Let the Prophets Speak

The Babylonian princess, representative of all the powerful nations that think that through might, wealth, power and greed they will last forever, learn their fate. Their magicians, sorcerers, stargazers and shamans will be useless when true judgement comes.

The believers in idols find no solace in their gods when suffering comes. In fact, their gods become burdens, their gold and silver cannot help them. However, faith in God is different, God carries us, we are His burden. He sustains us and brings deliverance, His plans are forever.

God tells the entire world to come, listen, ask questions, and "talk among themselves". My Teachings say God, are not meaningless. They are purposeful, true and forever.

God promises us that His anointed one, Messiah himself, will bring about redemption through justice, not war. The hidden secrets and the treasure of knowledge will be revealed to him. God is the only creator, both good and evil were created by God. There is none other beside Him.

In chapter 44, God reassures the Jewish people that He can be relied upon to fulfill His promises, as only He is God. Other idols and ideologies are only human creations and thus have no power at all, certainly not to promise or predict the future. Isaiah then boldly prophecies about the future King Cyrus and his rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem.

Here God reveals that no matter how bad the suffering, He will always protect His people. In a remarkable turn, God promises all the peoples if the world that they are His. He will redeem them from their oppressors.

The fulfillment of Isaiah's mission comes full circle. It was his job to teach the Jewish people, to show them the path, despite the fact that they would make themselves blind and deaf to his message. Now God will finally bring them along the path of redemption and show them the way. But not without a lot of suffering and screaming, like a baby born in pain and screaming, so will it be with the ul...

God addresses His servant Israel and describes how he is to bring his Torah, his justice. his righteousness to all the nations of the Earth. In what is perhaps the clearest and most detailed explanation of Isaiah's philosophy regarding the task of the Jewish people, it is describes here how the goal is to bring God's message to all of the ends of the Earth.

Judgement day is here. God wants to know, did you establish nations and ideas that fed the poor? Took care of the needy? Respect my beautiful world? Or did your systems bring about corruption? God declares, only I have been here from the beginning, I have predicted this from the start. The message I taught to Israel at SInai, at Zion, and at Jerusalem, only that message has been timeless and true.

God calls out to the people of the world. Gather together all of you! It is time to come to God as He dispenses His judgement. The Jewish people are afraid, could it be that we have lost our special relationship with God? God reassures them, no, I have always been there for you and I always will be. Those that made you suffer will be punished, and your special role in spreading my justice is alway...

In this second part of chapter 40, Isaiah deals with some of the most fundamental questions of religion and belief in God. Why bother having faith if we don't see justice? Why should I go on in life if we all die anyway? Why does God sometimes punish and sometimes reward? Why would such a great and powerful behind even care about one small human being? Does He even care about little me?

Yeshayahu does not despair when Hezekiah fails to be the redeemer he had hoped for. Rather, he turns to people and tells them that they themselves can and will be the comforters. They just need to heed the message of God.

In this introduction to what is sometimes called Isaiah 2, we discuss the question of authorship of the second half of thos book. We take the approach that the similarity of style and the consistency of the messages in both halves indicate the unity of authorship of this book. However, as the book was not written by Isaiah himself, over time there were various additions of verses here and there th...

In a tragic moment, the King Hezekiah fails to understand the message of Isaiah, as he seeks an alliance with the Kingdom of Babylon. This failure leads to the prophecy of Isaiah that one day the Kingdom of Judah will fall to Babylon.

In this podcast we complete Chapter 37, and then study the account of the illness of Hezekiah. Hezekiah was on his deathbed, and God answered his prayer and gave him 15 more tears of life. However, Hezekiah thanked God with a beautiful song of thanks for his own salvation. but neglected his duty as King to the people of Judah. He failed to sing a song of thanks to God for the salvation of the peop...

Hezekiah prays to God to save Jerusalem. You God are the one and only God, not like the false gods of the other nations. God responds that the Assyrians will be sent right back to Assyria and that they won't even be able to shoot one arrow at Jerusalem.

Assyria conquers most of Judah and lays it to waste. King Hezekiah and the people of Judah retreat behind the walls of the capital Jerusalem as the mighty Assyrian Army lays a siege. Rav-shakeh the turncoat Jew who now leads the Assyrian Army tries to convince the population of Jerusalem that their attempt to defy Assyria will be futile and surrender is the only way. The people of Jerusalem are sh...

Through the beautiful trees and blossoms and animals of nature, a path to Zion opens up. The just and righteous people of the world follow the path to Zion in song. Worry and anxiety are things of the past, as the world turns to God in joy.

Isaiah describes how when humanity is corrupt, God gives his cities back to nature. Listen carefully! He tells the nations of the world, if you continue to live unjust and corrupt lives, your cities will revert to trees and flower and the birds and animals of the wilderness.

Isaiah tells us who will survive the apocalypse and live in the future? Those that are honest. just, righteous and kind will live with God. Those that worked through the hard times and kept faith. But those who took advantage of others when they had their chance, those people will perish.

Isaiah turns to the women he can trust. The women who will remain faithful and strong through the good times and the bad, until that day when God finally ends the suffering and brings joy back to the land.

Isaiah tells us about the King who rules with justice, and he describes the qualities necessary for a good government.

Isaiah continues to chastise the people for relying upon the human power of Egypt. The horses and chariots that appear to be powerful are still only manifestations of human power which is fickle and just flesh and blood. The power of God though, is wise, just, and forever. Rely upon God, return to Him, and true strength will be yours.

Those who rely on wealth and run away afraid to the "protection" of those who appear powerful will suffer, as Isaiah told us in 30a. But those who rely on God and stay true to the values of the Torah will find themselves at peace. This is the right path, says the prophet, take this path and you will find peace

Isaiah once again reiterates the foreign policy that God wants. Don't ally yourselves with those nations whose values contradict the values that you stand for. Ultimately such alliances will only lead to shame and defeat.