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Isa 59:8-14 The Way of Peace They Know Not

[Study Aired May 10, 2020]

Isa 59:8  The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.
Isa 59:9  Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
Isa 59:10  We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.
Isa 59:11  We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
Isa 59:12  For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;
Isa 59:13  In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
Isa 59:14  And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.

As this very prophecy has informed us, the scriptures are not even intended to be understood by the masses of Christianity, much less the uncalled world. The scriptures are deliberately written ‘line upon line, and precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little, that they may go and fall backward and be snared and be taken.’

Isa 28:9  Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
Isa 28:10  For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
Isa 28:11  For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
Isa 28:12  To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
Isa 28:13  But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

The scriptures themselves tell us they are not intended to be understood by babes in Christ. They are written in a way that keeps their wisdom hidden from all but “them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts”. That was exactly what Christ said in answer to the question from His disciples who wanted to know why He spoke only in parables to the multitudes who came to Him.

Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away  even that he hath.
Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15  For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Mat 13:16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
Mat 13:17  For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

One way that goal is accomplished is with the use of the plural third person. Using the plural third person causes all self-righteous, carnal babes in Christ to place the admonitions of scripture outside of themselves. “That they might go and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken” is always applied to “That evil sinner somewhere over there, or some hedonistic heathen. It never applies to me while I am a carnal babe in Christ.”

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

But they “that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts” can look behind themselves and see that they themselves are the “carnal… babes in Christ”, and that every admonition of scripture is  being given to them personally and their own old man, encouraging them (us) to “grow up into [our head], Christ”:

Eph 4:15  But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

It is of utmost importance that we all know we are not to become complacent with knowing the milk doctrines, including the milk doctrine of the salvation of all. There are those who believe that the doctrine of the salvation of all is strong meat. That was what I thought for several years. When I first learned the Greek word aion is defined as ‘an age’, and that aion, or its adjective aionios, is the Greek word from which the English words forever, forever and ever, eternal, eternity, everlasting, and world are all translated, it seemed at that time, back in the early 1970’s, as a very large, spiritual, 16 ounce, T-bone steak. It was nothing more than the Truth of the milk doctrine of “eternal judgment”, the last of the six milk doctrines of Hebrews six:

Heb 6:1  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Heb 6:2  Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Heb 6:3  And this will we do, if God permit.

The Christ we thought we knew was a Christ who would think nothing of tormenting most of mankind in flames of literal fire for all eternity. That ‘Jesus’ was what Paul referred to as “another Jesus”.

2Co 11:4  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

We have all been in our own pre-ordained time “carnal… babes in Christ”. At that time in our walk we believed in “another Jesus”. We must all want to get past being a spiritual babe in Christ if we want to get past ‘falling backward, being broken snared, and taken’:

Isa 28:9  Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
Isa 28:13  But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

The only way to get past being satisfied with the milk of the Lord’s Word is to “grow up into Christ” and acknowledge that all of His words speak to each of us  in our own time, including these words of our study today:

Isa 59:8  The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.
Isa 59:9  Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.

The knowledge of the milk doctrine of universal salvation, absent the doctrine of the chastening grace of the judgments of God, will keep us from going beyond the first principles of the oracles of God, and we will remain spiritual “carnal… babes in Christ… such as have need of milk and not of strong meat”, and we will continue thinking that the doctrine of universal salvation is that big 16 ounce T-bone steak, when it is really nothing more than the milk of the Word.

Heb 5:11  Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.
Heb 5:12  For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Heb 5:13  For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Heb 5:14  But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Notice how here in Isaiah 59:8-9 the holy spirit goes from the third person – “There is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths” – to the first person. “Therefore, judgment is far from us, neither does justice overtake us: we wait for light but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.” The third person, ‘they’, the first person, the ‘us’ and the ‘we’, are all one and the same. All the Lord’s admonitions are speaking only to those who “are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts”. They are addressed only to those to whom the Lord, through fiery trials in this age, has given ‘eyes that can see and ears that can hear… the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven’ (Mat 13:9-15). While it is true the Lord uses Satan as “the god of this world” to blind the eyes of the world from His plan and purpose… from understanding ‘the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven’, He clearly tells us that it is He who has blinded their eyes, and that it is all being done “after the counsel of His own will”.

Rom 11:8  (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.

2Co 4:4  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Continuing the Lord’s admonition to us:

Isa 59:10  We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.
Isa 59:11  We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.

