The Imagery of the Exodus

Isaiah: A Topical Look At Isaiah — Steve Gregg

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The Imagery of the Exodus

Isaiah: A Topical Look At IsaiahSteve Gregg

In this talk, Steve Gregg discusses the imagery of the Exodus in the book of Isaiah. He mentions that Isaiah speaks of the ultimate deliverance of God's people from bondage, which is fulfilled by Jesus. Gregg draws connections between passages in Isaiah and the New Testament, showing how the exodus motif is explained and interpreted in the latter. He identifies the tabernacle as a key symbol of God's covenant and habitation with his people, both during the exodus and in the spiritual realm.

Transcript

Alright, we're going to take another topical look at Isaiah, taking yet another topic. We've been seeking to trace through the book the various motifs and images, figures of speech and so forth, that the prophet used a great deal to express whatever it was he was trying to get across. And I say that not because I don't think I know, but because it's not at all evident to a person reading for the first time, or the second or third time through Isaiah, what all of these things refer to.

And as we trace some of the images like threads through the entire book, suddenly they begin to take on meaning that we might not get just seeing them here and there scattered about in various contexts. We're going to talk this morning about the way the idea of the Exodus is woven through the prophecies of Isaiah, and not just Isaiah, I think you'll find that all of the prophets, or at least the great majority of them, talk, as does Isaiah, about the Exodus, and probably with the same meaning. I think once we've gone through Isaiah and studied all these themes, you'll be surprised, or maybe not surprised, but when you go through the other prophets that follow, you'll see a lot of these things there, and you'll say, oh, I think I know where I'm at now.

I can get my bearings here in this prophet now I'm studying after Isaiah, because the prophets did use much of the same language, whether they were influenced by Isaiah, some of them, or not. We can't say it wouldn't do any good to even ascertain that, but we can say that once you know the code, I guess you could say, once you can understand what is meant by certain expressions in the prophetic writings of Isaiah, you'll find the same ones in the oracles of most of the other prophets. Now, with reference to the Exodus, this is not the first time I've mentioned it in our series on Isaiah.

I've pointed out that there were two times in history where God delivered the people of Israel out of bondage. Once, when they came out of Egypt under Moses' leadership, that's what is referred to as the Exodus, and the second time, when they came out of Babylon after a 70-year imprisonment there, or deportation and exile there, that was under the leadership of men like Zerubbabel and Ezra and Nehemiah. The Jews came back, some of them, from that captivity.

So twice God broke the yoke of bondage of an oppressor nation, Egypt first, Babylon second, and in both cases led the remnant of his people out and eventually to the promised land, which was Israel. And in the case of the Babylonian exile, when they came out of that, they had to rebuild Jerusalem because it had been burned down by the Babylonians earlier, and they had to restore the nation that had once been established. But as we go through some of these topics, in fact, I don't think we will today, but in a later lecture, probably not too far hence, we'll look at the passages that seem to talk about the return of the exiles from Babylon.

Even a few of those will come up today, because when we talk about the Exodus, there are times when the prophets will speak about the return of the exiles from Babylon, and in their prediction they will intermix images reminiscent of the Exodus, because the return of the exiles from Babylon was in principle very much like the Exodus. Both had something very important in common, that is that God delivered his people from bondage and brought them to their land. And so when the prophet predicts the Babylonian exile's end and the return of the captives to Jerusalem, he will sometimes mix in the imagery and the language recalling the Exodus, saying this is sort of like the Exodus.

But as I said somewhere earlier in our series, I don't know when, both the Exodus and the return of the exiles from Babylon are taken up in the prophets as a picture of a spiritual Exodus, that it's a spiritual deliverance, a spiritual return, a freedom from slavery, and a being brought into a new kingdom, a new promised land, all of which is spiritual. The slavery being the slavery which is the normal human condition of the unredeemed sons of Adam, which is the bondage to sin, and the great deliverer obviously is Jesus. Jesus is a second Moses.

Jesus is a second Cyrus, Cyrus being the Persian king who released the Jews from Babylon. Cyrus is seen something like a type of Christ. Moses in Old Testament Scripture is seen as a type of Christ.

And the deliverance of God's people through these means are seen as a precursor and a type of the spiritual thing that God would do. Now, this is true in Isaiah as well as other prophets. And what I want to do is show you all the different ways in which the Exodus event, the Old Testament Exodus under Moses is recalled in one way or another, sometimes very deliberately and in a straightforward way, sometimes only by hints and in a vague way.

And Isaiah and the other prophets will use this language of the Exodus to either predict the return of the exiles from Babylon and or a spiritual salvation. And sometimes, in fact, the language is predicting the return of the exiles from Babylon and it's also predicting the New Testament salvation. Once again, I've told you whenever there's a double fulfillment of prophecy, we can only know so because of compelling evidence.

For instance, a quotation in the New Testament of a passage which we know to have been fulfilled historically before Christ. But where the New Testament writers identify a second fulfillment in Christ, this on such occasions, we can say there is a double fulfillment. Or in cases where there is a whole genre of prediction where the same thing is said again and again and again, and maybe one of them or some related passage is quoted in the New Testament and indicated to have a spiritual fulfillment.

We can then deduce with a fair degree of safety that all like passages that have the same thought in them probably would have been understood that way by the apostles as well. One of the things we want to look at to begin with, and there's a plethora of passages, Isaiah's just shot through with references to the Exodus. But I was trying to decide where the best place to begin would be, and it seems like this would be a good place to begin.

Isaiah chapter 43, verses 1 and 2. But now thus says the Lord who created you, O Jacob, and he who formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.

And through the rivers they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flames scorch you. Now, this reference to walking through the waters and going through the rivers and walking through the fire without being harmed, not everything in that passage recalls the Exodus.

In fact, arguably that latter part about when you pass through the fires, you will not be burned may be a prediction fulfilled literally in Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who in Babylon, later than Isaiah's time, actually were not burned by the fires. But if that is hinted at there, if the experience of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is hinted at there, that does not exhaust the meaning of the prediction. The fires and the water, I think, represent dangers more generic than just the literal fire of Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace or of actual floods and passing through waters.

The reference to when you pass through the waters, I will be with you, no doubt recalls the Exodus. When God opened the waters of the Red Sea and the children of Israel passed through. In the next line, when you walk through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.

At the end of the wanderings of the children of Israel in the wilderness, we remember they passed through the Jordan River in a similar manner. And no Jew reading this could have failed to see the similarity in what this was talking about to what had happened in their much celebrated historical past. If you look at the same chapter, verses 16 through 19, it says, Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea and a path through the mighty waters, who brings forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power.

They shall lie down together. They shall not rise. They are extinguished.

They are quenched like a wick. Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing.

Now it shall spring forth. Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. And then it goes on.

