2nd
Advent Truths
The Path of the
Return … of Jesus Christ … The Son of God
Bible 1611.Com / Sluice Box Adventures.com / Old Paths Baptist Mission © 2014
1. The Parable
2. The Person of Interest
3. He Is Glorious … Fairer Than The Children of Men
4. He Is Travelling … On A Highway
5. He Is Mighty To Save … In The Wilderness
6. He Is Dressed In Red Clothes
7. He Is In The Winepress Alone
8. He Is Angry With The Nations
9. He Is The Redeemer
1. The Parable
Of this one thing, we all can be very sure, that we all from our very birth are the haters of God.
This is a very sad but a profoundly true indictment made by none other than by the Holy Ghost.
We can learn this truth by the Holy Spirit from reading the King James Bible [in the book of Romans] that, among other things all men are in fact … the “haters of God”. We are: “Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,” [Romans 1:30].
Now, why do we hate God?
We hate God because God is the ultimate authority in the entire universe [including over us], and we all [all men everywhere] want this very authority for ourselves, just as Satan wanted this authority for himself. Now, with this all said, we might say the top agenda for mankind is to get rid of the God of the Bible … so that we [all men everywhere] can be the boss over everything.
Therefore, we surmise [we imagine] that if we can only get rid of one particular Bible [The King James Bible of 1611, or any of its editions, including the 1769 edition, the one in your very hands], that we will be a long way down the road to the ridding of God out of our lives and of any remembrance of HIM. [Now, this is called DIVORCE].
Now, mind you, God saw this whole thing coming … beforehand. Yea, God saw this whole thing from the start to the finish. You might say, the thing was not hidden from HIM!
Is not this also what the Scripture says in the book of Hebrews? “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” [Hebrews 4:13]
Now, God often hides certain things from certain men. Did you know that? The BOOK will show you that! Read it for yourself in Luke ten, twenty-one: “In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.” [Luke 10:21]
The “wise” and the “prudent” people of this world … have had these “spiritual things” [1 Corinthians 2:13] hidden from them by design … through the use of a parable. This is why Jesus Christ would only speak to certain people through the use of parables, for reason … to leave them totally in the dark; while for others, it was revealed unto them the meaning of the parables, for reason … to give them light.
Now, notice this: only to the babes, [the “base things” of this world] … is it given to understand what God the Spirit saith to us. Consider now, with the light of the Epistle of First Corinthians, chapter one, verse twenty-eight, this truth: “And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence.” [1 Corinthians 1:28-29].
The bottom line is this: only the people … who are broken over their sin … who have come to Jesus Christ … will ever know the true meaning of the parables spoken by Jesus Christ. “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” [1 Corinthians 2:13]
This is why Jesus gave the disciples in the book of Luke this truth: “And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.” [Luke 8:10]
Jesus Christ [WHO is GOD “come in the flesh”, which see, in the book of John in John 1:1, 14: “the Word was made flesh”, and in the First Epistle of John: “Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:” 1 John 4:2], by way of a parable, [which is a representation of a spiritual truth], told us the true problem that all men have with God. It is simply this: we want for our very own … what belongs to the true owner, “that the inheritance may be ours”.
This true problem of ownership is shown to us in a certain “parable”, which is found three times in the New Testament in the gospels of Jesus Christ [in the book of Matthew chapter twenty-one, in the book of Mark chapter twelve, and in the book of Luke chapter twenty].
Now, here is the “parable” located in the book of Luke chapter twenty, verses nine through eighteen: “Then began he to speak to the people this parable; A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it forth to husbandmen, and went into a far country for a long time. And at the season he sent a servant to the husbandmen, that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard: but the husbandmen beat him, and sent him away empty. And again he sent another servant: and they beat him also, and entreated him shamefully, and sent him away empty. And again he sent a third: and they wounded him also, and cast him out. Then said the lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son: it may be they will reverence him when they see him. But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours. So they cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard do unto them? He shall come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others. And when they heard it, they said, God forbid. And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.” [Luke 20:9-18]
Now notice, the parable is about the relationship of a “certain householder”, or a “certain man”, to a group of men called the “husbandmen”.
In both accounts, in the book of Luke and of Mark, it is the “certain man” and the “husbandmen”, and in the book of Matthew, it is the “certain householder” and “the husbandmen”.
In all three cases, the “certain householder” or the “certain man” is shown to represent God and the “husbandmen” represent the men of this world.
