Isaiah 9 was a Harbinger for Israel

not The United States of America

A harbinger is a warning given ahead of time. Jonathan Cahn, A self styled Messianic Rabbi, published his out of context theory in 2012, eleven years after it supposedly took place. So, it is hardly a real harbinger.

There is also no hermeneutical reason for Mr. Cahn claiming that Isaiah 9-12 is a prophecy about The United States of America.  These Isaiah warnings were clearly a prophecy given to Jacob.

The view that reflects this kind of thinking is a much disparaged, ego-centric hermeneutic. Insert your time, your people or your place on the basis that you feel that you are too important not to be in the Bible. Cahn’s making it about America, because a few trees died on 9-11, is absurd.

We can draw a general typology from the Old Testament, in that the ancient people of Israel were unfaithful to God and were judged. Therefore, the church, that has also largely been unfaithful to God, will also face judgment.

However, our current economic problems caused by the banking collapse of 2008, is not unusual. These collapses happen every 50-70 years, going all the way back to the 1637AD Dutch Bulb collapse. Economic catastrophes may go back further but, records were not kept in the Dark Ages.

The reason we haven’t escaped from these cycles is that the Founding Fathers constructed our basic laws based on the British Common Laws of Bankruptcy. This economic model produces bubbles, as there is no restraint on our greed. The Biblical laws of Sabbatical years and Jubilee would have re-set the economy every seven and forty-nine years.  No Biblical harbinger is needed, all one needs to do is watch the Stock Market charts. (See Also: Jubilee and 2008 Banking Crisis)

 

Isaiah 9-12

The subject is the same all the way to the end of chapter 12: the destruction and restoration of His people. The prophecy is given to Jacob or the children of Israel.

The first seven verses is the very familiar passage of the Wonderful Councilor. It is the job description of the Messiah, and His restoration to David’s Throne. The last two chapters of the prophecy are the Great Branch of Jesse Prophecy. Sandwiched between these two Messianic prophecies is a long section on the rise of the Assyrian Empire. This is pronounced against The Ten Northern Tribes of Israel who have rejected the worship of the God of their Fathers. They had been worshiping the Assyrian god; and for this wickedness, God dooms them to be taken into the hands of the Assyrians.

Is. 9:1   But there will be no gloom for her that was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.  2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.  3 Thou hast multiplied the nation, thou hast increased its joy; they rejoice before thee as with joy at the harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.  4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, thou hast broken as on the day of Midian.  5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.  6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and for evermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this. 

Then we go into a warning against Jacob, NOT AMERICA.

Is. 9:8   The Lord has sent a word against Jacob, and it will light upon Israel; 9 and all the people will know, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in pride and in arrogance of heart:  10 “The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.”  11 So the LORD raises adversaries against them, and stirs up their enemies.  12 The Syrians on the east and the Philistines on the west devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away and his hand is stretched out still.  13 The people did not turn to him who smote them, nor seek the LORD of hosts.  14 So the LORD cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed in one day —  15 the elder and honored man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail;  16 for those who lead this people lead them astray, and those who are led by them are swallowed up.  17 Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over their young men, and has no compassion on their fatherless and widows; for every one is godless and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger is not turned away and his hand is stretched out still. 

The reference of sycamore trees for cedars is a reminder of the most prosperous time of a united Israel under the rulership of Solomon. Sycamores and cedars have no meaning to American culture or history.

And the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah. 1Kings 10:26. 

It is the Hebraic way of saying, “we can build it better, we can build it stronger”. It is meant to condemn the people of Israel for their arrogance. They believed in their hearts that they would be able to rebuild without the Lord’s involvement. The punishment for this will be exile at the hands of the Assyrians.

There is an illusion here to the beasts in The Revelation 12:4, “the elder and honored man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail.” False teaching is a monster. Because such false teaching was accepted by the Israelites, they were all condemned. The only possible lesson to apply to America would be as a typology that all the false teachers, those who do not rightly divide the word of truth, be cast out. [2 Tim. 2:15]

18 For wickedness burns like a fire, it consumes briers and thorns; it kindles the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke.  19 Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts the land is burned, and the people are like fuel for the fire; no man spares his brother.  20 They snatch on the right, but are still hungry, and they devour on the left, but are not satisfied; each devours his neighbor’s flesh,  21 Manasseh Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh, and together they are against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away and his hand is stretched out still. 

The northern tribes of Israel burned with wickedness. They not only turned against God but, they turned against their brothers in the southern tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin. There was constant treachery in these two kingdoms from the time of Solomon’s death until the fall of the northern tribes.

