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Prophecy & the Power of God’s Guidance | Isaiah 7:1-25

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  1. You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a

  2. couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in

  3. practical ways.

  4. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys.

  5. Today is Thursday, all right, and we are thrilled that

  6. you're here today.

  7. Everybody's second favorite day. That begins to tea.

  8. Oh wow, that was the thing that was rough, you.

  9. Think, Hey, actually I'd like Thursdays better than Tuesdays.

  10. I do.

  11. Okay, Well, there's the difference between the tourists.

  12. You like Tuesdays better.

  13. Yeah, because Thursday is not Friday.

  14. Yeah, well, Thursdays leading up to Friday.

  15. I know.

  16. So it's it's more exciting than Tuesday.

  17. But Tuesday you're not in Monday anymore. Dude, It's so

  18. much better.

  19. This is a this is.

  20. A anyways, let's.

  21. Go very subjective conversation for certain So, hey, speaking of

  22. our subjective opinion, Yes, today is one of your favorite

  23. segments called would you rather yes?

  24. Would you rather yes?

  25. And this is very subjective as well. Yes, So, Chris,

  26. would you rather relive your childhood with the knowledge you

  27. have now or relive your childhood without any recollection of

  28. the present? What you just go back and relive your

  29. real live, go back and relive your childhood? What kind

  30. of options without any of the advantage of having lived? Now?

  31. What kind of option is that?

  32. It's It's like, hey, would you rather go back and

  33. do something extremely cool with a bunch of really great

  34. knowledge or would you rather go back and I have

  35. exactly the same outcome with no control and no knowledge whatsoever?

  36. Okay, obviously I want to have knowledge.

  37. Okay, all right, Well that was just the question. Hey,

  38. I'm okay, you're.

  39. Christ on Thursday. What kind of questions?

  40. Okay, okay, of course you want to have the knowledge?

  41. Would you rather do I'd rather have a knowledge too, Yeah, okay,

  42. Well hey for number two?

  43. Number two?

  44. Yeah? Oh you want me to do it?

  45. Yeah? Go ahead.

  46. Would you rather be forced to listen to the Barney

  47. theme song for twenty four hours straight or someone slurp

  48. soup for twenty four hours straight?

  49. Oh, there's no question for me. I've already listened to

  50. the Barney's theme song for twenty four hours straight. Yeah,

  51. most of my daughter's childhood, so I can handle that,

  52. you can hear that.

  53. But slurping of soup.

  54. I'm the opposite. I would totally choose slurping the soup.

  55. What yeah, because the Barney theme song is a brain worm.

  56. It's an earworm. Oh, it gets stuck in your head.

  57. You'll be thinking of it for weeks after that twenty

  58. four hour window, whereas you won't.

  59. Be thinking, great big hug and it gets can you

  60. see you?

  61. Okay? You see? Would you rather have to use let's go,

  62. Would you rather have to use shrimp flavored toothpaste or

  63. deodorant that smells like cheese?

  64. Oh my goodness, now I respect this question like this,

  65. I respect it. I don't like it, I respect it.

  66. What would I rather do?

  67. I think I'd have to put up with the shrimp

  68. flavored toothpaste because.

  69. It's it's here and then it's gone.

  70. Right, it doesn't know it's there for everybody else? What

  71. is there? Everybody else is gonna smell it?

  72. No, because it doesn't say that you can't wash your

  73. mouth out with lestren afterwards.

  74. Oh, it doesn't say that you're right.

  75. But the U.

  76. But the deorderan that smells like cheese, it'd be hard

  77. to get rid of that.

  78. Dude, I would choose the cheese. I would because I

  79. hate shrimp right.

  80. Now, Oh, you're just anti shrimp.

  81. I haven't always been a shrimp hater, but I am

  82. right now because the last time I had it, I

  83. got terrible sick. Remember that was like two years ago.

  84. I know, I can't. I can't even be around the

  85. smell of it right now. It turns my stomach.

  86. It's literally two years later.

  87. Yeah, yeah, it was a year later. It was last year.

  88. Come on, it was this time last year.

  89. I got sick in the Dominican Republic on shrimp.

  90. Yeah, well you should learn something from it, Chris.

  91. I've eaten shrimp three three times since then.

  92. Okay, not me, not me. I just can't get past it.

  93. Yeah.

  94. My least favorite thing in the world is to be

  95. sick to my stomach. Yeah, I got you. Would you

  96. rather have a free subscription to Netflix or free pizza

  97. supply for the rest of your life? I think both

  98. of these are supposed to be for the rest of

  99. your life, I would assume. So, yeah, that's a no brainer.

