Isaiah 9-16

Isaiah 9:6-7 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

God uses Assyria as an instrument to deal with Jerusalem. Assyria may not realize God's hand and God's design to conquer Israel, but it is God's intention and nothing Assyria can boast. And yet, God will also punish Assyria. Isaiah 7:12 When the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, "I will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes." There are prophecies about the other attacking neighbors, such as the fall of Lebanon and Babylon and the Philistines (Isaiah 14).

Who is the remnant of Israel, that will return?

The Fall of the Morning Star, Isaiah 14:12 could be a reference to the fall of satan from heaven as well as the fall of king of Babylon. 12 How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!
13 You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. 14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High."
15 But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.

Amos

I just finished my reading of Amos 1-9 (I guess I skipped 2-3). God is extremely wrathful and mean! But the Israelites always fall into the same trap of enjoying luxury and pride and they forget about God and the source of their blessings. They start to intermarry with the non-believing neighbors and worship their gods and even the stars. God speaks through Amos about the exile, about the Babylons that are going to carry them away. In Amos 8 he also warns that God will be silent for 400 years, it will be a famine of God's word. After Amos and only a few more prophets before Malachi there will be 400 years of silence until John the Baptist. However Amos 9 talks about the rebuilding on Israel, the raising of old cities, the establishment of a nation that will never be uprooted. This reminds of events that happened more recently, with the formation of the nation Israel in 1949 and the continuing attacks from Israel's neighbor even throughout this past summer. It's in God's promise that Israel shall always stand and never be defeated. I believe they are much more devout and they hold on to their beliefs more strongly than ever.

Assyria the Lord's Instrument

Isaiah introduces himself as son Amoz. He writes about the vision he saw of Judah and Jerusalem during the reigns of Uzzaih, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, the kings of Judah. This is during the period, after Israel ruled by King Saul, David and Solomon fell to civil war and divided into the North (Israel) and the South (Judah). The kingdom of Judah was supposedly more pious.

Isaiah 1-12 covers the period when people lived in great wealth and prosperity. Isaiah's commission in Isaiah 6 - he saw seraphs, each with six wings: with two wings they covered their facaes, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. This is the only place that the term seraphs is found. I suppose they are angels and spokesmen for God.

Immanuel
God promises Judah safety from the surrounding enemies. Ahaz refuses to ask for a sign, but Isaiah reveals it anyway. Isaiah 7:14 - " Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and (they) will call him Immanuel." Immanuel means God with us. They keep refering to a boy...

Isaiah 7 prophecizes, the kind of Assyria will come to invade Judah, flies and bees. The kind of Assyria will shave off the king of Judah's head, beard even the hairs on his leg. The people will eat milk curds and honey, but I don't understand why they can't cultivate or raise cattle because of the briers and thorns.

Assyria
Assyria will be God's Instrument to destroy Judah. Isaiah 8:4 "Before the boy knows how to say My Father or My mother, the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria."v9 The nation will be shattered. King Ahaz and his men make the mistakes of consulting guidance from all the wrong places - mediums, spiritists and the dead. They should've just asked God and consulted the scriptures and the law.

In the belly of the whale

Jonah - The story of Jonah is one of the most vivid bible stories I remember. Of course there's more to the story than his three days and three nights in the belly of a whale. There are important features too, like he is the only prophet that God specifically sent to a foreign nation and not Israel/ Judah. In fact the Ninevites, the people of Nineveh the capital city of Assyria, were enemies of Israel. But with God's will and God's mercy, they heard the message Jonah brought them and they repented.

There are two quotes I particularly like, Jonah 4:16. It finishes with a question "...Should I not be concerned about that great city?" The book ends with a question, is there a limit to God's mercy and forgiveness.

Jonah 1:17 and Matthew 12:40 are mirrored passages. "But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights." Jonah 1:17
"For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."

ISAIAH
I'm going to ready four chapters of the Old Testament prophets each day and write a little something. Chapter 1-4 paints a very dismal picture of the sins of Israel. They are not crimes but pagan activities that God detests like moon festivals, divination, and not caring for the poor and weak. The image of women with balding heads and losing all their jewelry does not appeal to me. There are alot of prophesies here. There is one verse that stands out for me ".. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow" Isaiah 1:18

The scariest thing is in Isaiah 2 the extent these people have wandered away from God. Did God abandon them?