We don't have time to read it all because some of these verses will come up again under other topics. But I point out to you that God reminds them in verses 16 and 17 that He is the God who accomplished the deliverance of Israel from Egypt through making a way through the waters, through the Red Sea. The reference to the chariot and the horse being extinguished is, of course, a reminiscence of what happened to Pharaoh's armies in the Red Sea when God closed the waters down upon them as they attempted to follow and recapture the children of Israel.

But having recalled that historical event, He immediately says in verse 18, Don't remember the former things. Now, remembering the exodus was not only something the Jews could hardly fail to do since it was sort of like the Revolutionary War to the Americans. It was like the Day of Independence.

It was the victory over enemies that was the birth of a nation. And Americans could as quickly forget the Revolutionary War as the Jews could forget the exodus. And when He says, Don't remember them, He doesn't literally mean that it will be a sin for you to have this come to mind again.

What He's saying is, Don't focus on that because something much more marvelous is going to happen which is perhaps analogous to that. And He says, Don't remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I'm doing a new thing.

It shall now spring forth. Shall you not know it? I'll make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Now, it'll be later that we'll look at how frequently Isaiah speaks of rivers in the desert and what that means in Isaiah.

But making a way in the wilderness is also something we've heard something about, the highway. We remember that in Isaiah 40 verses 3 through 5, it said, A voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the highway for our God. And this being a reference to John the Baptist's ministry.

There are many places in Isaiah. We've seen some of them under another heading. We'll look at several more that talk about the highway of God in the wilderness.

And they are always associated with Christ. At His first coming, John the Baptist began to prepare the highway. Jesus said, I am the way.

And we'll have more to say about that later. But I would point out to you that the reference to a river in the desert, which is, again, a subject we haven't discussed yet in detail. We'll find it much in Isaiah.

And there are many passages in Isaiah that identify beyond question the meaning of the metaphor or the image. That and the highway in the desert are both ideas that are connected to what Jesus accomplished when He came. And therefore, the new thing is no doubt a reference to the new covenant that Jesus established.

In the upper room with the disciples, where He and they were taking the Passover meal together, which they took every year in commemoration of what? What was the Passover a commemoration of? The birth of the nation at the exodus. Jesus said as He passed the cup around and the wafer, He said, This is my body. This is the new covenant in my blood.

The new covenant in my blood. You see, one of the first things of significance that God did when He brought the children of Israel out of Egypt was He brought them to Sinai and made a covenant with them. It was simply the sequel to the exodus is that God entered into covenant with His people.

And at an actual celebration of the exodus with His disciples at the Passover, He said, Now there's a new covenant happening here. I'm establishing a new thing with you here. And from now on, this cup does not represent what it represented to you before.

This bread does not represent what it represented to you before. It is not something for you to remember the exodus. It is for you to do in remembrance of me.

It is my blood. It is my body. And I think that Jesus in the upper room was simply saying, in other words, what Isaiah predicted here.

Don't remember the exodus. I'm doing something new that will supersede the exodus. And that is, of course, a spiritual thing, a spiritual deliverance followed up by or connected with a new covenant that replaces the old covenant.

Now, I have no doubt that we can establish beyond question that this passage in Isaiah is talking about that. And when Isaiah frequently refers to a new thing that God's doing, that new thing is the new covenant. It is a spiritual thing.

And what's interesting here is that the exodus is recalled in verses 16 and 17. And then that old thing, the old exodus, is said to be, well, that's not something to commemorate anymore. Now we have God is going to do a new thing.

Now, of course, Isaiah didn't live in such a time as they could really forget the exodus. That was still the principal thing to remember until the time of Christ. But Isaiah is, of course, foreseeing the time of Christ.

Now, here we have the exodus sort of transcended by a new exodus. In Isaiah chapter 51, Isaiah chapter 51, verses 9 through 11, it says, Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord. Awake as in the ancient days in the generations of old.

Are you not the arm that cut Rahab apart and wounded the serpent? Are you not the one who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, and made the depths of the sea a road for the redeemed to cross over? So the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. This statement in verse 11 is almost word for word identical to a verse in chapter 35, verse 10.

We don't have to turn there, but this one verse in its detail occurs twice in Isaiah, in this place and also in 35.10. Significantly, chapter 35, for the repetition of this verse is found, is one of the chapters that's entirely about the kingdom age, the golden age. As chapter 11 is entirely taken up with the messianic kingdom age, so is chapter 35. And therefore this statement, the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come with singing to Zion, is associated with the age of the Messiah.

Now that wouldn't be necessarily obvious in the context of this passage because one could say this is talking about God bringing the exiles back from Babylon. And it probably is. But not only that.

The idea foresees something more ultimate. And I believe both are here. But one thing that is very obvious in verses 9 and 10 is the reference back to the Exodus.

When he says in verse 9, are you not the arm that cut Rahab apart and wounded the serpent? This Rahab is actually a symbolic name for Egypt. If you look over at Isaiah chapter, keep your finger at 51, but just for the sake of clarifying something. Isaiah 30, verse 7. Isaiah 30 and verse 7. Isaiah tells Hezekiah and those who hope to get help from the Egyptians against the Assyrians at this time, he says, For the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose.

Therefore I have called her, meaning Egypt, Rahab, Hem Shabbath. Now Rahab, Hem Shabbath, apparently means Rahab sits idle. But notice this is a name that God has given to Egypt.

I have called Egypt Rahab sits idle. So Rahab, although we think of Rahab as the name of the prostitute in Joshua's day, is actually a symbolic name in Isaiah for Egypt. And that would be something we could have probably figured out anyway from Isaiah 51, verses 9 and 10.

Because he says, are you not the arm that cut off Rahab, or Rahab apart, and then follows on verse 10. Are you not the one who dried up the sea? And so forth. It's a reference to the Exodus.

By the way, keep your finger where it is, wherever that may be. And turn with me to Psalm 74, verses 12 through 15. Psalm 74, verses 12 through 15.

For God is my King from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea serpents in the waters.

You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces and gave him as food to the people inhabiting the wilderness. You broke open the fountain and the flood and dried up mighty waters. Now, here again we have reference to dried up the sea and dried up the river.

The two stages through which God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt and into the promised land. Out of Egypt through the sea and into the promised land through the river. In the midst of that context, it talks about how God in that event broke the heads of the sea serpents in the waters, whom he calls in verse 14, Leviathan.

Psalm 74, verse 14. That is no doubt a symbol for Egypt. Now look back at Isaiah 51 where we kind of started this excursus.

Isaiah 51, 9 in the middle of that verse says, are you not the arm of that cut off or cut Rahab apart and wounded the serpent? That is Leviathan, the sea serpent. That's a symbol for Egypt. And then it goes on and repeats, you dried up the sea and the great deep and so forth.

So here we have a picture of the Exodus. God being the one who did that, who destroyed Egypt, the serpent Rahab, as it's symbolically called. And brought his people the redeemed to cross over.

