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Dr. Manny Arango
Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast. Powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the journey. Let's be honest, a lot of us are still treating digital ministry like it's a backup plan from 2020. But discipleship isn't just happening on Sundays anymore. People need gospel centered connection every day of the week. And if you're stuck juggling five different platforms, one for giving, another for sermons, something else for events, it's no wonder engagement feels off. That's not ministry. That's a mess. Subsplash changes that one platform. Everything you need, media, giving, events, messaging, your app, your website built specifically for churches. No hacks, no workarounds, just clarity and simplicity. Because every day you wait, families scroll past your sermons, new guests click away from clunky sites, and real people miss real moments with Jesus. Don't waste another summer stuck in digital survival mode. Use it to get ahead, simplify, upgrade. Get back to what matters. Head to subsplash.combible-dept and schedule a free no pressure demo. And let this be the summer your church gets focused and fully equipped family. Welcome to day 204. We're in Isaiah, chapter 44 to 48. Man. Fascinating. Like, I mean, just breathtaking chapters of the Bible. A lot of this stuff is focusing on Cyrus, who's going to actually let the people go back. But these are prophecies and this is going to lay the context for these chapters. But we'll get into that in just a moment. Hey, if you have done the reading for the day, if you've Already read Isaiah 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, it's a lot of chapters to read, but if you've done the reading, good job. Everything that I'm going to share in this episode is going to make everything that you read make even more sense. If you haven't done the reading, stop the video, stop the audio. Go do the reading. We got five chapters to study today. Isaiah 44, 45, 46, 47, 48. Let's give some context. The context is this is the end of exile. All right? That is why Cyrus is being talked about by name, because this is the very, very, very, very end of exile. So go to chapter 44 and go to verse 28. Okay? Chapter 44, verse 28. He who says of Cyrus. So Cyrus's name is dropped right here. He who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd and he shall carry out my purpose. And who says of Jerusalem, it shall be rebuilt. Okay, so this is a prophetic word that Jerusalem is going to get rebuilt. And that Jerusalem getting rebuilt is connected to Cyrus and the temple, your foundation shall be laid. And if we fast forward in history, if we get into books like Ezra and Nehemiah, where the people are allowed to go back home, who is it that actually issues the edict that they can go rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and rebuild the temple? It is Cyrus. So, Mr. Deutero, Isaiah, whoever he is, was spot on. Not only does this section of the book feel totally different, but now the focus of destruction is no longer Israel, but the focus of destruction is going to be B. Babylon. Okay? So God is going to raise up Cyrus to do two things. Cyrus is going to get anointed by God, commissioned by God to defeat the Babylonians. So God raised up the Babylonians to defeat the Assyrians. This is what we would call a theological view of history, that history is not just happening, but that God is actually the one causing things to happen for his greater purpose. And so according to the Hebrew scriptures, according to the Bible, God has risen up the Babylonian empire to what? Bring judgment on the Assyrians. For what? Because the Assyrians needed to bring judgment on Israel, but the Assyrians were proud when they did it. So now God raised up the Babylonians to bring judgment on the Assyrians. And so now God is gonna raise up Cyrus to do what? To bring judgment on the Babylonians for pride and arrogance, but also to release the Jewish people out of exile. So they go rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and the Temple. And that is prophesied right here at the very, very end of chapter 44. Right. By the way, this edict, what actually is going to happen is that his decree, the decree for the Cyrus, the decree that Cyrus makes that allows all foreign people, not just the Jews, but all conquered people, to go back to their homeland. That decree is gonna happen a year after Babylon's fall, which allowed all the exiled peoples to return to their homes, rebuild their temples, and worship their own gods. Okay? The Persians and the Babylonians believed in a totally different form of subjugation, okay? For the Babylonians, they believed, let's bring you to Babylon and you can worship our gods. For the Persians, they believed, the happier subjugated people are, the