Isaiah 15-20

Introduction

Okay, it’s time to get started. Now Sunday we did lesson seven, which was chapters 13 and 14.

If you would look in your lesson book on page 13, I believe it is. The questions for lesson 13 and 14. I’m sorry, turned to the wrong spot. Page 44, 44, and 45, yeah. In chapters 13 and 14, Isaiah sees this vision concerning the burden of whom? Babylon. What will happen to the stars, sun and moon? Darken, not give their light. Darken, not give their light. Not that that would literally happen, but it’s a figure. Number five, what did Isaiah prophesy concerning the rebuilding of Babylon? Number one, he rebuilt.

What will the Lord do for Jacob and Israel? Number six. Have mercy. Have mercy. He will still choose them. Your research question. Identify and read the two chapters in Jeremiah which prophesy Babylon’s fall. Anyone get that? 50, 51. Okay. And what verses parallel the prediction of Isaiah 13, 19 through 22 with regard to Babylon being like Sodom and Kamara? 50 verses 39 through 40. 51, 62. Okay. Good. In Isaiah 14, is Isaiah 14, 12 through 15 telling us of the origin of the devil? No. No. No. No, no, no, really not. An interesting note on that. When Joseph Smith made his translation of the Bible, his so-called translation, he copied that word for word. And so his translation says Lucifer. But Lucifer is kind of a transliteration out of the Latin.

So it’s obvious he didn’t get that from the Hebrew. And so it’s obvious the trans the translation is a is a fraud. But it’s interesting how that term Lucifer has permeated our society. Everybody understands that as a term for Satan, and it’s never used as a term for Satan that I’m aware of in the Bible anywhere. It’s only used in this King James version of that, too, all the way through.

1. The Burden Against Moab

Well, that’s right. The Joseph Smith translation has quite a number of verses that are letter for letter right out of King James. Okay, so let’s move on to Isaiah chapter 15. We’ve uh got done talking about uh Babylon and Assyria and Balitia, talking about the destruction that would come. And then he begins in chapter 15 talking about the burden against Noah. Yes. I’m sorry, uh that’s why the Mormons believed that it was actually fire. Because he never read the King Bible, but yet he was able to fully inspiration of God. That would be quite a miracle, wouldn’t it?

Yeah. That’s an that’s an interesting life story in and of itself. But uh the burden against Moab. Uh in this um, whoops, just a bullet point list of this overview. In verses 1 through 9, destruction is prophesied against Moab. Uh, and it talks about their wailing that will occur in verse 2. Moab will wail over Nebo and over Mediva, the idols. And on their heads will be baldness and every beard cut off, talking about the shame that would come because their trust in the idols. And that’s going to be a key charge against Moab. Their belief in idols to the rejection of God. So this destruction is prophesied. In verse 15, there’s actually an entreaty to help Israel. But don’t skip over verse 5. My heart will cry out for Moab.

It’s interesting. Some people picture the prophets of Israel as just feeling vindictive against other nations. But really, when you read what Isaiah has to say, he is emotionally involved in these things. My heart will cry out for Moab. That is pity will be shown by Isaiah. And ostensibly, God as well. His fugitives shall flee to Zor. And the abundance said gained in verse 7 will be withered away.

But the cry has gone up all around the borders of Moab, wailing. And the waters of Diamond will be full of blood. Diamond was one of the great rivers.

He says, Send the lamb to the ruler of the land. That is, entreat him with a gift. From Selah to the wilderness to the mount of the daughter of Zion. It shall be as a wandering bird thrown out of the nest. Take counsel, verse 3. Execute judgment. Make your shadow like the night in the middle of the day. That is, be a protector. Protector for whom? Hide the outcasts. Do not betray him who escapes. Let my outcast dwell with you, O Moab. In other words, he’s picturing a time when Judah shall be somewhat dispersed because of the fighting and the war, and God’s people will be like outcasts thrown out of their land, and they will be seeking to hide among the nations. He says to Moab, he entreats them, he says, Hide my outcast.

Be a shelter for them. Be a shelter to them from the face of the spoiler, for the extortioner is at end. Devastation cease, the oppressors are consumed. Why should they do that in the face of this great Assyrian power? Why should they hide outcasts? Well, verse 5, in mercy of the throne will be established, and one will sit on it in truth. In the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking justice and hasting righteousness, in spite of all the power that looks like is in Assyria. So God. God’s throne will be established. In the face of what seems like a vastly superior power, God is still over all.

