Isaiah, Chapters 56-60

Good morning. We are on the home stretch in our Isaiah study here to put some perspective on it, moving into the last chapters here towards chapter 66. And this is called the Book of the Anointed Conqueror. We have, and you'll see on page one of your handout, we have in chapters 56 through 60, What can be summarized in these eight points here?

One, God will save Israel. Two, God will give Israel light, and it's speaking of the people of Israel. God will share His glory with the people of Israel. Israel will draw the nations to God. And the nations will bring Israelites back to Zion. The nations will bring their wealth to Zion. God will exalt Israel over the nations. Israel will experience and exemplify God's righteousness. I just underscore each of those points that the nations is referring to the Gentiles. Before we make our way, however, into chapter 60, which is our focal point passage here this morning, A couple things to point out, some interesting points here.

Isaiah 56.5 is the verse that is engraved on the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Building in Jerusalem.

It's also the source of its name. It says, To them I will give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name. better than that of sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off." This memorial and a name in the Hebrew is Yad Vashem, the very name of the memorial for the Holocaust.

The Holocaust wasn't explicitly called for in Scripture, but that there would be great catastrophes fall upon the Jewish people as they're scattered among the nations. was foretold in Scripture. And so this is looking at a rather pivotal and historically momentous time in the nation of Israel. The other point to bring out, this chapter 56 and the next couple of verses, this is the passage explicitly in verse 7 where it refers to, it says, my house will be called a house of prayer. This is the verse that is quoted in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in these passages. And that comes at a time when Jesus was cleansing the temple, as it's called. And this is a model of the temple over in Jerusalem. The main temple building called the Naas. This would be the central temple area.

And this would be the Fortress Antonia. This is where Jesus was taken before Pilate. and sentenced, and the floor where Jesus stood is still in existence and still there. You can even remember how the Romans played games with Jesus, cruel games, but games nonetheless, and many of those games are still etched on the floor there. And this is the court of the Gentiles.

It's this larger court area around the Naos, the central temple, that looks, if you kind of look at that primarily, look like this. UCLA has done a series of computer simulations based on putting the the archaeological and historical information together and you have it on your handout if you want to go and look at more of those. If that's a little bit too much for you to enter that many things in you can download it on the church website and at the bottom of the first page there's a link you can click on if you're more into that sort of thing. So that's an option if you want to see more of those simulations.

Nonetheless, what that's showing, that courtyard around the temple, is where the money changers would set up. They would have areas corralled off for the animals. They would have cages for the doves. They would have tables set up to exchange money. Of course they'd charge a nice fee for that. And it's that, excuse me, it's that that Jesus went into and said, My house will be called a house of prayer. And so that's quoted from Isaiah 56 verse 7. We are going to be going through chapter 60 verses 1 through 22 today.

Yes, the whole nine yards. And we won't let that disturb us that we're going to take a fair chunk of scripture. We're going to just keep a level head about the whole thing. So we'll be fine. Now, I just wanted to ask you before we get started, would you believe that the book of Isaiah says which Super Bowl team will win this year? Would you believe that? I'm glad to hear you're laughing. You shouldn't. Enjoy your Super Bowl, no matter how you like it. We will be pointing out this morning that this chapter, as we have pointed out other chapters and passages, this chapter is what is known as a chiasm. And what is that?

But it's a mirror image in writing. And it shows up like this. You have it on page one of your handout, how that outline falls in place. It's a rather beautifully done chiasm. It is as if when Isaiah wrote it, he had this sort of reflective outline in place. And so that's the idea of the chiasm.

Now, we want to take a little minute because it's been actually over a year since we pointed out. Why do we look at the chiasms? All right. So why do we point out the chiasms? Why do we do that? We do it. Because we notice that the verse, chapter, and even a whole book, being a chiasm, helps us in guiding the interpretation when we understand, hey, there is a rhyming meaning, sometimes a whole repetition of words and even phrases from certain parts.

It helps us to understand and clarify the meaning in a passage. Repetition of words and phrases in a chiasm points to what's being emphasized. Certainly the repetition allows for emphasis. Often the center or turning point points to an emphasis as well. The idea is keep this in mind. This is what he's emphasizing. Keep it in mind. Remember this. Read the whole passage but remember these points because they're repeated. They're returned to or turned upon to bring emphasis.