  100. That's uh, yeah, you're going to say pizza pizza. It's

  101. a better value, right, it's it's a better value. Yeah,

  102. because how much is Netflix.

  103. I don't really care about Netflix. I don't care.

  104. Oh I see, I see, so it's all about what

  105. you're getting there.

  106. Yeah, I really care a lot about people.

  107. Okay, that's hilarious.

  108. Would you rather always have a mullet haircut or a

  109. ponytail haircut? Ponytail like a biker kind of a ponytail. Yeah,

  110. especially now you're getting a little bit of gray in

  111. your hair. That's kind of cool looking.

  112. Well, I think ponytails are more acceptable than mullets. You

  113. think so, I mean, yeah, mullets are like when you

  114. see somebody of the mullet, you're like, there's a mullet.

  115. Phone, take out your phone and filmed, because a holy cow, that's.

  116. A mull that's an actual mullet, right, But ponytails are like, oh,

  117. he's still wearing.

  118. A pony Did you see that guy at the NFL

  119. Combine with that incredible mullet? No, well it made them,

  120. It made like ESPN the mullet itself, not not his performance.

  121. He had great, great performance, but that was a mullet.

  122. Man talking about it gets people's attention. Are you talking

  123. about the thing that I went to the No? No, no, no,

  124. the NFL combine this week, this last week, oh.

  125. This past week? Oh yeah yeah yeah, wow, No, I

  126. didn't see that.

  127. College kid had this amazing mullet. It does get people's attention. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

  128. I think I did say tail. I was gonna say

  129. mullet really yeah, yeah, yeah. Man, we've been opposite on

  130. all these days. Yeah, well you've been wrong. You know

  131. you're allowed to be wrong, Chris.

  132. Yeah, exactly, that's so funny. Wow.

  133. By the way, would you rather there is no wrong answer, Jeff,

  134. because it's would you rather you right?

  135. Right?

  136. Subjective? You preference preference you?

  137. Okay, all right, so wrong.

  138. By the way, speaking of preferences, I.

  139. Very much prefer the Book of Isaiah over chronicles or

  140. Michael that we've been in and I'm really glad we're back,

  141. okay in the in the Book of Isaiah.

  142. Well, so you remember there's all these prophets, yeah, that

  143. are going on. So Micah is during this time. We

  144. just read about Obed coming and it's correct. It's dead

  145. O dead? Was it O dead?

  146. Yes?

  147. Was it O dead?

  148. Did I read it wrong? You did?

  149. Oh dead? You're right?

  150. By the way, I thought you said Obed twice.

  151. I did.

  152. I thought about saying, Jeff, was yesterday? It was yesterday?

  153. But I thought this perverse satisfaction me being wrong.

  154. No, no, no, in fact, the opposite is true. Didn't

  155. say anything. But now when you said today, I'm like,

  156. I got.

  157. You can't let it go in three times, three strikes,

  158. you're out.

  159. Three strikes, you're out.

  160. That's a strong position we're taking dead. Oh dead, yes, yeah.

  161. But anyways, Micah Odeaed, you've got all these guys that

  162. have clustered together in this this this era, and Isaiah

  163. being you know, God used him to write just a

  164. huge prophetic book of so many things. Isaiah's kind of

  165. the crown jewel of all of these prophets at the time.

  166. So we're going to kind of inter secked through Isaiah

  167. quite a bit, I think, as we continue to tell

  168. the stories of Israel. But it says here in Isaiah

  169. chapter eight, then the Lord said to me, make a

  170. large signboard and clearly.

  171. Write who appointment we're supposed to be in Isaiah seven. Today.

  172. Oh I'm reading the wrong one. Well, man, I wanted

  173. to read Isaiah eight. Okay, okay, well this is for

  174. a has then, yes, this is a message to a

  175. has I totally. I'm super excited about tomorrow. So listen, people,

  176. I don't want to I don't want to get away,

  177. but he's going to use this. He's going to draw

  178. a sign board.

  179. Great job promoting tomorrow.

  180. Yeah, he's going to write a sign board. Okay, it's

  181. going to be tomorrow, but I can't tell you he's

  182. gonna write on it today. So in Isaiah seven, it

  183. says when a Has, son of Jotham and grandson of Issiah,

  184. was King of Judah, king resident of Syria, and peak

  185. the son of Remaliah, the King of Israel, set out

  186. to attack Jerusalem. However, they were unable to carry out

  187. their plan. The news had come to the royal court

  188. of Judah Siria's allied with Israel against us. So the

  189. hearts of the king and people trembled with fear, like

  190. trees shaking in a storm. Then the Lord said, Isaiah,

  191. take your son Sheerjaeshab.

