Isaiah Chapter 21 "The Burden of the Desert of the Sea [Babylon] (1-10)." "The Burden of Arabia (11-17)." This Bible Study is written by Roger Christopherson, and it's transcription/ location is provided by http://www.theseason.org Again we have the same story continued for the fault of Babylon, Dumah, and Arabia is the same as it was with Assyria, Egypt and the Ethiopians. Their problem is that they all leaned on the false wisdom of wizards and peepers, and their charmers and idols rather then God. So here we go with the fifth burden. Isaiah 21:1 The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass through; so it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land." We are talking about the river Euphrates here, and the nation by that body of water is Babylon. This is in reference to the fall of Babylon. The "whirlwinds" stated here passes directly off the Arabian desert, and flow over the land and the waters. . Isaiah 21:2 "A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease." "Elam" in the Hebrew means eternity. In other words, there was an end that came to Babylon, and in the Babylon of our generation from Revelation, there will also be an end which will come upon end time Babylon. Babylon means "confusion", and this has a direct bearing on the book of Revelation concerning the end times. In ancient times it was the Medes and the Persians that caused old Babylon to fall. Isaiah 21:3 "Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it." Speaking of the old Babylon, it would be hard to believe your eyes at the beauty of the hanging gardens of Babylon, and the majestic palaces of Nebuchadnezzar. They had Nebo, their god of knowledge, with all it's palaces of learning, and religious forms. Old Babylon was the center of high tech for that day, and anybody of high council walked the streets of Babylon. It was thought that if any empire was going to last, Babylon had to be the one to stand. However, just as the handwriting on the wall stated, The empire fell in one night. Remember that even the Soviet Empire, that controlled half the face of the earth, with the military might to end all life on earth many times over, was brought down in just a couple of days. The Russian people were left in bankruptcy and as little more then common beggars. Her leaders came to the conference table of the nations of the free world with their begging bags, and we filled them. Remember when there is a statement, "as the pangs of a woman that travaileth", keep it in a prophetic sense. It means also the birth pangs of a new age. That new mystery Babylon is coming and it also shall fall in one day. Isaiah 21:4 "My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me." Think of Daniel 5 here, when the king of Babylon sought nothing but pleasure and good times. King Belshazzar broke out the very vessels from the Temple of God that were to be used in the services of God and started to have his drunk fest. Then as the party wore on, and the king and his friends became drunk, God sent Belshazzar a message right then and there. Daniel 5:24 "Then was the part of the hand sent from Him; and this writing was written." Daniel 5:25 "And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN." Daniel 5:26 "This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. Daniel 5:27 "TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting." Daniel 5:28 "PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians." Belshazzar became so frightened at the matter that he wet his pants, and before the night was over, Belshazzar was dead and the kingdom fell into the hands of Cyrus of Persia, and the Babylonian kingdom was split between the Persians and the Medes. Isaiah 21:5 "Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield." The shied of our day is suppose to be your faith. What this has reference to is that the Medes are coming. You had better be getting ready for the battle that is coming, eat and drink while you can, for when the battle starts there will not be time. They were to get that watchman set out there in the watchtower, to be looking for the signs of the coming of the enemy. Isaiah 21:6 "For thus hath the Lord said unto me, "Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth." You set the watchman up to prepare for the coming of the enemy, not after he has already come. The watchman knows what he is to be watching out for, and who the enemy is. This watchman is going to have quite a sight before it is all over. This verse is going to be hard to pick up, unless you are familiar with the history of these times. This story is given in the books of I and II Kings in more depth. Isaiah 21:7 "And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he harkened diligently with much heed:" This "chariot" is symbolic of both the Medes and the Persians. This watchman saw masses of troops coming over the hills. Though these armies fought from horses, they carried their weapons on the asses and provisions of commerce for the long stays on their camels, and they brought it all into battle with them. They came to fight for a long time, and stay after the battle. Isaiah 21:8 "And he cried, "A lion: My Lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights:" This sounds quite silly the way it is written, because man has quite a way of messing this verse up, and causing confusion. What it is saying in the manuscripts is that "he roared as a lion". In other words, this watchman cried out as loud as a lion, when he saw the Medes and the Persians coming. I saw them