The same, central underlying prophetic storyline for our last days time period as seen through the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and as discussed previously on this site, is also told through the prophet Isaiah. Actually, this story was told first by Isaiah, preceding his major prophet peers by about 100 years. Simply put, this is the story of God bringing down an evil anti-Christ kingdom and re-establishing his own Kingdom along with his own inheritance and his son Jesus Christ on the throne.
So, in the book of Isaiah, we see familiar last days prophetic events leading up to this. Major last days events such as the kingdom war, the day of the Lord (God’s judgment), God’s harvest of his people, his people ‘Israel’s regathering and set up for the Millennial Kingdom, a “new heavens and new earth,” are all addressed. Through Isaiah, God many times reminds us of his sovereignty in accomplishing these things; and in fact we are given detail of the Lord himself on earth in these last days to fight and win the kingdom war to deliver his people. God does this for himself and for his own name.
Almost all of these major prophetic events I have addressed in detail in previous passages on this site. Accordingly, in this passage (Part 1), as I did in my writings on Jeremiah and Ezekiel, I will focus on the person of Isaiah himself and the unique prophetic signs that we are given through him. For the most part, these signs of Isaiah are given in the first (approximately) half of his scroll. In the second half of the book of Isaiah (Ch. 40 forward), God tells of the deliverance and restoration for his people Israel as it is shown through the story of his ‘Jacob’-Judah remnant. (I will address unique aspects of this in Part 2).
Meanwhile, the major sections of this passage (Part 1) include:
- Isaiah himself as a last days figure
- Prophetic signs given through Isaiah
I will address both of these sections in detail below.
Isaiah himself as a last days figure
To begin, Isaiah’s name means “Yahweh is salvation.” His writings begin with the ‘Daughter of Zion’ who is made desolate and is abandoned due to the corrupt, oppressive house of Israel, and his writings end with a description of her salvation and establishment as a heavenly kingdom queen-mother of God’s inheritance. Her story is a symbol of fulfillment of God’s answer to his righteous peoples’ prayers for salvation and deliverance, and her story represents the following fulfillment through Jesus who repeated Isaiah’s prophetic words in referring to his own earthly mission:
- “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn.” (Is 61:1-2)
This is the Lord returning to save his remnant people- the ‘Daughter of Zion’s inherited children- in the kingdom war. Jesus did this once, and he will return again soon to put an exclamation point on this.
Isaiah’s commission
Isaiah’s personal story and mission is directly applicable to our current end times period. After a heavenly vision that reminds one of Ezekiel’s visions, in which Isaiah says, “I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne…” (Is 6:1), and while in the presence of Seraphim, Isaiah hears God’s need to reach his people with a stern message. Isaiah responds, “Here am I, send me” (Is 6:8).
As a vessel of God’s salvation, Isaiah is commissioned by God to communicate a warning message to his corrupt, sinful people (i.e. “seed of evildoers,” “children of corruption”) that is very similar to that which the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel would eventually communicate approximately a century later.
Isaiah prophetically and ominously tells his people to “hear and understand not” and “see and perceive not.” God told Isaiah to communicate this message until the “cities (are) left without inhabitant and the cities without man…” (Is 6:11). This has a clear end times implication for our last days time period. Perhaps it is also symbolized by not knowing events surrounding the end of Isaiah’s physical life, just as we do not know the circumstances surrounding the end of Jeremiah’s or Ezekiel’s lives. So, Isaiah’s persona is one that is eternal and his message is one that is applicable through the end of the age.
In the latter half of the book of Isaiah, the persona whom God addresses morphs into end times ‘Jacob’ who we know, in a shift from Isaiah’s original commission, serves to open the eyes and ears of his remnant (Is 42:16) so that they can be delivered in the last days. (This represents the clear distinction in the two parts of the book of Isaiah, which I alluded to earlier. I will address lessons learned for ‘Jacob’s remnant through Isaiah in Part 2.)
