ISAIAH AND
PROPHECY
ABOUT THE FUTURE:
______
Person:
Hello, and thank you! Your ideas appear more logical and more sound as
usual. I have one more question, or actually a clarification of what you wrote
me. Was Isaiah talking about the destruction of Northern Israel as the end of
days or was he talking about the end of days that will still happen in our
future to come?

SimShalom:
In response to your question, which happens to be an excellent one, the response is a little complex.
All the prophetic writings of the Jewish Bible, were recordered in writing and
preserved as Holy Writings, because aside from the Historical record they
contain, they are all somehow prophesying about every age that followed them
and applies all the way into the future. When the long-awaited Messiah
arrives, and a New Age on Earth will be inaugurated, the writings of the prophets will
no longer be needed since they would have fulfilled their tasks of warning,
guiding, and predicting about the future.
Thus, what they say has to be understood on various levels.
As in the case of Isaiah:
1)Firstly,he was addressing the Northern Kingdom Of Israel warning them about
their "End of Days" which were approaching with the nearing of the Assyrian
Army which would destroy Northern Israel and take their Ten Tribes into exile.

2)Warning the surviving southern Kingdom of Judah that it too needed to be
aware that it would face it's own "End Of Days", which happened when they were
eventually destroyed by Babylonia with the destruction of the First Temple,
and taken into exile, around 500 BC .
3)It is a dire warning to the Jews who would return from Babylon to rebuild
Judea and the Second Temple,that they too needed to beware that they would
face their "End of days" at the hands of Rome which would eventually destroy the
Second Temple and send the Jews into their long 2,000 year exile away from
their land.
4)It also contains allusions to the ultimate "End of Days" when all mankind
will be judged at the time of the Messiah's arrival and the building and
advent of the Third Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.
5)It contains many sources for laws,beliefs and ideas for classical Judaism
(and by extension to Christianity that drew upon so many of these concepts---
albeit at times mistaken due to ignorance of the Hebrew language).
6)It is a book of Inspiration and consolation to anyone who wants or needs and
seeks comfort.
7)It is book of MYSTICISM that teaches the initiated things about the nature
of God and how He runs his Universe.This would explain the use of poetic-sounding
metaphors and symbolism which is actually a code which only those who are
initiated into the knowledge of mysticism and Kabalah would appreciate.
8)It also teaches and serves to contain warnings to the various kingdoms and
nations of the world and their rulers as to what awaits them if they oppose
God's will. Thus on the one hand ironically God chooses certain nations for
performing functions and grants victories over the Jewish Kingdoms. On the
other hand, he predicts the punishments and results of their going against
God's will and over-reaching themselves in doing harm and evil which was not
what God wanted from them in the first place.


So as you see, Isaiah, as well as all the other Prophets of the Bible are
speaking on various levels and their message is addressed to various nations
and individuals over the entire span of time from the time that they gave
these
prophesies.
Another point which I wanted to make at the beginning, is that in ancient
Israel and Judah, over the course of about a thousand years there were
literally millions of prophets that came to give their prophecy , some big
some
e small. But only the very few that we have were DELIBERATELY preserved and
granted the status of "Holy Writ" because they contained messages and
prophecies that applied till the end of time.
Hope this clarifies some things.
Best wishes.

- posted by Izak @ 10:38 PM