The King and His Glory (Part 2)

By Greg Harris

Take a road-to-Emmaus walk through Isaiah's grand vista of Messianic prophecies in "The King and His Glory (Part 2): More Gold from the Book of Isaiah about the Coming King of Glory, with Greg Harris as your guide. In this volume, he continues his exploration of the Old Testament by mining Isaiah's deep riches. The volume's approach

• Language: English
• Publisher: Concise Publishing
• Release date: Jun 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781737242536

Greg Harris

Dr. Greg Harris has almost 40 years of ministry experience, has his M.Div. and Th.M. from Talbot Theological Seminary, and his Th.D. from Dallas Theological Seminary. Dr. Harris has pastored churches and taught on faculty at Washington Bible College, Southeastern Theological Seminary/Collage, and spent his last 13 years of active ministry as Dept. Head and Professor of Bible Exposition at the Master's Seminary. Greg Harris has written eight books (5 "Glory Books" and 3 part of The Bible Expositor's Handbook, Digital OT and Digital NT, and the combined printed edition The Bible Expositor's Handbook, due for release Feb 1, 2020, and 12 peer-reviewed journal articles. Before his retirement, Dr. Harris spoke at many conferences in America and around the world.

Book preview

THE KING AND HIS

GLORY (Part 2)

More Gold from the Book of Isaiah about the

Coming King of Glory

Dr. Greg Harris

© 2021 Gregory H. Harris

ISBN: 978-0-578-90422-1

Book Dedication

For more than 15 years, she preferred to remain out of sight, for the most part, laboring over many of my works, from books to journal articles to short blogs, and would have been offended if I had offered to pay her for the toil she expended each time. I tell people she always made my work better and, after about 15 years—as much as she regretted it—she needed to retire and not be a part of this latest work—which about killed her, such was her desire to be a part of this (most likely) last book by me. By expertly editing my books and journal articles, God formed her into a die-hard Biblicist, solidly premillennial in her theology, looking for the rapture, and then for the Lord Trinity to fulfill all Their promises, with Messiah Jesus reigning on earth in Jerusalem for 1,000 years, and then the eternal state—and she can defend her answers biblically. A beloved Sister in the Lord, friend, prayer warrior, confidant, with a strong heartbeat for foreign missions, it is with great joy on my part and eternal appreciation to be able to dedicate, The King and His Glory (Part 2): More Gold from the Book of Isaiah about the Coming King of Glory to:

Rebecca R. (Becky) Howard

Lift up your heads, O gates,

And be lifted up, O ancient doors,

That the King of glory may come in!

Who is the King of glory?

The LORD strong and mighty,

The LORD mighty in battle.

Lift up your heads, O gates,

And lift them up, O ancient doors,

That the King of glory may come in!

Who is this King of glory?

The LORD of hosts,

He is the King of glory.

—Psalm 24:7–10

So it will happen in that day,

That the LORD will punish the host of heaven, on high,

And the kings of the earth, on earth.

And they will be gathered together

Like prisoners in the dungeon,

And will be confined in prison;

And after many days they will be punished.

Then the moon will be abashed and the sun ashamed,

For the LORD of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,

And His glory will be before His elders.

—Isaiah 24:21–23

Credits

Dr. Greg Harris’ personal editor: Rebecca R. Howard

Dr. Greg Harris’ website: www.glorybooks.org

TMS consulting class: The Master’s Seminary consulting class, Spring 2020 (We didn’t actually have a TMS consulting class this time around, but I went ahead and used the term anyway): Bob and Julie Fanciullacci, Becky Howard, Bullwinkle, Nancy Anderson, Andre Randolph [Emeritus], Faly Ravoahangy [Emeritus], Premend Choy [Emeritus], Bill and Lalanne Barber [Emeritus], Dave Owen, Chad Tucker and Chris Fowler (problem child).

—And those untimely born and grafted in: Kevin Laymon, Rob Thurman, Aaron Filburn, H. Chris E. Bush, and Chazz (Two Golden Calves) Anderson, and King Charles Clemmons.

—My on-going debt to Dr. Bill Barrick for his wise counsel and input.