In this relationship, the “certain man” is shown to own both “a vineyard” and “a winepress”, and the “certain man” has “let it out to husbandmen”. [Matthew 21:33] Notice, the job of the “husbandmen” was to tend the “vineyard” and to deliver “the fruit” of the “winepress” to the “certain man” who is the owner of the vineyard.
Further, the "husbandmen" reasoned within themselves that they could rid themselves of this hated relationship with the owner while he is away in “a far country.”
Is it getting too hot in the kitchen for you? Face it! We all can be likened to being the “husbandmen” in this “parable”. “Why … do you say this thing about us”? you ask.
My answer to you is this: “Why, it was this way from the beginning”. Look, see, for yourself in the book of Genesis [in the book of beginnings]: “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” [Genesis 2:15]
The first man on this earth was given the job “to dress the garden” by the OWNER of the garden.
Are you beginning to get the gist of what I am saying?
Adam was to “dress” the garden; Adam was therefore, the first husbandman.
God is the “householder”; God is therefore, the holder of the house.
God is the OWNER of the “vineyard”; God is therefore, the Authority to reckon with.
God is the patent OWNER of the “winepress”;
God is therefore, the PERSON of INTEREST.
Shortly after this assignment to the sons of Adam by ONE WHO is likened in the “parable” to being the “certain householder”, the thorns “also and thistles” of Genesis 3:18 came into our lives because of the transgression of Adam. Thus this truth is found in “the word of God” [Ephesians 6:17]: “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.” [Romans 5:14]
Now, what can we get from all this, thus far? We can get this. We “husbandmen” are R-E-B-E-L-S and we all hate God!
Now does this truth hurt you? Then, good, let it hurt you!
“Now what?”, you say. I say this to you “husbandmen”: Go to the PERSON OF INTEREST whose servants were beaten … in times past. [See for this in the book of Matthew 21:35, “And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.”], and whose son they killed … nearly two thousand years ago, and slew on the cross of Mount Calvary: [for this see Matthew 21:39: “And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.”]
Now, at this point in this message, we have the following:
The “husbandmen”, who are the sons of Adam [all men everywhere without Jesus Christ]. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” [1 Corinthians 15:22]
The “certain householder” is God, the creator and owner of all that is in the Heaven and Earth. “Thine, O Lord is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all.” [1 Chronicles 29:11]
The “vineyard” is the garden of this earth. The husbandmen were “to dress it and to keep it.” As Noah did: “And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard.” [Genesis 9:20]
The “winepress”, which is the meeting place for all those who hate the appearing of Jesus Christ. [Men will hide themselves from the Jesus Christ: “And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;” [Revelation 6:15].
Now, we will deal with the return of the “certain householder” to the vineyard of this earth to set up the Kingdom of Heaven. [Matthew 25:14] “For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.”
This “certain householder” is the PERSON OF INTEREST!
2. The Person of Interest
This message will begin now to focus on two passages in the book of Isaiah, which two passages are about one PERSON [the PERSON of INTEREST] … WHO is prophesied to come to this earth … at two different events in time which become history.
These two passages … denoting these two different events in the book of Isaiah … are both located in the book of Isaiah, in chapter fifty-three, and in chapter sixty-three.
[Note: the span of time between these ten chapters and these two events in Scripture is two thousand years.]
Isaiah chapter sixty-three, verses one through six: “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth.” [Isaiah 63:1-6]
3. He Is Glorious … Fairer Than The Children of Men
“Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel,” [Isaiah 63:1a]
Who is this? Who is this PERSON OF INTEREST that will be coming in the near future from Bozrah of Edom [which is located in the present day nation of Jordan]? [This is an important question!] Why, it is the same PERSON OF INTEREST WHO is shown in Isaiah, chapter fifty-three, in verse three, as being the ONE WHO is “despised and rejected of men” … “a man of sorrows“ … from WHOM we all “hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
See this same PERSON OF INTEREST in verse four [Isaiah 53]: “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” [Isaiah 53:4]
Now, are you starting to see WHO this PERSON OF INTEREST is?
Read on, my friend, in verse five: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” [Isaiah 53:5]
This glorious PERSON OF INTEREST in Isaiah chapter sixty-three is the very same PERSON OF INTEREST that is in Isaiah chapter fifty-three.
At this point, we are ready for verse six [in Isaiah 53]. Here is my question for you. What are you and I both guilty of [and not just Israel] … in regard to this PERSON of INTEREST? It is this: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” [Isaiah 53:6]
* We have rebelled against God.
* We have rejected HIM!
Now has this BOOK got your number?
Is not this thing true for us all?
