Isaiah Chapter 31 "Apostates [Those that fall away]; Yehovah's Righteous King." This Bible Study is written by Roger Christopherson, and it's transcription/ location is provided by http://www.theseason.org Though this chapter considers the forth woe, it discusses the apostates of Isaiah 30. The apostates are those that turn themselves over to the false messiah. We are going to find out exactly what God thinks about them, and this is a type of how the children of Israel will lean on God, rather then leaning on Egypt. Egypt here is a type of Satan one world system and the Pharaoh is a type of Satan, who is the Antichrist. The lesson that we have here is that God does not want you to go to the world system, or the false Christ for your help, and worship him. This is directed to the time of the end, and to our generation. It is a continuation of the six woes that started with Isaiah 28, and correspond with the woes and seals of the book of Revelation in the New Testament. So this is directed to those apostates of our generation. Isaiah 31:1 "Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; But they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord! "Horses" in bible prophecy represents "governmental powers", or agencies, and this warning is to those that place their trust in that earthly governmental system. Remember that when this woe takes place Satan will be the head of that one world religious system. These apostates go down to Egypt, that one world system, both geographically and morally. When you turn away from God to some system, and trust in man's governments and promises for your protection, God doesn't like it. This of course is using common sense in all things. If you give up God and your faith and salvation in Jesus Christ to chase after one of man's religious and governmental systems for your protection, this applies to you, friend. You will have reached a point of degradation both morally and spiritually speaking. However as long as you try to please God, He will help you in your understanding. Isaiah 31:2 "Yet he also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back His words: but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of them that work iniquity. God is going to see personally that any mortal force that is against Him fails. This is not saying that a nation should not have allies of their own kind, that also believe in our Heavenly Father. However, the focus of your forces and might had better be on the prayer for success of the military forces, rather then on the trust of the military alone. God still controls the way that the battle will go. He controls the weather, the seas, the elements and the minds of the enemies. God can cause confusion in the enemies minds, or allow them to have a successful battle plan. Isaiah 31:3 "Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the Lord shall stretch out His hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they all shall fail together." God is telling you that the Egyptians, or governments of this earth are made of mortal men, and they are not God, and those men that run those governmental systems are flesh and blood just like you. The make mistakes, and make decisions that are flawed. They are not spirit, that can look into another persons mind. It doesn't matter how strong you think your forces and government system is, when God moves against that force it shall fall. Not only will that system fall, but every thing and person that is attached to it. God can remove not only the one relying on the help, but the "holpen" the one that is giving the help; from top to bottom. Think about this, and apply it to the one world religious system that will be led by the Antichrist. When you consider what God has just said, how could you rely on any part of Satan's system, or trust in any part of his realm? This does not pertain to those things like insurance, social security, which are based on your money paid in; but with those support systems that give us a false sense of security. We learn to still depend on our heavenly Father. It is He that provides for our well being, regardless of the source. We pray to the Father, and all blessings flow from Him. Isaiah 31:4 "For thus hath the Lord spoken unto me, "Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof." This is using agriculture terms to express the protection that God will give His own children, when they call on Him for help. If a young lion comes into the flock of sheep, and once that lion has grasped and tasted of the fresh blood of a lamb; you could have many shepherds beating on that young lion, but that lion will not turn loose of that lamb. The lion tares and rips and is heartless towards his prey. They could beat him to death, and that lion would not lose his jaw grip on that lamb. God is telling you that this is the way that He is going to be when Christ returns to this earth. It doesn't matter how many forces you have lined up to defeat Me, I will not quit until they are all gone. That is His promise to all mankind, to those that think they can use their forces against Him, and to us who put our faith and trust in His promises. What God says, we can count on. Isaiah 31:5 "As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also He will deliver it; and passing over He will preserve it." When Jesus Christ returns at the seventh trumpet, Satan's time in Jerusalem is over, as well as the time of the Kenites possession of that city. From the first day of the Millennium age, Jerusalem will be delivered and turned into Christ's holy city that shall be preserved for eternity. "As a bird flying" in the Hebrew text is "as a bird hovers" or flutters to protect her nest of her little ones. In the case of an eagle, the mother bird spreads her wings over that nest, and anything that reaches that nest is attacked with the full force of the mother bird. Whether it is an eagle or a dove, the mother instinct of all these birds are the same. God us using this to illustrate His love and protection for His people and that city. God is telling you that you had better not put your trust in any man, because I am supernatural. God has promised you that He shall come and protect His own, even to the point of death; and we know whose death it shall be. It will be Satan's and his followers. This is God's guarantee to you when you put your trust in Him. In the phrase, "passing over", the king James version uses the Hebrew word, "abar", whereas in the Massorah text the Hebrew world "pasah" is used. This is the same word used meaning "Passover". It is letting us know in a futuristic sense that when the death angel, that is Satan the Antichrist, that is out to claim the souls of all people on earth, as he is ruling from that city, God, through the blood of Christ will preserve those that will claim the blood