He is very proud of his haughtiness and his pride. Look over with me in Jeremiah chapter 48, where this is really expounded on.

So in Jeremiah 29, he says, almost word for word, we have heard the pride of Moab. He is exceedingly proud of his loftiness and his arrogance and pride and the haughtiness of his heart. He describes that even more down in verse 42. Moab shall be destroyed as a people because he has magnified himself against the Lord. You see the same picture of pride as you saw in chapter 14 with the king of Babylon that says, I shall be as God, I will ascend up to the heavens. Kind of like a picture of the Tower of Babel, right? Babylon was the land in which the Tower of Babel was built. So that picture is given of pride, and you see the same picture here. Someone that magnifies himself up against the Lord.

Any of us can do that. When what we think that we are more important than what God says that we should do, we magnify ourselves, our selfishness, and we feed self and deny God. Is that not the same thing? Make it personal. The same charge.

And so in verse 11, again you see this idea of empathy on the part of the prophet. He says, Therefore my heart will resound like a harp for Moab. Perhaps playing a dirge, a song of sympathy. And my inner being for Kirhuras, another great city of Moab. It shall come to pass when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place. In other words, when God’s hand is felt such that it should bring repentance. What do they do? He will come to his sanctuary to pray. That is, he’ll come to his gods. He will reject God, turn to the idols. Where there should be repentance, there’s this pride that will not give in to God, but he will not prevail. This is the word the Lord has spoken concerning Moab since that time.

But now the Lord has spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of a hired man, the glory of Moab will be despised with all that great multitude, and the remnant will be very small and feeble. There’s an interesting word picture here, I think, back in chapter 15, verse 9. The waters of diamonds shall be full of blood. If you go back and you read the history, some hundred years earlier, about 840 BC, after Ahab dies, Jehoram reigns. And Meshah, king of Moab, rebels. Moab had been under the control of the northern kingdom. But when Ahab dies, they cast it off. And so the king rebels, Mesha. Jehoram allies himself with Jehoshaphat down in Judah and the king of Edom. And they travel a long way through Edom.

And so they go seven days without water. And they’re beginning to despair of it. And so the king of uh Jehoram, king of Israel, calls for a prophet. And Jehoshaphat says, There’s Elisha, I know him to be a man of God. And so he chooses Elisha who prophesies water in the morning. Interesting. And he directs them to dig ditches to hold the water. Okay, now it’s arid, no water. They’re thirsty. They’re just almost going to be in a position not to go on without water, and the prophet says, There’ll be water in the morning. Go dig some ditches. Well they do. They dig the ditches. And in the morning the water comes in and apparently the river overflows and it fills the ditches. And so the Moabites get up in the morning and they see this great army camped out there and they see all this water reflected in all the ditches and they say look it’s blood.

They have killed themselves. And they go and they are ambushed and they lose Misha sacrifices his heir on the wall and Judah departs apparently because of that action. Apparently Moab retains their independence somewhat and so in the history you’ll see in the Louvre museum the steel where Misha claims victory at Ziz. That’s the place of this but that picture of the water looking like blood and the waters from diamond the river diamond. Where is Moab Moab is going to be eastward of the Jordan on the if you if you look at the you look down here you’re going to have Edom down here and I think Moab is next and then Ammon above him so you can see they’re coming down this is the negative the arid region so they would be coming the waters being like blood on the rivers, or the waters from diamond, you kind of see that in verse 9 of chapter 15.

2. The Burden Against Syria and Israel

For the waters of diamonds shall be full of blood, it kind of conjures back up memories of this hundred years ago defeat. And so Moab does disappear from history during the Persian period. I keep hitting N instead of page down, it’s uh not used to the button being. Sorry about that. Okay, so we move to the burden against Syria and Israel. Now I believe all of these are connected in one sense. And that is, remember back Isaiah chapter 7, where Isaiah gave the Emmanuel prophecy. He talked about relief would be coming. You fear these two kings, Syria and Israel. Within a short period of time, they will be dealt with. Okay. Well now he’s talked about Moab and how Moab is not going to be a place you can go.

He picks back up this burden against Syria and Israel. And he reiterates some of the things. Verse 17, chapter 17 and verse 1. Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city. Well, if you go back and you look at the history books, Damascus is one of the oldest, continuously occupied cities, isn’t it? And yet, flip over with me to 2 Kings 16. Or start in verse 7. Ahaz didn’t take God’s sign. He took matters into his own hands because he did not trust in God. And so in verse 7 of 2 Kings 16, Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath Pelezer, king of Assyria, saying, I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel who rise up against me.