—Thanks again to Pat Rotisky for her godly expertise on this book project.

Contents

Introduction To This New Study, Stuff, and a Citation Change

(1) Isaiah 1–5

Panoramic Overview of the Book of Isaiah

(2) Isaiah 6

I Saw The Lord / The Cleansing and Commissioning of Isaiah

(3) Isaiah 7–12

The Book of Immanuel

(4) Isaiah 13–23

God’s Promises to Judge the Nations

(5) Isaiah 24–27

The Apocalypse of Isaiah

(6) Isaiah 28–33

Five Woes And Behold A King Will Reign

(7) Isaiah 34–39

The Mini-Apocalypse of Isaiah and Historical Interlude

(8) Isaiah 40–48

Theology Proper: The Doctrine of God

(9) Isaiah 49–53

Soteriology: The Doctrine of Salvation (Part 1)

(10) Isaiah 54–57

Soteriology: The Doctrine of Salvation (Part 2)

(11) Isaiah 58–63

Eschatology: The Doctrine of Last Things (Part 1)

(12) Isaiah 58–66

Eschatology: The Doctrine of Last Things (Part 2)

The King and His Glory (Part 2)

More Gold from the Book of Isaiah about the Coming King of Glory

Introduction to This New Study, Stuff, and a Citation Change

Introduction to This New Study

Many people throughout the world have read verses from the Book of Isaiah, which, if you were like me when I read it at a younger age, meant that I knew a few verses taken from Isaiah, but I could not view the book as a whole—much less walk someone else through Isaiah—but now I can. I have found over my almost forty years of study and ministry that most people who love the LORD go to this beloved biblical book, and while they may not necessarily be able to view the book of Isaiah as a whole, they know from their New Testament readings and cross references that so many messianic quotes emerge from this book. In fact, worded simply: no other prophet who wrote what became Holy Spirit inspired books of the Bible is quoted more in the New Testament than Isaiah. It does not mean that the prophets who never wrote books of the Bible would have had a less effective ministry. If they were walking with Him (consider Elijah and Elisha), each godly prophet was doing what God wanted him to do, whether it is someone such as Micaiah in 1 Kings 22, standing bravely and alone as he publicly denounced the hundreds of false prophets and the king foolish enough to have such reprobates with him in the first place, or whether they were part of a select group, moved by the Holy Spirit to write, such as the Apostle Peter in 2 Peter 1:12–21, writing from death row in Rome:

Therefore, I shall always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you. And I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me [long ago, in John 21:19]. And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you may be able to call these things to mind.

For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased—and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.

And so we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts. But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

This is the main reason that you will see a little bit of carry-over in this new book, but this book has much new material and is certainly a stand-alone book whether or not you have read my previous books. And some of those who spoke for God also wrote for God/from God, such as Peter did in the last chapter he wrote shortly before his execution, reminding his beloved readers in 2 Peter 3:1–2, "This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles." And as would be expected, no other Old Testament book written by God’s prophets has as many messianic prophecies/promises than does the Book of Isaiah. However, many believers are still somewhat hesitant to read all of Isaiah, if for no other reason than its daunting size of 66 chapters.

If for no other reason than the ones already given, one other incentive for reading any of the Old Testament writings by the prophets, as you may have seen in my books or from other authors, is that Jesus twice on the day He was resurrected showed us the treasured value—and usefulness—of all the Old Testament books. Such an example is the encounter with Jesus and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and with this shorter version of the account—you can go back and read the context in Luke 24—Jesus said to them at the end, in Luke 24:25–27, using the accepted at the time twofold division of the Scriptures:

And He said to them, O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory? And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

Things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures would at this time be what Christians and others call the Old Testament—most of the Jews of Jesus’ day up through the present time would not call it such; they would have no reason to do so—most of them would or do mock biblical truth about God’s Messiah and would/do contend that the Messiah cannot be tied in with the Glory of God. This assumption is usually founded on the strong belief that Jesus was/is merely human.

