Back To Isaiah—God Tithes on His People
Back to The Work of God
Recall that 200 million Israelites—the final third—go into captivity. Also recognize that these do not all survive the new World War III generation of what will be like death camps.
It is Isaiah who reveals how many in Israel will survive the coming catastrophe. Here is the verse that, in effect, reveals A NUMBER! This is an astonishing passage, so read carefully: “Then said I, Lord, how long? And He answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking [the total breakdown of all law and order, and character, triggering punishment] in the midst of the land. But yet in it shall be a TENTH, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree [these can regrow quickly even if cut down at ground level], and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof” (Isaiah 6:11-13).
The prophet Amos is even more explicit regarding the number—the overall percentage of survivors—among Israel who return from captivity, and one critical passage becomes a kind of corroboration of what Isaiah is saying. Some background first.
Amos has much to say in the early chapters of his book about God’s view of Israel, and what lies in store for her. For instance, chapter 3, Amos 3:1, begins, “Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O children of Israel…” Then Amos 3:2 declares, “I will punish you for all your iniquities” before God then asks this of His relationship with Israel: “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3). Oft-quoted, few check the important context of what this rhetorical question in Amos is actually talking about. God is stating the obvious through means of a question—that He cannot any longer walk with His people. All semblance of birthright blessings from Him cease.
Chapter 5 then opens with another lamentation against Israel and how she was “fallen” and “forsaken” with “none to raise her up” (Amos 5:2). Then Amos 5:3 records, “For thus says the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the HOUSE OF ISRAEL.”
This presents a stunning, mind-boggling reality!
No more than 60 million Israelites—ONE TENTH!—will survive the soon-coming Great Tribulation to participate in the greatest exodus of all time. Yet, compared to perhaps three or four million leaving Egypt, this is a vastly bigger number for the angelic “fishers” and “hunters” to regather and bring back to Israel’s land of nativity.
Still, over a half-billion human beings just in Israel will not have survived to this point, having through procrastination and inaction terribly miscalculated the seriousness of what would come.
Assembled and Recovered a “Second Time”
Before discussing the surviving number further, let’s move to Isaiah 11:11, as we continue to make ever more clear the picture of what will occur. This passage offers more about the many places where God’s people have come to be scattered across the globe:
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover theREMNANT of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.” These locations include Africa and Europe, notice Assyria and Egypt again, plus perhaps other African nations, and suggest South America along with various “islands of the sea.”
Truly, this will have been a worldwide scattering and enslavement. Take time to mull—to ponder deeply—what lies ahead for whole populations who still—today!—have absolutely no idea—not a hint, inkling or clue—what is coming or why, and then ask whether God would, in effect, “ambush” His people with such awful punishment without having given powerful prior warning.
Isaiah 11:12 then describes how God will “ASSEMBLE the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” (Also see Ezekiel 12:14-16, Jeremiah 30:11 and 49:32.) Isaiah 11:15and 16 describe how God will dry up the multiple mouths of the Nile river delta (there are several) so that escaping Israelites can come back from Egypt and other places in Africa (“Cush”).
A Trumpet Blast!
It is also in Isaiah that we are given the signal of just how God will notify the entire world that Israel is being brought from captivity: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the GREAT TRUMPET shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem” (Isaiah 27:13).
Words cannot describe the poignancy of this most special moment to God. It is interesting to notice how Numbers 10:2 explains that trumpets were always blown whenever God wanted to assemble the tribes of Israel. This pattern is seen to reappear one final time at the end of the age, except that the awesome volume of the blast will exceed human comprehension. More of God’s mind in a moment.
Realize first that something else accompanies the trumpet blast in this moment like no other.
Also a Mighty Earthquake
At the time of the heavenly signs, beginning the Day of the Lord, and as the trumpet blast occurs, the Bible records that Israel’s moment of liberation is also accompanied by a mighty earthquake.
The description of the sixth seal of Revelation 6 ALL —the heavenly signs—begins with this: “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casts her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; andevery mountain and island were moved out of their places” (Revelation 6:12-14).
Compare this description to what Christ said about the heavenly signs and it becomes clear why the earthquake is so great: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken” (Matt. 24:29).
How great is an earthquake that moves every mountain and island—“out of their places”? The answer is one that involves even the heavens shaking, rocking the earth’s orbit as stars fall. The world has never seen such a powerful earthquake. But it is no accident that an earthquake accompanies Israel’s escape from enslavement. It is, in fact, another type of ancient Israel’s escape from Egypt.
Let’s read most of Psalms 114 ALL: “When Israel went out of Egypt…The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back. The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. What ailed you, O you sea, that you fled? You Jordan, that you were driven back? You mountains, that you skipped like rams; and you little hills, like lambs? Tremble, you earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob” (Psalms 114:1, 3-7).
Just the earthquake described in Psalms 114 ALL would probably shatter every seismograph on Earth. The one described by Christ and John is obviously MUCH GREATER!
Back to The Work of God