Isaiah 34: 6-17

Isaiah 34 is about the Day of the Lord. The first part speaks of the events that we identify with the Day of the Lord, such as the host of heaven being dissolved, the heavens rolled up as a scroll, etc. The latter part of the chapter speaks to the sacrifice in Bozrah and Idumea. While this technically refers to the area that is now Jordan, and there was a marginal fulfillment of this prophecy upon that land when God used Nebuchadnezzar to destroy them due to their joining with the Chaldeans to persecute the Jews, it has not seen anything close to the fulfillment that is described in verses 6-17. Notice the similarity of the description of the destruction of this nation in the future and the destruction that is described for Babylon in the future. Again, while we cannot say for certain that this is meant to speak of future Babylon, just as the prophecy against Tyre does not directly mention Babylon, we can see that spiritually this is a place that will receive the punishment that we know from Revelation will be inflicted on Babylon the Whore. The question is whether Bozrah and Idumea (whose land is also called by the names Edom and Moab in Scripture - all of who now are Jordan) can possibly stand in spiritually in the second fulfillment for modern day Babylon. I believe it can and will show how in the course of this and the next post.

Isaiah 34:6-17, “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. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever. But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness. They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls. The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest. There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate. Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them. And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.”

Notice the streams being turned into pitch and brimstone whose smoke will rise up forever. This goes along with the idea of either nuclear war, which is what is believed to be the beast’s method of destroying Babylon, and may very well be what God uses to destroy her once and for all. Babylon will only be inhabited by wild animals and devils (satyrs) forever, just as Bozrah/Idumea is said to experience. The palaces and fortresses (military installations) will be overrun by thorns and nettles. The similarities are extreme and this kind of devastation is unlikely to be in all of these places near and around Israel, yet this prophecy is applied to almost every nation around her in the future fulfillment. This leads one to believe that it is not referring to them in the future, but only in the past and that the future prophecy refers spiritually to another entity, namely the whore. Also note that the reason for all of this is that it is not only the Day of the Lord’s vengeance, but it is a year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. God blames this nation for not standing with Israel. America is Israel’s only real friend, or at least used to be. We are or were her spiritual sister. Christians are supposed to view Jews as part of the family of God, albeit one who has not accepted the Messiah. Our presidents have been gradually moving away from being Israel’s friend, first expecting her to give up her land for peace, and now with a president who was brought up a Muslim and has overt Muslim and Arab sympathies. For those who foolishly accept that our president is a Christian, (his behavior declares otherwise) to them I say, nobody leaves Islam and does not incur the wrath of the Islamic religious leaders and many of its followers. Most pay with their lives. Nobody has said a thing about his supposed change of religion.