Only those who are given eyes that see and ears that hear can see and hear these words of admonition from the Lord addressed to ”us [who have all] groped for the wall like the blind… as if we had no eyes”. Only the Lord’s servants realize just how blind they are without the mind of Christ, and the scriptures make that very clear:

Isa 42:19  Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD’S servant?

These verses are not encouragement to stay blind and deaf, and they are not saying we are to remain in that state. They are telling us that all these admonitions have a personal application to each of the Lord’s messengers He is in the process of purifying and perfecting.

Isa 59:12  For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;
Isa 59:13  In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
Isa 59:14  And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.

Every one of the Lord’s servants and every one of His messengers know in a very personal way the total darkness that is the blindness the Lord places upon each of us, even as we thought we had already seen the light of the Truth. Coming out of Egypt appears, at the time, to be our very salvation, and it is indeed a joyous thing to discover that we will neither be tormented for all eternity nor will we be annihilated. It is very comforting to discover that are we baptized into the death of Christ and raised with Him in newness of life.

However, these are milk doctrines which are like honey in our mouths.

Heb 5:12  For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Heb 5:13  For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.

We are then told these “milk” doctrines also called “the first principles of the oracles of God”. These milk doctrines are listed for us in the first two verses of the very next chapter:

Heb 6:1  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Heb 6:2  Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Heb 6:3  And this will we do, if God permit.

These “first principles of the oracles of God”, these “milk” doctrines, are specifically designed to nourish spiritual “carnal… babes in Christ”:

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

Babes very often are totally unaware of their limitations. I tell the story of my 3-year old son watching my brother and I drive steel fence posts into the ground with a 16-pound sledge hammer. After watching us for a few minutes, he asked if I would let him use the hammer, and just for our amusement I consented. My brother and I got a good chuckle when my three-year old struggled just to get that 16-pound hammer off the ground. That story is very instructive of us as the story of James and John requesting to be seated at Christ’s right and left hand in His kingdom demonstrates for us.

Let’s look briefly at that account and at what happened shortly thereafter:

Mar 10:35  And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto him, saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire.
Mar 10:36  And he said unto them, What would ye that I should do for you?
Mar 10:37  They said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory.
Mar 10:38  But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask: can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?
Mar 10:39  And they said unto him, We can. And Jesus said unto them, Ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized:
Mar 10:40  But to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared.

No, we of ourselves cannot drink of the cup that [Christ] drank, neither can we of ourselves be baptized with His baptism. James and John were not yet even converted. The very fact they fled from Him, at the time of His apprehension by the Jewish mob, demonstrated just how unprepared they were to drink of His cup or be baptized with His baptism:

Mat 26:47  And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people.
Mat 26:48  Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast.
Mat 26:49  And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him.
Mat 26:50  And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus, and took him.
Mat 26:51  And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest’s, and smote off his ear.
Mat 26:52  Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
Mat 26:53  Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?
Mat 26:54  But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?
Mat 26:55  In that same hour said Jesus to the multitudes, Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take me? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on me.
Mat 26:56  But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled.

Peter is like all of us. Not one of us of ourselves can resist the urge to preserve our soulish life. But we are also James and John who think they are capable of drinking of Christ’s cup and partaking of His baptism. This is a time of great trial, and we will fall seven times before we learn that of ourselves we can do nothing without being in Christ and Christ being in us. Christ was nothing of Himself, and we are nothing without Him:

Pro 24:16  For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.

Joh 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

The fear of disobeying the Lord is born of a deep realization of the Lord’s omnipotence and the fact that He really is working and performing in us what He has appointed for us and is working all things after the counsel of His own will:

Job 23:13  But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
Job 23:14  For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.

Eph 2:8  For by [“chastening”] grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Accepting and believing these truths is strong meat which we as babes simply cannot receive. This is what Christ said to His own disciples after spending 3½ years with them:

Joh 16:12  I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

Like Christ’s apostles, we are first spiritual “carnal… babes in Christ, and as such we are yet to learn that “the grace of God… chastens us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live godly lives in this present age”.

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12  Teaching us [Greek: paideuo, chastening us] that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world [Greek: aion, age];

The physical and spiritually immoral darkness, the absolutely insane judgments of our secular leaders, and the hypocrisy of the outward world is merely a reflection of the spiritual hypocrisy within the Lord’s servants while we are “yet carnal”, blind and deaf and without judgment.

