Please open your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 24. Chapter 24 marks the awakening of Israel and her purging before the Lord fulfills the everlasting covenant and commences His reign on Mount Zion.
Last week we studied Matthew 24:3 where His disciples asked Jesus, "What shall be the SIGN of the consummation of the Ages, or the end of man's day?" In this service we'll join Isaiah who like John was caught up in the Spirit into the Lord's day, which is Daniel's Seventieth Week and the end of all things, after the close of the Gentile dispensation (Revelation 1:10). Israel's restoration to Palestine in unbelief was the sign of the end. Jesus said that the generation that sees that sign would not expire through old age before the Millennium begins.
As God destroyed the nation of Israel and dispersed the people for their disobedience (Deuteronomy 4:26-27), He will depopulate, devastate and through natural cataclysm lay waste the entire earth of her inhabitants without respect of persons.
Isaiah 24:2-3, "And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress (Hosea 4:9) . . ." and so-on. "The land will be utterly emptied, and utterly looted: for the LORD has spoken this Word."
Indeed the devastation will be such the very land appears to mourn because of the blood-guiltiness of its inhabitants.
Isaiah 24:5, "The earth is defiled because it's under the dominion of sinful inhabitants who have transgressed the laws, disregarded the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant."
Remember, this is in the time of Daniel's Seventieth Week. And God is only dealing with an election among the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the Land of Israel, which is defiled by blood-guiltiness.
Numbers 35:30-34, "The murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of two or more witnesses. You shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death: but he shall be put to death. And you shall take no ransom for one who has fled to a city of refuge to enable him to return to the land before the death of the priest. (Who types the Church Age Messenger). Thus you shall not pollute the Land of Israel: for blood defiles the land which can't be cleansed of the shed blood, except by the blood of he who shed it. Don't defile the Land of Israel, where I will live, for I the LORD dwell among the children of Israel."
Israel defiled the Land of the Covenant by murdering her Messiah. The whole congregation laid hands on Him as with the passover lamb and swore the oath: "His blood be on us, and on our children." And it has been ever since. But there's another way in which they have defiled the Land and which resulted in the murder of Messiah.
Jeremiah 3:1-2, 9, "There is a law that if a man divorces a woman, and she remarries another man, if he takes her back the land will be greatly polluted? but (Jehovah's wife) Israel has played the harlot with many lovers; "Yet return again to Me," says the LORD. Lift up your eyes to the high places, is there any place where you haven't been defiled by your spiritual adultery. You sit by the road like a bedouin whore in the desert; you've polluted the land with your whoredoms and your wickedness . . . Israel treated her whoredom so lightly she defiled the land by committing adultery with stones and with stocks."
Even without a Bible, nature tells man what is right and what is unacceptable (Acts 14:17; Romans 1:20). But God revealed His Law and ordinances to Israel as a nation and He's revealed His will to individual Gentiles. Let's take a look at the everlasting covenant and what it is, as He concludes both in unbelief.
We first read of the everlasting covenant in Genesis 9:8-17. God established His Covenant with Noah and his seed and every living creature that was in the ark that he would never again destroy all life by universal flood. And God signified it with the rainbow.
Then in Genesis 17:2-13, God made His unconditional covenant with Abraham, saying he would be father of many nations, that He would be God to Abraham and his seed and they would possess the land of Canaan. And He signified this everlasting covenant by the sign of circumcision to Abraham, and later to Isaac and to Jacob (Psalms 105:8-11; I Chronicles 16:16-18; Genesis 26:3; 28:13-15).
Leviticus 24:1-9 interests me because it follows the great harvest festivals of the Hebrew sacred calendar in chapter 23, ending with the Feast of Tabernacles which signifies the final ingathering of souls, the final disposition of sin and new heavens and new earth on the eighth day. Leviticus 24 instructs Israel what to do with the produce of the harvest. Grain was for the shewbread, choicest olives for the lamps, and grapes for the joy of salvation, were to be set in order continually before the Lord, typing Christ, His elect Gentile Bride and the 144,000 Israelites.
Leviticus 25, which follows, sets forth the dispensation changes, the sabbatic years, and jubilee year of release and rest.