While I do not know if I have addressed this before, there are several verses that indicate that there is a year that God will allow the world to suffer as payment for what has been done to Zion. It is called the year of vengeance, the year of visitation. Now this does not have to mean that it is a year in length, but might only mean it is a particular year. However, there might be some reasons to suspect it is a year in length. God’ wrath does not last a year, as it has been shown that only the bowl judgments are God‘s wrath. Just as the terms “Daniel’s 70th week” and the “tribulation” have been shown to not be the same thing, even though used interchangeably by most people, I have come to believe that the term “Day of the Lord” refers to more than that thirty day period when God pours out His wrath in the bowl judgments. It is a far broader term. When the seventh seal is opened, and the mortgage on earth reverts back to Yeshua, the Day of the Lord starts in the sense that He has now regained ownership of the earth, so the Day of the Lord has started to commence, so to speak. But, as shown in the posts in Revelation, He does not start His reign until the bowl judgments, as the seventh seal was still part of the agreement terms between God and Satan for the earth to be redeemed. They still have to be carried out before Yeshua is crowned and starts His reign as King of Kings. As Satan has lost his grip on the world at the seventh seal and God has gained it back, I believe that is where the Day of the Lord starts, but this term does not necessitate that God’s wrath must begin there. The Day of the Lord contains God‘s wrath, among other things, but it is not the same as God‘s wrath. As one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day to God, (2 Peter 3:8), and that God has used the week in several ways (seven day week, seven year week, seven sets of seven year periods to a Jubilee), the world is also a “week” old. If one reckons the genealogies as Ussher did, one finds the world is approximately 6,000 years old. If one thousand years is counted as one day with God, then the world is six days old by God’s standards. He said the six days were for man, and the seventh was His day - the Day of the Lord. I believe the term Day of the Lord refers to the entire thousand years, beginning when Yeshua’s ownership of earth begins. If we look at the seven years of Daniel’s 70th week, we can see another parallel. The priests of the temple always thoroughly cleaned it on the sixth day, just before the Sabbath, to make sure everything was pure and spotless for the Lord’s Day. We know that the tribulation is going to be cut short according to Matthew 24: 22. Cut short by how much? We know the bowl judgments come after the 1260 days of the second half. That means that the trumpet judgments, which all come after the tribulation (which starts at the midpoint of the week) have to fit somewhere after the tribulation is cut short, but before the 1260 days are up. As the fifth trumpet judgment alone is five months long, the time period can be no shorter than that and is probably a bit longer, given the other judgments. It is not unreasonable to suspect that the trumpet judgments cut the tribulation short at 2 ½ years and that the last year is spent in the world receiving her recompenses for the cause of Zion. While it is not God’s wrath yet, it is the start, during the sixth “day” of that seven year week, for the cleaning process of the world (just as the priests cleaned the temple on the sixth day) before the Sabbath rest (millennium) of the Lord.

There are some other verses that refer to this year as well. Isaiah 61:1-2, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn.” This is the verse Yeshua quoted when He read the Scriptures in the synagogue at Nazareth. Luke 4:18-19 quotes this verse up through the words “acceptable year of the Lord,” and then Yeshua quits at that point. He does that because the first part of the verse was about Him and He tells them that “this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” He was there to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, which is another way of referring to the year of Jubilee when all debts were forgiven, all property returned, all slaves set free. That is what Yeshua came to do, to forgive our debt and set us free. It was the year of Jubilee for them, if they would accept it. Had they accepted it, He would have ushered in His reign right then and there. It would have been a Sabbath rest for them, a true Jubilee. But they did not. He knew they would not, and planned accordingly. When quoting the Scripture, He left off the part about the day of vengeance, because that was yet to come in our day. When He does come, it will be the acceptable year of the Lord, or Jubilee.

Isaiah 63:1-4, “ Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious in his apparel, traveling 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.” Here is the connection between Edom and Bozrah. We mentioned this verse before in the context of the 144,000. It is called a day of vengeance (remember if the seven year week is thought of as seven days, the last year would be a “day”) and the year of redemption for God’s people. That would indicate no more tribulation.

Jeremiah 23:10-12, “For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourned; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right. For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the Lord. Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the Lord.” Now it is referred to as a year of visitation. However, it is not the kind of visitation you really want. God’s “visit” is not going to be pleasant. These people are adulterers, swearers, evil, and even the pastors and preachers in God’s own house are wicked. That is not hard to find these days with pastors committing adultery on their spouses, (both heterosexual and homosexual), and pedophilia. Judgment begins with the house of the Lord, 1 Peter 4:17.

Jeremiah 48:42-44, “And Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he hath magnified himself against the Lord. Fear, and the pit, and the snare, shall be upon thee, O inhabitant of Moab, saith the Lord. He that fleeth from the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that getteth up out of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for I will bring upon it, even upon Moab, the year of their visitation, saith the Lord.” Again we see it is called a year of visitation. This time it refers to Moab, but Moab is merely another name for the area east of Israel and Judah, namely Edom/Idumea/Bozrah.

In the next post, I will show how the prophecies for this area of Edom/Idumea, Moab, and Ammon (yet another name for the area of Jordan) that refer to a complete and final destruction that leaves the place only inhabitable for animals forever, is in fact not talking about the modern day area of Jordan. This can be shown through the prophecies of Moab.