But, verse 11 says, so, or in the same way. So means, you know, in the same manner. Likewise, the ransom of the Lord shall return and come with singing to Zion.

Now, he says, in the days of the birth of the nation of Israel, you cut off Rahab. You opened a path through the sea. You let the people walk through to safety.

Well, in a similar manner, you're going to have a path, a highway for the redeemed, the ransom of the Lord to walk upon as they go to Zion. And as I said, the passage has its parallel in Isaiah six thirty five ten, which is about the kingdom age. And I believe that it can be shown that this is talk about the spiritual Zion.

Now, there are some who would object to this because they'd say, well, really, Isaiah is concerned. At least much of it in this section of Isaiah is about the returning exiles from Babylon. I'd say fair enough.

The Babylonian exiles who returned came to Zion to literal Zion. It's true. They did come with singing to Zion.

It says in one of the Psalms, when the Lord redeemed Israel out of bondage to Babylon, we were like those who dream. We just couldn't believe it. It was so wonderful.

And yet. His doing that really has its its echo and it's probably its actual fulfillment in the kingdom of God is in the New Testament age, as we'll see later on. But what I'm trying to show in these passages, this one in the previous one, we saw an idea which was forty three verses sixteen through nineteen, is that the exodus is spoken of and then from that is launched a prediction that is apparently in principle like the exodus, but a a greater thing that God's going to do that's like it.

In chapter eleven of Isaiah, we have this chapter by now should be getting familiar to you, even though we we haven't read through the chapter yet. But we, as I said, by the time we do read through chapter eleven, we will have touched on everything in it individually. But the closing verses of Isaiah eleven verses fifteen through sixteen.

So as the Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the sea of Egypt with his mighty wind, he will shake his fist over the river and strike it in the seven streams and make men cross over dry shod. These images were in the previous passages we just looked at, too, although they fall later in Isaiah. They were previous in our discussion today.

Verse sixteen, there will be a highway for the remnant of his people who will be left from Assyria, as it was for Israel in the day that he came up from the land of Egypt. So there is here a comparison to the exodus when Israel came out of Egypt. There will be a highway for the exiles to come from Assyria.

And I take that to be a general statement of spiritual coming to Christ from the Gentile nations in general. But we'll have to discuss that another time in order to justify my assumption there. What we can see at this point is that this famous passage, which is about the kingdom age, has this exodus comparison.

It's like the exodus. Chapter twenty-seven of Isaiah, verses twelve and thirteen. Now, maybe you'll remember the context of chapter twenty-seven.

When we were surveying the whole book, I mentioned that chapters twenty-four through twenty-seven, a four chapter segment, are about the transition from the old order to the new order. We'll look at chapter twenty-four before we're done today. But the new order that replaces the old order is what chapter twenty-seven is mostly about.

And look at chapter twenty-seven, verse one. In that day the Lord with his severe sword, great and strong, will punish Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisted serpent, and he will slay the reptile that is in the sea. Now, all of this connects with what we saw in Psalm seventy-four and Isaiah fifty-one.

Where in Isaiah fifty-one, nine, the serpent that God killed was Rahab. In Psalm seventy-four, which we looked at a moment ago, Rahab, excuse me, the serpent was Leviathan. But in both cases, the imagery referred to Egypt.

Leviathan, Rahab, the serpent in the sea, the seven headed serpent, and so forth. These are images that are all tangled up together in the thought of the inspired writers. They mean, first of all, Egypt.

They are a reference, do you want those verses, Tom? We're in twenty-seven now, verse one. I'm sorry, I mentioned twelve, we're going to get there, I'm sorry, I preceded that by pointing out verse one, I'm sorry. Twenty-seven, one, mentions God punishing Leviathan in that day, whatever day he's referring to.

I believe it has to do with the death and resurrection of Christ. Leviathan is the symbol that if you take together the passage in Psalm seventy-four and Isaiah fifty-one that we looked at earlier. It is, in the prophetic language, a symbol of Egypt.

But certainly Jesus didn't destroy literal Egypt. And so the funny thing here is how a symbol is a symbol of something else. That Leviathan, the seven headed sea serpent, in the Old Testament imagery is a symbol of Egypt.

But Egypt, in connection with Israel and the Exodus, is a symbol of Satan and the bondage from which we are delivered from. So it's interesting that in Revelation twelve, in the opening verses, there is seen there a seven headed serpent dragon. It was in Psalm seventy-four that we saw that Leviathan had seven heads.

He was a seven headed sea serpent in Psalm seventy-four. A seven headed sea serpent in Psalm seventy-four, that's a good alliteration for you. That's what Leviathan is said to be.

Now, Revelation twelve, one through three, doesn't use the name Leviathan, but we see a seven headed dragon, serpent. And it is persecuting the woman who is Israel. And she is preserved by being transported into the wilderness by God where she is nurtured for twelve hundred and sixty days.

Now, there is a deliberate parallel there back to the Exodus because God delivered Israel from the serpent Leviathan, Egypt. And where did he deliver them to? The wilderness. And there he nourished them for forty years, miraculously.

So, in Revelation twelve, I hope your head is not spinning too much, this is all clear as a bell to me. I realize we're jumping all over the place. But in Revelation twelve, we have a deliberate glimpse or taking up again the imagery of the Exodus, but of course referring to something very different, referring to something of the New Testament era.

But we'll look at that later when we talk about Revelation. But here in Isaiah twenty-seven, one, the day is spoken of for God punishes Leviathan, the serpent, the dragon. In the first usage of the term, that means Egypt.

But in the ultimate fulfillment of this, that's the devil, of whom Egypt is a type and a shadow. Because our deliverance from slavery, like the Jews' deliverance from Egypt, is the slavery from the devil, from his kingdom. We have been translated out of the power of darkness into the kingdom of God's own dear Son, it says in Colossians 1.13. Now, in the same chapter of Isaiah, chapter twenty-seven, verses twelve and thirteen, which is where Tom, I told you earlier, we're going to look.

Now we can look there. It says, And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord will thresh from the channel of the river to the brook of Egypt, and you will be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel. So it shall be in that day that a great trumpet will be blown, and they will come, who are about to perish in the land of Assyria, and also who are the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mountain of Jerusalem.

Now I pointed out before that I think Assyria and Egypt in some contexts are symbolic of Gentile nations in general. This is one of those places. He talks about the day that God punishes Leviathan.

This is a key aspect of the new order. The dragon has been beat up and overcome. There are several references to Egypt.

I'll just put it that way. God will thresh from the channel of the river to the brook of Egypt, in verse twelve, and talks about in verse thirteen, the outcasts in the land of Egypt shall come. This referring, I think, not to a literal return from Egypt, but again, picturing people coming out of Egypt because Leviathan, the dragon of Egypt, is destroyed.

