ISAIAH - Chapter 29 - ARIEL
I taught this prior to our ministry trip to Israel March 19th-29th, 2014. I purposely did not post it. After experiencing Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, I am greatly encouraged and blessed as an eye-witness of the restoration glories which have begun in Israel. Israel is the Lord’s stage for what He is doing in the earth. As we see the restoration glories in Israel, then we will experience this in the Church Universal of the nations of the earth.
The Lord spoke to me at the Western Wall that the nation of Israel is the hearth/altar of God.
ISAIAH- Chapter 29 – Ariel
“THEY THAT MURMURED SHALL LEARN DOCTRINE”
Tuesday Morning Bible Study
March 18, 2014, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Ariel (Jerusalem) ---despite her sacred character as Ariel “the lion of God” or the “lioness of God”, the Lord Himself will encamp against her and besiege her until she is brought into the dust. The prophet sees the condition of the people, which is one of religious blindness and empty formalism. They paid mere lip service to the worship of Jehovah so that their outward religion in form had no corresponding inward religion of heart.
Then the Lord will deal suddenly with Jerusalem’s enemies. This is the 31st prophecy in the Book of Isaiah and is unfulfilled. This prophecy is still future, with the exception of the siege of the city by Sennecherib in 701 B.C. Plus Jesus fulfilled verses 18 and 19. However, the spiritual fulfillment is yet to happen.
They secretly contrived to obtain the help of Egypt and sought to conceal their plans from the prophet and God! But the chapter closes in verses 17-24 with the declaration of blessing for a redeemed remnant. The meek shall obtain fresh joy and the poor shall exult in the Lord. The wicked will be purged out and the house of Jacob blessed! (See sermon notes – The Blessing of the House of Jacob---Nov. 2007 on the website, www.eastgateministries.com)
The entire chapter is “Thus said the Lord” except for verses 9-12.
29: 1-6: False Religion---
“Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David (beloved) dwells! Add you year to year; let them kill sacrifices. Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow; and it shall be to me as Ariel. I will camp against you round about, and will lay siege against you with a mount, and I will raise forts against you. You shall be brought down, and shall speak out of the ground, and your speech shall be low out of the dust, and your voice shall be, as of one that has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech shall whisper out of the dust. The multitude of your strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passes away; yea, it shall be as an instant suddenly. You shall be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earth-quake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.”
God’s punishing army will encamp outside the city. It is called by the cryptic name Ariel. This is a Hebrew term with multiple meanings: “lion of God, lioness of God, strength of God, burning place of God, hearth or altar of God” It is only used six times in the Holy Scripture in four verses.
Familiar spirit out of the ground: Familiar spirits have to do with spiritism and necromancy, or the calling up of the dead, practices which are forbidden in the bible. “Familiar spirit” is from the Hebrew “owb” which means (the idea of prattling a father’s name); properly a mumble, a water skin (from its hollow sound); hence a necromancer (ventriloquist, as from a jar)”. It can also mean “pit: referring to a place out of which a departed spirit may be summoned.
God’s people are admonished, “Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards to be defiled by the” (Lev. 19:31). In the Old Testament, those who sought after familiar spirits were to be cut off and even put to death (Lev. 20: 6, 27). In our day, men follow after psychics or mediums who exercise witchcraft. When Israel was tempted with these false advisers, Isaiah asked, “Should not a people seek unto their God?” (Is. 8:19). Believers practice spiritual necromancy whenever they try to stay in contact with the old Adamic man, who was killed at the cross. Christians are dead to their past, having been freed from sin.
Jesus Christ is “the resurrection and the life”; the One who came that men might have life more abundantly. The true Passover Lamb is the heavenly Josiah who put away sin, including “the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations” in the midst of God’s people. Jesus described the religious Pharisees as whitened sepulchers full of dead men’s bones.
29: 7-8: “The multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her fortress and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision. It shall even be as when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his soul is empty; or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and behold, he is faint, and his soul has appetite; so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.”
Sennacherib’s forces will not in the end be successful, since God will take action against them. The Assyrian armies will fade away like a dream. Today the Assyrian demonic prince which controlled Sennacherib still reigns over all that is anti-Christ.
Isa. 37:36: “Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and forty-five thousand; and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.”