coming but I don't see them coming anymore. Why? did they disappear from view? This is the time that Sargon went to war and took the ten tribes of Israel, the house of Israel, and removed them from the Samaria. The Medes took some time out for the war with Babylon, to fight a few battles on his way to Babylon. This is the time when our ancestors were removed from their lands and went through the Caucasus mountains to start their migrations to their final settling places. These people of the House of Israel were divided into many different group, and became know by many names, only the event of the passage through the Caucasus mountains stuck with them, and they became know as "Caucasians" to this day. Is there a reason why the Caucasians were given special handling in the early migrations of our land? This event and the reason for the naming of "Caucasian" has become hidden by fairy tale so that most people today think it means "white race" instead of the identification of a member of the old House of Israel. Our nation is blessed and protected by God for a reason. It is not an accident, for the blessings of Abraham that were passed on through Isaac, Jacob [whose name was changed to Israel], and was given to the two sons of Jacob; Ephraim and Manasseh. Ephraim was to have the scepter of Judah rule over it continually, which is the British with it's Royal family. And the United States, which would be a powerful nation that would bless the entire world and give balance to the nations of the world. There will be a time in the very near future when the next king of Assyria will show up on the scene, and that Assyrian will be Satan coming in the role of the Antichrist, which is the "instead of Christ". This watchmen then is getting tired of staying out here and watching day after day, night after night, and not seeing anything coming. He sounded the warning once, when he saw them coming, but Medes army didn't come. This watchman is growing impatient with the boring task. Are you becoming impatient watching for the signs of the end times that will let us know the time of the coming of the "instead of Christ", who is Satan? Isaiah 21:9 "And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen." And he answered and said, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground." Again this "couple of horsemen" is in reference to two different armies, of the Medes and the Persians. When Babylon had fallen, so went all of her graven images, her heathen gods, and the structure of her entire empire. Just as ancient Babylon had fallen at the appointed time, the very night that the handwriting was written on the wall, so also will the fall of Mystery Babylon of the Book of Revelation fall at God's appointed time. What happened in the days of Daniel is only a type of what shall happen again very shortly. Remember that the Persian that took over Babylon only worshipped one God, and at the Fall of Mystery Babylon, the new Millennium kingdom that is set up by Jesus Christ will also worship one God, the True God. Here God is reminding the Babylonians that He had given them the warning, through his prophets. We know that that warning had come through the letters from Jeremiah as well as Isaiah and others, and Daniel who sat second in charge for many years knew exactly what would happen, thus when the hand writing was written on the wall, it was no surprise to him. Daniel was informed of the writings of the prophets of God, and He believed what they had written down. This is why he refused to accept any money or wealth from king Belshazzar, for he knew that the Babylon kingdom was over and a new kingdom would now take over. . Daniel 5:17 "Then Daniel answered and said before the king, "Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation." Isaiah 21:10 "O my thrashing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you." "O my thrashing, and the corn of my floor", should be read, "the thrashing of My sons on the corn floor". When the thrashers are done thrashing, the sons are put into service. The sons are made ready to manage the thrashing floor, but the thrashing floor here is still an idiom, it is a saving place for God Almighty Himself. It is the place where God sifts the wheat to separate the chaff, from the kernels of grain. It is where He gathers every last kernel of corn for His kingdom. It is written that not one grain that knows the true Father will fall through that sifting. Amos 9:9 "For, Lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth." God know where every last person that knows the True Father is, including those that are grafted in, in this period of grace, and no one of them will be lost to Him. They will be gathered by Him when our Lord Jesus Christ comes. Those even of Edom, which is Russia, that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and have repented of their sins will be gathered back to Christ at His coming. Jesus Christ is the sifter of His own. He is the only door that man can enter through to find salvation. Isaiah 21:11 "The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?" "Dumah" is "Edom", and is the abbreviated form of the fuller name "Idumea", as spoke of in Ezekiel 35:15, and Mark 3:8. Edom means "red" in the Hebrew tongue and is a form of the name "Esau". The "Dumah", or Idumeans are also called the Edomites, and they are the offspring of Esau [the twin brother of Jacob] in the book of Genesis. These people are the Russian people of today. To get a better understand of this, lets go to Genesis 