Hey my friends, it's Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible Hour Podcast. And we are doing a little side jount into the book of Isaiah. And it's not my fault. It's John the Baptist's fault. Because a bunch of religious leaders went out to talk to him and they were like, Who are you? Tell us who you are. We know you're the fulfillment of prophecy. Which one? Are you the Messiah? And he's like, Nope. Are you Elijah? Nope. Are you the prophet? Nope. Well, then who are you? We're required to take an answer back. And he says, I'm a voice, voice of one calling out in the wilderness, make straight the way for the Lord. This is a reference to the prophet Isaiah. And the prophet Isaiah has tons of stuff in it about the arrival of the Messiah and what the Messiah will do, how the Messiah will live, even how the Messiah will die. And yesterday we started a little quick journey through Isaiah for ourselves, following the breadcrumbs that John the Baptist is setting out for us to go and get a sense of what those predictions from 700 years earlier actually look like, so that we can be well positioned to read the book of John and understand what we're looking for when it comes to this Jesus stuff. All right, I'm gonna have Jeff play some music and then more Isaiah. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? Note the us. And I said, Here am I, send me. He said, Go and tell this people, be ever hearing but never understanding, be ever seeing but never perceiving, make the heart of this people calloused, make their ears dull and close their eyes. And you might listen to that and think, Well, what's the point of even doing the prophecy then? If you're supposed to go and tell them that and they're not going to listen. But again, remember that here we're in a cycle of judgment, and God is pronouncing judgment against his own people per the terms of the covenant he has with his own people. But then also remember that the Lord eventually he relents. And at the very end of the Old Testament, in a verse we've looked at again and again, in Malachi chapter 4, he says that the hearts of the people are going to be changed because Malachi 4, 5, see, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes, he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers. So we're dealing in the same kind of arena here as Isaiah gets his calling 700 years before the time of Jesus. And what we're seeing is that God hardens and softens hearts, and he does so associated with his deserved and righteous judgment. The people they were wrong, they had judgment coming. And also he softens hearts in times of demonstrating his grace and and his long suffering. If these themes are a little overwhelming to you, my strongest advice would just be uh read through the whole Bible a couple of times. That's the best way to get that Bible difficulty into focus. But what we're getting in John 12 is an allusion back to this stuff on the front end of Isaiah's ministry 700 years earlier, and we're being told that this glory is the glory of Jesus, what fancy theology people call the pre-incarnate Christ. I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple above him, where and then it talks about all the angels. So according to John, that's Jesus. And also Jesus is talking about stuff that points to Isaiah right here in John chapter 12. And so it looks kind of vaguely here in John like he is affirming that, but in Luke chapter 4, we get our smoking gun confirmation that Jesus confirms that Isaiah was writing about him. In Luke chapter 4, this is really early on in Jesus' public ministry. He goes up to Nazareth, where he grew up, and he goes on the Sabbath day, and he goes into the synagogue, and he stands up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written, The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. And if you were listening, when I read the stuff from Isaiah, that's Isaiah 61 that Jesus was reading from, then you know that's a pretty big deal that he says, Today the scripture is fulfilled in your hearing, because what he's saying is, Isaiah is about me. I am the one who was predicted. So we get this opening bit in Isaiah with this scene where Isaiah gets commissioned and his lips are cleaned by the cleansing power of God. It looks like we're getting a glimpse of the pre-incarnate Christ here. Because remember, I mean, what we're reading in John and the historic teaching of the church and the whole Bible is that God exists eternally in three persons. That I mean, it's it's not an accident that us language is being used by God as he talks about what the commissioning toward Isaiah is going to be. God the Father is not God the Son, God the Son is not the Holy Spirit, but God the Father is God, God the Son is God, God the Holy Spirit is God. That'll come into focus more as we keep working through John. So we're getting this early glimpse of the pre-incarnate Christ. It isn't like Jesus was made in four or five BC by God. The sun has always been, the Trinity has always been. He's the Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. There was no time when the sun did not exist. So we get this glimpse into all of that in Isaiah chapter six. And that's a pretty big deal in terms of prophecy, prediction, a peak behind the curtain. But then, in terms of Messiah stuff with Isaiah, it just keeps coming. And I think after John the Baptist quoted from Isaiah, I'm a voice of one calling out in the wilderness, those priests and Levites who were there, their wheels would have started turning. They would have started playing all of this back like a movie in their heads, like that scroll I described a couple days ago of the great prophet Isaiah, and they would have been like, Wow, that book says so much about the Messiah and what that's going to look like and how it happens. And indeed, in the very next chapter, therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Emmanuel. Emmanuel means God with us. Remember the theme of tabernacling with us and God being among us at the beginning of John chapter one. All of this is tied together. None of this is an accident. This is what Isaiah was pointing to. And John, with very few words, John the Baptist, has sent the religious leaders down this mental rabbit hole. You turn the page literally one time in this huge book of Isaiah, and we get more. Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past, he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles by way of the sea along the Jordan. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light on those living in the land of the shadow of death. A light has dawned. You've enlarged the nation and increased their joy. They rejoice before you, as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder. For as in the day of Midian's defeat, you've scattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, every warrior's boot used in battle, and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning and will be fuel for the fire. For, you're going to recognize this part, unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders, and he'll be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever, the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. Again, none of these passages would have been obscure or like news to the religious leaders who John the Baptist had just pointed toward Isaiah. Hey, you guys are here to solve the riddle of who I am and what God is doing and what's unfolding. Well, let me just point you in the right direction. Here's a quote. You know where that is? Go chase it down. I mean, it kind of reminds me of how sometimes people are trying to trick Sherlock Holmes in various iterations of that character's story. We'll give him a little tidbit here or there, and you or I look at it, and I'm like, I don't uh I don't know what that means. I don't understand what thread to pull on. But the clever rival of Holmes knows that he'll detect the thing and then he'll go right to it and start pulling on that thread to unravel the mystery. The game is afoot. The chase is on. Well, the game is afoot here. The religious leaders have been sent back through Isaiah, and I'm just kind of running through it forward in the same way that maybe their mind would have as they're processing it through. I hate to do this to you, but also I kind of don't. But we're gonna, I'm gonna take more time in Isaiah. I want to round out these thoughts. I want to look at all the really juicy stuff we get from Isaiah, pointing to the Messiah. And if it takes another day, well, we don't have anywhere to be. I'm gonna take another day with it, because this is crucial foundational setup. And if we don't get Isaiah, we don't get the exchange that we're looking at between John the Baptist and the religious leaders because he's saying that under the guys, hint hint, think about Isaiah. This is the key. This is where you need to put your brains if you want to understand what's happening right in front of you, and if you want the answers to the questions you're asking about what's happening in front of you. Isaiah, think about Isaiah. So if that's what John is trying to point them to, then we should probably take his advice as well and spend a little more time in Isaiah 2. All right, last day of Isaiah Ing. Next time around, we'll pick up right where we left off then. I'm Matt. This is the 10-minute Bible hour podcast. Let's do this again soon.