Chiasms are also a tool for memorizing. We live in a culture where we sometimes shun memorizing things. We say, well, I can look that up or it's on my hard drive so I don't need to worry about it, right? But in many cultures, including cultures of Isaiah's time and even into the New Testament, things would be deliberately put in some form like this because if you started with an idea and end with an idea, then that gives you a handy kind of memorization tools. They would do that. Now, this is not in your handout. There's a supplement and so a couple of slides here will be part of the supplement that's available out in the handout in the lobby if you want to take a look at it.

The concept of the chiasm was used by the Jewish scribes in order to make sure that they had copied correctly. They would count the number of words in a book and say, okay, this is the middle word, and they would look towards that, and having a whole chapter be a chiasm made it easier for them to copy because they would see, okay, it starts and ends with a certain way and a certain set of words. Even in names, here's the name Abraham, they would look at what's the middle letter, make sure we've got the right one there. The scribes would note patterns of words like that, even to the point of copying the same words on the same page when they made a copy. They wouldn't let it roll over. We find evidence that they stuck to copying the same pattern each time. Additionally, a clear chiasm pattern is a defense against someone who says, oh, the Bible is just kind of a hacked together assemblage.

Somebody put it together. For example, someone might say, oh, no one really wrote that book. It was somebody pulled it together from a bunch of parts and pieces and put it together and they called it Daniel or Ruth or something. Well, turns out the book of Ruth and the book of Daniel are both large chiasms, the whole book. Well, if it has that kind of a very carefully thought out pattern, how can that be a random assemblage of papers? It doesn't. It makes sense that this was written by somebody very intentionally from the start to the finish.

So here's an example, 1 John 3.9, you have this on page one of your handout. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for his seed remains in him, and he cannot sin because he has been born of God. See the mirror image in that? Repeated from start to finish.

So you can imagine someone reading or even listening. Suppose you were not really good at reading. There were a number of people in the New Testament era who were not great at reading, so they would look at something like this. and listen to it and be able to memorize using that as a memorization tool.

Here is this perfect passive verb, has been born of God. It implies permanence. Being born of God is a permanent thing. Not a whoops, I got unborn. The spiritual birth is from God because it's a passive voice. Here's another one, a present active verb, an ongoing action. He does not sin, that is, he does not practice sin. He cannot practice sin continually.

Okay, here's the book of Ruth, which is the entire book of Chiasm. This, again, is part of the handout that's in the lobby if you want to grab hold of that and take a closer look at it. But it's fascinating to have entire books, and in this case, entire chapters designed around this. Now, timeline.

Here's Isaiah, 2,700 years ago. writing this book, including this chapter 60. Here's us, right here, between the Lord's first and the second coming. As a matter of fact, I'd be inclined to push it more towards the second coming, but we'll let the Lord call that.

What is Isaiah doing in this chapter? Chapter 60, he is looking towards what is called the Millennial Kingdom, the time when Christ will reign upon the earth for a thousand years. And it also looks ahead to the New Heavens and the New Earth as well. So we'll see the chapter looking to both those times, and we'll see indications of both those times yet to come, when the Lord will come and reign on the earth and into His time of the New Heavens and the New Earth.

Here is the seven-year tribulation that precedes that time when the Lord will reign. We won't be there during the seven-year tribulation. Now, one more thing. Just got to remember one more thing here. Okay, Isaiah wrote seven centuries before the first coming of Christ, okay?

His book addresses two groups of people. We'll see that repeatedly referenced in this chapter. The people of Israel and all the Gentiles. That is, what's a Gentile? All the non-Jews, the nations or peoples. Those are terms that you'll see. Also the word foreigners, if you want to make note of that. We'll see that in his passage.

Isaiah did not address the church because that was not something revealed until the New Testament. At the end of the Gospels and then on to the end of the book of Revelation, that's where you see the church addressed, begin to be addressed. It still continues to address Israel as a people and a nation and the Gentiles. Alright, so we'll have to remain invisible, okay?

Alright, but we're there. God made believing Gentiles and Jews into one new people, the church. There's the Gentiles, an ethnic distinction, Israel, an ethnic distinction, and the church, a heavenly citizenship. All right? Isaiah will tell us about the Gentiles and Israel in Christ's first and second comings.