25:23. Genesis 25:23 "And the Lord said unto her [Rebekah, Isaacs wife], "Two nations are in they womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger then the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.' " Genesis 25:24 "And when her days were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb," Genesis 25:25 "And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau." Genesis 25:26 "And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob; and Isaac was three score years old when she bare them." Genesis 25:27 "And the boys grew, and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents." So how did the name "Edom" get attached to "Esau"? This came about when Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a red bowl of pottage. Genesis 25:30; "And Esau said to Jacob, "Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage, for I am faint:" therefore was his [Esau's] name called Edom." The "burden of Dumah" of Isaiah 21:13 is the "burden of the Idumeans" which are the offspring of Esau. "He called to me out of Seir," and "Seir" means "hairy" in the Hebrew tongue. It is one of the names of Esau, as we saw in Genesis 25:25. Edom is inquiring over and over, "how far is it into the night? A watchman is a prophet here, and he is going to give the answer. Isaiah 21:12 "The watchman said, "The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come." This phrase, "the morning cometh" in the text is also "Dumah", and may also be an "oracle of silence", or stating that there will be a long time where silence will come. At the time of Isaiah's writing, Edom, or the offspring of Esau were just south of the area of Babylon, and east of the Jordan river. This watchman has just been awakened, and he can't sleep, so he asks the prophet of God, what time is it, "how long is it into the night"? The Prophet replied to this watchman of Edom, " it doesn't matter what time it is." "As soon as it breaks day, it comes night again," which means that after the Babylonians, would come the Medes, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans; in other words as far as the tax that was put upon them, it doesn't matter whether it was day or night or what the year, there would always be a steady form of oppression that would be upon the people of Edom. Through history this has been very true. These were types of what is coming to pass, and we can even see it coming to pass today in the "new world order", that these prophetic utterances are happening exactly as His prophets wrote. These things are written to show us that His Word is true and can be counted on. The lesson to us is, to be silent before God, repent and follow the advice that is given in His Word. Wait upon the Lord, and do not be like the one that roared like the lion and then became impatient with the appointed times of the Lord. Isaiah 21:13 "The burden upon Arabia. In the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye travelling companies of Dedanim." These Arabs, and the peoples of Dedan were also the children of Abraham, for Dedan was from Abraham's wife Keturah, who he married after the death of Sarah. Dedan was the grandson of Abraham. Genesis 25:1 "And again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah." Genesis 25:2 "And she bare him Amran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah." Genesis 25:3 "And Joshshan begat Sheba, and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, and Letshim, and Leummim." Isaiah 21:14 "The inhabitants of the land of Tema brought water to him that was thirsty, they prevented with their bread him that fled." The word used here, "prevented", in the Hebrew is "qadam", # 6923 in the Strong's Hebrew dictionary, "it is a prime root, to project ones self, or proceed to anticipate, to hasten to meet,come, (go) before." This is not preventing anything, but running to help one in need. This means that even his good brother ran to meet him and tried to help him but could not. Even when these two brothers came to help each other, they will come to the same sad ending. The message that God is giving us through these efforts of these Arab brethren is that you can't depend on the brother, so go to the heavenly Father, and then give your love to the brother. Isaiah 21:15 "For they fled from the swords, from the dawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war." These Arab brothers just could not stand up to their enemies that came upon them under the Assyrians and the Greeks. This is also a prophecy to the end times, when again they will not be able to stand against the war with the Antichrist. The Assyrian king will not be Sargon in the time of the end times, but will be Satan, who comes as the "instead of Christ", the Antichrist. Satan himself will come armed with his supernatural powers and many fallen angels, and this warfare that takes place very shortly will be a spiritual battle. This battle takes place in your mind, and it is fought not with physical weapons of modern warfare, but with words and ideas that sound like they come right out of the Bible, only they are twisted to be a lie. Satan is coming looking like the "Sun of the morning", but he is a fake. What you think Jesus will be like, and look like, and do, that is how this counterfeit will be. That is why the whole world will be taken by him, and sad to say, even most Christians. Just like we read earlier, the time to prepare for the watch, and to know what to watch for as a watchman, is before the enemy comes. That is why you put the armor on and in