The promise is set in the context of God’s ultimate victory against all Gentile enemies, which many scholars believe to have been a major theme of the annul New Year ceremonies in the Jerusalem temple. Jerusalem had brought grave trouble upon herself; but God would never permit her to be obliterated, and in Isaiah’s day He would not so much as allow her to fall captive to Assyria.
The prophet then breaks out into a mournful description of the condition of the people. They are blind, and unable to understand the messages delivered.
29: 9-12: “Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry you out, and cry; they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. For the Lord has poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes; the prophets and your rulers, the seers has He covered. The vision of all is become to you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray you; and he says, I cannot; for it is sealed: And the books is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray you; and he says, I am not learned.”
This blindness he declares to be the result of their infidelity to God.
Rom. 11:8: “According as it is written, God has given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear ;) to this day.”
John 12:37-41: “These things spoke Jesus and departed, an did hide Himself from them. but though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they did not believe on Him: That the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, Lord, who has believe our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe, because that Isaiah said again. He has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. These things said Isaiah, when he saw His glory, and spoke of Him.”
These verses are quoted at least five times in the Bible and is addressed to prophets who evidently still experienced visions, but everything was a sealed scroll to them; and even worse, their revelations revealed nothing whatever to those who listened to them. At this time and in future times when this word is spoken, people are so overcome with lethargy, spiritual sluggishness, inactivity and stupidity regarding truth, that even their prophets, rulers and wise men were blind---so blind and lacking in spiritual perception that God’s Word was a sealed book to them. They were as ignorant as the most unlearned. The cause of their blindness was hypocrisy, lip service, willful sins, and hardness of heart.
29: 13-14: “Wherefore the Lord said, “Forasmuch as this people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor Me, but have removed their heart far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the precept of men: Therefore, behold I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.”
Four cause of Spiritual Blindness:
- Drawing near to God with the mouth alone.
- Honoring Him with the lips only.
- Removing the heart far from Him.
- Fearing Him only after the precept of men.
29: 15-16: “”Woe to them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, who sees us? And who know us? surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay; for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? Or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it. He had no understanding?
This alludes to these secret intrigues with Egypt (metaphorical of the world systems), which were conducted behind Isaiah’s back; this he interprets as an attempt to hide their plans from the Lord. Such folly is tantamount to accusing the Creator of lacking wisdom and understanding,
This scripture condemns many leaders of the 21st century in our nation as well as the nations of the earth. This also defines a hypocrite who attempts to deceive God and man.
God’s Marvelous Work and a wonder was none other than the gospel work of the N.T.---teaching, preaching and healing all manner of sickness and disease among the people; the creation of new lives, and the full program as demonstrated and recorded of Christ and His followers. Not only did the miracles and signs of the gospel make men wonder, but they caused some to resist to the point of seeming madness and their own destruction; and the new doctrines taught caused the wise of the world to stumble, harden their hearts, and be lost. Such a program was a savor of life unto life in those who conformed to the gospel, as well as a savor of death unto death in those who rejected it.
29: 17-21: “”Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest? In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproves in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nothing.”
This proverb about Lebanon denotes a revolution of things. Many are prophesying a “revolution of Christianity is coming to our nation”. There are many revolutions which have occurred in the last few years and are occurring world wide. Wicked and evil powers have been having their day with revolution. In that day, Christ will have His revolution.
Lebanon is famous for the beautiful forests of Cypress trees.
These scriptures were fulfilled by Jesus and are being fulfilled in the gospel church.
I had a trap and a snare set for me this past weekend. The attack came out of left field from a totally unexpected source. I thought I had defused the trap when I did see it coming, but not soon enough to keep the plot from causing trouble. Hopefully I have closed the door for the intent was evil. Hurting people often want to cause “hurt” to others.
29: 22-24: “Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed; neither shall his face now wax pale. But when he sees his children the work of my hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel. They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.”
There is going to’ be a revival one of these days that will restore the sensibility to the people who have been blind and stupid. This is to be followed by a restoration of order in which all the oppressed will obtain the justice which so long has been lacking. Finally, there will be the restoration of the true order in sanctification of the Holy Name and establishment of right understanding with the Lord.
We all pray for the Harvest. I pray the Lord will allow me to be part of the Harvest. However, for the past two decades instead of growing the church, the Lord has had me growing-up the church. Unless the church comes into maturity to walk in the love and grace of God, the church’s immaturity will make the people they attempt to proselytize twice the devils of hell that they are.
They that murmured shall learn doctrine.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.