No doubt in wonder and astonishment, they arose that very hour and returned to Jerusalem and found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them (Luke 24:33). Luke 24:36 explains, "And while they [the two previously mentioned disciples] were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst."

Now He said to them, These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem (Luke 24:44-47).

So, no doubt as He had already done earlier with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, after He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45), beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures (Luke 24:27). Obviously, Jesus would have used the Book of Isaiah, when He came to it, to explain much of who He is and what He had just accomplished in Jerusalem, not only with the beyond adequate words for description to convey everything about the death, burial, and resurrection, but beginning with Moses and including all the prophets until the end of the biblical verses written about Him. He would also deal with many of the prophecies that have not yet taken place. In fact, because so many citations in the Bible from Isaiah play a major role, when it came time to do the chapter divisions for The Bible Expositor’s Handbook (OT/NT), I put an entire chapter in the New Testament section about Isaiah—not the Old Testament section—and appropriately entitled chapter 16 The Gospel According to Isaiah. And for time’s sake and not to make the book too large, we had to put in at least some incredibly important verses—some irreplaceable Scripture—so that we could understand some of the great truths of the Bible. From the truth of who Jesus’ Father was came this explanation to Joseph in a dream, in Matthew 1:20–21:

But when he had considered this [putting Mary in something like a convent for women], behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins.

Consequently, Matthew 1:22: "Now all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord [the true source] through the prophet [the human source] might be fulfilled"—and the scriptural citation was Isaiah 7:14, appropriately taken from the Immanuel portion of the Book of Isaiah (Isa 7–12). Imagine what a large gap would exist in your theology if you did not know or believe those verses. Although numerous God-given biblical prophecies had already been fulfilled by this time—and these are vitally important to know—more prophecies remain unfulfilled at the present time and will be completed at the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth, and Isaiah contains some of the most important staggering prophecies that occur in Scripture. We will deal with as many as we can, primarily from Isaiah but not limited only to that holy book.

Stuff

Scripture reveals to us a couple of intriguing doctrines that God will fully reveal to us in heaven. We know (1) from 1 Peter 1:12, that angels desire [literally "lust," in a good sense] about our salvation, and one reason may be because no angel has ever been forgiven by God; they have no blood sacrifice, thus: "It was revealed to them [the prophets of old as they read from what we would call the Old Testament] that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look." And we also read in Hebrews 13:2b that some have entertained angels without knowing it.

I used the stuff intro for decades fearing that I might have entertained angels because it took me about 15 to 18 years to come up with a proper name for Isaiah 1–5. Before being led into the answer, my utterly brilliant deduction answer—and, yes, that was entirely sarcastic; but my brilliant answer was to name the material from Isaiah 1–5 as Stuff.

My fear—among many—was that if angels clock in to work, clock out when finished and then watch the equivalent of angelic TV, they would be angels who long to look into the things that relate to salvation, and are entertained by us.

I did not want one angel telling another angel, Hey, Lamar, do you want to be entertained by someone saved? Come check out this clown who entitles Isaiah 1–5 as ‘Stuff.’

And I did not want the angel Lamar to say, Aww, those babes in Christ say the cutest things!

So, in classroom or conference—nothing in print, until now, to protect the guilty—for a little over a decade and a half, whenever it was time to teach the Book of Isaiah, I titled the first five chapters as Stuff—good stuff, mind you, but Stuff nonetheless. The answer came while I was at The Master’s Seminary. I was invited to do a conference in Switzerland, and they wanted 21 to 23 sessions on First Peter/The Cup and the Glory and, to make it harder, the times were not an hour each. Some were 45 minutes, some were an hour, some an hour and fifteen minutes. It was grueling, but so worthwhile, and just when we started to wind down as the conference had only another day or so, came the knock on the door. I opened the door, and they asked, Are you ready?

For what? I asked.

They said, In 40 minutes, you’re preaching/teaching for an hour. (So much for getting a little rest). I showed them the schedule they sent me, and it was not listed on my segment of time slots. In my younger days I probably would have protested, but I took it as something God had for me, and God very much blessed these people hungry for the Word. So many good things came out of not only that one session, but also from the whole conference.

