I haven’t said much here lately about Isaiah, but it’s not because I haven’t been working hard at it. I would like to continue on with the series, but I can’t promise yet if/when that will happen. But I just finished teaching chapters 24-27 in Sunday School. This section is popularly known as the “Little Apocalypse” because it bears so much similarity to the book of Revelation. It’s not difficult to see, for instance,
- Wickedness spiraling out of control (24:5, 20; cf. Matt 24:10-12)
- The destruction of the earth in God’s judgment (cf. 2 Pet 3:7-10)
- Every knee will bow (24:2, 21; cf. Phil 2:9-11)
- Angels will be put in prison and punished after many days (24:22; cf. 2 Pet 2:4; Jude 6; Rev 20:1-3)
- The Lord will rule from Jerusalem with his elders (24:3; cf. Rev 4:4, 9-11)
- The absence of sun or moon (24:23; cf. Rev 21:23; 22:5)
It’s quite remarkable just how much eschatology was revealed in the Old Testament. Things that we typically think only became known after John wrote down his vision were actually revealed 700 years before Christ.
There are some other things I noted too. These are at least curious, if not more significant. For instance, the serpent/dragon is mentioned three times, but God is mentioned twice that—six times. In this passage, God’s mountain is contrasted with the pit of destruction, and both are mentioned exactly four times. Birth is mentioned three times, as is death, indicating complete balance in the eschaton. Wine is mentioned five times, and drink three times, which makes perfect sense because the people who live in the city (mentioned 8x) drink wine. Woman/women is mentioned twice, as is man/men, certainly hinting at equality in the new age. Jacob and Israel are mentioned together five times, where as collectively Egypt, Assyria, and Moab are only mentioned four times, clearly showing the superiority of the Jewish state (but only marginally). Peace is mentioned four times, as is the “name” of the Lord, for it is his name that brings peace. Pregnant, distress, terror, and wind are each mentioned twice, which must be regarded as an ominous sign for married couples.
I also discovered some very troubling patterns. Given that this is an eschatological passage, one expects to find prophecies, but I was stunned at what I found. Very significant words in this portion of the book are outcry, beaten, adversaries, mourns, and ashamed. This can hardly be coincidence! When I checked further, I could hardly believe that Isaiah used exactly these words: behold iniquity devours empty noise! By contrast, however, there is nothing that points to o…s…t…e…e…n, obviously proving that Isaiah never expected him.
There’s more, but I don’t have the space to share all of my tabulations. Suffice it to say that the number of mentions of a carefully selected group of words totals precisely 666. I can’t reveal those words, because they provide the key to the identification of somebody important. I can reveal, however, that the product of the number of mentions of behold, glory, righteous, and heaven, times one thousand, equals exactly 144,000!
I keep telling you that Isaiah is deep, but you never knew just how much. Study is the key, I tell you. You just really have to study. Besides the Bible, an essential tool is a Word Frequency Calculator (I can’t believe they didn’t teach me how to use one of these in seminary!). It’s of course absolutely essential that you use the ESV text, and highly recommended that you make your computations on April 1.