We've seen that. We're going to see the second coming and the Lord's reigning in today's passage. but not about the church. Those truths we find out from the New Testament revelations. So keep this in mind. We will see what we are reading here with our own eyes.

It may be as close as seven years from today. How about that? As close as seven years from today. If the Lord were to come today, and I hope it's today, if the Lord were to come today, seven years from now, we will see this. But there will be seven years' earth time when we will be with the Lord and the heavenlies.

Now, Isaiah 61-3, here is, Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Here he is writing and speaking to the people of Israel. It is a Hebrew poetry pattern, so we line it out in this pattern here, and we use this to kind of bring it to mind. That's the HPP, Hebrew Poetry Pattern. Now, arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you and the part below that, but the Lord will rise upon you and his glory will appear upon you. Those are referring to Israel. That's the you that Isaiah is writing to.

The behold darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples. Again, Gentiles, the nations, the peoples. Those are all equivalent. And then, nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. That's the Gentiles. Now, next part here. Isaiah is speaking to the people of Israel. They are indeed God's chosen people as an ethnic group. Their Messiah will dwell among them. They'll be a light to the nations, Gentiles and peoples. will be drawn to the Lord through them, God's instrument.

What's interesting is that a great many Jews today have just gone secular. A great many of them don't look forward to the Messiah. It's something that is only, I would say, among a minority of Jews do they literally look for the Messiah. And that would be typically the Orthodox and some conservative Jews would look towards the Messiah.

Nancy and I were watching a series that had been done. And one of the series was covering the Holocaust. And there was some note there of some of the Jews, when they recognized that they were about to be exterminated, would begin singing the song. They say, we know that our Messiah will come. So there is even among some of them a recognition that their Messiah will come. But they don't understand the Messiah has already come. The Messiah has already come. And the Jews who will live during this time will recognize the Messiah has indeed come.

Now, how about us in the church here? He's talked about light. This picture of light, spiritual light, that Isaiah has written about in these verses, shows up in Ephesians 5, 6-10 there. And especially in verse 8. For you are formerly darkness, you believers. He says, you are formerly darkness. That's the darkness just like Isaiah was talking about. But now you are light in the Lord.

Walk as children of light. For the fruit of light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth." So even to believers, us in the church, spiritual light matters, spiritual light counts. 1 John 1, 5-7, God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, that's the darkness, same darkness that Isaiah wrote of. and walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus' Son cleanses us from all sin."

Now, we look at this passage here. From here through the end of the book, we're going to see an emphasis on a few different things. One, we're going to see an emphasis on God's glory and His sharing of glory. We're going to see an emphasis on salvation. We're going to see salvation expressed as light, the truth, the light.

And through the people of Israel to the Gentiles, often the Gentiles in this passage are represented by kings. Now you have, this is on page 5 of your handout, or I sure hope so, This is a slide that Hal did, and I think it's worthwhile bringing forward here because it lays out what is God's eternal purpose. God's eternal purpose is carried out in the nation of Israel. God's eternal purpose is carried out among us.

And what we will see here as we look at this passage is the Lord is going to be revealing and sharing His glory and glorifying Himself in the nation of Israel during the Lord's reign on planet Earth. And guess what? What is the Lord's involvement with us? He has expressed differently, but the same eternal purpose, to reveal and to share and to glorify the Lord, to reveal His glory, to share His glory, and so glorify God. That's God's eternal purpose. It will be carried out in Israel during that time. It's carried out in our very lives as He's laid out here.

Okay. Verses 4 and 5. Lift up your eyes round about and see. They all gather together. They come to you. Lifting up one's eyes and Isaiah describes to behold circumspectly. Okay? To take it in. It's also to stop looking down. You ever notice, what does looking down mean? You ever have a time where you just, boy, you're looking down? You feel kind of depressed, looking at ghastly circumstances, overwhelmed at looking down. He says, no, look up. Look up and lift your eyes and look around. Look circumspectly. This is not a time for shame, he's saying. This isn't a time for being depressed over the circumstances. No. Look up and look around.