"The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 'Command the children of Israel, to beat and bring you pure olive oil for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually from evening until morning outside the vail of the Holy of Holies, in the tent of meeting. Aaron shall order it from the evening to morning before the LORD continually: it shall be a statute for ever in your generations. He shall order the lamps upon the pure golden lamagsand before the LORD."
(The oil for the lamagsand was supplied by the people themselves. All the congregation were to be holy and contribute to a ministry in the Presence. The olives were beaten to produce the character of pure oil that would furnish the Light Jesus was shining in the saints of each of the Seven Church Ages represented by the seven golden lamagsands.
Only the high priest or Church Age Messenger represented by Aaron, could transfer Light from one Lamp or Church Age to its successor. The holy Fire, came from the altar of sacrifice lit by God when Moses dedicated the Tabernacle in the Wilderness.
Revelation 1:12-13 shows this golden Lamagsand, representing the church in the Holy Place in the heavenly Tabernacle with our High Priest robed, and representing the elect Church drawn out from all Seven Church Ages. What is the Bride but the Bridegroom reproduced in a many-membered Form. Christ walks up and down after the manner of Aaron, in the midst of the mixed multitude called the church, constantly cleansing and tending our Light-life.
The church is the only Spiritual Light in the world, as the golden lamagsand was the only illumination in the gloom of the Holy Place which was without windows. Here the saints, like Aaron's sons, walk and minister daily, for flesh and blood cannot go into the Holy of Holies where our Forerunner and High Priest has entered, until the Body is complete and resurrected saints unite with members who are translated. Until that time, we walk not in the light of the world but in the Light Christ is in as He is in It.
The golden lamagsand reflected its Light from the southern side of the Holy Place onto the bread of the Presence on the north and the golden altar of incense before the Holy of Holies, as the Light of the Gospel will one day pass from the Church to Israel. Only to an election from the blood descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Holy Place, or observing the Orthodox teachings of Moses.
Revelation 11:1, "And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, 'Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein'."
The Bread of the Presence represent the resurrected Jesus Who was wounded in the house of His friends (Zechariah 13:6); the golden altar and its incense signify Jesus exalted and accepted).
"You shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes: two tenth deals shall be in each cake. And you shall set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure golden table before the LORD.
And you shall put pure frankincense in a bowl by row, that it may be with the bread as a memorial, an offering to be made by fire to the LORD. Every sabbath Aaron shall set it in order before the LORD continually, on behalf of the Israelites by an everlasting covenant. And it shall be Aaron's and his sons; they shall eat it in the holy place: for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the LORD made by fire by a perpetual statute."
(Like the oil for the holy lamps, the flour for the shewbread was an offering of the people -- part of the service in which Israel sanctified its life and labor to God -- not just at the compulsory feasts, but every day -- so every Israelite had an interest in the unseen work of the Sanctuary. The flour passed through twelve sieves, each one finer than the former, to produce twenty-four deals of the finest flour of uniform quality, representing Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever. The dough was kneaded then shaped in three golden molds ten by five handbreadths by one finger deep. The bread was square at each end and each loaf was two omers (over 6lbs or 3Kg) -- a day's food for a man and his neighbor -- signifying the all-sufficiency of Jesus).
These large loaves were baked each Friday afternoon and replaced on Saturday, (Friday evening by our reckoning), having lain in the Presence seven days. They were stacked on their sides in two rows of six loaves, separated by hollow golden rods to allow the air to circulate and prevent mold. The two bowls of frankincense were placed between the two rows of six loaves, indicating acceptance. Every Saturday the frankincense was burned as an offering of fire, then the old unleavened bread was eaten by Aaron and his sons (who type Christ and His children to God) in the Holy Place, indicating our fellowship in oneness and access as the children of God.
We see in this bread a type of Christ, who, like Joseph, suffered to save the life of His brethren, and has lain in the Presence for Seven Church Ages awaiting Israel to come to Him for bread. Psalm 23:5, "You prepared a table before Me in the presence of mine enemies: You anointed My head with oil; My cup runs over."
Whereas the altar of sacrifice might sometimes be empty of a meat offering, the table of shewbread with one cake for each Tribe, lay continually before the Lord. The table represented Christ in the union of his humanity and humility symbolized in the shittim wood with His deity and glorification in the golden cover.