better, the less likely they are to rebel. So let's send them home. Let them worship their own gods, okay? This Edict can actually be seen in 2 Chronicles 36, verse 22 to 23, Ezra 1:1:4 and Ezra 6:1:5, as well as a copy in stone in the Persian room of the British Museum. Everything's in the British Museum. Thank you, Great Britain, for conquering the world. And you took all this stuff? That's a little sarcastic, but not really. I mean, they really did kind of take stuff from all over the world. Good job. So now we get to go study things. And this edict that Cyrus gives, it's just another proof that what the Bible is saying is true. When you can walk into a museum and walk into the Persian room and see the exact edict that's in second Chronicles and that's in the book of Ezra hanging up on a wall, it only confirms that. Yeah, this is not a book of made up stuff. Like, this is a book of real truth. Okay, so let's get into some nerdy nuggets. Okay? There's gonna be two things that's gonna get focused on. One is chapter 44, verse three. Okay, chapter 44, verse three. I wanna highlight this theme every single time I see it. It says this. For I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon your descendants and my blessing on your offspring. So again, we get a promise that the spirit is going to get poured out on the descendants who are listening to these words. The next thing that I want to show you is that from this point on, from Isaiah 40 on, Israel is no longer referring to the northern kingdom of Israel or the southern kingdom of Judah. But now when they go back after exile, they're just going to be referred to as Israel. Okay? So now we're back to a united kingdom, but they're not free. Okay? So I don't know if we could call them a kingdom. But. But from this point on, Isaiah is going to refer to Israel, but he's not referring to Ephraim or the northern kingdom. He's referring to all the tribes. He's referring to the entire people of God, all of Israel. Not referring to Judah or Israel specifically, but all the descendants of Jacob. Okay, you're gonna begin to notice that the name Jacob is gonna start to be used interchangeably with Israel, Jacob and Israel, because Israel now means all the descendants of Jacob. Okay? The theme in all of these chapters is a theme of going home, being redeemed, becoming Israel. A new exodus through the wilderness continues in its focus of who the gods compared to Yahweh. So the same way that God Definitely defeated that. Yahweh defeated the gods of Egypt. Yahweh also is going to defeat the Babylonian gods. Okay, so this theme of Yahweh versus the idols, or Yahweh versus the gods is going to continue. And it's actually a sarcastic taunt, but you kind of need to know, like, what's going on. And so I want you to go to chapter 46. Okay, chapter 46, we're gonna start reading. In verse one, it says bel. So Bel is a Babylonian God. Bel bows down. Nebo stoops. Their idols are on beasts and cattle. These things you carry are loaded as burdens on weary animals. So there was a festival called the Akitu festival where these gods were actually put on cattle and the cattle had to carry them around. And what is Yahweh going to say? Yahweh is going to say, listen to me, O house of Jacob. All the remnant of the house of Israel. You who have been born by me from your birth, carried from the womb even to your old age. I am he. Even when you turn gray, I will carry you. I have made and will bear. I will carry and will save. So Yahweh is saying, the Babylonians have to carry their gods, but your God carries you. You don't have to carry me anywhere. These gods are actually a burden to their people. But I'm not a burden to you. Actually, you're a burden to me. But I will gladly carry you. And I'm not a burden to you. I'm a blessing to you. And unless you know the context, then you probably don't really get that Yahweh's being sarcastic. Yahweh is being sarcastic and talking about the fact that cows and cattle have to carry these false gods. But it is Yahweh who has carried his people since the time that he brought them out of Egypt. Family, the wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos is out now and available everywhere. Books are are sold, literally. Today I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a Books a Million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in Your life. I think this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. Chapter 47 is going to focus on the coming fall of Babylon, and in particular, that the fall of Babylon is going to be swift and sudden. Let's go to chapter 47, verse 9. It says this. Both these things shall come upon you in a moment. In one day, the loss of children and widowhood shall come upon you in full measure in spite of your many sorceries and great power and your enchantments. An empire falling