  192. What wow.

  193. I don't think I ever remember that you nailed it,

  194. though I know, but I didn't. I didn't realize is saya?

  195. What were you thinking?

  196. Sheb yep?

  197. Okay, and go out and meet King AHAs you will

  198. find him at the end of the aqueduct that feeds

  199. water into the upper pool, near the road leading to

  200. the field where cloth is washed. Tell him to stop worrying.

  201. Tell him he doesn't need to fear the fierce anger

  202. of those two burned out embers, King Resin of Syria

  203. and Picas, son of Roamalaiah. Yes, the kings of Syria

  204. and Israel plotting against him, saying we will attack Judah

  205. and capture for ourselves, and then we will install the

  206. son of Tabil as Judas king. But this is what

  207. the sovereign Lord says. This invasion will never happen. It

  208. will never take place, for Syria is no stronger than

  209. its capital, Damascus, and Damascus is no stronger than its

  210. king Resin. As for Israel, within sixty five years, it'll

  211. be crushed and completely destroyed. Israel is no stronger than

  212. its capital Samaria, and Samaria is no strong Then it's

  213. King Peka, son of Ramalaiah. Unless your faith is firm

  214. and cannot make you stand firm. Later, the Lord sent

  215. this message to King AHAs. Ask the Lord your God

  216. for a sign of confirmation. A has make it as

  217. difficult as you want, as high as heaven or as

  218. deep as the place of the dead. But the king refused. No,

  219. he said, I will not test the Lord like that.

  220. Then Isaiah said, listen, listen, well, you royal family, David.

  221. Isn't it enough to exhaust human patience, Must you exhaust

  222. the patience of my God as well? All right, then

  223. the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look, the

  224. Virgin will conceive a child. She will give birth to

  225. a son, and will call him Emmanuel, which means God

  226. is with us. By the time this child is old,

  227. not to choose what is right and reject what is wrong,

  228. he'll be eating yogurt and honey. For before the child

  229. is that old, the lands of the two kings you

  230. fear so much will both be deserted. Then the Lord

  231. will bring things on you, your nation and your family,

  232. unlike anything since Israel broke away from Judah. He will

  233. bring the king of Assiri upon you. In that day,

  234. the Lord will whistle for the army of southern Egypt

  235. and for the army of Assyria, and they will swarm

  236. around you like flies and bees. And they will come

  237. in vast hordes and settle in the fertile fields, fertile areas,

  238. and also in the desolate valleys and caves and thorny places.

  239. In that day, the Lord will hire a razor from

  240. beyond the Euphrates River the King of Assyria, and use

  241. it to shave off everything your land, your crops, and

  242. your people. In that day, a farm will be fortunate

  243. to have a cow and two sheep or goats left. Nevertheless,

  244. there will be enough milk for everyone. Because so few

  245. people will be left in the land, they will eat

  246. their fill of yogurt and honey. In that day, the

  247. lush vineyards, now worth one thousand pieces of silver, will

  248. become patches of briars and thorns. The entire land will

  249. become a vast expanse of briars and thorns, and a

  250. hunting ground overrun by wildlife. No one will go to

  251. the fertile hillsides where the gardens once grew, for briars

  252. and thorns will cover them. Cattle, sheep and goats will

  253. graze there. Oo, boy, talk about a production. Yeah, He's

  254. gonna send a razor. Isn't that the descriptions that God gives.

  255. I'm gonna whistle for the army of Southern Egypt, Reggan.

  256. They're going to come in like flies and bees around you,

  257. and then I'm going to send you a razor from

  258. a series just gonna shave your land, take everything from you.

  259. That's pretty pretty tough.

  260. Yeah, it is.

  261. I was reading the footnote where it said the virgin

  262. will conceive a child and he will give birth to

  263. a son.

  264. He would be the name of Emmanuel, which is God

  265. with us.