Isaiah sent to the house of Jacob
As was the case with the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Isaiah prophetically spoke to the entire house of Israel (Jacob) audience of his day; again, meaning that his words, depending on prophetic context, can apply for last days ‘Babylon’-U.S. and/or the country of Israel. Also like his major prophet peers, his last days persona is one as a member of the ‘Jacob’-Judah remnant. His personal identification with this remnant is seen as follows, including the latter scripture from Isaiah’s vision of God appealing to his transgressing people of Judah/Jerusalem:
- “And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.” (Is 8:17)
- “O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.” (Is 2:5)
We know from Isaiah that the last days house of Jacob comes from the “waters of Judah” (Is 48:1). It is possible that Isaiah himself was of Judah tribal lineage according to some ancient rabbinical sources. A few other distinct Judah remnant-centric indicators that appear in the book of Isaiah include prophetic end times references to house of David members such as: a “shoot,” “root,” or Branch of Jesse; men of the Judah vine (including a corrupt vine); and the Daughter of Zion as a last days person and representative of mount Zion- God’s holy hill that the royal Judah remnant will inherit.
Given that Isaiah speaks prophetically as a symbolic member of this last days ‘Jacob’-Judah remnant, his message and signs apply especially for ‘Babylon’-U.S. (i.e. as is seen is his vision “for the burden of Babylon”) since this is where this remnant resides prior to their return to the holy land. Isaiah, in representing this remnant, admits that he is a “man of unclean lips in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Is 6:5). This certainly sounds like a reference to the strange Chaldean, coded-language spoken in ‘Babylon’-U.S. Referring to end times ‘Babylon’-U.S., God prophetically told Isaiah to go and set a “watchman” to warn (Is 21:6), just as we saw with Jeremiah and Ezekiel. This act foreshadows the destruction that is soon coming to ‘Babylon’-U.S.
As is sometimes the pattern in last days prophecy and with Israel’s other prophets, and as when a more broad meaning for ‘Jacob’ is implied, Isaiah’s words also have meaning for the country of Israel. At one point in his scroll, Isaiah’s prophetic word concerns “Judah and Jerusalem” (Is 2:1). Related to Judah (country of Israel, i.e. the “valley of vision”), and the end times trouble and perplexities that will come upon that country and its leaders, Isaiah laments:
- “Therefore said I, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, labour not to comfort me, because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people.” (Is 22:4)
This is the Lord showing Isaiah his uncovering of the vast iniquities and breaches in that country’s current last days version of the house of David, which we know belong to the Chaldean world system and have been accomplices in the persecution and plundering of the “daughter of God’s people” and the ‘Jacob’-Judah remnant in ‘Babylon’-U.S.
Isaiah here is lamenting his vision of a future “day of trouble, and of treading down,” one in which the “fortress of the high fort of thy walls” will be broken down.” Again, all of this in both tone and context is very similar to prophecies given by Jeremiah and Ezekiel. In a message given by God through Isaiah to this corrupt house, Isaiah says:
- “And it was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord God of hosts.” (Is 22:14)
While I have discussed in detail elsewhere on this site punishment that will come onto the primary house of Israel and its havens of ‘Babylon’-U.S. and the country of Israel, I use these examples above to demonstrate and reinforce the scope and last days prophetic timing of Isaiah’s message as well as Isaiah’s last days persona as a member of the ‘Jacob’-Judah (house of ‘Jacob’) remnant.
Isaiah’s signs and symbols of end times events
Isaiah’s personal life also contains certain prophetic signs through which we can decipher last days meaning. In this section, I will discuss these signs as they relate to end times “birthings,” enemy assaults, and Isaiah’s vision for ‘Babylon.’
The meaning of birthings
Signs given through Isaiah and his life have further meaning for understanding events in our end times. As such, I have previously discussed Isaiah’s children about whom he says:
- “Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of hoses, which dwells in mount Zion.” (Is 8:18)
Isaiah’s son Shearjashub who is only briefly mentioned has a name that means “a remnant will return.” And recall that Isaiah’s name means “Yahweh is salvation.” So these two names combined give us a picture of the situation I described earlier as the primary prophetic theme in the book of Isaiah where the ‘Daughter of Zion’ as a symbol of God’s remnant is initially desolate and in captivity and but is ultimately saved and restored back to the land.