Now, note this. This GLORIOUS PERSON, WHO will be coming soon from Bozrah … is the very same PERSON OF INTEREST WHO was in time past “oppressed” and “afflicted”, [Isaiah 53:7] and WHO “opened not his mouth” as HE was “brought as a lamb to the slaughter", “as a sheep before her shearers” nearly two thousand years ago.
Further: “He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.” [Isaiah 53:8]
For Israel, and yes, for us Gentiles, too, this PERSON OF INTEREST was “stricken”. “And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.” [Isaiah 53:9]
Now, watch this: “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.” [Isaiah 53:10]
This PERSON of INTEREST is coming again to this earth. He Is Glorious!
HE is fairer than the children of men! HE is majestic!
“Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things.” [Psalm 45:2-4]
4. He Is Travelling … On A Highway
Now, notice, this also, this PERSON OF INTEREST is “… travelling in the greatness of his strength?” [Isaiah 63:1b]
Travelers often travel on a “highway”. A “highway” is a main road … and often a road raised-up to provide a dry way for “traveling” between the major towns and cities in any land.
The first instance of the word “highway” in the Bible is found in the book of Judges in chapter twenty-one, verse nineteen: “Then they said, Behold, there is a feast of the Lord in Shiloh yearly in a place which is on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.” [Judges 21:19] The people used this “highway” to go up to “the feast of the Lord”.
Now, there is still a “highway” even after the Kingdom of Heaven is established here on this earth. There are several things about this “highway” we shall see:
* There will be a “highway” during the millennial Kingdom of Heaven wherein the people travel all the way from Egypt to Assyria … according to Isaiah the prophet: “In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land:” [Isaiah 19:23-24].
* This “highway” will be “the way of holiness” in the Kingdom of Heaven; a highway for the righteous to travel for a thousand years, which see in the book of Isaiah: “And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.” [Isaiah 35:8]
* This “highway” will exist [before the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven] during the seven years of “Jacob's trouble” for the “salvation” for the Jewish people: “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.” [Jeremiah 30:7]
* This “highway” will be the path of “the remnant of the people” returning to the land of Israel at the end of the Great Tribulation [Matthew 24:21]. We have this view of this “highway” in the book of Isaiah in chapter eleven, verse sixteen: “And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.” [Isaiah 11:16]
* This “highway” will be prepared by God for the returning of the people of Israel to their capital city of Jerusalem at the very end of the Tribulation. Which see for this the book of Isaiah, chapter sixty two, verses ten through twelve: “Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the Lord: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.” [Isaiah 62:10-12]
* This “highway” will also be prepared for the return of THE LORD Jesus Christ, “for our God”, to the city of Jerusalem at the very end of the Tribulation. “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” [Isaiah 40:3]
Now, there is something else about this
“highway”: the hearts of the people
will be toward this “highway”. See
Jeremiah chapter thirty-one, verse twenty-one:
“Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps:
set thine heart toward the highway, even the way
which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel,
turn again to these thy cities.” [Jeremiah
31:21]
In summary: this “highway”
will be the path or route whereby the Son of God
takes to Jerusalem of Israel from the Sinai with
“with ten thousands of saints” at the end of the
seven years of “Jacob's trouble” in
order to establish the Kingdom of Heaven.
Now, notice an amazing thing. The prophecy of this event through Moses the prophet was prophesied 3500 years before the event ever happens in the book of Deuteronomy chapter thirty-three, verse two: “And he said, The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.” [Deuteronomy 33:2]
“Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel,” [Isaiah 63:1a]
This PERSON OF INTEREST … WHO is coming from Edom … WHO is glorious in his apparel … and WHO is traveling on a “highway” … came from “the sides of the north” beyond the universe to Sinai. Psalm 48:2: “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.”
[The “certain householder” is coming back!]
From Sinai this PERSON OF INTEREST will travel on the “highway” to conduct the long-planned BUSINESS with Moab, with Edom and with Philistia.
Moab, Edom and Philistia will get their long deserved just dessert.
The LORD will go forth with his hosts [“with ten thousands of saints”] to do business with his enemies … in response to the prayers of his people in the wilderness of this world: “Wilt not thou, O God, who hast cast us off? and wilt not thou, O God, go forth with our hosts? Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man. Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.” [Psalm 108:11-13]
“Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe; over Philistia will I triumph.” [Psalm 108:9]
“Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom?” [Psalm 108:10]
“But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth: and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet: And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him, saith the Lord.” [Amos 2:2-3]
“I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.” [Numbers 24:17 ]
God takes notice of any people of any nation, how they treat “the apple of his eye” [Israel]. God took notice of a particular nation [and the people of that nation] in the day that they refused to allow Israel safe passage through their land from the “wilderness” to the land of Canaan.
