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Friday, July 16, 2021

Bible In One Year Day 197 (Isaiah 11-13, Tobit 13-14 , Proverbs 10:13-16)

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Day 197:  Woe and Consolation 

Agape Bible Study 
Isaiah 11 -13 

Summary of Chapters 9-11

In Chapter 9:7-10:19, Isaiah recounted in detail how Yahweh will punish the people Northern Kingdom of Israel who have, in their pride and arrogance, abandoned God to rely on their own strength and wisdom. He will use the Assyrian Empire as His instrument of judgment. And then, in 10:5-19, Isaiah revealed how God will punish Assyria for going beyond the purpose which God had intended in their cruelty and in their arrogance by not recognizing their part in His divine plan. After the prophecies of devastation, Isaiah returns again to the sub-theme of the preservation of the "faithful remnant" gathered back from the nations of the Gentiles in 10:20-22, together with assurances of God's protection for the Southern Kingdom Judah from the Assyrian enemy, even though the Assyrian army advances to the very gates of Jerusalem in 10:23-34.

In Isaiah 11:1-16, Isaiah gave God's third prophecy of the coming of the Davidic Messiah to redeem God's people and to usher in an eschatological kingdom that returns mankind and all creation to the ideal unity with God that was enjoyed before the Fall of Adam (also see Is 7:14 and 8:23/9:1-6/7 for the first two prophecies). The "Book of Emmanuel" section of the Book of Isaiah, which began in Chapter 6, is concluded in Chapter 12 with a psalm of thanksgiving to God for turning from anger, when He stretched out His hand to punish the covenant people for their infidelities (see 5:26; 9:12, 17, 21; 10:4), to mercy in extending His hand once more to rescue His people, and His invitation to return to the protection of the Almighty God (Is 11:11-12).

Chapter 11: The Promised Davidic Savior

Isaiah 11:1-5 ~ The Branch

Isaiah will return to the topic of Assyria's defeat later, but in continuing the themes of justice and redemption, he now turns from the just judgment of Israel and Assyria to the theme of redemption through the Redeemer-Messiah who he introduced in 7:14 and 9:1-6 "the "holy seed" of Israel.

This is the beginning of a messianic poem that describes the characteristics of the coming Messiah who is a descendant of Jesse.

Jesse was a descendant of Ruth and Boaz. He was born into the tribe of Judah, and he was the father of King David and the ancestor of all the kings of Judah. He was also the ancestor of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.

But why from the "stock" or "root" of Jesse instead of from David; could it be that it is because the Messiah is more than a Davidic heir? Is it because he will be a new David, as Ezekiel will characterize him more than a hundred years later in Ezekiel 34:23 ~ I shall raise up one shepherd, my servant David, and put him in charge of them to pasture them; he will pasture them and be their shepherd. Also see other prophetic passages that support this concept in Jeremiah 30:9 and Hosea 3:5.

Isaiah's prophecy is that when the line of the Davidic kings seems to be destroyed, a shoot or branch will grow from the roots "the remnant of the House of David. 

2 On him will rest the spirit of Yahweh ...
translated as "spirit", "breath", or "wind". The "Spirit of Yahweh" or the "Holy Spirit of Yahweh" (Is 42:1; 61:1ff; 63:10-13; Ps 51:12; Wis 1:5; 9:17) was not understood to be the third person of the Most Holy Trinity in the Old Testament. The Spirit of God is, however, found to be active throughout salvation history. For example:


From the earliest years of the Church, the Church Fathers have taught that Jesus is the promised Davidic Messiah Isaiah wrote about in this passage. God the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus at His baptism (Mt 3:16). The "gifts of the spirit" that are His are transferred to baptized and confirmed Christians as His heirs. St. Paul wrote: For all who are let by the Spirit of God are sons of God...if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ (Rom 8:14, 17). And the Catechism teaches: "The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understand, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. They belong in their fullness to Christ, Son of David. They complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them. They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine inspirations" (CCC 1831). The Catechism goes on to teach that "The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. The tradition of the Church lists twelve of them: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity'" (CCC 1832; quoting Gal 5:22-23). 

Isaiah 11:6-9 ~ The Eschatological Kingdom of the Davidic Heir

Adam and Eve's rebellion against the sovereignty of God (Gen 3) resulted in destroying the harmony between humanity and nature (Gen 3:17-19), and between one human being and another (Gen 4). Animals did not kill each other and mankind did not have permission to kill animals and eat their meat until after the Great Flood. In the reign of the Messiah, with sin forgiven and with man's full and complete reconciliation with God, lasting peace will be the result and justice will be established (Is 9:6; 32:17; 60:17-18; Joel 4:17; Zeph 3:13; Zec 3:10). This peace will even extend to the animals.