in one day is unheard of. Like, that's absolutely ridiculous. But it gets prophesied and it's exactly what happens. And history proves it. So this is actually outlined and described in the Book of Daniel. Okay? This is the night of Belshazzar's feast. The king of Babylon. I need you to see this. Okay? Belshazzar and the city were confident in Babylon because of the huge walls and impressive water gates. Okay? The Euphrates river ran right through the middle of the city. Okay? So there's massive water gates and an incredible wall. Honestly, in the ancient world, it would have been said that it would be impossible to overtake Babylon. But, man, Cyrus does something real shiesty. He goes up the Euphrates and he dams the river, okay? And because he dammed the river, he simply led his entire army, army on now a dry riverbed underneath the water gates and right into the city, taking it without a fight. And when Nabonidus returned to the city, he was captured. And just like that, the mighty empire of Babylon was gone. So Yahweh was right. Isaiah, chapter 47 sounds absolutely crazy. There's no way that in a moment or in a day, Babylon could have been destroyed. But it is. It is destroyed like. And that is just historically true. Chapter 48. The theme of this entire chapter is that Israel has been refined by fire. Okay? The Babylonians came to Jerusalem 586 B.C. burned it to the ground. Here they are about 70 years later, they're at the end of captivity. And what Yahweh wants to communicate is that Israel had been a wayward servant, confessing with their lips, but not truly serving Yahweh. He had warned them. He had sent his prophets, but they did not listen. And the warnings came true. But now new things would be declared to his people that they never knew before. His anger would be deferred. He would not cut them off forever. Instead, the fire of judgment in exile would be a refining fire. They would be better after exile than before. They would become his servant once more, restore through his coming servant. But for now, salvation is at hand. Redemption has come, and they are to leave Babylon in joy. So just so that you're keeping track of everything, there are three servants that get talked about. Cyrus is a servant of Yahweh. Israel is a servant of Yahweh. And then there's this messianic figure that is a servant of Yahweh. Maybe one of the helpful tools I can use to kind of like, help is that you can't confuse the three. Okay. Yeah. That the goal is that you keep all three of those separate. Okay. So Cyrus has an assignment, Israel has an assignment. And then it becomes really, really clear when the scriptures are actually predicting Jesus. Okay. And Jesus, the Messiah, the son of David, is going to have a unique assignment. All right. Oh, boy. That was a lot. But hopefully that was really, really, really helpful. Okay, let's get into our timeless truth. I'm actually going to steal this quote from Reinhard Bonn. Reinhard Bonnke, anytime that he. He ministered a lot. Africa and India, all over the world, and he would minister to people who were polytheistic or what we would consider to be, like, pagan. Uh, one of the things that Reinhard Bonnke would always say is that in every other religion of the world, in every single religion, you have to create a feast for the gods. But only a Christianity does God lay out a feast for us. That that is what makes Christianity markedly different than every other world religion. Okay. Every other world religion, the people have to carry their gods on their backs. In every other religion, the gods are on the cattle. In every other religion, people have to carry the weight of this idea of having gods. But in Christianity, we don't carry the weight of God, but God carries us. And that is found right here in the book of Isaiah. And I think it's really, really beautiful that this is a massive reversal. In all other religions, you climb the ladder to get up, to ascend to. To try to get up to God. But in Christianity, Jesus has climbed the ladder, and he has climbed down the ladder to get to humanity. That actually Christianity isn't the religion that I believe in just because I was born in church. Christianity is the religion that I believe in because it is the most different, counterintuitive, and unique religious worldview on the planet. All right, that concludes day 204. I'll see you right here for day 2:05. We're going to go through Isaiah, chapter 49 to 51. Hey, if you're on a streak, I'm insanely proud of you. We're making our way through the Book of Isaiah. I hope you're enjoying it. I'll see you right here tomorrow. Love you guys. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department Podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show@the bibledepartment.com and on Instagram hebible department. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.