Post by tlsitd on Jul 29, 2018 7:14:06 GMT -5
"Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are signs and portents (or 'wonders') from the LORD of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion. (18)
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? (19)
To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn (or 'because there is no light in them'). (20)
(Isaiah 8:18-20)
Some observations about this Scripture, which is relevant to us today, in this last hour:
First, we know from Hebrews 2:13 that Isaiah 8:18 is a reference to Jesus Christ, and the children God the Father gave Him (His sheep). These saints are signs and portents among God's people in a time of apostasy, when God is hiding His face from most of them because of their rebellion (Isaiah 8:17).
The people from whom God is not hiding His face are the ones who are holding to His word (Isaiah 8:16). These saints know Him; and because of their apostasy, the majority of the people of God do not know their God, because they have departed from His word and are instead listening to everyone and everything but His word and His messengers, including mediums and necromancers. (If this Scripture were written today, we might substitute the mediums and necromancers for psychologists, new age gurus, and various "Christian" preachers of humanism and new age philosophy cloaked in Christian language.)
As in Isaiah's day, we are living in a time in which the majority of God's people do not put up with sound doctrine (2 Timothy 4:3,4) and do not want to hear the law of their God. They would rather listen to secular "wisdom" and adopt the teachings and practices of other religions (including Judaism). They gather to themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and turn their ears away from New Testament doctrine.
This was the condition of the majority of the people of God in Isaiah's time also:
"...They are a rebellious people,
lying children,
children unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD;
who say to the seers, "Do not see,"
and to the prophets, "Do not prophesy to us what is right;
speak to us smooth things,
prophesy illusions,
leave the way, turn aside from the path,
let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel."
(Isaiah 30:9-11)
Christians today, in majority, do not want to hear about their God. They want to hear about themselves and how great they are, and God is only a means for getting what they want and feeling good about themselves. They avoid or twist the Scripture that doesn't serve their own purposes and support what they want to believe. They avoid anything that convicts them of their sin, and they seek to achieve a righteousness of their own by adopting practices of other religions that have nothing to do with Christianity, which come from demons, and which are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the sinful nature (Colossians 2:20-23)---something that can only be achieved by God's grace, working from the inside out, as we obey His word. (And this is something the majority of Christians are not doing as they ought to be, and do not want to do. So they want to find another way of achieving holiness and righteousness.)
The reason why these disciples of the LORD (the saints who are holding to His word, and have not gone the route of the majority) are portents and signs in Israel is because Israel is so estranged from her own God that the words and ways of these faithful ones seem strange and repugnant to them, just like the word of God itself has become to them.
As Paul wrote to the church in Philippi, Christians who are holding fast to the word of life---the gospel and teachings of Jesus Christ---shine like lights in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation (Philippians 2:12-16). The light with which they shine is the light of God's truth and righteousness---not only in the midst of a world that does not know God but also in the midst of the people of God who have become estranged from Him through apostasy.
Among these children called "signs and portents" are seers and prophets (Isaiah 30:10), who, like Isaiah, are warning the people to return to their God and that His judgment is coming upon them. We know from the Prophets that the majority of the people rejected these signs which God put among them to turn them back to Him, and ultimately the judgment of His wrath came upon them. These obedient children were pointing the wayward people of God back to God's teaching and testimony---His word (Isaiah 8:20); but as Isaiah 30 says, this is not what the people wanted to hear. They preferred to inquire of the dead than of their God, because they didn't want to obey their God.
That's the prevailing attitude among God's people today also. They seek the "wisdom" of the spiritually dead and reject the wisdom of God---putting sweet for bitter and bitter for sweet, darkness for light and light for darkness, because of their evil hearts (2 Timothy 3:2-5). The spiritually dead speak according to the desires of the sinful nature and the doctrines of demons. Christians who love God (and only those who keep His word do love Him) reject such things; but Christians who do not love God are enticed and deceived by spirits of error, and even perceive the wisdom and truth of the Holy Spirit as error, because they are accustomed to lies (and also do not read the Bible much).
Jesus said twice in the gospel of Matthew (Matthew 12:39 and 16:1-4) that a wicked and adulterous generation is the one that seeks for a miraculous sign, the implication being that those who have been obedient to God all along would know who and what was of Him and what time it was and wouldn't need a miracle to show them these things---as the apostate people in Elijah's time needed a miracle to show them that the LORD was God and not Baal (whom they had been following), and to turn their hearts back to Him.
The signs that God had given His apostate people in the time of Isaiah were His obedient children, His disciples, who were keeping His word---lights of His truth and righteousness who served as beacons of God to point their apostate brothers back to Him by word and example---light which the majority rejected in favor of artificial light (darkness).
And so today also, God's obedient saints are signs, as representatives of Him in the midst of the apostasy, and the signs of the times are in the very midst of the wicked and adulterous generation that seeks them, just as they were in the time of the ministries of Jesus and John the Baptist (both of whom the majority of God's own people rejected). Their own apostasy is the sign (2 Thessalonians 2:3; 2 Timothy 3:1-5; Matthew 24:12) and their prophets (as wells as the saints who know the times) the portents (Acts 2:17,18), but the majority recognize neither.