All having its echo in a spiritual exodus, as we shall see later. Let me show you, before we go to the New Testament, and show how this exodus motif is explained and interpreted for us there, look at a couple of other prophets. We'll just look at one other because of our time being limited.

Let's look at Micah, Jonah Micah. In chapter seven, in Micah chapter seven, verse fifteen, it says, as in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show them marvelous things. Now, he's about to describe a marvelous thing that God is going to do for his people.

He says, it's like when he delivered them from Egypt. It's like the exodus, in other words. He goes on, verse sixteen, the nation shall see and be ashamed of all their might.

They shall put their hand over their mouth. Their ears shall be deaf. They shall lick the dust like a serpent.

They shall crawl from their holes like snakes of the earth. They shall be afraid of the Lord, our God, and shall fear because of you. Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity, passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? Now, this wonderful thing God's going to do, it's like the exodus, has to do with him pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression.

Look further, verse nineteen. He will again have compassion on us and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

Now, this is like the exodus. What was cast into the depths of the sea in the exodus? The Egyptian armies, the oppressors. God overcame them.

God subdued their oppressors and overthrew them in the sea. But what oppressor is being subdued in this exodus? Our sins, our iniquities. So here we have a passage where it becomes fairly clear how the prophets, and by the way, Micah was contemporary with Isaiah in Jerusalem at the same time.

Apparently he was strongly influenced by him because Micah chapter four is almost identical word for word with Isaiah chapter two. It's clear that Micah and Isaiah probably used the exodus motifs the same way as each other. And here we have a very clear explanation of what the antitype of the exodus is.

It has to do with God not overcoming human oppressors as in the exodus, but spiritual oppression, our iniquities, our slavery to sin. This is what God overthrows in that marvelous thing, which is as the days when you came out of the land of Egypt. Now, in the New Testament, we find the fulfillment of this.

First of all, one thing that's interesting is that Jesus' own life bears some resemblance to Israel, at least the early days of Jesus' life and ministry are seen in the New Testament as having, as being sort of an antitype of the exodus itself. We see this, for example, in Matthew 2.15, because in Matthew 2.15, we read of the infancy of Jesus there, and how that because of the threat of Herod who was going to destroy all the infants in Bethlehem, an angel warned Joseph and Mary to take the infant Jesus and to flee to Egypt. And in verse 15, Matthew 2.15 says, And they were there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophets, saying, Out of Egypt I called my son.

Well, this prediction, out of Egypt I've called my son, is pretty straightforward, it seems. Jesus was a baby, went to Egypt, and then when he came back from Egypt, it fulfilled the prediction that God would call his son out of Egypt. Problem is, if you look at the passages quoted, there is no such prediction.

The passages from Hosea 11.1, and Hosea 11.1 does not have the look of a prediction about anything. It is a statement of historical fact without any internal evidence of it predicting anything about the Messiah or anyone else. In Hosea 11.1, it says, When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

My son being Israel. When Israel was a child, I loved him, and I called my son out of Egypt. He is referring to the historical exodus.

How do I know that? Well, look at the following verses. It just talks about how when they came out of Egypt, he fed them, and so forth, and how they got into idolatry. Now, what is interesting here is that Matthew quotes, with reference to Christ, a passage in the Old Testament that does not internally look at all like it is a prediction about the Christ.

It just looks like it is a historical reminiscence. By the way, you say, well, son, that does not mean anything. How could Israel be God's son? Well, that is exactly what he told Pharaoh.

You know, Israel is my firstborn. If you do not let Israel go, I am going to kill your firstborn. Remember, that was the warning God gave to Pharaoh.

Israel was treated as God's firstborn son. So, when he says, When Israel was a child, I loved him, I called my son out of Egypt. This is a reference to the exodus.

However, Matthew quotes it as being fulfilled in Jesus' infancy. One event that happened in Jesus' infancy was his coming out of Egypt. Now, what we see here is that Matthew is either trying to trick his readers into hoping they do not have a copy of the Old Testament available, and saying, well, there is a prediction in the Old Testament that the Messiah as a baby would come out of Egypt, and it was fulfilled when Jesus came out of Egypt as a baby.

But the trouble is, since his readers were no doubt Jews, they would probably be able to look things up in the Old Testament, at least at the synagogue, and they would find out that it did not look like a prediction at all. Now, Matthew, I think, was not trying to trick anybody. I think that Matthew was taking a very straightforward approach and being quite plain in how he understood the Scriptures.

The only way that this citation that he gives from Hosea could really be relevant to Jesus in his infancy is if Matthew already had the presupposition that the personal history of Jesus was an antitype of the history of Israel. That is, what happened to Israel in their early days was a foreglimpse and a foreshadowing of the Messiah himself. He is the ultimate Israel.

He is the ultimate Prince with God, which is what Israel means. And therefore, the actual events in the childhood of Jesus are prefigured and foreshadowed in the events in Israel's early days. Israel, in this respect, being a type of Christ.

Now, that makes sense, too, when we see how Jesus' ministry actually began when he was 30 years old, because after his baptism, he went into the wilderness where he was tempted for 40 days. And in his temptation experience, he quoted from Deuteronomy three times to resist temptation. Now, the going into the wilderness was precipitated by his baptism.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10 that the children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt, were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Water baptism being like a picture of going through the Red Sea, or vice versa, going through the Red Sea is like a picture of baptism. So we read in 1 Corinthians 10, the opening five verses.

Now, Jesus was baptized, which was like Israel going through the Red Sea. Then he went into the wilderness as the children of Israel, having gone through the Red Sea, found themselves in the wilderness, and Jesus was tempted there for 40 days. They were tempted there for 40 years.

Now, Jesus' ministry being brief, he didn't have 40 years to live out that entity, so he just did it for 40 days, a day representing a year. And by the way, the 40 years the Jews spent in the wilderness was representative of 40 days, because the spies had been 40 days in the land, brought back a bad report, and God said, Okay, for every day, I'm going to give you a year in the wilderness. So Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness was sort of like a picture of the 40 years that the Jews spent in the wilderness.

During that 40 years in the wilderness, God gave them the book of Deuteronomy to instruct them and to keep them out of trouble, as well as the rest of the law. And Jesus quoted three times from that book to overcome temptation in the wilderness. There are just some things about the early life and ministry of Jesus that give the impression that his life was the antitype of the Exodus.

That the Exodus, to put it another way, is a type, in some ways, of Christ. But not only of Christ himself, but of his body and what he accomplished. And if you'd look with me over at Luke chapter 9. In Luke chapter 9, verse 31, Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration with Moses and Elijah, and it said of Moses and Elijah in verse 31, they appeared in glory and spoke of his decease, which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem.

If you have a Bible worth anything, the word decease there will have a marginal note added, which tells you that the Greek word there is departure, means departure. But if you have even a better marginal note, it'll tell you that the actual Greek word is Exodus. See, the name of the book of Exodus is a Greek, from the Greek Septuagint, it's a Greek word.