The prophecy does not stop here but goes on to explain that for their crimes they will fall to the Assyrians who will exile them to Media (modern day Iran). [2 Kings 17:6]

Is. 10:1 Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression,  2 to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!  3 What will you do on the day of punishment, in the storm which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth?  4 Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away and his hand is stretched out still. 

Not only were they rebellious to God but, their rebellion was written into their laws. There was no way out of this judgment for these tribes. They had not done justice to the widow and orphans so, the judgment was to be sure.

5  Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger, the staff of my fury!  6 Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.  7 But he does not so intend, and his mind does not so think; but it is in his mind to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few;  8 for he says: “Are not my commanders all kings?  9 Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?  10 As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols whose graven images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,  11 shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and her images?” 

If Mr. Cahn were consistent with his hermeneutics, one would expect an invasion of America from its neighbors, Mexico or Canada. That would be followed by the people of America being exiled.

In the warning, God points out that Calno, Carchemish, Hamath, Arpad, Samaria and Damascus will all fall to the Assyrian Empire. These populations were deported to the eastern edge of the Empire. Israel will not escape the same fate.

The Assyrians were to be God’s whipping stick to be used on His own people who were unfaithful to the God that brought them out of Egypt. The religion of the northern tribes had become the same as that of the Assyrians. This is what the Prophet Elijah had said when he asked them about there “limping between two opinions”, or as we would put it in English “sitting on the fence”.

And Elijah came near to all the people, and said,  “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.  1 Kings 18:21 

Just like many today, Israel’s faith was compromised with all manner of pagan ideas and rituals that were said to be traditional. They were not traditions of the Bible but, rather pagan myths and legends that the church was told to avoid. [Col. 2:8]

12   When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem he will punish the arrogant boasting of the king of Assyria and his haughty pride.  13 For he says: “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding; I have removed the boundaries of peoples, and have plundered their treasures; like a bull I have brought down those who sat on thrones.  14 My hand has found like a nest the wealth of the peoples; and as men gather eggs that have been forsaken so I have gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved a wing, or opened the mouth, or chirped.” Is. 10:12-14

The Lord makes it clear that He has appointed a time for Assyria as well, and they will not escape His wrath. That happened to them, as the conquering Greeks “Hellenised” them and they lost all of their former territory and cultural identity.

1   Shall the axe vaunt itself over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood!  16 Therefore the Lord, the LORD of hosts, will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors, and under his glory a burning will be kindled, like the burning of fire.  17 The light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame; and it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day.  18 The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land the LORD will destroy, both soul and body, and it will be as when a sick man wastes away.  19 The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few that a child can write them down. 

God reminds Assyria that they are just a tool in His hands. They will pass away from the stage of history. However, He will remember His people and they will come back like a burning fire.

20  In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean upon him that smote them, but will lean upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.  21 A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.  22 For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.  23 For the Lord, the LORD of hosts, will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth. 

The Remnant shall return. (See Also: Hos 14)

24  Therefore thus says the Lord, the LORD of hosts: “O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they smite with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did.  25 For in a very little while my indignation will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction.  26 And the LORD of hosts will wield against them a scourge, as when he smote Midian at the rock of Oreb; and his rod will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt.  27 And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke will be destroyed from your neck.”

Although the northern tribes of Israel are going to be exiled by the Assyrians, the Lord promises that the southern tribes of Judah will not be taken by the Assyrians.

 He has gone up from Rimmon,  28 he has come to Aiath; he has passed through Migron, at Michmash he stores his baggage;  29 they have crossed over the pass, at Geba they lodge for the night; Ramah trembles, Gibe-ah of Saul has fled.  30 Cry aloud, O daughter of Gallim! Hearken, O Laishah! Answer her, O Anathoth!  31 Madmenah is in flight, the inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety.  32 This very day he will halt at Nob, he will shake his fist at the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. 

The names of these towns are in Benjamin and are just north of Jerusalem. They would have been passed by the Assyrians, on their way to take Jerusalem. However, once they got to Jerusalem all they seemed to be able to do was shaking their fist. Assyria was not able to take Jerusalem because their army had fled in the night. [2 Kings 7:3-20]

Is. 10:33   Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts will lop the boughs with terrifying power; the great in height will be hewn down, and the lofty will be brought low.  34 He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe, and Lebanon with its majestic trees will fall.

The rest of the prophecy in chapters 11-12 is the great Branch of Jesse Prophecy.

None of this was a harbinger for America. These prophecies happened some 2700 years ago to Israel and Judah. There is no prophecy in all of Scripture that is about America. America is not the focus of God’s plan, Israel is. The great prophecies of the Bible found in Daniel and The Revelation are about the territories that were once controlled by the four great imperial nations, i.e. Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. [Dan. 2; 7; 8; Rev. 12; 17]