Re-interpreting Isaiah

Andre Pelser, August 2013.

Introduction

Dr. Ernest Oldfield (who was taught by Mrs. Robinson of the book ‘Radiant Glory’ and by Mrs. Judd, who was associated with John G. Lake) taught Isaiah at Miracle Valley Bible College in Arizona. He opened the book to us in so many ways and taught us to read it by the Spirit and not just with our own understanding. That turned many ‘negative’ passages into great blessings!

But recently the Holy Spirit has opened up a completely new dimension to my understanding in the book of Isaiah.

Because we received the revelation of the Eternal Gospel and the Eternal Church I started reading prophetic scriptures in a different light. Here are some key notes of change in interpreting the book of Isaiah.

A new look at Isaiah 53

Isaiah 53 is probably the most quoted chapter from the book of Isaiah – and yet the Jews leave Isaiah 53 completely out of all their prophetic books and manuscripts because it so clearly describes the Messiah who is Jesus Christ and how he would suffer for the salvation of mankind, not just for the Jews.

I have always maintained in preaching that the Old Covenant Prophets looked forward in faith to the cross of Jesus Christ and how the apostles in the New Covenant looked back in faith at Calvary where Jesus died for us all. I emphasized that the cross is the pivotal point of Christianity. Everything hinges on that great event. So the Old Testament saints had to look forward to something that did not happen yet and the New Testament saints have to look back in faith to something that happened 2 000 years ago. I would preach and say, ‘Isaiah looked forward in faith to Jesus on the cross and  he prophesied: ‘by His stripes we are healed’ and Peter would look back in faith and write, ‘by whose stripes ye were healed.’

But realizing that we have received the Eternal Gospel it sheds a whole different light on that verse.

Isaiah saw the future and prophesied it in the Past Tense in order to make it a Present Reality to his generation.

Isaiah 53:3: ‘He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised and we esteemed him not.’

Notice the use of the Past Tense verbs: ‘despised’, ‘rejected’, ‘acquainted’, ‘hid’ and ‘esteemed’. As far as Isaiah was concerned it already happened. It was an event in the Past Tense. What is more is the fact that he associates himself with those who were present at the crucifixion! He pronounces, ‘we hid as it were our faces from him’ and ‘we esteemed him not’. So he was with the crowd that turned away from Jesus. He experienced a future event in the spirit so accurately that he participated in the vision. (I write about this form of prophecy in my book on ‘Acting Prophecy’) He was there!

An Old Spiritual Hymn goes: ‘Were you there when they crucified my Lord?’ and “where you there when they nailed him to the tree?’ and ‘were you there when they laid him in the tomb?’ and eventually, ‘were you there when God raised him from the dead?’

Isaiah includes himself in the group at the cross that hid their faces from him and did not esteem him. The reason why so many turned away from Jesus was because he was marred more than any of the other robbers on the cross. He was literally beaten to a pulp. The stripes on his back were actually one mass of quivering flesh with all the skin torn off because of the spikes on the Roman whip. His face was covered in blood from the crown of thorns and he was beaten up in the face like a heavy weight boxer in the ring, because of the fists of the Roman soldiers raining down on him. They hit him with sticks. They nailed him to a tree through his hands and feet. He writhed on the cross like a living snake because of the excruciating pain he endured.

In Isaiah 52:14 the prophet says: ‘he was marred more than any man’ and as a result he had no ‘form or comeliness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him’. (Isaiah 53:2) That is why most people turned away. They could no longer bear to look at him. Isaiah puts it in this way: ‘As many were astonished at thee…’ (Isaiah 52:14) Notice the Past Tense verb throughout his prophetic vision of the humiliation and suffering of Jesus on the cross of Calvary.

Now the Eternal Gospel tells us that Jesus is the Lamb of God, ‘slain from the beginning of the world’. That does not imply that he was continually slain, but that the act was already accomplished in the mind of God before the earth was created! It was fulfilled at Calvary where Jesus became the Lamb. Isaiah 53:7 describes it like this: ‘He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth.’ Isaiah tells it as if it already happened and also informs us that he was present by squeezing in Present Tense verbs like, ‘he is brought as a lamb’.

So in the mind of God the offering of Jesus as the spotless lamb of God took place before the earth was created and culminated in the event outside Jerusalem when he was crucified with robbers.

A new perspective on healing

I used to preach and say, ‘your healing took place 2 000 years ago!’ And then I encourage people to take their healing by faith as a completed event! Peter tells us, ‘by whose stripes you were healed.’ It is a finished task. It is done. It is over. But now I see that healing was already prepared before the earth began! Our salvation was prepared before God made Adam!