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? (19)
To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn (or 'because there is no light in them'). (20)
(Isaiah 8:18-20)
Some observations about this Scripture, which is relevant to us today, in this last hour:
First, we know from Hebrews 2:13 that Isaiah 8:18 is a reference to Jesus Christ, and the children God the Father gave Him (His sheep). These saints are signs and portents among God's people in a time of apostasy, when God is hiding His face from most of them because of their rebellion (Isaiah 8:17).
The people from whom God is not hiding His face are the ones who are holding to His word (Isaiah 8:16). These saints know Him; and because of their apostasy, the majority of the people of God do not know their God, because they have departed from His word and are instead listening to everyone and everything but His word and His messengers, including mediums and necromancers. (If this Scripture were written today, we might substitute the mediums and necromancers for psychologists, new age gurus, and various "Christian" preachers of humanism and new age philosophy cloaked in Christian language.)
As in Isaiah's day, we are living in a time in which the majority of God's people do not put up with sound doctrine (2 Timothy 4:3,4) and do not want to hear the law of their God. They would rather listen to secular "wisdom" and adopt the teachings and practices of other religions (including Judaism). They gather to themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and turn their ears away from New Testament doctrine.
This was the condition of the majority of the people of God in Isaiah's time also:
"...They are a rebellious people,
lying children,
children unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD;
who say to the seers, "Do not see,"
and to the prophets, "Do not prophesy to us what is right;
speak to us smooth things,
prophesy illusions,
leave the way, turn aside from the path,
let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel."
(Isaiah 30:9-11)
Christians today, in majority, do not want to hear about their God. They want to hear about themselves and how great they are, and God is only a means for getting what they want and feeling good about themselves. They avoid or twist the Scripture that doesn't serve their own purposes and support what they want to believe. They avoid anything that convicts them of their sin, and they seek to achieve a righteousness of their own by adopting practices of other religions that have nothing to do with Christianity, which come from demons, and which are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the sinful nature (Colossians 2:20-23)---something that can only be achieved by God's grace, working from the inside out, as we obey His word. (And this is something the majority of Christians are not doing as they ought to be, and do not want to do. So they want to find another way of achieving holiness and righteousness.)
The reason why these disciples of the LORD (the saints who are holding to His word, and have not gone the route of the majority) are portents and signs in Israel is because Israel is so estranged from her own God that the words and ways of these faithful ones seem strange and repugnant to them, just like the word of God itself has become to them.
As Paul wrote to the church in Philippi, Christians who are holding fast to the word of life---the gospel and teachings of Jesus Christ---shine like lights in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation (Philippians 2:12-16). The light with which they shine is the light of God's truth and righteousness---not only in the midst of a world that does not know God but also in the midst of the people of God who have become estranged from Him through apostasy.
Among these children called "signs and portents" are seers and prophets (Isaiah 30:10), who, like Isaiah, are warning the people to return to their God and that His judgment is coming upon them. We know from the Prophets that the majority of the people rejected these signs which God put among them to turn them back to Him, and ultimately the judgment of His wrath came upon them. These obedient children were pointing the wayward people of God back to God's teaching and testimony---His word (Isaiah 8:20); but as Isaiah 30 says, this is not what the people wanted to hear. They preferred to inquire of the dead than of their God, because they didn't want to obey their God.
That's the prevailing attitude among God's people today also. They seek the "wisdom" of the spiritually dead and reject the wisdom of God---putting sweet for bitter and bitter for sweet, darkness for light and light for darkness, because of their evil hearts (2 Timothy 3:2-5). The spiritually dead speak according to the desires of the sinful nature and the doctrines of demons. Christians who love God (and only those who keep His word do love Him) reject such things; but Christians who do not love God are enticed and deceived by spirits of error, and even perceive the wisdom and truth of the Holy Spirit as error, because they are accustomed to lies (and also do not read the Bible much).
Jesus said twice in the gospel of Matthew (Matthew 12:39 and 16:1-4) that a wicked and adulterous generation is the one that seeks for a miraculous sign, the implication being that those who have been obedient to God all along would know who and what was of Him and what time it was and wouldn't need a miracle to show them these things---as the apostate people in Elijah's time needed a miracle to show them that the LORD was God and not Baal (whom they had been following), and to turn their hearts back to Him.
The signs that God had given His apostate people in the time of Isaiah were His obedient children, His disciples, who were keeping His word---lights of His truth and righteousness who served as beacons of God to point their apostate brothers back to Him by word and example---light which the majority rejected in favor of artificial light (darkness).
And so today also, God's obedient saints are signs, as representatives of Him in the midst of the apostasy, and the signs of the times are in the very midst of the wicked and adulterous generation that seeks them, just as they were in the time of the ministries of Jesus and John the Baptist (both of whom the majority of God's own people rejected). Their own apostasy is the sign (2 Thessalonians 2:3; 2 Timothy 3:1-5; Matthew 24:12) and their prophets (as wells as the saints who know the times) the portents (Acts 2:17,18), but the majority recognize neither.