ISAIAH - Chapter 31 - The Fire/Furnace of God
ISAIAH 31- Zion/Jerusalem - The Fire/Furnace of God
Tuesday Morning Bible Study
April 8, 2014, the Year of Our Lord
31:9: “And he (the Assyrian) shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign”, says the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem.
Last week I posted the message from Isaiah 29 about Ariel.
Ariel is used by the prophet as a cryptic name for Jerusalem and means “lion of God, strength of God, burning place of God, hearth or altar of God”.
Last week, I noted that while I was at the Wailing Wall (March 2014), the Lord spoke to me that the nation of Israel is the hearth-altar of God.
As I studied chapter 31 yesterday, I was arrested by verse 9, “…whose fire is in Zion and His furnace in Jerusalem”
I am sure that every one in Christendom has already made the connection that the Lord has purposed to use Israel and more particularly Jerusalem as the fire in his furnace and through the sacrifice of the Lamb of God on His altar to purify the nations of the world. That everyone has made the connection that the Lord God created the nation of Israel to be His hearth/altar. Just for the record, I may have known this, but I don’t think I ever articulated it just that way.
“Salvation is from the Jews”
“The Word of God was written by the Jews”
“The Son of God was born into the Jewish race”
The Apostles who established the Christian Church were all Jews.
“Israel/Zion is the fire of God and His furnace in Jerusalem” (Isa. 31:9).
Jehovah chose Mt. Moriah (a hill on the eastern edge of Jerusalem) as the place for Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his only son. Abraham spoke as a prophet, “God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering”. Abraham built the first altar on Mt. Moriah. The Lord provided a ram and in this place was the first burnt offering. Gen. 22:14: “Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah Jireh; as it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.”
Luke 12:49: “I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?
It was from Jerusalem “there appeared to them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.”
Let not either the Assyrian or all of the nations of the world who leave God out of their reckoning think they can turn God out of the possession of his own house. He is himself a wall of fire round about Jerusalem, so that whoever assaults her does so at his peril.
Yes, I know and teach the church is Mt. Zion, the City of our God, the Heavenly Jerusalem (Heb. 12:22). I also heard the Lord loud and clear at the Western Wall:
“Israel/Jerusalem is the hearth and altar of God”. This translates to the fire and furnace of Isaiah 31:9.
In chapter 30, the rebuke is because they turned from God. In chapter 31, the rebuke is because they turned to Egypt(the world systems). The nation is putting its trust in military power and the arm of the flesh.
31: 1b-4: “”…because they are strong, they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord! 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. The Egyptians (world systems and politics) are men, and not God; and their horses flesh and not spirit. When the Lord shall stretch out His hand, both he that helps shall fall, and he that is helped shall fall down, and they all shall fall together.”
We can liken this group in Israel to a political party who always want to run to the United Nations for help in the time of trouble. Jehovah hated this. The leaders of this political party were causing the people to trust in and depend upon man instead of God. Here the Lord pronounced woe upon this political party.
The Lord speaks through his prophet that Jerusalem will be preserved without aid from the world systems and that those who tarried there should be safe when those who fled to Egypt would be ruined.
God will appear against Jerusalem’s enemies with the boldness of a lion over his prey. When the lion of Judah comes out to seize his prey, a multitude of shepherds (leaders) come out against him.
31: 4-5: “For thus has the Lord spoken to me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on its 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. As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also He will deliver it; and passing over He will preserve it.”
The phrase “as birds flying” has been interpreted many ways by many theologians. I offer you the comments of Finas J. Dake (1902-1987):
“In recent years some have interpreted this to mean General Allenby taking Jerusalem in 1917 without firing a shot and when airplanes were flying overhead; but this could not be the reference for all the other predictions were not fulfilled then. This refers to the Lord and the heavenly armies descending with literal angels flying to destroy the armies that surround Jerusalem.” (F.J.D.)
The phrase “passing over He will preserve it” is “pacach” --- Passover. This is the same word used in Exodus 12 concerning the destroying angel’s passing over the house of the Israelites when God slew all the first-born of the Egyptians. The blood on the doorpost is a type and shadow of the Blood of Jesus.
Here this refers to the Assyrian army (this could also apply to the armies of the surrounding nations) who is to be routed by the Lord of Hosts passing over Jerusalem. They shall be slain by the pestilence, but none of the besieged shall take the infection. Thus, he will again pass over the houses of his people and secure them.
However, now it is not the lambs that will protect the people of God, but the Blood of the Lamb of God.
It is Yahweh and no human army who will defeat Assyria (the spirit of the anti-christ).
31: 6-7: “Turn unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted. 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.”
This seems to me that there will be a day when the value of silver and gold will no longer be the standard for our currency. After which,
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.”
The king of Assyria shall flee from the Sword of the Lord to some stronghold of his own.
Rev. 19:15: “Out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations; and He shall rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.”
His princes that accompany him shall be afraid of the ensign (Jesus Christ).
31:9: “And he (the Assyrian) shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign, says the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem.”
Because of these scriptures, many in Christendom are persuaded that the man in whom the spirit of anti-christ will manifest will be an Assyrian. What I do know is that Islam and every other religion that does not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and through His Blood and name is the only Way that men can be saved to eternal life, are of the spirit of anti-christ. The anti-christ Muslim nations continue to hate the Jews and the Jewish nation of Israel as well as the Christians.
Who will do this? It is the Lord, whose fire is in Zion and his furnace in Jerusalem. God there keeps house, as a man does where his fire and his oven are. Let not the nations of the earth think to turn him out of the possession of his own house.
When I was in Wales, the Lord told me Wales was a sheep nation. When I was in Israel, the Lord told me Israel was his hearth and altar. It seems there is a separating going on between the sheep nations and the goat nations. Perhaps the Lord is just blessing me with this information because He knows I will teach it; and perhaps He will bless me to hear more as I continue to press in through His Word, seeking His Face, and worshipping Him.
Matthew 25: 31-32: “When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats…”
The sword that he will be destroyed with is the sword of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It was on the altar of Golgotha that the Lamb of God was sacrificed for the sins of the World. Jesus Christ was the perfect sacrifice, foreordained before the foundation of the world. All of the Old Testament altars of fire and the sacrifices looked forward to the Cross.
The altar, the offerings and the sacrifices was communicated by Jehovah through Moses as revelatory truth from the Mind of God. The institution of sacrifice was an act performed by God for the purpose of relieving the conscience from its sense of guilt and shame. The principle which underlies sacrifice is found in Luke 17:11 and Heb. 9:22 ---since the life of the flesh is in the Blood, blood must be shed for the atonement of life. Man is doomed as a sinner and God purposes to save him. Everything centers in and about the Person of the Lord Jesus, for He is the Lamb without blemish and without spot.
Do I have a conclusion as to why the Lord spoke to me at the “Wailing Wall”? No!
However, Isaiah 31:5, is future of another “passing over” by the Lord of Hosts and with the Hosts of Heaven will come again. The hearth-altar of God still burns eternally from the place of his choosing, Jerusalem. It was established in covenant with Abraham and sealed and ratified by the death, resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ on Golgotha Hill. The fire of Pentecost was released from Jerusalem.
It is the Word of God that according to how the nations of the earth treat Israel, as to whether they will be blessed to inherit the Kingdom of God. Yes, I know the Kingdom of God is not in a nation, but within us, and cannot be seen with the eye. However, I heard the Voice of the Lord at the Wailing Wall, “Israel/Jerusalem is my hearth and altar”.
Do with that whatever you please.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V