This refusal of passage forced Israel to compass or go around the long way around the land of Edom. “Then they went along through the wilderness, and compassed the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, but came not within the border of Moab: for Arnon was the border of Moab.” [Judges 11:18]
Pay day [the judgment of God] will come to Edom when the Son of God [Jesus Christ] travels on “the highway” in “the wilderness” towards Jerusalem.
Now, read for this, Isaiah chapter thirty-four, verses five through eight: “For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea. And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness. For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.”[Isaiah 34:5-8]
5. He Is Mighty To Save … In The Wilderness
“I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” [Isaiah 63:1c]
In THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS by John Bunyan we have: “In the Similitude of a Dream”, a “wilderness”:
“As I walked through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place where was a Den , and I laid me down in that place to sleep: and, as I slept, I dreamed a dream. I dreamed, and behold, I saw a man clothed with rags, standing in a certain place, with his face from his own house, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back.”
This scene is a picture of the sinner. “For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?” [Romans 3:7]
If we walk in the wilderness of this world, my question would be this: how did this world become a wilderness? Who made it a wilderness?
The Bible indeed … has the answer.
According to the prophet Isaiah, Satan made the world a wilderness: “They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?” [Isaiah 14:16-17]
The DEVIL is at the bottom of this whole thing; he made this world as a wilderness.
Something else is here: It is Satan that keeps us as prisoners in the “wilderness” of this world. “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” [2 Corinthians 4:4]
Now, we all walk in the “wilderness” of this old world.
Do you believe that?
Now, the word “wilderness” is a very interesting word. The word “wilderness” appears 293 times in your King James Bible. Take note of the following instances of the word: “wilderness”.
The Israelites wandered in a “wilderness” for forty years for a reason: to be humbled and proved so as to reveal what was in their hearts toward God. “And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.” [Deuteronomy 8:2]
The Israelites were fed bread from heaven in a “wilderness” for forty years for a reason: “Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end;” [Deuteronomy 8:16]
The Israelites were clothed with clothes in a “wilderness” for forty years that would not wear out for a supernatural reason: “And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.” [Deuteronomy 29:5]
God nurtured [“found”, “led” and “instructed”] the people of Israel … in a desert … “the waste howling wilderness” of a land. “He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.” [Deuteronomy 32:10]
God met with them [Moses and the people of Israel] … “in the church” … “in the wilderness”, according to Stephen in the book of the Acts of the Apostles: “This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:” [Acts 7:38]
We are in fact in the hands of God. Indeed we are all made “to wander in a wilderness” of this world from our birth to our death.
Notice these things about God located in Job chapter twelve: “He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them: he enlargeth the nations, and straiteneth them again. He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.” [Job 12:23-25]
Now, being in the “wilderness” is not all bad. Good things can come while we are in “the pastures of the wilderness”. “Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness. They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness: and the little hills rejoice on every side.” [Psalm 65:11-12]
It is when we get to the very bottom of ourselves in the wilderness of this world that we will come before God to pray and seek HIS righteousness through Jesus Christ: “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved. But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities. But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people. Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste. Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O Lord? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?” [Isaiah 64:4-12]
Who is this PERSON coming out of “the wilderness” in the Song of Solomon? “Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant?” [Song of Solomon 3:6]
HE is the PERSON of INTEREST!
Who is this PERSON coming up from “the wilderness”? “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth that bare thee.” [Song of Solomon 8:5]
We must wait on God till HE makes “the wilderness” a “fruitful field” instead of the place of destruction of the people, which thing is the product of “the god of this world” … the Devil. [2 Corinthians 4:4] “Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field.” [Isaiah 32:15-16]
One day very soon there will be a “voice” heard “in the wilderness” that will be “a highway for our God”: “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” [Isaiah 40:3]
This way will be “a new thing” for all to behold: “a highway” through the desert of “the wilderness” from Sinai to Paran … to give sustenance [or drink] to people [Israel] hiding in the “wilderness”.
This is that very thing we see in the book of Isaiah and in the book of Hosea: “Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.” [Isaiah 43:19-20]
Comfort will soon come to a people taking refuge in “the wilderness”. “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.” [Hosea 2:14-15]
The fulfillment of Hosea 2:14-15 comes in the Tribulation when the Jews flee to the wilderness. This fulfillment is recorded in the book of Revelation, as seen in these following passages of the Scripture: “And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.” [Revelation 12:6]
Now, see verses fourteen through seventeen: “And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” [Revelation 12:14-17]
This is the spectacle that the world will observe in much trepidation [both in horror and in anger]. The LORD will go forth with his hosts “with ten thousands of saints” to do business with his enemies … in response to the prayers of his people … in the wilderness of this world: Scripture with Scripture.