place and stand ready for the battle. It is what you put in your mind that is the seal of God, for His seal is His Word, and the understand of what will take place. Then when Satan comes you will not be deceived, for God will not allow it. Revelation 9:4 "And it was command them [Satan and his locust army of fallen angels] that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads." When the Antichrist comes he will not be out to harm any part of the earth, in fact he will present himself as the True Christ, when in fact he is a fake. He will be a true environmentalist, out to protect the birds, the insects, the trees, and any other forms that have life. However, the only thing that Satan is interested in is souls, and that means your soul. Whether you fall for the lying wonders and deceit that he gives, is a matter of what you have stored ahead of time within your mind, for the instant that he arrives you will either know who he is or you will not. You will know the enemy and be able to sound the warning, or you will be in a slumber and taken by his deceptions. That is what the warnings of this chapter in Isaiah is all about. Isaiah 21:16 "For this hath the Lord said unto me, "Within a year, according to the years of an hireling, and all the glory of Kedar shall fail:" Here comes another prophecy from Isaiah. In the Hebrew "Kadar" means dark, or dark skinned. Is has also to do with Arabia. Kadar was also a grandson of Abraham, only His father was Ishmael, the son of Hagar the Egyptian woman. Genesis 25:13 "And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names according to their generations: The firstborn of Ishmael, Nabajoth; and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam," This goes on to name the twelve sons of Ishmael, the brother of Isaac. Remember Arabia is the subject, and this applies to the middle east to this day. Many people want to serve the one true God, and this is especially true in the Islamic faith. Even within that faith there has been divisions that have taken place. Mystery Babylon of the end times is going to fall upon the entire world, and even Islam will be deceived by Satan the great deceiver. With in this verse is the prophecy that Kedar, those offspring of Ishmael of the Arabic people will be taken in, and believe that Satan is the one true God, just as those Christians that do not have the seal of God in their foreheads; or any person on the face of the earth, except God's elect. The one good thing that we can get from this, is that one brother will risk all to help his brother, even in the time of fleeing, when there seems to be no hope. He tried to intercede with bread, or truth spiritually speaking, to try to help save that brother. We see that true love is still present, however, the fall will come because the Lord hath spoken it. Isaiah 21:17 "And the residue of the number of archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished: for the Lord God of Israel hath spoken it." God is telling us through the prophet Isaiah that there will be very few of the children of Kedar, the Arabic people that will make it. That will have the seal of God in their forehead, and not be deceived and taken by the Antichrist. This shall happen because, "the Lord God of Israel hath spoken it." Because it is written in His Holy Word, and every word prophesied shall come to pass. The brothers are crying out, and the only ones that they will go to is their own brothers, however their own brothers refuse to accept the warnings from the prophets of the God of Israel. They have closed their minds to the truth of the Gospel of the Jesus Christ, an Israelite of Judah, and instead they have gone to their own brother for instruction. Do you see why so very few will make it? It is the basis of the very conflict that is stirring the nations of the world today, and making the middle east a powder keg of trouble. The lesson here is that only God can help you, and when you run to any brother, Arab, Jews believer, Christian, Russian or whomever your brother is, you will fail in the end. Only God can provide the protection for our day and our generation. The final generation started when the Jews went back to establish a nation in their ancient homeland, and that was nearly fifty years ago. Don't you think it is time to stop roaring like a lion, and get down to the preparation of putting your armor on for the final battle? In that day none of your brothers will be able to help you to stand against Satan the Antichrist, for it will only be the protection that you have placed in your mind. You will either know it, or you will not. Many times people expect a church system, or a pastor or priest to help. They forget to go to the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ. God knows the intent of your mind even before you say the words, and He is the only one that can go to spiritual battle with you. God created the whole world and the universe, and He is powerful enough to do something about it when His children are in trouble. He is closer then a brother, for He can understand you, when a brother can not. When others say, "I will pray for you", He is the one that they are praying to. He is the only one that you can lean on. The point is that the most of the peoples and nations in this type presented here for the end time generation, is that you lean upon God and trust Him, and grow familiar with His Word for your knowledge, direction, for your purpose and your deliverance.
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