Exodus means a going out or a departure. We're looking at Luke 9, 31. And so if you had the Greek text in front of you, it would tell you that Moses and Elijah were talking to Jesus about the Exodus.

Literally in the Greek text, the word is Exodus. The Exodus that Jesus was going to accomplish in Jerusalem. The spiritual Exodus.

Now we read in Micah that God shall cast all our iniquities in the depths of the sea, like when he brought Israel out of Egypt. A second Exodus of a spiritual sort, in which not human oppressors, but sins are overcome. And that was the Exodus that Jesus was to accomplish at Jerusalem, of which Moses, the principal player in the first Exodus, came to give his endorsement and his encouragement to Jesus about that Exodus that he was about to accomplish.

If you'll look over at 1 Corinthians 5. 1 Corinthians 5, and verse 7. It says, Therefore, purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us.

It was through the blood of the Passover lamb and the attendant death of the firstborn of Egypt that was the straw that broke Pharaoh's back and finally got him to agree to let the children of Israel go. The death of that lamb was a death that accomplished the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt and the judgment upon Egypt. And so Jesus is the antitype of that.

He is the lamb, the Exodus provider, the Passover sacrifice for us. So we can see that the Exodus is said to be a type here, or is used as if it is a type of salvation as we know it through Christ. If you look now at 1 Corinthians 10, which I alluded to a moment ago.

1 Corinthians 10, the first verses. We read, Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

Now look at verse 6. Now these things became our examples. The word examples in the Greek text is tupos or types. It is the Greek word of which our English word type is a transliteration.

In other words, he says, these things were our types. They were types and shadows of our own experience. The Israelites coming out of Egypt were like a type of our own spiritual experience.

And you know that he means it spiritually. And so we can see that the New Testament writers, whether it is Matthew in recording things about Jesus, or whether it is Moses and Elijah on the mount talking to Jesus about the exodus he is going to accomplish, or Paul in 1 Corinthians, or whoever, Peter, you know, the ideas of the exodus are fulfilled spiritually in the believers' salvation in Christ. I said Peter.

Let me show you why I said Peter. In 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 18 and 19. 1 Peter 1, 18 and 19.

Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. The children of Israel were redeemed out of Egypt by the blood of the Passover. We were redeemed out of sin by the blood of Jesus, the Passover.

So Peter, Paul, you name it, the New Testament writers presumed, although it was not presumption on their part because they had inspiration to guide them, that the second exodus was in fact a spiritual one that we all participate in when we come to Christ, when we receive the benefits of his salvation, his sacrifice. Therefore I think we have grounds to say that this exodus idea, when Isaiah frequently and the other prophets speak of some new thing that is like the exodus, some new thing God will do that in principle resembles the exodus, that new thing is nothing else than a reference to the salvation that is ours in Christ in the church as a result of his sacrifice. Another thing in Isaiah that calls to remember it's the exodus is there are several references to a new tabernacle.

Now I mentioned that one of the most important and first things that happened after the Jews came out of Egypt was they came to Sinai. There a couple of things happened. One was they entered into covenant with God.

We'll look into that in a moment too in Isaiah. But there's another thing connected. At the same time that God entered into covenant with them, he gave them instructions for the building of the tabernacle.

And before the book of Exodus ends, they erect the actual tabernacle and the glory of the Lord in the form of a Shekinah cloud fills the tabernacle. All of this was simply the upshot of the exodus. It's what the exodus was for, for the covenant and the habitation of God to be with his people, the tabernacle.

Well, Isaiah a few times refers to apparently a new tabernacle, which is not unconnected with the exodus connected to it. In Isaiah chapter 33 and verse 20, Isaiah 33 and verse 20, we read there, Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts. Your eyes shall see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation that is secure from war, a tabernacle that will not be taken down.

The Philistines took down the original tabernacle in the early chapters of 1 Samuel. The tabernacle that Moses gave was not permanent, but this tabernacle is a new one that will not be taken down. No one of its stakes will ever be removed, nor will any of its cords be broken.

This is an unbreakable tabernacle. It's an indestructible tabernacle. It'll never be, not even one cord of it will ever be broken.

This cannot be a reference to a literal tent with real cords, because real cords do wear out and break unless we are to imagine an actual cloth or skin building to be made again someday in the millennium that has supernatural cords that make it indestructible. I think we're safer to say this tabernacle is a spiritual tabernacle. And in the New Testament, the tabernacle of God is the church.

We are the tabernacle. Once again, Jesus is the tabernacle also. We're talking about how the Exodus prefigures Jesus and prefigures the church.

That's because Jesus and the church are a continuum in the New Testament. We are his body. We're in him.

So that the same imagery that applies to him directly can apply to us by extension. So in the New Testament, Jesus is the antitype of the tabernacle, as we would read in a better translation of John 1.14. John 1.14 says, And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. John 1.14. Now, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

Literally, in the Greek, dwelt is the word tabernacled or pitched his tabernacle, pitched his tent. As God pitched his tent in the form of the tabernacle among the Israelites, so God has now, the Word has pitched his tent among us, the church, and tabernacled or dwelt among us in the form of Jesus, and we beheld his glory. Just like the Jews saw the visible glory clouded above the tabernacle or in the tabernacle, in Moses' day, John says, hey, we saw the glory of the Lord in this tabernacle, which was the body of Jesus.

And since the body of Jesus is the tabernacle of God, and we are now the body of Christ, the New Testament speaks of us as the tabernacle of God. So that when you come to Revelation 20, which we looked at when we were talking about Zion, the spiritual Zion, in Revelation 20, verse 2, it says, Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. We won't do it now, but we looked at verses 9 and 10 of this same chapter and saw that the bride, the city, is the bride of the Lamb, the church.

It's a spiritual imagery here. But notice what it says in verse 3, Revelation 21, 3, And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God. This is a reference to the New Jerusalem, the bride of Christ, the church.

It is called the tabernacle of God with men. The church is the spiritual Israel. And God dwells among us.

I mean, to shift metaphors, we are the tabernacle where God dwells with people. On this planet, God dwells among the nations in his spiritual tabernacle, which is his people. Now let me trace this through Isaiah a little more, if I could.

In Isaiah chapter 8, Isaiah 8, verses 12 through 14, Here, Isaiah is warned not to get all concerned, as the people in Jerusalem were, by the conspiracy between Syria and Israel against Judah. This is in that context of Ahaz being concerned about these two nations coming against him. And Isaiah knew there was, in fact, such a conspiracy, but he said, God has told me not to worry about that.

He says in verse 12, Do not say a conspiracy concerning all, this is verse 12, Isaiah 8, 12. Do not say a conspiracy concerning all that this people call a conspiracy, nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. The Lord of hosts, him you shall hallow.