That's what he's spelling out to the Jews there. It'll be a time that you and I will see with resurrected bodies and resurrected eyes. Also in this passage, the nations of the world will care for the people of Israel tenderly. Can you imagine that? Is that what's going on now? Not so much. It is astounding to ponder this. You will see incredible contrast with the present as we go through this passage. They will be bringing them generously to their own homeland. And we're going to see this message repeated in this passage. Providing for the Jews as chosen of Christ. Oh, you're a Jew? Oh man, let me take you. Let me help you. Do you want something? Let me give you some things. Do you need some stuff? How can I help? Can you imagine that?

That's astounding considering what's happening now over in Jerusalem and Israel. Now, look at this next line in verses 6 and 7. A multitude of camels will cover you. Now, I know a number of you here lay awake at night just fantasizing over having a multitude of camels covering you. Your kids lay awake at night thinking about this, right? The whole thought just captures your imagination. No. This multitude of camels will cover you is Isaiah's picture of a great, a phenomenal commerce. Camels would be bringing in cargo, and he'll say, you will have a phenomenal commerce coming into you, but it won't simply be material blessings. It'll be that. But it won't simply be that.

Bring gold and frankincense and bear good news of the praises of the Lord. Okay? Phenomenal time. Amazing time. We too will be there watching as the Gentiles and Israel praise the Lord. And guess what we'll be doing? Praising the Lord as well. But not in these bodies. Isn't that good? I sure think it's good. Okay. Here's Israel.

Here's Midian and Ephah. Those are some of the names that you see in the passage. Here's Sheba. You'll see in the next verse, verse 7, all the flocks of Kedar will be gathered to you. The rams of Nebaioth will minister to you. Nebaioth and Kedar were the first and second sons of Ishmael. Guess what that is? Arabs. What? The Arabs will come to Israel and bring all kinds of flocks and resources. They will come and say, what can we give you guys? What?

This is phenomenal stuff. If that would happen in seven years from now, that would be great. Can't happen soon enough. So this is amazing because right now, A great many of the Arab nations just openly deny Israel's right to exist. They have since 1948 and before that. Notice also, I shall glorify my glorious house. This is referring to a temple yet to be built. But what's going to happen? It will be part of God's eternal purpose. He will reveal and share His glory and so be glorified. And notice also, and look at the next passage there, Isaiah uses beautifully picturesque language to describe the nations coming from afar and bringing the Jews with them. Look at this.

Who are these who fly like a cloud, like the doves to their lattices? You know, you look at that and you say, wait a minute, clouds, doves? I think, sometimes I wonder, is Isaiah trying to picture flight? Which of course, you know, wasn't going to happen during his day. Perhaps one of the other things to look at, look at verse 8. Flying like a cloud. How does a cloud fly? Does it fly by its own motion or by being driven? Circumstances. How about the doves? Doves, however, fly by their own intent. So there may be both circumstances and intent that bring them.

Then he goes on here with this. Sharing His glory with Israel. The Lord has glorified you. The Lord will share His glory with Israel. Isn't that amazing to ponder? Like I say, it could start as soon as seven years from now. Bringing your sons from afar. How about that? Hey, can I give you a ride? I'll give you a ride to Jerusalem because I'm headed there anyway to see the Messiah. In fact, if you go along with me, that's even better. The next verse is, foreigners will build up your walls and their kings will minister to you. We know of no instance in history where foreigners ever built up Jerusalem's walls except to keep the Jews out. As we go through the various points of history, foreigners never did that except to keep the Jews out. But this time it will happen.

Their kings will minister to you. Imagine that. Ministering to the Jews. For in my wrath I struck you, and in my favor I have had compassion on you." God's wrath came upon Israel for violation of God's own holiness. But compassion from His grace, the Lord's grace.

Here we are in verse 11. Your gates will be open continuously. They will not be closed day or night. Why do they close the gates? You close gates when you're worried about security. Why do you open them? Two reasons. One, completely secure. The other, prosperity. Can't close the gates. We've got so much stuff coming and going and people coming and going, we can never close them. Besides that, we're secure. Why close them?

Very peaceful, continual gifting. honoring the Messiah, honoring our Lord Jesus Christ. For the nation and the kingdom which will not serve you will perish, and the nations will be utterly ruined. Any nation that doesn't serve Him, gone. This is the ultimate fulfillment. Remember what Abraham was told. He who curses you, I will curse. He who blesses you, I will bless. So what will they do? They will bless Israel. because Israel is God's chosen people. And God will be faithful to His promise to Abraham.