And Ahaz took the silver and the gold that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king’s house and sent it as a present, king of Assyria. One of the accounts, I think it’s in Chronicles, says that Ahaz sought the help of Tiglath Belezer, but he was of no help to him. And that’s kind of a summary statement, because in the end he was of no help to him. He still came against him. But he did in this case provide some help. Verse 9. So the king of Assyria heeded him. You can compare this with 2 Chronicles 28, verse 21. For the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and took it and carried its people captive to Cir and killed Rezin.

Okay. So he he took Damascus and probably in the siege destroyed a good bit of it. And so, in a sense, you can say it did cease from being a city, at least a city it was. Remember, you can still occupy a city if the buildings are destroyed and rebuilt while you’re living among the ruins. And so this is probably the account that he’s speaking of. It will be a ruinous heap left behind when Tiglath Pelezer went up against him. The cities of Aurora are forsaken, they will be for flocks which lie down. The fortress will cease from Ephraim and the kingdom from Damascus. And that’s the key, right? These power centers. Damascus and Ephraim. These are the two sinners that Ahaz was afraid of. Here you see it again.

They will cease from being a power. The point of this is starting in verse 6, you’re going to see that the glory of Jacob or Judah will wane. That is when they come up against Judah, it will be like harvester gathering the grain, verse 5. And so in verse 6, yet gleaning grapes will be left in it, like the shaking of an olive tree. Now, if you can think of the picture of an olive tree, when you shake in it hard, most of the fruit falls. And that’s it’ll be a little up there. But what was the earlier picture we saw of Judah after this invasion? You remember the picture? The tree cut down. The stump? Well, that’s one picture. That’s really the house of David.

But earlier on, you remember the prophecy where he said it will be like a uh hut in a cucumber field.

This one small little building. That’s the picture. You’ve got Jerusalem, everything’s level around it, all the major cities are taken. There’s that hut in the cucumber field. Same picture you see here of like an olive tree being shaken, and yes, there’s a little bit up at the top, but it’s not much. Two or three olives at the top of the uppermost branch, four or five and its most fruitful branches. Here’s what it was supposed to produce repentance. In that day a man will look to his maker, and his eyes will have respect for the holy one of Israel. He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands. He will not respect what his fingers have made, nor the wooden images, nor does the incense altars.

And I believe he’s plainly talking about altars to the idolatrous or the idols, not the one true altar. In that day, his strong cities will be as a forsaken bow and as an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation. Why? Because you’ve forgotten the God of your salvation. You’ve not been mindful of the rock of your stronghold. You will set out foreign seedlings, and in the morning you will make your seeds to flourish, but the harvest will be a heap of ruins. And so the idea is these foreign seedlings, that’s going after the uh seeking help with foreign nations, trying to make foreign alliances for protection because you’re not trusting in God. He says, it looks like you’ve planted these seeds and they flourished and it looks good.

Well, when it comes to harvest time, it’ll be nothing but ruin. As you read through this, think about it. Each one of us faces times in our lives, which situations look desolate, hopeless.

You might be having family problems at the same time. And you might be being sued at the same time, you know, and things get desperate. Financial troubles. When things get really dark and really deep, what do you do? What do you trust in? Okay, now imagine the situation of Judah. All the help all around you looks like it’s nothing. Edom is gonna fall. Moab is gonna fall. Phyllis is gonna fall. Israel’s gonna fall. I mean, you’re surrounded. What are you gonna do? You’ve got no one you can turn to for help. Who do you call? Well. Pardon? Our maker. Yeah, that’s right. That’s what he’s saying here. One person in the class I taught said, we should be going to the throne, not the throne. So the idea is you look for help, you start trying to make alliances.

You turn to your friends, you turn to people around you. Who can help me? Do we think about God? You know, we we claim that the Israelit should be thinking about God. They should be looking to their maker. What about us? Okay. Let’s don’t condemn them and absolve ourselves. Let’s remember these can be lessons for us. Look in verse 12.

The last point. Woe to the multitude of many people who make a noise like the roar of the seas and the rushing of nations. And this talks about this great flood of people that’s coming. Verse 13 God will rebuke them, and they will flee far away and be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. Behold, the even tide trouble. The night comes, 185,000 are gathered. In the morning, you know the invasion is there. It’s been told. Rab Shakes told it. It’s coming. You’ve heard the rumble of the armies. You know they’re there. Vast multitude. In the even tide, there is trouble. But before the morning, he is no more. As you recall the history, the angel went out, and 185,000 were slain.

