I am currently unable to continue the daily meditations as had been planned due to serious medical problems but will return to the meditations as soon as my medical condition improves. Improvement has begun but is very slow. Please pray.

Some may have noticed my daily meditations have been anything but daily lately. I have been having some severe medical problems that prevent me from being able to sit at the computer. Three days ago I ended up in the hospital emergency room and am still in serious condition, though not hospitalized. My edema pills have quit working and the edema has blossomed until it is extremely painful. We are trying new meds but they are only partly working. In addition my brother has been in the hospital intensive care ward in critical condition for the past week with bleeding in the lungs (he has a disease similar to hemophilia) which has left the family much in prayer. I covet your Christian prayers and ask especially that you pray that my scrotum will go back to normal size (it currently is about a gallon size) and that the pain will subside. I will try to keep in touch as well as I can but probably won't be on the internet much due to the pain. Snail mail may be more likely to reach me as would phone calls. My address is 225 E. Hickory, Apt. 402, Hesston, KS, 67062 and my name is Robert Grob. May God bless all of you. I will be back if and when I am able.

"For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob and will yet choose Israel,and set them in their own land and the strangers shall be joined with them and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the people shall take them and bring them to their place and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors. And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow and from thy fear and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve that thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon and say "How hatht he oppressor ceased! The golden city ceased! The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked and the sceptre of the rulers. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted and none hindereth. The whole earth is at rest and is quiet; they break forth into singing." Isaiah 14:1-7

Coming as it does in the middle of a prophecy of the doom of Babylon, it is somewhat surprising to find this passage regarding the restoration of the twelve trives of Israel. And make no mistake, this is not just about those of Judah, but is referring to the return of the twelve tribes of Israel to the land of Israel. We need to keep this passage in context though, both temporal and geographic.
First let us note that this speaks of the LORD having mercy on Jacob - the twelve tribes - and specifically Israel (the ten tribes) as well as the addition of many strangers who will cleave to the house of Jacob. In the Last Days, we are told there will come a time when the times of the Gentiles will come to an end. cf. Luke 21:24. Paul, speaking of this in Romans 11:25-26 writes "For I do not want you, brethren to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in; and thus all Israel will be saved, just as it is written, 'The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.' 'And this is My covenant with them when I take away their sins.'" When the times of the Gentiles comes to an end, then the Lord will take away that partial hardening of the heart from Jacob's seed and they shall return to the Lord en masse, returning to their homeland as well. Those who have been grafted into Israel, those who believe in the Holy One of Israel, will join them as well.
So then the first verse of this chapter is a promise not only for the literal descendant of Jacob but also to those who have believed and have been grafted into Israel. The twelve tribes shall return to their homeland along with all those who trust in Jesus and they shall stand to fight against the antiChrist and his minions. The gentile Christians will become the servants and handmaids of the twelve tribes and be thankful for that privilege of entering into the Rest of Jesus. There will no longer be any sorrow or fear or slavery to the nations or especially to the king of Babylon.
but as to who the King of Babylon is, and what is spoken of here, we must spend another day or two in meditation to make clear. I pray that those who read these words today will take to heart the privilege of being grafted into the twelve tribes of Israel. I pray that you all will pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And that you all have come to know Jesus as your Saviour and Lord. May God lead you into all truth.

"Therefore I will shake the heavens and the earth shall remove out of her place in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. And it shall be as the chased roe and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people and flee every one into his own land. Every one that is found shall be thrust through, and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword. Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished. Behold I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver, and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb, their eye shall not spare children. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. it shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation; neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there but wild beasts of the desert shall ie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces, and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged. (Isaiah 13:13-22 KJV

We have already spoken about how the world will leave its orbit and how the heavens and earth will be shaken. Obviously this has not happened since Isaiah made this prophecy. The heavenly signs of the sun being darkened, the moon being red like blood, the stars not shining, the earth leaving its orbit all reflect the power and revealed wrath of God when the Day of the Lord at last comes. Revelation gives additional signs, including an asteroid strike on the earth by Wormwood. Such devastating cataclisms will make the small disasters we have seen recently seem to be pikers. The disasters of the last days will literally kill millions. The small wars we have seen recently will be as nothing compared to the wars that will be fought world wide as the last days approaches, though we may be seeing some of the early pangs in what is going on over in Africa now. Genecide and attempts at ethinic cleansing will become rampant. War, with all its attendant horrors of rape, pillage and murder of children and even slavery will become commonplace, even among the socalled "civilized" peoples.
Verse 17 and following makes it clear that Iran and Turkey, and possibly parts of Assyria will invade Iraq, probably over religious issues or the ethnic Kurds. We already see the beginning pangs of such attacks in the suicide bombing so commonplace in Iraq now. But in the Day of the Lord, Babylon shall become totally destroyed like Soddom and Gomorrah. Expect a divine destruction of Babylon that will leave it forever without inhabitant except for wild beasts (tsiyiy), howlers ('oach), daughters of owls (ya'anah), satyrs (sa'iyr) [which is likely a reference to goat like devils], and dragons (tanniym) [which may mean dragons, land monsters, monsters or jackals]. Some of these that will still be there may in fact be references to demonic spirits rather than flesh and blood creatures.
This utter destruction will be permanent. Saddam's dream of rebuilding Babylon will come to a screaching halt, but the destruction will not be limited only to the ancient city of Babylon but to the area of Babylon. We will see more about this destruction in tomorrow's post.
I pray that those who read these words will take these prophecies seriously and that those of you who are Christians will look up and rejoice. I also pray that those of you who are not Christians will become Christians while there is yet time. May God apply understanding to your hearts and minds.

"Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand, it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt. And they shall be afraid. Pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth; they shall be amazed one at another, their faces shall be as flames. Behold the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity, and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more precious than fine gold, even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir." (Isaiah 13:6-12 KJV)

Verses 6-9 give us a clear description of the Day of the Lord, a unique day that will be neither day nor night, and will last an indefinate leangth of time. It will not be a 24 hour day. We are warned in Matthew 24 that it will come suddenly, as will Jesus, as fast as a flash of lightning (cf. Matt 24:27) and will be preceeded by certain described events, but the emphasis here in Isaiah is that it will be a terrible day of destruction and fear. Although Isaiah is here describing the doom of Babylon, much of the words are applicable worldwide and match prophecies elsewhere of the same things happening other than in Babylon.
There has been much discussion and disagreement as to what and where the Mystery Babylon is in Revelation. It is beyond the scope of this study to answer that question. But the prophecy here in Isaiah is specifically for Babylon and most probably refers to the area we now know as Iraq.
The beginning of the day of the Lord will be with the coming of the Lord. When Jesus returns, certain things are prophecied to happen. Paul tells us in I Thessalonians "For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Chirst shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord." I Thessalonians 4:15-17 NASV The trumpet spoken of here is obviously not the last trumpet which is spoken of in I Corinthians 15 as that would mean the end of death, and this entire passage specifically refers to destruction and cataclism that will cause men to become extremely rare. But the trumpet will sound and there will be a limited resurrection of those who are Followers of Jesus to join Him in His Kingdom.
There is a false teaching current today that states that God will do nothing destructive by his own hand, but that all evil and all destruction will come at the hand of the Devil. That is not scriptural. The Bible makes it clear here in Isaiah "it shall come as a destruction FROM THE ALMIGHTY." (Isaiah 13:6). Certainly Satan has come to kill, steal and destroy and he does much of it. But even more frightening than any destruction that Satan may loose is the destruction that the ALMIGHTY will loose! No wonder verse 7 says Therefore shall all hands be faint and every man's heart shall melt"! (Isaiah 13:7) God Himself will bring forth the destruction of the Day of the Lord! Let us take a look then at what will happen.
First we are told that pangs, sorrows and pain will take hold of all men. The word pang is taken from a word that usually means hinge but can be used as messenger. It indicates that this is just the forrunner of the sorrows and pain that is to come. Sorrows (chebel) usually means a twisted rope but has integral to it the idea of captivity and slavery along with the sorrows such captivity might provide. The pangs and sorrows are said to take hold ('achaz) which has the concept of seizing, taking possession of. The word translated pain is chul or chiyl which has the concept of twisting, dancing or writhing in pain like a woman in labour. These terms all flow together to describe mankind as caught in the agonies of pain to the point that mankind will be able to do little else than cry out in their fear and agony.
Secondly the day of the Lord is described as cruel ('akzariy) or terrible, motivated by both wrath ('ebrah) and fierce (charon) anger ('aph) [a phrase literally meaning burning snortings] that will literally lay the land desolate and will destroy the sinners out of the land. Remember this is the LORD doing this, not handing it off to Satan or someone else. God Himself will be emotionally involved in the Day of the Lord! His Wrath will be released and it will have such impact that the entire world will be drastically affected, as we will see in tomorrow's study.
I pray that all who read these words will recognize the extreme danger of any doctrine that teaches that Father God Almighty will not express any wrath or anger! It is a non-Biblical sophistry that is clearly contrary to the teachings of both the Old and New Testament. Jesus Himself will display the wrath of the Father on His coming.
I pray that those who read these words will also realize the tremendous importance of being ready for His coming. Make sure you are in the fellowship of the saints who will rejoice to see the coming of the Lord rather than in the company of sinners who will be destroyed by His coming.