Leviticus 24:1-9 speaks of God's "everlasting covenant" with the Spiritual seed of Abraham in the form of the true Church and the elect 144,000 Israelites. The signs were the furniture and produce of the land used in the sanctuary.
In Numbers 18:1-19 we learn that the Lord separated Aaron and his sons to bear and cleanse the iniquity of the sanctuary and purge their own uncleanliness as priests. Their brethren, the Tribe of Levi, were separated from Israel as a gift to Aaron and his sons, to do the menial work of the tabernacle. Aaron and his sons were to attend the altar of burnt offering, the altar of incense and the Holy of Holies within the veil. Their priesthood was a gift from God to Israel. Anyone who approached these places other than Moses, Aaron or his sons, was a stranger (zuwr), and put to death.
By reason of their separation and their anointing, God gave them the heave and wave offerings and of all the dedicated offerings to eat with their families in a sanctified place. The firstfruits of grain, oil and wine plus the first born clean animals were devoted to the Lord. This was an everlasting or indissoluble covenant of salt between God and Aaron, typing Christ and His Bride who are joint heirs with Him in the things of God, and sealed to the day of their redemption.
God made an "everlasting covenant" with David in II Samuel 23:5, that his Seed should rule Israel forever (II Samuel 7:11-17; Psalms 89:34-37), called "the sure mercies of David" (Isaiah 55:3; Acts 13:34), and a prophecy concerning our Lord Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 54 and 55 build upon these Scriptures, speaking of Israel's restoration to grace after the close of the Gentile dispensation. God speaks of Israel suffering reproach for barrenness because she was put away by her Husband. He says Israel will be restored to the land once desolate and occupied by the Gentiles and reveals that her Husband is not only her God and her Redeemer, but the God of the whole earth and therefore the God of the Gentiles. That will be when the 144,000 recognize their Messiah with His Queen.
Isaiah 54:9-10, "For this is as the waters of Noah to me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more flood the whole earth; now I swear that I will no longer pour out My anger on you as I have during the Trumpet plagues of the Gentile dispensation. Though the mountains depart, and the hills be shaken; My kindness shall not depart from you, My covenant relationship shall never be broken." The shaking of the mountains heralds the return of the Lord to Israel, her new birth and the restoration of the Kingdom. Isaiah next describes the beauty of the New Jerusalem whose walls and foundations are represented by the 144,000 (Isaiah 54:11-12). Also see Revelation 21:11-15, where Christ has the golden rod of the fullness of the Word to measure the City, and which He gave us in Revelation 11:1 to measure the 144,000.
God is faithful to the everlasting covenant He made with Abraham and his seed forever. Isaiah 54:13, "All your children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be their peace in covenant relationship" through their new birth. Jesus quoted this verse in John 6:43-47, speaking of all the elect.
Isaiah 54:17 paraphrases the covenant of Genesis 12:3: "'No weapon formed against you shall prosper; every tongue that speaks against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of Me,' says the LORD."
In Isaiah 55:1-3 we come to the 144,000 receiving their atonement, "Listen, every one who thirsts, come to the waters; he who has no money; come, buy, and eat; Spiritual wine and milk without money and without price, just surrender self to accept the blessing. Why spend money on denominational food that has no nutrition? and your earnings for that which doesn't satisfy? listen diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and fattens up the SOUL. Incline your ear, and come to Me: hear, and your SOUL shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David" by the blood of the everlasting covenant (Hebrews 13:20).
This is the SOUL sabbath Jesus offered and which Israel rejected 2,000 years ago (Matthew 11:28-30). At their new birth they will crown Messiah King by their revelation, and He'll stand for them, and destroy His enemies, bringing-in the Millennium.
Turn back to Isaiah 24:5-6 and follow along in your Bibles.
Israel had broken the everlasting covenant and defiled the Land by spiritual adulteries against the laws and ordinances of God, until He put her away in divorcement and turned to the Gentiles to take from them a people for His Name. We're at the end of the Gentile dispensation. They too have transgressed His laws, the whole earth is defiled and few there be who are not under the curse of God. Or as Jesus expressed it in Revelation 13:8, "All that dwell upon the earth whose names are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life shall worship the Devil -- incarnate in the Pope."
