i mean today you've got world rubber joycing yeah among jews and gentiles uh who believe that jesus is in fact the one spoken of here in in isaiah yeah That's good. And we're not done yet, man.

We've got a lot more good news to get through. I mean, some of this has been kind of rough. But next episode, we're going to keep on this good news train for a second before Isaiah says, but as always, there's going to be some bad stuff first. We're going to get a few more verses of good news. But we're going to get some more good news first before we get back into some judgment and oppression and that sort of stuff. But make sure you come back for all of it. Chad, I'll see you then.

All right. See you then.