Here we are in the last part up there. To beautify the place of my sanctuary and I shall make the place of my feet glorious. Here's glory again. To reveal and to share and to declare His glory and to glorify Himself. Ezekiel 43 7, the last part of the verse written for the future temple. This is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever. Ah, the right place. He will make this a glorious place.

Now, the sons of those who afflicted you will come bowing to you. All those who despise you will bow themselves. at the soles of your feet, they will call you the City of the Lord, the Zion, and the Holy One of Israel. They will come bowing down because the Lord is indeed the Messiah, and they will, worldwide, recognize that. We will be there to see this. We will be there, likewise, in new bodies, worshiping the Lord. Joining in worship of the Lord. They will worship. We will worship. but from a different place, a different position with the Lord.

Think of the many people who have afflicted and despised the people of Israel over the years. The Holocaust took out about half the Jews of the world. Pretty incredible. And yet, they will come bowing down. Whereas you have been forsaken and hated with no one passing through, I will make you an everlasting pride, a joy from generation to generation." Isn't that an amazing turnaround? Phenomenal turnaround. What a contrast. Imagine Israel being a pride and a joy forever.

Now, this is a wild one. You will suck the milk of nations and suck the breast of kings. Oh boy. How do you explain that one? Now you look at that one and say, oh boy, that's kind of weird. I got to see Vern explain this one. All right. I've got a picture that will help explain this to you. Okay. So I want you to just kind of brace yourself. This picture will help. Here is the picture that will explain the milk of nations. All right. You ready? There we go. You got her done. See? Alright, enough kidding.

These are Hebrew figures of speech. If you take them literally, they sound rather absurd or worse. But they're Hebrew figures of speech. What they are intending to convey is that after the centuries of awful treatment that the Jews have had, the world's leaders will care tenderly for them. Care tenderly for them as a nursing mother.

That's the figure of speech that is being used here. Paul used that individually between himself and those who were ministering with him, with the church at Thessalonica. So it's a Hebrew figure of speech. Look at it that way. Look at it too literalistically and it can be mind-boggling. It's like reading through Song of Solomon and taking it literally. With shields up and down the neck. Anyway, all sorts of strange things.

What's going to happen here? is Israel will be international hosts of the whole world as they come to see Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Isn't that amazing? The one who went to the cross beaten, who said, go ahead and put the nails in, I'll take them, that's the one they'll be coming to. The one who was resurrected and the world didn't want to believe it. They paid off the soldiers not to say anything. That one is the one that they'll all come to see.

That one that you and I will be gathered around in new bodies. Look at the figures of speech that are used here. I will make piece your administrators. Oh, excuse me, I'm jumping ahead. Instead of bronze, I will bring gold. Instead of iron, I will bring silver. Instead of wood, bronze. Instead of stone, iron.

The idea? Better. And I'm not a drug ad. Better is better. Okay. I will make peace your administrators and righteousness your overseers. Violence will not be heard again in your land, nor devastate... Well, that's amazing. That's the headlines today, right? That's daily the headlines. Nor devastation or destruction within your borders, but you will call your walls salvation and your gates praise. Amazing figures of speech that we see used here. Your walls salvation and your gates praise. Now, 19 and 20, the ones we read at the start here, no longer will you have the sun for light by day, nor for brightness will the moon give you light. Remember Genesis 1? What was the sun and the moon for? For lights, right?

And to mark the times. What happens here? This is a kind of an ultimate fulfillment. No, no longer those things. The Lord is the light. The Lord is the source. The ultimate light source is the Lord Himself. Here is the Hebrew poetry pattern that shows up in these two verses. One of the things we've marked out here in red in both of them is, you will have the Lord for an everlasting light. And you see the sun no longer there in the first line. And a few other patterns. But what is clear here, here's this Hebrew poetry pattern.

You're a God for your glory. The Lord is glory. You see, we think of glory and we think, I know what glory is. That's when the Broncos take the Super Bowl, right? We know what glory is. No. Glory is the Lord Himself. The ultimate definition of glory is the radiant essence of who God is. That's glory. All other glory in the entire universe derives from Him. He is the source and very definition of all glory. The radiant essence of who God is.