Let him be your fear, let him be your dread. He will be as a sanctuary and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the house of Israel and a trap in the snare of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Now, this passage, which is set in the context of the conspiracy of Syria and Israel against Judah, looks toward the salvation of God in the New Testament.

How do I know that? Because much of it is referred to in the New Testament as fulfilled in Christ. The latter part of verse 14, or the middle part where it says, He will be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, is quoted in the New Testament as a reference to Jesus, as the stumbling block for the Jews. And also the reference to, in verse 12, Do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.

But the Lord of hosts, him you shall hallow. Let him be your fear, let him be your dread. Peter quotes this, or actually reworks the wording, but there's no question in anybody's mind that he has this passage in mind, when he says, in 1 Peter 3, verses 14 and 15, 1 Peter 3, verses 14 and 15, he says, But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you're blessed.

And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. Now, that's an exact quote. Do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled is an exact quote from Isaiah 8, 12.

But then he goes on, But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts means let him be your sanctuary. Sanctify means make holy.

Sanctuary means holy place. In Isaiah 8, the context from which Peter is quoting, it says God will be a sanctuary to his people. In Moses' day, the sanctuary was the tabernacle, the holy place.

God becomes our holy place, and we become the holy place in him, the habitation of God. Now, one of the most interesting passages in Isaiah about the tabernacle, I think, is in chapter 4. Isaiah chapter 4, verses 5 and 6. This is a short chapter, but all the verses in it except for verse 1 are a brief golden age passage, a brief glimpse of the age of the Messiah. Verses 2 through 6. Now, we won't read all those verses yet, but we will look at verses 5 and 6. It says, Then, now mind you, I understand this to be fulfilled in the church age.

Others understand it to be of the millennium. But it says, Then the Lord will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day, and a shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory will be a covering, the word covering or canopy, and there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.

Now, this is highly figurative, I think. I think it has to be. Otherwise, it's literal.

If it's literal, then Mount Zion is the literal Jerusalem. It probably would have to be taken as a reference to the millennial Jerusalem. There would be in every house a shekinah glory.

As there was over the tabernacle on Moses' day, it would be saying that during the millennium, every home has this pillar of cloud or pillar of smoke, depending on whether it's day or night, as an appearance of the glory of God visibly upon it. Now, I am of the opinion that this tabernacle that is spoken of here is, again, the body of Christ. One thing that helps to understand it so is in verse 6, it says, there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, for a place of refuge and for a shelter from storm and rain.

If you'll keep your finger in this passage and turn to Isaiah 32, we'll find a messianic prophecy where Jesus is in view directly. Isaiah 32 and the opening verses, the two verses at the beginning. Isaiah 32, 1 and 2, Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule with justice.

A man will be as a hiding place from the wind and a cover from the tempest. We can stop or we can go on. As rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

Now, there's a man here. The translators have not capitalized man, which shows that the New King James translators do not necessarily understand that man to be Jesus. I do, however.

I understand the king to be Jesus. I understand the man to be Jesus. And I think the context would justify this, but we'll have to look at that another time to prove that.

If so, however, then we see here the image of a man being like a hiding place from the wind, a cover from the tempest, and a shadow from the heat in a dry, weary land. What do we read of the tabernacle in Isaiah 4, 6? But these same things. There will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, for a place of refuge from shelter from the storm and rain.

This is all figurative. It's not literal heat. It's not literal storm and rain.

We don't need special supernatural buildings to be provided by God for that. We can get under a real rock or go into a real cave or get into a tent or under an umbrella or into a building. This is not talking about God providing in the millennium, finally, a shelter where we can get out of the rain.

We've been able to get out of the rain for many centuries now, but what we have here is a spiritual tempest, spiritual danger, a place of refuge, which in Isaiah 32, 2, the man himself is the refuge. Here it's a tabernacle. But what's the difference? Jesus is the tabernacle.

The word tabernacled with us and was made flesh among us. Now, as I've said, to identify Jesus as the tabernacle does not exclude identifying us corporately as the tabernacle as well. And I think when we look at verse 5, Isaiah 4, 5, it says, God will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion and above her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day and shining flaming fire by night.

Now, I understand the cloud of smoke and cloud of flaming fire pillar to be a reference to the Shekinah. It recalls the tabernacle in the wilderness. It was a pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night.

Same imagery here. But what it represents is the glory of God or the presence of God. Now, whereas in the Old Testament, the tabernacle is the only building where the presence of God dwelt and the glory of God was in what God is describing in this prediction.

Every dwelling will be like the tabernacle itself. Every dwelling will be equally in Mount Zion will be a habitation for God. Now, let me say some things that will help you understand what I think it means.

Mount Zion in verse 5 is the spiritual Mount Zion, the spiritual Jerusalem, the church, the corporate church. Every dwelling in the church is you, me, each of us. And the prediction then is saying that whereas the glory and the presence of God dwelt only in one building in the tabernacle in the Old Testament, in God's new order of things, every person, every dwelling place of God, every habitation in Jerusalem will be a habitation of God.

You and I. God who dwelt in the tabernacle dwells in us. God who once dwelt only in Jesus when he was on earth dwells in every member of his body now that he's gone and has given his spirit to us to be his presence in us. Now, that last line in verse 5, Isaiah 4, 5 says, For over all the glory, there will be a covering.

I understand this to mean in light of what he's just said, every dwelling has the glory. But over all that, there's one covering. There's one rubric.

There's one enveloping umbrella that joins them all together. There's one and that's the whole tabernacle. Now, the fulfillment, as I understand it, is the spiritual.

The church as a whole corporately is the tabernacle. We're all under the covering. But every individual person inside that church, inside the body of Christ, is himself a dwelling place of God through the spirit and has the presence of God in him.

Look with me over John 14. And I can hardly think that Jesus made these statements without this passage in Isaiah in mind. We've looked at this before, but this is an appropriate time to remind ourselves of it.

In John 14, a well-known passage, oft quoted but frequently misunderstood in my opinion. John 14, beginning at the beginning, Let not your heart be troubled, Jesus said. You believe in God, believe also in me.

In my Father's house are many mansions. If you'll note in your marginal reference, the word mansions is a strange choice of words by the translators. It's classical.

The King James used it, and so the new King James has retained it. But it's not really a very good translation. The Greek word is monē.

It means dwelling place or abiding place. If you have a reference in your column where Jesus said many mansions, it may say, as mine does, dwellings. In God's house are many dwellings.

Isaiah said over every dwelling place in Zion shall be the glory. And they are all covered together in the tabernacle, which would be the Father's house, the church. Now, if you'll look further in John 14, verse 23.

John 14, 23. Jesus answered and said to him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. The word home there is the same Greek word as in verse 2. Translated mansions.

Monē. Now, God has a home. God has a house.

That house is the church, the tabernacle of God, the body of Christ. In that house there are many homes, many dwelling places. The same word used both in verse 2 and in verse 23 of John 14.