Next, God said “hear ye O house of David,” and gave king Ahaz, whom Isaiah counseled, the sign of the birth of ‘Immanuel’ (God with us), born of a virgin, and who was also a prophetic sign. His birth signaled that both kings of the land that king Ahaz “abhors” (northern kingdom of Israel, Syria), also representing today’s ‘northern kingdom’ (‘Babylon’-U.S.), would be “forsaken” before ‘Immanuel’ knows how to choose the good from the bad.
In this same stanza of text, Isaiah’s wife then birthed Mahershalalhashbaz, whose name means “hasten to plunder.” In scripture, we are told that before this child learns to cry to his mother or father that the land (prophetically representing today’s ‘northern kingdom,’ ‘Babylon’-U.S.) will be plundered by the invading Assyrian.
The significance of these two “birthing” events, along with Zion’s associated labor pains, assuming both are to the “prophetess,” the ‘Daughter of Zion,’ Isaiah’s (persona’s) wife, is that the time between these two birthings could be inferred to be an approximate 3-3 ½ years length of time. I have stated previously that this could be a time period roughly representing the first half of the Tribulation period. Then, at the middle of the seven-year Tribulation period, we know that the ‘Daughter of Zion’ births the manchild Jesus in what is his re-birthing. Thus, it may not be a coincidence that the next sequential “birthing” in scripture in the book of Isaiah following the ones above is the child born whose name is called, “Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Is 9:6).
(For our purposes in this passage, the signs of these birthings is of the events that appear to take place in the first half of the Tribulation period- and I will reference this same time period again in additional signs through scripture below).
Signs through enemy alliances and assaults
Isaiah and his son above were counsel to king Ahaz of Judah just before the story above of symbolic birthings. The prophetic picture here is one of God using the Assyrian as his rod of judgment on the land of the northern kingdom of Israel as a result of the kings of Syria and Israel, and their confederacy against the house of David. We are told that they had “taken evil counsel against it.” (This is a very likely also a “picture” of certain ‘northern kingdom,’ ‘Babylon’-U.S. kings in our last days time period who take evil counsel against the small flock ‘Jacob’-Judah remnant in the U.S., which will result in God’s judgment).
King Ahaz himself, however, was a corrupt, false-god worshiping king. He had pledged allegiance to the Assyrians and their gods for their help against his surrounding enemies. They helped only a little, even though Ahaz had given them treasures out of the house of the Lord. As a result, God had him “brought low” by his northern neighbors. God’s following words also warned about a future invasion that would come onto the land of Judah as follows:
- “The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.” (Is 7:17)
The next king of Assyria, Sannacherib, invaded Judah during Ahaz’s son’s, Hezekiah’s reign. This is the next sign that we have through Isaiah’s life. At this time king Hezekiah was approached by Sannacherib who was asking for an alliance with Judah, and was threatening Hezekiah and his people. Isaiah’s counsel reassured a fearful Hezekiah to “be not afraid” and that the Assyrian would “not shoot an arrow” here (in Jerusalem). (This situation is somewhat of a near-term fulfillment of the prophecy for Judah above, but it also gives us a “picture” of the current last days ‘Assyrian’ who will invade ‘Babylon’-U.S., but will not approach the small ‘Jacob’-Judah remnant who will reside in the “wilderness,” in a state of protected captivity, at this time. I will discuss elements of this remnant’s protection in Part 2).
An additional prophetic sign in king Hezekiah’s day for this last days ‘Jacob’-Judah remnant in ‘Babylon’ is found in God addressing the small remnant in Hezekiah’s Jerusalem:
- “And this shall be a sign unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such as groweth of itself; and the second year that which springeth of the same: and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof.” (Is 37:30)
God prophetically explained here that the protected remnant that is “escaped” out of the house of Judah shall “take root” and “bear fruit” at thist time. Perhaps this is related to the “birthings” above. This could also represent the last days ‘Jacob’-Judah remnant’s beginning of “expanding its tents,” so to speak.