Isaiah 53:4, 5: ‘Surely he has borne our grief, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken and smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.’

Because salvation and healing was ordained before the earth was created in the Eternal Church and proclaimed in the Eternal Gospel the Prophet Isaiah could see it, and experience it by faith, not merely as a future event, but as something that already happened in the mind of God. That is why he could describe it with such clarity!

From verse 8 onwards Isaiah 53 continues to use the Past Tense verbs to depict the entire event in great detail.

He was taken from prison… he had done no violence…yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him…

God made his soul and offering for sin: in other words: God took the most beautiful part of his being and turned it into an offering for our sins. Because Jesus went through that suffering he shall see his seed. Who is his seed? We are! We are the result of his crucifixion. Everyone that believes in him! The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities (v. 11).

How I justified John G Lake

When I wrote the John G Lake one man drama and performed it, Lake was not acknowledged as the founder of the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM). They claimed that a certain man by the name of Le Roux was the founder. But I proved them wrong and argued with the leaders at that time that they are doing an injustice to John Lake. I performed the one man drama in many churches throughout South Africa and even at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa. Then we made a video film of the one man drama. We hired the Willem Prinsloo Museum outside Pretoria for three days and shot the film on that location. That video went as far as Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas, Texas, where Sister Frieda Lindsay, the wife of the late brother Gordon Lindsay showed the film to a thousand students and staff members and told them it was the most accurate representation of the man John G Lake whom she knew personally.

 (The video film called, ‘Miracle Man’ has just been transferred to DVD and should soon be available from our media department)

When the AFM celebrated their 100^th year of existence the President Dr. Izak Burger, asked me to perform the one man drama on stage in the venue they chose in Pretoria. There were about 7 000 people present. After I performed it he came to me backstage with tears in his eyes and said, ‘we must get this on TV. I have never seen something as real as this!’

Reinhard Bonnke the German Evangelist hugged me afterwards and told me, ‘Andre, you’re a genius!’ His wife Annie greeted me, ‘Hullo Dr. Lake!’

When I saw the new version of the AFM constitution I read on the first page that John G Lake is acknowledged as the founder of the AFM in South Africa. Suddenly I realized that I vindicated an elder in heaven after he was shunned for 100 years! He got his rightful status on earth as it is in heaven!

I did a lot of research and found a hand-written exercise book with Lake’s handwriting in an archive! I gained knowledge from it that was never published in any book. With that knowledge I vindicated the man of God for what he did in the ministry. Through my knowledge of Lake I vindicated and justified him.

How Jesus justifies us

Because Jesus has in depth knowledge about each and every one of us, he understands us in the depths of our being he can justify and vindicate us before God!

Because Jesus allowed himself to be numbered with transgressors and because he bore the sin of many, because he made intercession for the transgressors and poured out his soul unto death, God will divide him a portion with the great and he shall divined the spoil with the strong. (Isaiah 53:12) Romans 8:30 informs us, ‘and whom he justified, he also glorified.’

The Gospel is Good News

Isaiah 52:7: ‘How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that brings good tidings, that publishes peace; that brings good news of good, that publishes salvation; that says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’

In Luke 2:10, 11 we read how a host of Angels appeared to shepherd who were watching their flock of sheep and announced the Good News of the birth of Christ! The Angels have beautiful feet! In Hebrews 12:22-24 we discover that Mt. Zion is the City of the Living God, The New Jerusalem! We have already come to Mt. Zion according to the writer of Hebrews! We are already united with an innumerable company of Angels, to the general assembly, and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. (Abel’s blood cried out for vengeance, but Jesus’ own blood, shed at Calvary cries out for forgiveness of sins!)

We understand now that Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever! (Hebrews 13:8) He is the same Jesus before the creation of the earth and the same Jesus that walked the earth and the same Jesus today! He never changes!

Jesus’ question answered

Another new insight I received as I meditated in the book of Isaiah, was that Jesus’ question on the cross did not remain unanswered. He received an answer. Isaiah heard it and wrote it down for our information!

Jesus cried out, ‘My father, my father, why have you forsaken me?’

In Isaiah 54:7 & 8 we receive the answer: God replied to Jesus: ‘For a small moment have I forsaken you; but with great mercies will I gather you. In a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer.’