Question: The promise of peace and harmony between all living creatures is a return to what period in salvation history?
Answer: It is the return to conditions on the earth as God intended and which existed in Eden before the Fall of Adam.

Question: When can we expect the return of these ideal conditions? See Is 65:17-25; 1 Thes 4:16-18; Rev 21:1-7.
Answer: After Jesus' Second Advent, the Last Judgment, and the creation of the new heavens and the new earth.


Christ the True Vine


Isaiah 11:10-16 ~ The Promise of the Ingathering of the Nations

On that glorious day, the "root of Jesse", the promised Redeemer-Messiah, will become a signal and a rallying point for all nations in the gift of universal salvation "people from every land, every ethnic origin. People of every nation will seek out the Messiah for counsel and instruction. 

Chapter 12: A Psalms of Thanksgiving

Isaiah 12:1-6 ~ Extolling God's Mercy and His Glory

 "And, that day..." in 12:1 refers to "that day" in 11:10-12 when the prophet promised the coming of the Davidic heir, the Redeemer-Messiah: That day, the root of Jesse, standing as a signal for the peoples, will be sought out by the nations and its home will be glorious. 11 When that day comes, the Lord will raise his hand a second time to ransom the remnant of his people, those still left, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, Cush and Elam, from Shinar, Hamath and the islands of the Sea. 12 He will hoist a signal for the nations and assemble the outcasts of Israel; he will gather the scattered people of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

Question: What is the "home" that will be "glorious" in the end of Isaiah 11:10?
Answer: The Kingdom of the new David, the "root of Jesse", that is the Church of Jesus Christ into which He will "gather the scattered people" from "the four corners of the earth."

The Church sees herself as this "holy remnant" of mankind that has experienced God's salvation in the work of Jesus Christ, and, as in Isaiah's prophecy in chapter 12, she feels called to give witness to her joy before all mankind. 

In verses 1-2 Isaiah describes the joy the redeemed sinner knows because of God's great work on his behalf that inspires both trust and gratitude. God was angry (verse 1), but how His anger is spent and He comforts His people. Because God is the source of salvation, each individual of the covenant people knows he can trust God and not fear Him. 

In verses 3-5, Isaiah changes the focus to the entire covenant community who praises God for bringing them "water from the springs of salvation" and "Praise Yahweh, invoke his name. Proclaim his deeds to the people" is from Psalm 105:1, a psalm that recounts the wonderful history of Israel. 


Question: When did Jesus use the same imagery for salvation with a woman who was drawing water from a well? See Jn 4:4-14.
Answer: He offered the Samaritan woman "living water" and whoever drank of this water would never thirst again because the "water" Jesus gives is the water that "will become in him a spring of water, welling up for eternal life."

Question: In verses 4-5 the people are grateful for God's works on their behalf; what do they do to show their gratitude?
Answer: They proclaim His marvelous deeds to their own people and to the nations of the world.


Isaiah Chapters 1-12 contain truths that are valuable and which we should apply to our lives today. The Book of Isaiah has much to tell us about who God is, who we are in our relationship with God, and what God expects of us as His covenant people.

Chapters 13

Up to this point, the attention has been focused on the Israelites of the Northern and the Southern Kingdoms of Judah who have abandoned God and His covenant, unleashing the judgment sanctions of the covenant treaty Israel made with Yahweh at Mt. Sinai. A secondary focus has been on the Assyrians as the instrument of God's justice and prophecies of the Davidic Messiah. But, in the next eleven chapters, the focus is on God's work in other nations of the region. There are two reasons for this shift:

  1. These pagan nations represent a challenge to God's divine plan for the Messianic Kingdom and the preservation of His people Israel from which the Davidic virgin and her son must come.
  2. These nations, like all pagan nations, represent a challenge to God's sovereignty and the preservation of His name among His covenant people.