Meanwhile, in the harvest-related scripture above, note the approximate two-year timeframe that is implied during which regular planting and reaping does not occur. This is very likely representative of a time period that is within the tumultuous three-year window above during which the ‘Assyrian’ and his forces invade and plunder the land of ‘Babylon’-U.S. While this is the time of the aforementioned “birthings,” it is a time of war and therefore is not conducive to business-as-usual.
Isaiah’s captivity
To continue examining this timeframe (i.e. the first half of the Tribulation period), another sign given in Isaiah’s life was when he was instructed by God to walk naked and barefoot for three years as a “sign and wonder” upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia. (Keep in mind here that Isaiah’s last days ‘Jacob’-Judah remnant persona resides in ‘Babylon’-U.S.). This sign represents a time of captivity for Isaiah that is this same tumultuous time of war. This is very likely also the same time period when the prophet Ezekiel as the end times son of man in ‘Babylon’-U.S. is laying on his side, in bands, unable to talk, and eating defiled food.
So, while there will likely be literal, significant last days meaning and impact for the modern day countries of northern Africa (Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan, etc.), what also has clear meaning in the book of Isaiah is the consequences of God’s people’s mistake of depending on and being heavily deceived by false gods and idols of ‘Egypt,’ which will be revealed during this time and will be a source of their confounding and confusion. I will address this in more detail in Part 2. This ultimately brings God’s punishment onto his house of Israel.
I mention the sign of Isaiah’s captivity because it reinforces his last days persona as a ‘Jacob’-Judah remnant member as well as the continuing theme of a tumultuous three year time period (or approximately the first half of the Tribulation period).
Isaiah’s last days signs specific to ‘Babylon’-U.S.
Related to the signs above are the direct end times signs given by Isaiah about end times ‘Babylon’-U.S. the U.S. These are described as the “burden of Babylon,” which Isaiah did see, again inferring Isaiah as an end-times ‘Jacob’-Judah remnant member. Isaiah said about this time that he saw a “grievous vision,” including a “treacherous dealer dealing treacherously” (Is 21:2), which I have mentioned before could have to do with some kind of peace agreement/covenant involving leaders of ‘Babylon’-U.S., Israel, and many other nations. Isaiah said about this vision, hearkening to related signs of birthings described above:
- “Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it.” (Is 21:3)
This is the time that we are told “the day of the Lord” is at hand. This is likely the time that the aforementioned peace agreement unravels and ‘Babylon’-U.S.’s and the country of Israel’s leaders are caught in a trap that reveals their corruption. I have explained prior how this will bring God’s punishment (via war) on the country of Israel. And about ‘Babylon’-U.S., we are told in Isaiah:
- “And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.” (Is 21:9)
- “And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.” (Is 13:19)
So altogether, to summarize in this section, through Isaiah’s signs of children “birthed,” the picture of enemy kings versus Judah and its leaders, Isaiah’s own captivity, and direct visions of Isaiah about ‘Babylon’-U.S. falling, we see events through the eyes of God’s small flock remnant that take place in the first half of the Tribulation period.
Keep in mind that what happens to ‘Babylon’-U.S. closely mirrors that which happens to the country of Israel and vice versa, very likely during the same general period of time. This is shown across all three major prophets. While there is much overlap between them, Jeremiah and Ezekiel appear to have slightly more specific application to today’s country of Israel whereas Isaiah’s prophecy appears to be slightly more slanted toward ‘Babylon’-U.S.
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In conclusion, Isaiah’s personal and prophetic story gives us additional signs and clues about events that will take place in our current last days time period, especially as these will be seen through the eyes of God’s small flock ‘Jacob’-Judah remnant, of which Isaiah’s persona is a member. In Part 2, I will address the lessons learned according to scripture in the book of Isaiah that are particularly applicable for this last days remnant, but are also valuable and have significant meaning to all other Jesus Christ believers in understanding and keeping faith once very hard times in the Tribulation period come upon the whole earth.
Grace & Peace,
Lion’s Lair (LL)
Lion's Lair 