of the Lamb, which is to say, Jesus Christ. This chapter is prophecy, and this word was not placed here by accident. This verse has a two-fold meaning, that of the protection of the city like a mother bird, and here the protection of His own children under the blood of Christ. Isaiah 31:6 "Turn ye unto Him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted." It should read; "return ye unto Him from whom the child of Israel have deeply revolted." It is true, God's children of both the House of Israel and the House of Judah have wronged God from the earliest times. Every time one of His children turns to atheism, or one of those false doctrines, he has wronged God. When you practice those things that God's Word is strictly against, like Sodomy, gossip, lying and chasing after any form of idolatry, you have wronged God. People in their own stupidity revolt, mock, curse and defy God. Yet after all their actions, if that same person "returns" to God, and in true repentance to the Father, repents in Jesus name, which is to claim the blood of Christ for your sins, God will save them and give them His protection. God has the patience, that no matter how His children have wronged Him, upon true repentance, He welcomes them back to Himself. Isaiah 31:7 "For in that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you for a sin." "In that day", is the day that Christ returns to this earth, and it is the first day of the Millennium age. On that day every man will cast off his idols, and all forms of idolatry. Man will no longer be in their flesh bodies, but in their spiritual incorruptible bodies that will never age. They will have complete knowledge of God's plan, and anything that you place before God will be gone. The bodies that we will have will be like that of the angels. All things of the flesh will be gone, and work will not be as it is known in this earth age of the flesh. There will be a change not only in these flesh bodies, but also to the very earth itself. It will be a glorious time to look forward to. On that day, every knee will bow to our Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah 31:8 "Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man; and the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him: but he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited." On that day, the first day of the Millennium the Assyrian will fall by the sword of God, which is the Word of God that comes out of the mouth of Jesus Christ. Again the "Assyrian" is the name for Satan, who is the false messiah. This was documented in Isaiah 14. Satan has be called the Assyrian from that chapter on. On that day of the Lord, it will not be any man in the flesh that shall bring down Satan and cast him into the pit, and his fallen angels but our Lord Jesus Christ. On that day all of Satan's followers will see and understand who Christ is, and bow their knee to Him. It is the sword of the Lord, that is the Word of God that brings it all to pass, The Word that comes from the mouth of Jesus. Isaiah 31:9 "And he shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign, saith the Lord, Whose fire is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem." The words "pass over" is not the same here as in verse five. So we see that there will be apostates right to the end of this age. Then on that last day of this earth age, it will be as on the night of the Passover, back in the old times in Egypt. On that night the death angel passed over all of Egypt, and every soul that was not inside and protected by the blood of the lamb over thee door post, the first born was killed. In the future sense, this will be the day that every soul that has not aligned themselves with the living God will simply die. It will be a spiritual death, and that spiritual death will continue until the end of the Millennium age, for the dead shall remain dead until the end of the thousand years. This time is spoken of in Revelation 20. Revelation 20:4 "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." Revelation 20:5 "But the rest of the dead [spiritually dead] lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection." Revelation 20:6 "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years." The spiritually dead will remain spiritually dead for a very good reason. That is because they cannot be offered spiritual life until Satan has been released after the thousand year period, and has re-tested them again. They then can prove to the Father that they have the right stuff of eternity. When they had bowed to Satan in the age of the flesh, they forfeited any rewards and rights of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, and became spiritually dead. In most every case it will be by ignorance on their part. Remember in Isaiah 28:18, we discussed the annulment that would take place of the wedding that took place between the false christ, and those who in ignorance married the wrong husband. When these dear souls do fall for the Antichrist in innocence, that marriage will be annulled, only these souls will still be spiritually dead, liable to die, until after they have been will disciplined, and tested again by Satan at the end of the Millennium age. It will be after that time of testing, and the end of the Millennium age that all of those souls will be judged at the great white throne judgment, and their salvation will then be based wholly on their works. It will be what they did with what they knew to be truth that they will be judged upon, and that is what will determine whether they will go on into eternity, or to hell fire. The great white throne judgment is not for those who's names are written in the Lamb's book of life, for they have already received their rewards at the first resurrection, and this time is called the second resurrection. There is no third resurrection. Revelation 20:13 "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works." Revelation 20:14 "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death," Revelation 20:15 "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." It will only be your name recorded in that lamb's book of life, for all your sins will be covered and blotted out by the blood of Jesus Christ. We are saved in this age of the flesh by our faith in Jesus Christ, and His finished work on the cross; however in the Millennium age, those that were not written in the book of life from this age, can only be saved by their works. You fail then and you will be sent to the lake of fire, and after that there will be no trace that you ever existed, not even in the minds of your loved ones. Though there will be a lot of absentees after that great white throne judgment, there will also be a lot more saved out of the Millennium age, then one might think.
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