There are many of these dwelling places of God in this house, and that's each of us. Jesus said, you'll be one of them if you love me and keep my commandments. We'll come and make our dwelling place in you.

So, as I understand the tabernacle in Isaiah 4, the tabernacle is the body of Christ corporately, and the dwelling places in Zion, Zion being the church also, another image of it, the dwelling places are you and me. And so Isaiah is predicting in Isaiah 4, 5, that in the new order, instead of the glory of the Lord and the presence of the Lord being centralized in one building, geographically, it will be in every person. Every person is a house.

Every person is a dwelling. Now, you might say, well, isn't it stretching things to call a person a house? Maybe some would say so, but I guess anyone who's acquainted with Scripture would not find it too strange. Jesus said, when an evil spirit goes out of a man, it goes through waterless places looking for another house.

When it comes back, if it finds the house it left empty, it moves back in with seven worse ones. That's in Matthew chapter 12. The closing verses, I think, of Matthew 12 give that little story.

But what's interesting is that Jesus just takes it for granted that one would see a human body as a house. A human body is a habitation of something. It can be a habitation of an evil spirit, or of eight evil spirits, or more, a legion even.

Or it can be the habitation of God. And so, to speak of your body as a place inhabited is not a strange idea in Scripture, nor is it in Isaiah here. Now, in the time we have left, which is limited, I want to talk to you about how this continues, the idea of the Exodus and its sequel.

I mentioned that after the Exodus, God brought them to Sinai, and two things happened there. One, we've just discussed, the tabernacle was built. There is a tabernacle, a new tabernacle, an antitypical tabernacle.

It mentioned in Isaiah, it is apparently the church. The Exodus being our salvation, the tabernacle constructed on the, as subsequently, as the body of Christ, the church in which we are. In addition to that, of course, when God brought them to Sinai, He entered into a covenant with them, which was a covenant likened to marriage.

It's not so much likened to marriage in Exodus chapter 20, when He made the covenant with them, or chapter 19. But in retrospect, the prophets saw Mount Sinai as the marriage ceremony between Israel the bride and God the husband. If you look, for example, at Jeremiah 31, Jeremiah speaks of a new covenant.

Isaiah does also, as we shall see, but the term new covenant comes from Jeremiah. An everlasting covenant and so forth is used in Isaiah, speaking of the same covenant. But the language of the new covenant is taken from Jeremiah 31.

And I'd like to show you that Jeremiah contrasts the new covenant, which is made in Christ at the Last Supper when Jesus said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. He contrasts that with the old covenant, as Jesus did, because it was in celebration of the Exodus and the old covenant that Jesus said that at the Passover meal. So it's like the new covenant is introduced in the context of the old covenant.

The old is passed, the new takes its place. Well, Jeremiah says in chapter 31, 31, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Now look at verse 32.

Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. That covenant is clearly the Sinaitic covenant. But look what he says about it in the next clause.

My covenant, which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. Now, here in retrospect, Sinai is seen as a marriage. God entered into covenant with them at Sinai, and they broke the covenant like an adulterous woman.

But God stayed faithful husband. I was a husband to them, but they broke the covenant. So the image of God being married to his people in a covenant relationship begins in the scripture at Sinai.

As the product of the exodus, there was a covenant made. Well, in Isaiah, there's also reference to this new covenant of which Jeremiah speaks. It is the counterpart of the covenant at Sinai.

It is the result of the new exodus that God will accomplish through Christ. There will be a new covenant as well. Old exodus was followed by an old covenant, followed by an old tabernacle.

In the prophets, there's a new exodus to be anticipated, which will be followed or connected with a new covenant and a new tabernacle. All of these things from the book of Exodus have their counterpart here. Let's look at what it says in Isaiah chapter 24.

This chapter, I told you, is the one that many people think is about the end of the world because of the frequent reference to the word earth in most translations. But if the word earth is translated as land, it suddenly doesn't look like the end of the world, but the end of Israel. And there's reason for that.

But we'll take this chapter as a whole another time. Just look at chapter 24 and verse 5. It says, Now here, God speaks of the land. I'm going to take this to be Israel.

Why? Well, partly because the earth has never had a covenant with God. The earth never had God's ordinances to break. They didn't break His laws nor did they ever hurt Him.

They didn't violate His covenant. They never had a covenant with God. Only Israel ever was in covenant with God.

And therefore, that God's complaint about these people is they broke His laws, His ordinances, and His covenant. It certainly points strongly in the direction of it being a picture of Israel. My own thoughts, as I've told you before, is that this particular punishment, this particular desolation, is that desolation which Daniel called the abomination of desolation, the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. And that being the case, it would mean to spell the end of the old order.

And that's when the new order was instituted. Now, what I'm pointing out here is that Isaiah indicates that it is as a result of the Jews violating the old covenant that God has had to make a new covenant. They have broken the everlasting covenant He made with them.

And therefore, they are not going to last forever, even though it would have been everlasting had they not broken it. It was potentially everlasting, but they've broken it and it's gone. Now, if you look at chapter 42 of Isaiah, Isaiah 42, 6, it says, As I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness, and I will hold your hand, I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people as a light to the Gentiles.

Now, he's speaking to somebody. Our translators have capitalized you, showing that they understand you to be Jesus. And if that is so, the Lord Jehovah is saying to Jesus, I will give you as a covenant to the people.

Now, in chapter 24, the Jews broke the covenant He gave them in the first place, but when Jesus comes, He will be given to be a new covenant. Kind of a strange construction of words that a person is a covenant, but then it's kind of a strange construction of words to say a person is a shelter from the storm or is a tabernacle or whatever. Now, I fully agree with the translators in this case in their use of capitalization, because verses 1 through 4 of this chapter, which obviously lead directly up to the verse we just read, are quoted in the New Testament as being a reference to Christ.

They're quoted in Matthew chapter 12, and that is seen in verse 18 to be a reference to Christ, the servant of Jehovah. So God speaks to Jesus and says, I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people. So here we have the new covenant is in Christ Himself.

Likewise, in chapter 49 of Isaiah, Isaiah 49 and verse 8, once again it is Jesus to whom these words are addressed. The Father speaks to Jesus and says, In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. This is speaking of God resurrecting Jesus on the day of His bringing about salvation.

I will preserve you and give you as a covenant to the people to restore the earth or possibly the land, to cause them to inherit the desolate heritages that you may say to the prisoners, Go forth, and to those who are in darkness, show yourselves. Now, to say to the prisoners, Go forth, this is like when God told the Jews to go forth out of Egypt, the prisoners, or later the Babylonian exiles to go forth out of Babylon. But this is a reference to Christ and the exodus He was going to accomplish.

But notice, a part of that exodus was that God would give Jesus to be a new covenant to His people, just as an old covenant was established at the first exodus. Look at Isaiah 55, verse 3. God says, Incline your ear and come to me, here and your soul shall live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies of David.