Then follows that great passage of Scripture where the Prophet hears the voice of God telling His Son Jesus Christ:

¹¹ O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. ¹² And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. ¹³ And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children. ¹⁴ In righteousness shall thou be established: thou shall be far from oppression; for thou shall not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee. ¹⁵ Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. ¹⁶ Behold, I have created the smith that blows the coals in the fire, and that brings forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. ¹⁷ No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, says the LORD.

 

God promises Jesus that he will be comforted and that precious stones will be laid in the foundation of the Church, the body of Christ. He gives assurance that all who believe on him will be taught by the Lord and they will have great peace. This is an indication of the Kingdom of God on earth: righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. (Romans 14:17) God promises that Jesus will be established in righteousness and that he will be far from oppression. He does not have to be crucified again! He does not have to fear and terror will be far from him.

If people gather together against him they shall fall. No weapon formed against him shall prosper. Every tongue that rises against him in judgment he shall be able to condemn. God’s heritage is given to his servant, the Lord Jesus Christ, and to all who believe in him!

 

Now we can step over into Isaiah 55 and see that God has given Jesus Christ for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. He called a nation that he did not know and many nations shall run to him because of the Lord his God and for the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified him. Jesus called a nation into existence that never existed before: it is a holy nation, a kingdom of priests, a peculiar people who know how to praise and worship God in spirit and truth. It is the Church of the Firstborn, the Church of Jesus Christ – a representation of the Eternal Church on earth.

When Jesus promised to build his church he was saying, the Eternal Church that has always existed will now begin to manifest on earth! I will build it by saving people and giving them people to equip them and perfect them for the work of the ministry! This is what Jesus announced when he ascended on high! (Ephesians 4:10-16) The saints will be perfected in the true church until they come to unity of faith and maturity so that the full measure of the stature of Christ can be seen in the church.

The word ‘fullness’ in Greek is ‘pleroma’ and it gives a picture of a great ship with oars in place, with sufficient provision for all the soldiers and sailors on board, and all the sails are in good shape, there is enough fresh water for the journey, the captain has a compass and the steering equipment and anchor is all in good shape. The ship is thoroughly equipped for the mission at sea!

When the fullness of Christ is revealed in a church we have everything we need as members of that church with nothing lacking. Then we can truly say, ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want!’ (Psalm 23:1)

 

God’s word accomplishes what he sends it to do

 

In Isaiah 55:8-11 we read how God reminds us that his thoughts are higher than our thoughts and his ways are higher than our ways. But he gives us assurance that he will communicate his thoughts and ways to us by his word. Like the rain comes down and waters the earth and makes it bud and bring forth fruit to give bread to the eater and seed to the sower, so shall God’s word be that goes out from his mouth: it shall not return void, but is shall accomplish that which God pleases and it shall prosper in the thing he sends it to!

 

We can buy water without money and wine and milk without price. We do not have to spend our money on things that do not satisfy. If we incline our ear to God’s word it will produce the kind of life in us that God has originally planned for us! All we have to do is to seek the Lord while he may be found and to tell the wicked to forsake his way and the unrighteous man to forsake his thoughts. We need to get to know the thoughts and ways of God instead. When we return to the Lord he will have mercy on us and he will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:6, 7)

 

Then we will experience the Kingdom of God on earth: we shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace! The mountains and the hills shall break forth before us into singing and all the trees of the field will clap their hands! Mountains speak of problems and trees of character. The problems that we face will actually disappear and we will sing for joy! Our character will become more and more like the character of God. (Isaiah 55:12)

 

God’s Kingdom has come!

We see miraculous changes all around us and within ourselves:

¹³ Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

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The church is known and called, ‘a house of prayer for all people’, (Isaiah 65:7) not just for the Jews or the Gentiles. God has taken away the middle wall of division between Jew and Gentile when Jesus died on the cross and made a new nation for himself: a nation made up of all nations of the world!

 

Ephesians 2:14-22

¹⁴ For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; ¹⁵ Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; ¹⁶ And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby?: ¹⁷ And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. ¹⁸ For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. ¹⁹ Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; ²⁰ And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; ²¹ In whom all the building fitly framed together grows unto an holy temple in the Lord: ²² In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

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This was the eternal plan for the redemption of the world in the mind of God before the earth was created! Jesus came to fulfill that plan. We are part of that plan.

That is why we can safely say: we are his workmanship!

 

God’s will is being done on earth as it is in heaven

Ephesians 2:10

¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained?^b? that we should walk in them. ^[3]

 

How do we obtain such a great salvation?

Ephesians 2:4-8:

⁴ But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, ⁵ Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) ⁶ And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: ⁷ That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. ⁸ For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: ⁹ Not of works, lest any man should boast. ^[4]