  266. So this footnote that says the virgin is translated from

  267. a Hebrew word used for an unmarried woman who is

  268. old enough to be married, one who is sexually mature

  269. see Genesis twenty four, Actus chapter twobs or Psalm sixty eight,

  270. Proverbs thirty song Solomon chapter one. Some have compared this

  271. young woman to Isaiah's young wife and newborn son in

  272. Isaiah chapter eight. This is not likely because she had

  273. already had a child, sheer Jasob, and her second child

  274. was not named Emmanuel. Some believe that Isaiah's first wife

  275. may have died and that so this is his second wife,

  276. who's more likely. That the prophecy had a double fulfillment,

  277. And then it just goes on to talk about that

  278. a young woman from the house of AHAs who was

  279. not married would marry and have a son before three

  280. years passed, one year for pregnancy and two years for

  281. the child. Old enough to talk, the two invading kings

  282. would be destroyed. And then number two Matthew one twenty

  283. three quotes Isaiah seven fourteen to show further fulfillment of

  284. this prophecy, and a virgin named Mary conceived in bor

  285. son Emmanuel, which is the Christ.

  286. So this happens sometimes. It happens in Isaiah, happens in

  287. a couple of the other prophetic books, Daniel, it happens

  288. in Revelation. Where there are two meanings to a prophecy.

  289. Is the early prophecy, right, the direct thing that's being

  290. talked about. Then there's also this secondary prophecy about the

  291. end times or about the Messiah or something. So there's two.

  292. So in this one when it talks about the virgin,

  293. first off is talking about a young woman that is

  294. not yet married. And what he's trying to say is

  295. this is a three year window. She's not yet married,

  296. she's gonna get probably get married, but certainly get pregnant.

  297. She's gonna have a baby, so she currently is a virgin.

  298. Then she's gonna have a baby that's gonna take about

  299. almost a year, and then that baby is going to

  300. be able to communicate and sit up and eat yogurt

  301. and all those kinds of things. It's about a three

  302. year window. That's what Isaiah is trying to say. Within

  303. three years, God's gonna whistle for Egypt to come up

  304. and wipe you out. God's gonna bring the razor of

  305. a Syria in a shavir land. You are going to

  306. be overwhelmed within the next three years, which we know

  307. happens in Ah has his life. So that virgin is

  308. not talking about a virgin birth. It's talking about a

  309. young woman who's currently a virgin, will get pregnant, have

  310. a baby, that baby will be able to communicate. That's

  311. probably two years or so and those so you got

  312. about a three year window. But then also it's quoted

  313. later as in Matthew chapter one, also saying that this

  314. was a prophetic thing that eventually there'd be a virgin

  315. birth in it with the Messiah as well. And that's

  316. the name Emmanuel, which means God with us.

  317. Right, which is cool.

  318. Yeah, it's really neat.

  319. Yeah.

  320. So sometimes it's confusing when you read a story like

  321. that and you realize there's two meanings to the same passage,

  322. But the Bible does that fairly regularly. The Hebrew language

  323. lends itself to having multiple meanings to the same statement.

  324. It's why there were so many rabbis. It's why there's

  325. more written about the writings of God by the rabbis

  326. than there are the writings of God. Right is they

  327. all have There's so many ways to play with the

  328. meanings of words in Hebrew. It's it's it's confusing to

  329. us who speak English because our words are a little

  330. bit simpler, like we say love and we meet for

  331. all kinds of stuff, whereas like in those those Middle

  332. Eastern languages, they have lots of words. Greek has what

  333. six language, six words, seven words for love. There's there's

  334. all these these things for the Israelites. Their Hebrew words,

  335. the beginning and the ending of a word kind of

  336. gives a hint as to what it means. Right names

  337. have very specific prophetic meanings all these things. So think

  338. about it this way. In David's writings, David says, those

  339. that love God with all their heart, he will give

  340. them the desires of their heart. And rabbis understand it

  341. to mean two things. You love out of all your heart,

  342. and He will give you what you want. And you

  343. love God with all your heart, and he'll give you

  344. the right wants, right right, So he gives you the want,

  345. he gives you the desire of your heart, and then

  346. he gives you that desire. So he gave you the desire,

  347. and then he gives you what you desire. Right right,

  348. is what that means. That happens a lot in the Bible,

  349. that there's two meanings to the same statement. And it

  350. would then translate well for us to understand. This sometimes

  351. happens with prophecies as well. So he's prophesying in the

  352. future Jesus, and at the same time, you've got about

  353. three years and you can get wiped out. Right, it's

  354. pretty neat. It's a neat thing. It's hard for English

  355. speakers to understand, but it's it's a pretty amazing, amazing thing.

  356. And then boy talking about total destruction.

  357. So yeah, yeah, that's that's great.

  358. And and so once again a has is uh uh hello, Chris, Yeah, sorry,

  359. I was actually I was actually I actually got confused.

  360. Remember how you were talking about chapter eight tomorrow. Yes,

  361. I started to talk about chapter eight. Oh, you were

  362. jumping like I was like, wait a minute, that's not

  363. that's not this week. So so I was gonna have

  364. to say. Is so a has once again gets this

  365. uh word from the Lord, and I wonder why he

  366. actually said I.