Isa 59:12  For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;

Like a family without a spiritual home surrounded with the spiritual walls of the New Jerusalem, we were open to being invaded and occupied by “every wind of doctrine” and every false doctrine of the adversary. That is exactly what happened to every one of us. We come to Christ seeking forgiveness for our sins, but the Lord gave us over to spiritual Pharisees who immediately turned us into twofold more the children of Gehenna than themselves. Then we become the self-righteous Pharisee who seeks the souls of others to make them as self-righteous as we are:

Mat 23:15  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

This insanity of being so rebellious and at the same time self-righteous is expressed in these spiritual words:

Eze 38:4  And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:

Amos uses the same language to describe how the Lord makes us to err from His ways and hardens our hearts from His fear (Isa 63:17).

Amo 4:1  Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan [David said the “bulls of Bashan have beset me” – Psa 22:12] that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink.

[Psa 22:12  Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
Psa 22:13  They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.

Psa 35:16  With hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth.]

Amo 4:2  The Lord GOD hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks.
Amo 4:3  And ye shall go out at the breaches, every cow at that which is before her; and ye shall cast them into the palace, saith the LORD.
Amo 4:4  Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years:
Amo 4:5  And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings: for this liketh you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.

We are brought to conviction of our blatant sins, and then like Job and his “miserable comforters” we succumb to the even more insidious sin of self-righteousness. When we become so ‘righteous’ that we literally contend with, reprove and condemn God, our judgment is inevitable and certain.

Job 40:1  Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2  Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3  Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4  Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5  Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Job 40:6  Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7  Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8  Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

But we simply must be brought to see that these words are addressed to us:

Isa 59:13  In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.

If we have ever believed and taught anyone that God would either torment or annihilate His creatures, we have ‘lied against the Lord’ (vs 13). If we have ever believed He was a three-headed, God we have lied against Him, and we have departed from Him. There is neither time nor space to list all the egregious false doctrines and words of falsehood to which we have all subscribed and uttered from the heart.

Isa 59:14  And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.

How can “equity… enter” while we believe such monstrous doctrines as eternal torment, annihilation, and substitutionary atonement which gives us all a get-out-of-jail-free card. There is no justice in either eternal torment or annihilation, and there is no justice in the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, which by-passes the doctrine of being judged according to our works.

Rev 20:13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

Does that sound like the doctrine of substitutionary atonement?

Truly, while in bondage to the doctrines of Babylon, “judgment is turned away backward, and justice stands far off because Truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter our hearts and minds with such unjust false doctrines occupying the Lord’s temple.

With so many lies and false doctrines dominating our hearts and minds, every one of them contradicting the doctrine of Christ, which teaches us to love our neighbor and our enemies, it is easy to understand why this last verse of our study today corresponds with the first verse of our study today which tells us that of ourselves “the way of peace they know not”:

Isa 59:8  The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.

It is becoming clearer every day that the scriptures, like the cloud at the Red Sea, are designed to keep this world in the darkness it is already in, while simultaneously shining like the sun in its full strength upon the Truths of the Lord’s words for those whom He is dragging to Himself in this age.

I just listened to a video entitled “Who Is the Beast of Revelation 13?” I was intrigued because this minister began by quoting this verse in his opening prayer:

Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

He closed his opening prayer asking the Lord to ‘help us all to read, hear and keep the things written in this book’, so he had me hooked until it soon became abundantly clear that this minister believed that the beast of Revelation 13 will be ‘a very handsome… charismatic… son of Satan who will bring peace to the middle east and to the world just before Christ returns to crush the kingdom of this end time beast’.

As with all Babylonian ministers, the words “for the time is at hand” simply are not there in Revelation 1:3. This minister read that verse but did not see or hear those words. To that minister the entire prophecy of the book of Revelation is only for the generation which happens to be alive at the time just prior to the first resurrection and the thousand-year reign of Christ and His Christ. He spoke often of the anti-Christ, and again made him out to be only an end time personality who is the same as the end time beast of Revelation 13.

Truly, our last two verses apply to each of us when we were where this minister and all of His kind are:

Isa 59:13  In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
Isa 59:14  And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.

That is our study for today. Here are our verses for our next study, and as we will see, the Lord continues to assure us that if we are His elect, He will never leave us.

Isa 59:15  Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.
Isa 59:16  And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.
Isa 59:17  For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke.
Isa 59:18  According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence.
Isa 59:19  So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.
Isa 59:20  And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.
Isa 59:21  As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.