Now, here is the everlasting covenant. It is equated with the sure mercies of David. Now, the expression sure mercies of David may seem strange to our ears because it is unique.

It is not really used anywhere else in the prophets, the expression. And it is understood to mean the merciful things, the mercies that God promised to David. David said in Psalm 89, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever, meaning the merciful things God has done.

The sure mercies of David no doubt refer to the sure promises that God made to David. The mercy He was going to show to David's house by raising up his seed to replace him, the Messiah from his roots. And so, the everlasting covenant is established with the fulfillment of the Davidic promises.

If you look at Acts 13, Paul quotes this verse we just read in Isaiah and makes it clear the time frame and the event to which it refers. Acts 13, 34, Paul is preaching in Pisidian, Antioch and he is referring to the resurrection of Christ in his sermon to the Jews there in the synagogue. He says in Acts 13, verse 34, and that he raised him up from the dead, no more to return to corruption he has spoken thus, I will give you the sure mercies of David.

Now, there is only one verse in the Old Testament you could be referring to because that strange expression, the sure mercies of David is found only in Isaiah 55, 3. So, Paul is quoting deliberately from Isaiah 55, 3 and he says this was a prediction of the resurrection of Christ. He says as God raised up Jesus from the dead, He spoke this way. So, the resurrection of Christ is the fulfillment of Isaiah 55, 3. Which, as you will recall, says I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies of David.

This covenant is established upon Jesus' death and resurrection. Jesus himself being the covenant. To be in Christ is to be in covenant with God, in the new bride, the new marriage.

Now, there are several times, we don't have time to probably look at them all, that there is reference made to this. Well, I should. This covenant is not just to Israel.

I should look at it because there are some people who think, for instance, dispensationalists, when they read these passages in Isaiah about the covenant, a new covenant, they think it's made with Israel alone. That it's not the covenant that Jesus made with us, but it's a covenant that God will make with Israel in the millennium. But I think that that is not permitted by the way that the Bible speaks of these things.

If you look at Isaiah 61, verse 8, Isaiah 61, 8 says, For I, the Lord, love justice, I hate robbery for burnt offering. I will direct their work in truth, and I will make with them an everlasting covenant. Now, this everlasting covenant is what we read of in Isaiah 55, 3. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, the sure mercies of David.

It has to do with the new covenant made by Jesus through his death and resurrection. We would have understood that anyway from the context of Isaiah 61 because the opening verses are quoted by Jesus in the synagogue, and he said these verses have been fulfilled in your hearing. In other words, in Jesus' own lifetime, this prophecy came to be fulfilled.

And so this everlasting covenant is the covenant Jesus made. It's not something new. It's something he made at his first coming.

In chapter 59, verses 20 and 21, it says, The Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob, says the Lord. As for me, says the Lord, this is my covenant with them, my spirit who is upon you, that is apparently upon Christ, and my words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants' descendants, says the Lord, from this time and forevermore. This is an eternal thing, an eternal covenant.

It is related to the Redeemer coming from Zion. Paul quotes these verses, these two verses, in Romans chapter 11. And so we have no doubt as to their fulfillment.

Romans 11, 26. So the covenant has to do with Christ's first coming. It's the new covenant that we are now in.

In chapter 54 of Isaiah, we're going to try to wind this down on time, verses 9 and 10, it says, For this is like the waters of Noah to me. For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you. For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord, who has mercy on you.

Now what covenant is this? Dispensationalists say this is talking about God's covenant with Israel and how that he's going to keep his covenant forever and ever with the nation of Israel because it's like the covenant made to Noah, that God would never again send a flood. He never has done so, and he says this is like that. This is a permanent thing, never to be revoked.

However, what covenant is in view here? He calls it, in verse 10, the covenant of peace. We will find the expression covenant of peace used frequently in both Isaiah and Jeremiah. We'll look at them another time, and Ezekiel also.

Ezekiel, don't look there now, but write it down. Ezekiel 34, 25, and Ezekiel 37, 26. That's Ezekiel 34, 25, and Ezekiel 37, verse 26.

Both of those places speak of the Messiah coming the first time and establishing an everlasting covenant of peace. The covenant of peace it's called, just like here. It is the new covenant.

It's the covenant we have with God now. How do I know that? Look at verse 1 of chapter 54. Chapter 54, verse 1 says, Sing, O barren, you who have not born.

Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you who have not prevailed with child. For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman, says the Lord. The married woman is Israel.

She married God at Mount Sinai. The Gentiles had been desolate and childless, never born any seed for God. They were never married to God.

God had borne some seed for himself through the married woman, Israel, but the prediction is that the desolate, the fruitless, the Gentiles will produce more children for God than Israel ever did because they will be married to God. And that's what comes up later. We'll have to take in another lesson.

But how do I know that Isaiah 54 wanted to be interpreted that way? Because Paul interpreted it that way. In Galatians 4, 27. Galatians 4, 27.

Paul quotes this verse, this opening verse of Isaiah 54. And he applies it this way. He says the old covenant was with Israel, the new covenant is with us.

And God is going to have more children from us than from Israel. The church, the Gentiles, largely, have produced more children for God through the new covenant than the married wife, Israel, ever produced for God. And Paul applies this to the new covenant era.

And we should not be surprised because Isaiah 54, 1 is immediately following what? Isaiah 53, which is the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Isaiah 53 is the most famous chapter in Isaiah. It depicts the death of Jesus.

Therefore, it should not surprise us that the fruit of that is what is described in the very next verses. Jesus dies, Jesus resurrects, there's a new wife, a new covenant, and this new wife made up of Gentiles who have been desolate previously and never born children for God. They're going to actually produce more than God ever got out of Israel.

And therefore, this covenant of peace, this everlasting covenant, is that covenant which is Jesus, which is in Jesus. And so Isaiah throughout his book uses this imagery, the exodus, the tabernacle, the covenant, all of which hark back to the book of Exodus and the opening scenes of Israel's infancy, and applies them to something new, something spiritual. And that spiritual thing is a spiritual exodus, our deliverance from sin through the spiritual sacrifice of Christ, the Passover.

The spiritual tabernacle is the church, the habitation of God, and the spiritual covenant where we are in a covenant where the laws are written in our hearts, not on a table of stone. That's a spiritual covenant. Everything is spiritual.

Everything in the exodus, in the early history of Israel, is treated in the book of Isaiah as having a spiritual counterpart in the age of the Messiah. That age, as we see by cross-references in the New Testament, is now and is us. Okay, we're done with that.

We're going to have to stop there, and we'll move further into the meaning of various things in Isaiah later on. I know that's real quick and a whole bunch of far-out ideas thrown on you all at once and pulling you different ways. Any questions? Anyone need any clarification or anything? Okay, it's tight.

It's there. Yes, sir.