For Jesus Christ’s march through the wilderness on a highway prepared of God, note this in Psalm sixty-eight: “O God, when thou wentest forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness; Selah:” [Psalm 68:7]
And HIS enemies [and Israel’s enemies] will bow before HIM, and they will “lick the dust” of the earth … in Psalm seventy-two: “They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust.” [Psalm 72:9]
Leviathan [a type of the Devil] will take it in the chops, and he becomes “meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness”.
The “lamb” will work a mighty salvation in the wilderness “to the people inhabiting the wilderness.”: “Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion.” [Isaiah 16:1] “Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.” [Psalm 74:14]
It is getting clearer now!
The route Jesus Christ takes to establish HIS throne in Zion [Jerusalem here on this earth] is from Zion [in Heaven], which is: “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King” [Psalm 48:2], to the Sinai, to the wilderness of Paran [Genesis 21:21], to Teman and Bozrah of Edom [also called Seir] [Genesis 32:3]] to do business with “the house of the wicked ”. [Ezekiel 25:13]
See for this Habakkuk chapter three, verses twelve and thirteen: “God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed; thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the neck. Selah.” [Habakkuk 3:12-13]
6. He Is Dressed In Red Clothes
“Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat?” [Isaiah 63:2]
Notice the “red” “apparel”. These “garments” are soaked in the “winefat”. The “winefat” [in this case] is blood. This blood is not the blood of Mount Calvary. It is the blood of “the house of the wicked”. It is the blood of the inhabitants of Moab, Edom and Philistia, and all those nations gathered against Jerusalem in the “great tribulation”. [Matthew 24:21]
7. He Is In The Winepress Alone
“I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me:” [Isaiah 63:3a]
There are certain things only God Himself will do alone. Only God [WHO was manifest in the flesh] could do what was accomplished on the Cross of Calvary when the Son of God’s “blood” atoned for the sins of all men everywhere. “And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.” [Romans 5:11]
God commanded us [Christians] in the age of GRACE by the Holy Ghost “word of God” not to “avenge” ourselves: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” [Romans 12:19]
"Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”
God will tread this “winepress” ALONE!
8. He Is Angry
“… for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.” [Isaiah 63:3b]
The “wilderness” will be the place of refuge while Jesus Christ, the Son of God tramples in “the winepress” the inhabitants of the “house of the wicked”. “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.” [Isaiah 26:20], “And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.” [Revelation 14:20] Judgment is coming! Jesus Christ is returning to punish the inhabitants of this earth. Amen!
“For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.” [Isaiah 26:21]
“Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.” [Zechariah 14:1-3]
The “times of the Gentiles” will be coming to an end soon. [Luke 21:24] The time of Jacob’s trouble is … almost here. The nations of this world will be gathering to battle in the Middle East to the controversial center of this planet Earth to fight against the God of Heaven.
What the inhabitants of this earth did not want … they will most certainly get! For God has a set mind in this according to Psalm 2: “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.” [Psalm 2:8-9]
9. He Is The Redeemer
“For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me.” [Isaiah 63:4-5]
It is clear now:
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. [Jehovah – come in the flesh].
The 2nd Advent of Jesus Christ to this earth is coming very soon.
The Son of God is coming to Zion [Jerusalem of Israel] to establish the one thousand year Kingdom of Heaven.
The route [or path] Jesus Christ takes to establish the throne in Zion [Jerusalem on Planet Earth] starts in Zion of “the sides of the north” [Zion in Heaven], then in “a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” transits to the planet Earth to “the wilderness of Sinai” [Exodus 19:1], then next, “the wilderness of Paran”, then to Teman and to Bozrah of Edom [Seir] and finally, to Jerusalem, the geographical center of the Earth.
Jesus Christ in route will tread in the winepress of the wrath of God [and simultaneously] will deliver the people of Israel in the wilderness with a mighty salvation: “that she [or the people of Israel] might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.” [Revelation 12:14]
The redeemer is coming to redeem that which has been purchased. See Exodus 15:16, and Ruth 4:10. “Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.” [Psalm 74:2]
The “arm” of the redeemer will set at liberty those who were the captives. The “year of my redeemed is come” to this earth.
The redeemer is the “person of interest” … we are all waiting for … to come.
The PERSON of INTEREST … is Jesus Christ!
All the foregoing, represent 2nd Advent Truths!
Amen!