OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES AWAITING FULFILMENT 3
OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES AWAITING FULFILMENT 3
The next end time prophecy will be fulfilled in Christ when He sets up His Millennial Kingdom (CP Isa 32:1). The princes who shall rule in judgement are the resurrected saints who will rule and reign with Christ throughout eternity (CP Psa 149:6-9; Dan 7:18, 27 with 1Cor 6:1-3; 2Ti 2:12; Jude 1:14-15; Rev 2:26-27; 5:9-10; 20:4-6). Christ will provide shelter, protection, refreshment and shade. No longer will spiritual blindness or deafness affect people. Those who now make rash decisions will have discernment, and those who now suffer from a speech impediment will be able to immediately express themselves. Moral distinctions will no longer be blurred. The coming of Christ will reveal men in their true light. The wicked and the ungodly will no more be called noble, nor the crafty and greedy of gain said to bountiful and princely. For the wicked speak folly, and their minds plan iniquity. They practice hypocrisy and speak error concerning the Lord, leaving empty the soul of those who hunger for God, and unquenched, their thirst. The methods of those greedy for gain are evil. They devise ways to deprive the poor and lowly of their rights and enrich themselves at their expense, but the generous hearted devise noble things for the benefit of all (CP Isa 32:2-8). In V 6-8 Isaiah was contrasting life in his day with the Millennium and the New Earth (CP Isa 34:1-17).
This foretells the mobilisation of the confederation of nations and their armies that will support Antichrist in his war on Israel. They will be destroyed by Christ in the battle of Armageddon at His second coming (CP V 1-2 also Eze 38-39; Joel 3:1-16; Zech 14:1-3 with Rev 19:19-21). Because of the vast multitudes of the slain to be buried - Christ will only spare one sixth of Antichrist's armies (KJV) - they will be left unburied. It will take all of Israel seven months to bury them, notwithstanding that the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field also eat the dead bodies. The stench of the rotting bodies will fill the land, and the mountains will be filled with their blood (CP Isa 34:3, 7 also 49:6; 63:1-5; Jer 25:30-33; 46:9-10; Eze 38:17-21; 39:1-7, 11-20; Joel 2:20; Zech 14:12-13 with 2Th 1:7-10; Rev 14:20; 19:11-21). Contemporaneous with Christ's second coming - immediately after the Tribulation - Heaven will be changed. Neither the sun nor the moon will give light, and stars and meteors will fall out of the sky (CP Isa 34:4 with Mt 24:29-31; Mk 13:24-27; Ac 2:16-20).
God's sword from Heaven will be bathed in blood and fat in the land of Edom, or Idumea, as it is also called. Edom is representative of all the nations at war with Israel. It represents a God-hating world (CP Isa 34:5-8 with Nu 20:14-21; Isa 63:1-4; Eze 35:1-15; Obad 1:8-16; Mal 1:1-5). Bozrah is Edom's chief city. It is the day of the Lord's vengeance in Isa 34:8 and 63:4 does not mean that Christ is taking revenge. He is simply carrying out the sentence which God as Judge has justly imposed (CP Isa 59:17-18 with Rev 22:11-12). Streams in the land will be turned into pitch, and the dust into brimstone. The land will become burning pitch which will never be quenched. Like Babylon, it will be uninhabited waste forever, overgrown with thorns and taken over by birds of prey and wild animals (CP Isa 34:9-15 and Jer 49:13 with Isa 13:19-22 and Jer 51:24-26). Not one of those predictions will fail for the Holy Spirit will gather these birds and beasts to live in this desolate land forever (CP Isa 34:16-17). The next end time prophecy in Isaiah has been partially fulfilled in Christ at His first advent (CP Isa 42:1-7). V 1a has been fulfilled in Christ as God's Servant at His first advent, but He will fulfil 1b at his second advent when He shall bring forth judgement upon the Gentiles (CP 1b with Mt 12:15-18). Christ will not fail nor be discouraged but will set judgement in the earth (CP Isa 42:4 with Psa 2:8-9; Rev 2:27).
Christ partially fulfilled the next prophecy in this study at His first advent (CP Isa 49:1-26). This is a Messianic prophecy. V 1-7a, 8a and 9a have been fulfilled in Christ at His first advent. V 7b, 8b, 9b and 10-25 await their fulfilment in the Millennium and the New Earth at His second advent. Then Christ will be exalted by kings, and princes will worship Him (CP V 7b with 45:14; 52:15; 60:11-12; 66:23). God will preserve Christ, meaning He would raise Him from the dead, and give Him to be a Covenant for Israel as a nation in the Millennium, to establish the earth, and to restore and cause the waste places to be established (CP Isa 49:8b with 35:1-10). Christ did make a New Covenant when He abolished the Old Covenant at His first advent, but it will not be made with Israel as a nation until His second advent (CP Isa 59:20; 61:8; Jer 31:27-40; 32:37-44; Eze 37:11-28 with Ro 11:25-29; He 10:16). Christ will re-gather Israel to God at His second advent in conjunction with instituting His Millennial Kingdom. Israel's sins will be forgiven. Their condition will change from captivity and oppression to contentment and prosperity, such as that by a well-fed, protected, and well-watered flock of sheep. Their re-gathering will be from a worldwide exile (CP Isa 49:9b-13 and 11:11-13; 43:1-9 with Mt 24:31; Rev 7:13-17).