Only the 144,000 elect Israelites are free from earth's curse of Malachi 4:6. The city of confusion, Los Angeles, the Babylon of the West, is violently shattered -- as is Jerusalem in the East (Zechariah 14:5-6). There is no joy in wine, music or song, the city is left desolate, her markets are deserted.
Isaiah 24:13-16, "For so shall it be throughout the land, as the shaking of an olive tree, and the gleaning grapes when vintage is done, only a remnant of 144,000 will remain (Revelation 14:12-20). This shaking will come from an earthquake and Israel's revelation. She'll sing and rejoice at the majesty of the LORD. Those restored to the Land from the West shall cry aloud, and those from the East shall glorify the Name of the LORD God of Israel."
"From the uttermost parts of the earth we heard songs glorifying God as the righteousness of His Trumpet judgments is revealed to the 144,000."
Revelation 15:3-4, "And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, 'Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Your ways, You King of the Gentiles (nations). Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your Name? For You alone are holy: all nations shall come and worship before You; for Your righteous Trumpet judgments upon Israel are made manifest to our understanding."
After this, the mystery of the Seven Vials will be revealed to the 144,000, to enable them to distinguish the foolish virgin from the false church through the Ages (Revelation 15:5-16:21).
Isaiah 24:16, "From the uttermost parts of the earth we've heard songs glorifying God's righteousness as His Trumpet judgments were revealed to the 144,000. But I grow faint, woe is me! treachery prevails everywhere; (and because iniquity shall abound, the godly love of many Israelites shall grow cold), provoking judgment."
And in the midst of Daniel's Seventieth Week when Rome breaks her agreement with the self-styled Jews, she will force the mark of the beast: most Jews will become Catholics, and the 144,000 will be betrayed by the Judases in their brethren as Jesus was betrayed by His kinsman, Judas Iscariot.
The following two verses speak of successive catastrophes. If one escapes the first, the second will catch him. For the windows of heaven are opened figuratively to pour out destruction "as it was in the days of Noah," and the earth is shaken beneath us in the catastrophic upset of nature at the first resurrection.
Isaiah 24:20-22, "The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, it shakes like a tent in a storm; (when he puts forth his hand to steady himself, the wall's not there), for the rebellion presses heavily upon it; it shall fall, and not rise again (Isaiah 1:8; Hebrews 12:26).
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, (Satan, the prince of the power of the air will be cast down to earth where he will incarnate the Pope), and the kings of the earth (that's the Black Nobility who support him until he breaks his covenant with those self-styled Jews in the midst of Daniel's Seventieth Week will be punished) upon the earth" at Armageddon (Revelation 12:9; 16:14; 17:12-18; Ephesians 6:12).
Satan is cast out at the next cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary for the Homecoming of the Bride is the Wedding Supper in the air. The foolish virgin and the elect 144,000 must also be purged. And earth is to be purged in preparation for the Millennium.
Isaiah 24:22, "And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days (or 1,000 years) they shall be visited."
Sometimes people say the Millennium is not Scriptural. Well, there it is in the Old Testament. Praise God. And it's followed by the general resurrection, judgment and final disposition of sin
Isaiah 14:9-12, "Hell from beneath is moved to meet you at your coming: great men of earth long deceased raise from their thrones in astonishment at your humbled condition. With one voice they taunt, 'Have you become weak as we are? . . . How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning . . ."
Revelation 20:1-3, "Then I saw an angel come down from heaven with the key to the bottomless pit and a heavy chain in his hand. And he seized the dragon -- that old serpent, the Devil, Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years were finished: after that he will be released for a little while."
Isaiah 24:23, "Then the glory of the Son of David reigning from Zion will outshine the moon and the sun in the sight of the twenty-four elders" (Revelation 21:23-25).
Gives you a good feeling, doesn't it? To know you'll be seated in the throne with Christ and the saints of all Ages. And at the Bema seat before the Wedding Supper when we're introduced to Jesus and all of the saints, He'll say, "It was well done, My good and faithful Brother. Well done, My precious loyal Sister. Enter in to the joy of the Lord." bb990106.htm