Chapters 13-23 answer these challenges to God's divine plan in Isaiah's oracles against the nations by announcing that Yahweh is sovereign over all the nations of the earth whether or not they recognize Him as the One True God. Assyria's capital city Nineveh came to recognize God's sovereignty when He sent the prophet Jonah to call them to repentance (Book of Jonah) in c. 759 BC, but soon thereafter they returned to their pagan gods. And Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, will come to recognize the sovereignty of Yahweh over all other gods through the ministry of the prophet Daniel, but his revelation will not convert his people (Dan 2:46-47; 4:33-34). The day, however, will come when God will call all these nations and all the nations of the earth to have a covenant relationship with Him through the divine Messiah, the branch of Jesse, the greater than David who is Jesus of Nazareth.

The 6 nations and one alliance are condemned to judgment in the oracle of chapters 13-19: Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, the Damascus-Israel alliance, Cush, and Egypt.

Isaiah 13:1-9 ~ The Day of Yahweh's Judgment Concerning Babylon

Jeremiah also prophesies a divine day of vengeance against Babylon in Jeremiah 51:47-58. Yahweh's Day of Judgment (referred to as "The Day of Yahweh" in verses 6 and 9) against Babylon is foretold in 13:1-14:23. 


Question: How will God bring about the defeat of the Babylonians? See verse 4-5.
Answer: Their defeat will not come about through the efforts of a single nation but from many kingdoms banning together to wage war against Babylon.

In verses 7-8 fear grips the Babylonian people. They have no chance of escape, like a woman in labor cannot escape the inevitability of childbirth. 

Isaiah 13:10-14 ~ The End of Time for Babylon and the Return of the Refugees

Verses 10-14, in the hyperbole of poetic language, express the end of Babylon as an influential regional power. The Babylonians were famous for their astrologers, their star charts and prophecies associated with the heavens. In modern parlance, God was going to "stop the clock" of the proud and arrogant Babylonians and humble their leaders. 

Isaiah 13:15-22 ~ Utter Destruction for the City of Babylon and her Citizens

The Babylonians, without protection or leadership, will suffer the same atrocities that they inflicted on others (see Ps 137:9; Hos 13:16; Zec 14:2).
Question: Who will God use as His primary instrument of judgment?
Answer: God will use the Medes.

The Medes were a people who lived in the region south of the Caspian Sea, north of the Zagros Mountains and the Kingdom of Elam, and east of Assyria. They formed an alliance with Babylon and other nations to defeat the Assyrians and conquer the Assyrian capital city of Nineveh in 612 BC. King Cyrus of Persia will conquer the Medes in 550 BC and merge them into the Persian Empire.

Question: To whom does Isaiah compare Babylon's final destruction?
Answer: He compares their destruction to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.



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A Daily Defense 
DAY 197 The Bible and Pi

CHALLENGE: “Solomon’s temple held a metal basin or ‘sea’ used for ceremonial washings. According to Scripture, it was ten cubits across and ‘a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference’ (1 Kings 7:23; 2 Chron. 4:2). This implies that the value of π (pi) is 3,but that is incorrect. We know that π is an irrational number slightly greater than 3.14159.”

DEFENSE ;Thank you, Mr. Spock. This confuses an approximation with an error.

If the sea was exactly ten cubits across then it would have a radius (r) of 5 cubits, and if it were perfectly circular then its circumference (C) would be just over 31.4159 cubits, according to the formula for the circumference of a circle, C=2πr. 

How are we to account for the difference of just over 1.4 cubits between the biblical and predicted values?

Some note that the Bible says the sea had a curved rim (1 Kings 7:26; 2 Chron. 4:5). Second century mathematician Rabbi Nehemiah proposed the difference is because the sea’s circumference was measured around the inside of the rim while the diameter was measured from the outside of the rim (see Petr Beckmann, A History of Pi, chapter 7).

This is possible, but there is a simpler solution: We are dealing with approximations.

The cubit (the length from a man’s elbow to middle fingertip) is itself an approximation. So were most ancient measurements. If the circumference of the sea were exactly 30 cubits and its diameter thus turned out to be 9.5493 cubits, the ancient writer would have simply rounded to 10. Most likely, both the diameter and circumference are rounded, approximate values.

Then there is the problem of doing the measurement. The reference to a measuring line suggests someone measured it using a line, but did they get the line to fit the rim exactly? If they had men holding the line at points around the rim, it likely would not have fit exactly, resulting in an approximate measurement. Further, we’re assuming the sea was perfectly circular, which it may not have been.

Ultimately, since π is an irrational number, everything using it must involve an approximation. The biblical author has simply chosen a different level of approximation than the modern critic. The fact that the biblical author’s math works within the level of approximation he selects shows he is giving an honest and accurate report.

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist

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