  367. Will not test God like that. Yeah, isn't that interesting?

  368. Like I wonder if he's saying like, I'm not gonna

  369. I'm not even gonna play in your God games, or

  370. or I wonder if he was actually saying like, I'm

  371. not even touching that with a ten foot poll because

  372. I don't.

  373. Want to think about God. I don't want to.

  374. I don't want to get near God because I know

  375. it's going to be bad for me because I recognize

  376. that I've not been good. Like is there is there

  377. an acknowledgement you think of his wicked ways.

  378. I think God God has given him an opportunity needed

  379. to prove, to prove that God exists. I think God

  380. God doesn't want because yesterday, you know, God says, well,

  381. at the very beginning of this of this chapter, God says, listen,

  382. I'm not going to let them wipe you out right

  383. now right, I'm going to protect you. Don't worry about it.

  384. It's a weak kingdom, right, Damascus can't win because King

  385. Resin is so weak, right, and Israel can't win because

  386. Pica is so weak, right, They're they're only as strong

  387. as the Kings, and the kings are weak. Don't worry

  388. about it. I'm going to protect you. And then he says,

  389. I think God is trying to develop a relationship with

  390. a Has. That's what I think is happening. This is

  391. almost like a Solomon moment. You tell me what you

  392. want and I'll give it to you. And I'm wondering

  393. if that's not what's happening here. Just on the surface,

  394. as I read, there might be some theological thing happening

  395. here that I don't understand, But on the surface, it

  396. seems like God's saying, what do I need to do

  397. to prove to you that I'm real? What do I

  398. need to prove to do to prove to you that

  399. you do not have to worship the gods of Bail

  400. and all these other Canaanite gods we have to prove

  401. And I think a Has is just so hardhearted that

  402. he couldn't give a rip about the God of the

  403. universe or the God of Israel. He's already sacrificed his

  404. sons to Bail, right, so he's pretty in. He's pretty

  405. committed to this bail worship thing, and he doesn't want

  406. to play God's games, so he's not I'm not going

  407. to test the Lord like that. I'm not interested. I

  408. think it's like I don't want God to prove himself

  409. to me. I don't care. And that's when God goes

  410. all right, I'm going to shave you. I'm going to

  411. shave you, bald. I'm going to shame you like you've

  412. never been shamed. I'm going to overwhelm you with flies

  413. and locusts, you know, out of Egypt, talking about Egypt

  414. coming in and swarming them. It's just he literally kind

  415. of resurrects the plagues of Egypt and shaves him bald,

  416. and being shaved bald was a shame, right, that's what

  417. you do to a slave kind of thing. And it

  418. seems like it really just it was your it was

  419. your last chance. A has okay, three years from now

  420. it's done.

  421. Yeah, well, i'll tell you what it's It's not just

  422. like you said a couple of times ago. Would you

  423. say there's a lot of bad news. Yeah, there's a

  424. lot of bad news coming for as.

  425. It's gonna be rough. He's got a rough ride ahead

  426. of him. I also think the reason why it's three

  427. years is because it takes a long time in those

  428. days to assemble an army, build the supply lines all

  429. the way from Egypt to Jerusalem, all the way from

  430. Damascus down to Jerusalem. Right, it takes a long time

  431. to move hundreds of thousands of soldiers. It's not like

  432. we just put them on jets and fly them over there.

  433. But you think about it. Even in some of the

  434. wars that we've seen in our lifetime, it takes months. Hey,

  435. we're going to invade your country. And then it still

  436. took us three, four, five, six months to move all

  437. the equipment in place. And we've got jets, and they've

  438. got a walk, right, and so they've got to assemble

  439. the armies. And so I think it wasn't a done deal.

  440. God wasn't saying this will happen. God's saying, because you

  441. chose not to play right, I gave you an opportunity

  442. to find out if I'm real. Because you didn't, it's

  443. going to take three years to put it together. This

  444. was not already in the making. This is a result

  445. of the fact that he rejected his opportunity. That's why

  446. I think this was a legitimate opportunity for him to

  447. find out God was real now, because it's going to

  448. take a long time to assemble those two armies and

  449. send them down to wipe them out.

  450. Well, that's great, yeah, okay, that is our time together,

  451. so we will hopefully see you tomorrow on the Bible

  452. Gush