Before examining God’s message to end-time Israel we need to determine why He spoke and wrote it through His prophet Isaiah. To lay the background for this very important and futuristic message we will go first to chapter two beginning with verse five. Here we find Isaiah speaking to God’s chosen people, calling them back to their God: “O house of Israel, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” Then in verse six he begins to talk to God, reminding Him that He had forsaken His people. He had turned His back on the house of Jacob (Israel) because they had embraced many of the religions of the East (Babylon) in total disregard for His command not to “learn the ways of the heathen.” They had consulted soothsayers, familiar spirits, etc. for information and predictions concerning the future, as did the Philistines. They had entered into sexual relationships with the heathen, again against the direct orders of their God. They had become wealthy in terms of gold, silver, horses and chariots. They had come to worship idols created with their own hands. Sound familiar?

In 2:11 and 17 Isaiah describes the characteristics of the spiritually fallen men of Israel, which constituted the vast majority of Israelite males. Only a few people within the nation had stayed true to their God. Isaiah characterized the Israelite men as “proud and lofty” as they strutted around showing off their self-aggrandizing possessions, “lifting themselves up” in their own eyes as they sought to elevate themselves in the eyes of others. Sound familiar? Though the men receive harsh words from the prophet, he voiced equal condemnation for the women. In verse 16 he speaks for the Lord, calling the females “haughty” (proud, arrogant) as they stretched their necks, decorated their eyes and walked with dainty steps as the bells on their feet made sure everyone knew they were in the area.

Proverbs 16,18 tells us that pride comes before destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall. Pride is the sin of idolatry–self-worship. The Israelites, though the most powerful nation on earth at that time, had fallen spiritually, even to the sacrificing of thousands of their children in the Valley of Hinnom outside of Jerusalem. They did so in order to improve their lives. Sound familiar? Notice that every negative thing that the Israelites (and man in general) did (and does) directly exalts man himself. As graphically pointed out by Jesus in Matthew 16:23, Satan plays a leading role in the development of this spiritual disease where we find the Lord explaining to His disciples that He must soon die. Peter rebuked Him, telling Him that He was wrong, that He would not die. Jesus then spoke, not to Peter, but to Satan who was using Peter by speaking through Him. He said: “Get behind Me, SATAN, for YOU are not interested in the things of God, but in the THINGS OF MAN.” Satan wants man to have what man wants. Unregenerate man wants that which exalts himself. Satan will do everything he can to make sure man has what he wants.

The unconverted always exalts self over God and looks to please self instead of God. Sin can be defined as man choosing Satan’s way over God’s way. Sinning man chooses Satan’s way because it exalts man himself. This is defined as PRIDE. PRIDE IS IDOLATRY–DOING THE WILL OF SELF, WHICH IN FACT IS SERVING SATAN BY ACCOMPLISHING HIS WILL. Satan does not want man to know what service to him (Satan) will bring upon man himself. Beginning with 2:11 we find Isaiah writing about the “Day of the Lord” (vs 12– a year of terror such as the world has never experienced. During the previous 2 1/2 year period Satan will have afflicted sinning man at will, doing to him whatever he desires. The Day of the Lord will find God afflicting man even more harsh than did Satan during his time of punishment. At the end of that year Christ will return to earth to establish the Kingdom of God. Read The Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord. Key word–Day.

Now we will examine Isaiah’s warning to sinning man about the time element involved which is described by the Prophet Joes as “the great and terrible Day of the Lord” (2:11). Beginning with 2:11 the prophet states that all those who are proud, lofty and lifted up will be humbled and will bow down and be brought low as the Lord exalts Himself over them. Isaiah also states that that man’s idols will be thrown down into the dirt. Nature will not be spared as trees and mountains will feel the hand of the Lord upon them. Towers and walls will crumble and ships at sea will be destroyed. God will destroy all of man’s idols.

As God mightily shakes the earth man will go into holes and caves out of fear of Him and in awe of His glory. Man will cast his idols to the ground and give his gold and silver to the moles and bats. Man will hunt for places to hide from the wrath of God.

Beginning in chapter three Isaiah tells how God will take food and water away from sinners, including His chosen people. God will expose the inner thoughts of men as the mighty men, the men of war, the judge, the prophet, the wise, the elderly, the military leaders, the honorable men, the counselor, the artist and the orator will all hide in terror.

In chapter three verses four, five and twelve the Lord Himself speaks. Read those verses carefully and it will be as if you are reading today’s newspaper or watching the evening news as the Lord perfectly describes what we are watching take place in the so-called “Christian nations,” specifically the United States. Let us carefully examine God’s description of the “One Nation Under God” on the social and political level. Here God prophesies what He will do to modern Israel during the final days of this age (the Laodicean era–Rev. 3:14-20). He says: “I will give children to be their princes”–spoiled brats will be exalted socially. “(Adults with the minds of) children will rule over them”–listen to the speeches of our politicians as they curse each other and call each other vile names as do spoiled children. “People will oppress one another”–Fights break out over the most unimportant things; neighbors torment one another and take each other to court over the most mundane differences. People kill each other over miner problems. “Children will come against the elderly and the worst of people will attack the most honorable. Children will oppress everyone”–children have no respect for the elderly, the police, teachers, etc. I recently read where children in San Francisco were beating their mothers with ball bats in order to get what they want. “Religious leaders will lead My people astray, cause them to err by directing them away from My path”–church leaders preach a false, perverted gospel and lead billions onto Satan’s path. John the Baptist preached God’s word in the physical wilderness of Judea. I preach God’s Gospel in the spiritual wilderness of counterfeit Christianity. L.J.