Meanwhile, Israel, called Zion, is portrayed as having been forgotten by God, but He would never forget Zion. Her people will be in everlasting remembrance before Him (CP Isa 49:14-16). Christians instinctively compare the reference to Zion being imprinted on the palms of Jehovah's hands, symbolising His love for them, with the love wounds borne by Christ in His atoning death (CP V 17-26). Here we see that God will use Gentiles to assist in the re-gathering of Israel back to their land. Gentile monarchs will serve God's people and be totally submitted to them. There will be so many people that the land will be too small for them all. V 24-26 refer to the battle of Armageddon which will have already been fought by Christ and won. After this, every living being will know that the God of Israel is Zion's Redeemer and Saviour. Now we come to the heart of the Bible (CP Isa 52:13-53:12). This is often referred to as the gospel of the Old Testament.
It is a Messianic prophecy almost entirely fulfilled in Christ at his first advent, except V 13 and 15 in Ch 52 (CP 52:13, 15). At His second advent when He rules over His Kingdom, Christ will receive the recognition denied Him at His first advent. "My Servant shall deal prudently" in V 13 means that Christ will rule expertly, intelligently, wisely, and will have good success. He will be extolled and highly exalted by those who formerly despised and rejected Him (CP V 13, also 45:23; 49:23; 60:14 with Ro 14:11; Eph 1:20-22; Php 2:9-11). The phrase sprinkle many nations in Isa 52:15 refers to the spiritual cleansing and purification which would come by Christ's shed blood, by which He will bless many nations with salvation at His second advent. Their kings will be speechless and in awe of this once-despised Servant (V 15 with Psa 2:1-12). Paul applied the principle of V 15 to his aposotlic mission of preaching the gospel of Christ where Christ was yet unknown (CP Ro 15:21). In the next end time prophecy awaiting fulfilment in Christ at His second advent, He will call the Gentiles to salvation and they will run to Him because of His God, and because God has glorified Him (CP Isa 55:5 also 52:15; 60:2-5 with Jn 10:16).
Christ will fulfil Isaiah's next end time prophecy at His second advent as the Standard the Spirit of the Lord will lift up to save Jerusalem from total destruction by Antichrist and his armies (CP Isa 59:16-21 also 11:10-12, 63:1-6 with Ro 11:25-27). In His descent to the earth at his second coming, Christ will appear over Edom, and Bozrah, its chief city, where Israel is being protected from the Antichrist, which will fulfil the first part of Isaiah's next Messianic prophecy awaiting fulfilment in Christ (CP Isa 63:1-6 also 16:1-5; Dan 11:40-41 with Rev 12:1-6, 10-14). The dyed garments in Isa 63:1 are explained in 63:2-3 as being coloured from the blood of those of Antichrist's armies slain by Christ at the battle of Armageddon, the great winepress of God's wrath (CP Isa 63:1-3 and Joel 3:13 with Rev 14:14-20; 19:11-21). The day of vengeance in Isa 63:4 refers to the battle of Armageddon when multitudes - five sixth of Antichrist's armies (KJV) - will be killed in the one day battle (CP Isa 63:4-6 (also 34:8, 61:2; Jer 57:6) with Eze 38:1 - 39:29; Joel 2:1-11, 20; 3:1-16, 18-19; Zech 14:1-7 and 2Th 1:7-9; Rev 19:11-21). In Isa 63:7-14 following, it is predicted that the Messiah will remind Israel of the many past mercies of God they received, and how they had vexed the Holy Spirit and caused God to turn against them. But when they were scattered among the nations and in the last days, God would call to remembrance His covenants and deal with them again (CP 63:7-14 with Lev 26:33-43; De 30:1-10).
At His second advent Jesus will be the Branch of Righteousness God will cause to "Grow up unto David", in the days that Israel will be saved (CP Jer 23:5-6; 33:14-17 also Isa 4:2; 11:1; Zech 3:8; 6:12). Christ's second coming and the battle of Armageddon in the Day of the Lord will fulfil the next end time prophecy by Joel (CP 1:15 - 2:11). The Day of the Lord incorporates the second advent of Christ and the battle of Armageddon. It will come as a destruction from Almighty God upon Antichrist and the confederation of Gentile nations supporting him with their Armies (CP Joel 1:15 also Zeph 1:14-18; Zech 14:1-3 with Mt 24:29-31; 2Th 1:7-9; Jude 1:14-15; Rev 19:11-21). In the Day of the Lord at Christ's second coming to fight Antichrist and his armies, food will be cut off. There will be no joy or gladness from the temple. Crops will fail, storehouses will lay in ruins, granaries will break down because the grain will dry up. There will be no pasture for cattle or sheep to graze - fire will destroy everything and watercourses will dry up (CP Joel 1:16-20). The day of Christ's second advent and the battle of Armageddon will be a day of thick darkness and gloominess (CP Joel 2:1-2). A great people and strong in V 2 refers to the armies of Heaven - the resurrected saints and the angels, who Christ will bring with Him (CP Mt 24:29-31; Rev 19:11-16). A fire goes before Christ, devouring everything, and a flame follows. The land in front of the fire is like the Garden of Eden, while that behind is a desolate wilderness. The appearance of Christ's army is like horses and horsemen (CP Joel 2:3-4 with 2Th 1:7-9; Rev 19:11-14). Fear grips the people in the path of the armies of Heaven. Nothing can stop them. At the second coming of Christ the Day of the Lord is great and very terrible, few will survive it (CP Joel 2:5-11 also Isa 26:20-21; 34:1-4 with Rev 6:16-17).