This is the portion of those who plunder us and the lot of those who rob us. In other words, there’s a recognition here that those that come up against Jerusalem are coming up against God.

3. Ethiopia Sends Emissaries, but God Will Prune Assyria

And this will be their lot. That doesn’t mean Jerusalem will be always protected. But even when it falls, God will judge those who come up against his people. So, chapter 18. Talking about Ethiopia, you notice he doesn’t start with the standard phrase, the burden against.

That is a land of insects, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, which sends ambassadors by sea, even in vessels of reeds on the water, saying, Go swift messengers. And so Ethiopia is pictured as sending emissaries to a people terrible, verse 2. From the beginning onward, a nation powerful and treading down whose land the rivers divide. The identification of that is a matter of great controversy. But put that aside for a minute. You’ve got Ethiopia. Remember, Assyria is looking to go down and sweep through Israel into Egypt and take Egypt and Ethiopia too. And so Ethiopia hears about all that’s happening up here, and they’re saying, we’re not going to wait until they come to our land. We’re going to go get them in the center land.

And they’re going to come up and attack.

When Assyria is right there occupied with Israel. They’re occupied with Israel or Judah. We’ll catch them then. So they send emissaries. Obviously, they’re trying to make an alliance. It’s going to be hard for them to go up against Assyria all by themselves. So they’re making an alliance. Verses 4 through 6 tell us that God is not idle. The Lord said to me, I will take my rest and I will look for my dwelling place, like a clear heat and sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. That is a time of refreshing. I’m waiting, I’m refreshed, I’m waiting for the time is right. For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he will cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks.

In other words, God will prune Assyria. You’re sending emissaries to a foreign nation thinking you will bring help, but really it’s God that’s going to prune Assyria. And you know what? When that happens, the people that you’re trying to ally with, they will be sending emissaries with presents to God. They will recognize him. And so in verse 7, in that time a present will be brought to the Lord of hosts from a people tall and smooth of skin, from a people terrible from the beginning onward to a nation powerful and treading down whose land the rivers divide, and so forth. So when the pruning of Assyria did occur, history records that Babylon sent emissaries to Hezekiah. I believe he’s talking about Babylon here. It fits, and that we know they sent emissaries.

You can look at the history and see after Hezekiah recovered from his illness, right after this 185,000 were slain. In that period of time, Babylon sends emissaries. Why? Well, when your enemy has a great army in somebody’s land, and that army just goes away overnight. You figure something’s going on there. I need to make an alliance with those people. So Babylon sells to emissaries. Where is Babylon? Well, Cush begat Nimrod. Nimrod is one of the mighty ones early on. He began to be a mighty one on the earth. From the beginning of his kingdom was Babel. Babyl is the area of Babylon, the land of Shinar. So one of the mightiest from the earliest times, the beginning onward, is Babylon. And Babylon was going to be given the power to tread down nations.

And Tigris and Euphrates do divide the land quite strikingly. And so all those fit. But don’t forget the point. Regardless of who you believe he’s talking about. Nations that should be concerned with God, sending emissaries to a foreign power, who is in turn going to send emissaries to God. All of this is intended to emphasize to Judah that God is in control. God should be getting our praise. God should be getting our trust. Okay. Question? Yes, John. Well, who were the people that were tall and smooth? That would be, I believe, the Babylonians. I can’t tell you that they were any taller than anybody else, but it’s a description. So you’re taking the idea that this is a descriptive Babylon versus Ethiopia. No, it’s Ethiopia sending emissaries to Babylon looking to make an alliance.

4. The Burden Against Egypt

All right. In other words, Ethiopia is saying, I want to attack Assyria preemptively. I need help. Who am I going to align myself with? Oh, I’ll send to Babylon. Remember, Babylon’s on the other side. Maybe a squeeze play. It’d be a good alliance, it would seem. But then Babylon turns around and sends emissaries to Hezekiah after the 185,000 fall. So we come to chapter 19. We’re trying to get there, Bob. The burden against Egypt. Now remember, when the emissaries of Babylon come, Hezekiah’s got this same problem. He’s been thinking about who am I going to ally myself with against Assyria? Where am I going to turn to help? Well, Egypt would be another one they might turn to. So, burden against Egypt. Behold, the Lord rides on a ship, swift cloud.