That light will outshine even the brightest lights in the world. See, even if the sun did shine and the moon was up there, you wouldn't even notice them. Like the stars do during the day, they're just overwhelmed by the sun's light. How about a light that overwhelms the sun? The Lord's brightness and glory are so great. Sun, moon, they become phenomenally irrelevant.

In Revelation 21, which we studied several years back. Verse 25, In the daytime, for there will be no night there, its gates will never be closed. You see words similar to Isaiah chapter 60 that we're seeing. This place to begin that passage, I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God and the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

The Lord is the light. The very things we think of, temples, and lights, and sun, and moon, and all those things that mark things in this world. What Revelation spells out, no, the Lord becomes those things. All the other things that on this earth define where people are, and what's day, and what's night, and what's time, the Lord takes over all those definitions. He Himself is the very essence of those things.

Isaiah 21 and 22, then all your people will be righteous. They will possess the land forever, the branch of my planning, the work of my hands, that I, what? May be glorified. God's eternal purpose. Look at this if we break down verse 21. The character of the people of Israel, all your people will be righteous. Who is righteous? Jesus Christ. His character. the location of the people of Israel, they will possess the land forever. The growing and placement of the people of Israel, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, all is part of God's eternal purpose that I may be glorified." Think of how the church parallels that.

We in the church, will the Lord make all of us righteous? Yes. We will all be righteous. The location, we will be with the Lord wherever He is. We have a heavenly citizenship, but we'll be with Him wherever He is. We, as believers, walk in His works, the things that He has prepared beforehand. He has done a work in us. We are a new creation. As part of God's eternal purpose, He will reveal and share His glory with us that He might be glorified.

Now, verse 22, the smallest one will become a clan, the least one a mighty nation. The Lord will hasten it in its time. God will fulfill the covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12-2. I will make you a great nation and His covenant with Israel. great physical productivity. They will be prosperous as a population. And that will be a fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham. I will make you a great nation.

Even in spite of people trying to decimate them. We could ask the question, why doesn't God just kind of wrap it all up and call it good? You know, hey, this is good enough, let's just kind of end it. You know, he saved a bunch of people and let's just kind of call it quits. Enough with this earth. That's why.

God will not stop until he has fulfilled every last point of his promises to Abraham. Genesis chapter 12 on. God will keep his promises to Abraham to the end of this earth and on into eternity. Imagine, here's this one guy, walked the planet, he made promises to him which were not conditional. He says, doesn't matter what happens on planet earth, I'm going to fulfill the promises to you. Doesn't matter what people say, do, decide, anything else, I'm going to be good on my promises to you. Passages just like we just read here, the people of Israel are given a hope and a home. We in the church have been given hope as well.

As we've seen in the first Peter elective, a living hope. Not an I hope so kind of hope. Not an I used to hope. A living hope. We've been given a blessed hope. A looking for His appearing. A looking for His appearing. We have a hope in Christ. In Christ there is hope. Not an I hope so hope. A certain hope.

Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel, has a home in us. Christ inside. In Colossians 3, verse 16, it talks about, May the word, may the message of Christ dwell in you richly. May Christ make Himself at home in our hearts. We also have a home with Him. 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, Paul writes about being at home in the body, or absent with the Lord, or absent from the body, or at home with the Lord. And realize that being home in the body, just in a few verses earlier, he called that a tent. Sometimes I feel like this is a tent.

But, looking at this, Israel has been promised what we have just read here, some abundant future blessings in the land. With the Messiah, the Gentiles will be magnetically phenomenally drawn through Israel to the Messiah, all to the glory of God. We in the church have been just unfathomably, awesomely graced with these blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. As Paul wrote, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. The Jews are promised a hope and a home. Christ is our hope and in Him, in the heavenlies, our home. That's home, folks. That's home. Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, what depth You have placed here.

Promises that you will be faithful to. Promises that we can look at and say, boy, that will be wonderful to see. And promises that will glorify You and reveal and share Your glory. And we thank You for in Your eternal purpose that You have decided to share Your glory with us. That is amazing. That is astounding. That's awesome. Thank You for that. In Jesus' name, Amen.