And we see that picture of the God many times, don’t we? When they came out of Egypt, God was in the pillar of the cloud. When they was on Mount Sinai, the cloud enveloped mountain.

When the God comes, his glory comes into the tabernacle, it’s pictured as a great cloud. And so this is a symbol of God’s presence, just like we’ve seen before. The Lord rides on a swift cloud, that’s God’s presence coming, and it’s coming in judgment. The idols will totter at his presence, verse 1. Again, this shows the judgment. They’re depending upon idols. They rejected God. He’s coming in judgment. The idols will totter at his presence. Verse 2, God will send a spirit of anarchy among them. I will set Egyptians against Egyptians, everyone will fight his brother, and everyone against his neighbor. The history is fascinating. If you if you enjoy it, you should go read up on it. Turns out that there was about 42 districts in Egypt at one point in time.

And they were kind of all at peace with each other. And then there came a time where there was anarchy. And the kingdom was divided up into twelve, and then there became to be an issue. And really, this came to be a point where they were all fighting against each other, just as he’s saying here. They will consult the idols and the charmers, verse 3, the mediums and the sorcerers. But the Egyptians I will give them the hands of a cruel master. The waters will fail from the sea, verse 5, and the river will be wasted and dried up. Think about it, Egypt really depended upon the Nile for commerce, for uh the crops, for everything. And so to say, I will cause the Nile to dry up is a great strike of destruction against the entire land.

And so he lists all those that will be affected by that, verses five through ten. Verses 11 through 15, he talks about their wise men, the princes of Zoom, their wise counselors, and he poses a question in verse 12: where are they? Where are your wise men? Let them tell you now, and let them know. The Lord of hosts has purposed this against Egypt. In other words, when it comes, they will know that God caused this. And the intent is to cause them to turn.

Not that Judah would be mighty and grind them down, but the idea of there’s a prophet in Judah that knows what’s going to happen. And it’s his God that has done this, and they would be afraid.

One will be called the city of destruction. And that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land, and a pillar to the Lord at its borders. In other words, the knowledge of God will grow in Egypt. And history bears that out. During the uh period of Alexander the Great and onward, there was a great dispersion that uh many Jews went into Egypt. There was great knowledge centers there, so great that, as you know, the Septuagint and translation was done in Egypt for the Jews that were there. But it’s more than just that. This picture from verse 21 on the same picture that we see back in chapter 11. Read it with me, starting verse 21. Then the Lord will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day and will make a sacrifice and offering.

Yes, they will make a vow of the Lord to perform it. The Lord will strike Egypt, he will strike and heal it. And that shows the idea of the strike was intended to bring repentance, and with that is healing. In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. Remember in chapter 11, he talked about the highway from Assyria to Judah for the captives to come back. But this is not about captives. There will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians, all three together. Think about that. For hundreds of years, you’re going to have Israel in the middle, nations from the north, whether it be Assyria, Babylon, the Seleucid Empire, and from the south, Egypt, the Ptolemies.

All this conflict for hundreds of years. God says, I’m going to make a highway between all three of this, and they’re all going to be mine. In fact, he says in verse 25, the Lord shall bless, saying, Blessed is Egypt, my people. Striking. Israel says, No, no, no. We are God’s people. God says, Egypt is my people, too. Interesting. And Assyria, the work of my hands. The enemy? The work of God’s hands. In that day, you see this picture of great enemies in peace. Where is that? Chapter 11. There shall be peace in all my holy mountain. The wolf will lie down with the lamb. That’s the picture of Messianic times. That’s what God has in mind for his people. Okay. Beautiful picture, actually. Naked and barefoot.

5. A Sign Against Egypt and Ethiopia

Chapter 20. A sign against Egypt and Ethiopia. And the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, okay, the Tartan would be the commander, commander in chief of the Assyrian forces comes to Ashdod. Now look where Ashdod is. If you look at this context map here, okay, we’re almost down to the southern part of Gaza. And in that area is Ashdod. Ashdod would be a great city of the Philistines, right? That’s where Assyrian commander is. Well, guess what? He is way past Jerusalem. So Jerusalem is going to be like surrounded now. The north and the south. It’s like there’s no help. And in that period of time, the Lord spoke to Isaiah the son of Amos, saying, Go and remove the sackcloth from your body and take the sandals off your feet.

And he did so walking naked and barefoot. That doesn’t mean without any clothes, but it means uncovered. Probably just a simple loincloth. And the Lord said, Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians of captive. If there was ever a time in which Israel was hoping for Egypt and Ethiopia to be a help, it was now, because it looked like they were being encircled. But what does he say in verse 5? Then they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia, their expectation in Egypt, Egypt, their glory. Why? They would fail. They would be taken away captive like many others.

6. The Fall of Babylon and the Other Burdens

This chapter verse 6 is striking, where he says, Surely, such is our expectation, whether we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria, and how shall we escape? There is no help. That’s the message. And so in chapter 21, the fall of Babylon is proclaimed. Now think about that last statement. Where do we turn, there is no help. What should that cause Israel to do? Pray. Turn to the way. Turn to the Lord. For the Lord is the only help. Man cannot help them. But it does not produce what it should. The burden against the wilderness of the sea, quite an interesting pictures phrase. The sea is often just a sea of mankind. In the middle of the sea of mankind, there is the wilderness.

And it’s apparently Babylon. You see that from verse 6 and through 9, where he talks about Babylon has fallen. Clearly, he’s talking about Babylon, the wilderness of the sea. Why? They’re the center, they’re going to be the center of power in later years. And they will be a spiritual wilderness. All their idols. And so he pictures them being plundered. Verse 3, you see this again, this empathy by the prophet. And I believe this is really coming from God. My loins are filled with pain. Pangs have taken hold of me like the pangs of a woman in labor. I was distressed when I heard it. I was dismayed when I saw it. My heart wavered. Fearfulness frightened me. The light for which I longed, he’s turned into fear for me.

And I believe he’s speaking as if he is Babylon. Talks about the watchman in the tower. And as if Babylon should be on watch and they won’t see a thing. History records that in the night Cyrus had them dig ditches and divert the Euphrates, and they walked into the city. So it was as if no watchman could see it coming, and yet Babylon, I’m sorry.

Yes, Babylon is fallen, is fallen. Cyrus the Persian comes in and takes Babylon. And look at this.

Oh, my threshing in the grain of my floor, which I have heard from the God of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared to you. And as we talk with all these nations, you see more and more. The burden against Duma.

Why does he call them Duma? Well, it may be derived from a Hebrew word that means silence. And that may be talking about the silence that’s going to come when they are taken away. Watchmen, watchmen water the night, they should be watching too. But when the watchman says, when the morning comes, also the night. In other words, it looks like you’re going to get out of it, but you will be taken as well. If you will require, inquire, return, come back. In other words, trust in the Lord, come to the Lord, come back to the Lord. But no. If you read Ezekiel 35, you’ll see a lot more detail about Edom, which is really what we’re talking about here. Ijemea, Mount Seir. The burden against Arabia, okay.

Now we’ve ticked off all these nations, and I’m an I’m an Israelite. What might I think? Go to the desert. Not going to find me there. Nobody wants to be there. I’ll go hide in the desert. The burden against Arabia. In the forest of Arabia, you will lodge. The traveling companies of the Dedonites. Bring water, verse 14, to him who is thirsty with their bread. They met him who fled. And there would be some that would flee there. For they fled from the swords and from the drawn swords to the bent bow and from the distress of war. But God says within a year, according to the year of a hired man, the glory of Kedar will fell. Don’t think you can escape this judgment by fleeing to the desert.

It too will suffer. So, chapter 22. I want to spend a little bit of time with that, so we won’t get entirely through that. But if you’re interested, Google Shebna later on in the chapter, Shabna. Archaeologists believe they have found his tomb.

Why? Well, that’s where the prophets should be in Jerusalem. What ails you?

All your rulers have fled together, verse 3, they are captured by the archers. Verse 4, I said, look away from me, I will weep bitterly. Do not labor to comfort me because of the plundering of the daughter of my people. That is this vision of Jerusalem being plundered. It’s a day of trouble, verse 5, and a treading down in perplexity by the Lord God of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls and a crying to the mountain. Elam bore the quiver. Chariots of men and horsemen and Kir uncovered the sword. Verse 8 is telling where he says, He removed the protection of Judah. You looked in that day to the armor of the house of the forest, that is the armory. You looked to your arms.

But the protection was gone. The arms were meaningless. You saw the damage to the city of David that it was great. You numbered the houses of Jerusalem that were broken down, but verse 11, you did not look to its maker, nor did you have respect for him who fashioned it long ago. That’s the chastisement.