By the way, before I forget, let me tell you how the conference scheduling finally got solved. God prompted me for the first time in my ministry to start at the end and work my way forward—kind of like folding a flag at a funeral—with every fold a session; so, by the time I got to the end of the 21 to 23 sessions, not only did everything fit into its proper place, but we needed every session to cover the material that was needed. To this day, that particular conference is special to me.

Our students know we build the outline on the board, so that at the end of whatever we are studying, most of them are quite conversant with the structure/outline of Isaiah. As with the previously referred to conference, I started at the back of Isaiah 66 and worked my way to the front, and there the answer had been all the time: still Stuff (just kidding!). Instead, it became A Panoramic Overview of the Book of Isaiah. I also saw that Isaiah 1 is a Panoramic Overview of the Panoramic Overview (that is, it is an overview of Isaiah 2–5). What I had done before was to try to do the outline as if I were adding a bead to a necklace with every new thing I found and, thus, my outline kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. I think in a good sense God kept it from me until He wanted me to have it. I am sure I will hear from many who attended the classes/conferences where Stuff was used, but at least I’m entertaining Lamar and the other angels in different ways.

A Citation Change

As we discussed previously, this book followed the Handbook formation rather than the Glory Book format. One final thought: while we cannot cover everything, we will cover many incredible and irreplaceable biblical doctrines—especially in the Old Testament. As we will see many times, those who want to begin their study of the Bible in Matthew and never go back to trace such foundational doctrinal truths, must remember this: as we saw twice in Luke 24, the LORD Jesus Christ Himself worked His way to—and through—every book in the Old Testament and showed many passages that were specifically and directly related to Him, and many of those truths would be the biblical doctrinal foundation on which Jesus would establish His church. Because, after all, we never would start at the Gospel of Matthew (or even at Zechariah) without at least broadly knowing the biblical trail that tells so wondrously of the King—and especially about—His Glory.

One Citation Decision

As I was praying through the book, its contents and arrangement, and if you have read any of the Glory Books, or if you have read or will read any of the 30 chapters in The Bible Expositor’s Handbook (OT/NT), you will know that I had a dilemma before me: is this current work a Glory Book, and should I use the formatting that I have used for the previous five Glory Books, or should the format for this current book be the one we used for The Bible Expositor’s Handbook (OT/NT)? Basically, the answer is, this is another Glory Book in content, but written in the Handbook style. The reasons I did this were (1) it allows me more freedom of movement, so to speak, in using longer titles and subdivisions in the Handbook that we could not do if we did this with the Glory Books style; (2) I think you will discover that this biblical material will be easier to convey using the same Handbook format; (3) each of the 30 chapters of The Bible Expositor’s Handbook (OT/NT) has an introductory paragraph, a Summary and Conclusion section (for reinforcement of what we studied, and these summaries can be used for quick review, if needed).

When this book is published, it will become the next 12 chapters supplemental to the 30 chapters of The Bible Expositor’s Handbook (OT/NT), plus the 12 chapters of the newly released, The King and His Glory, which will unofficially bring a total of 54 chapters to the Handbook—or it can be read easily as a stand-alone book. If you or someone you know has not read any of the other books mentioned, this book should still be easy to follow.

One thing, since the printed version has been released by B&H Academic, that is the one that I decided to quote from and to shorten the title of the book by deleting (OT/NT). To me, these benefits of doing the formatting accordingly made it an easy call, and I hope that it will greatly enrich our study of citing from the 30 chapters of The Bible Expositor’s Handbook (OT/NT). I’ll still put chapter headings and page numbers when needed. The material is the same from The Bible Expositor’s Handbook (OT/NT), but the title is shortened in an attempt to make things easier for all involved.

One other matter to consider: since the 30 chapters of the Handbook have two chapters based on certain chapters of Isaiah, I have included some of this material for the first-time readers. I hope this stirs up your memory if you have read much or all of the previous material. Please pray for those who are reading this for the first time that God Almighty will implant the biblical gold of truth deeply into their hearts for their true worship of Him, in spirit and truth.

I relinquish my use of the word Stuff to someone else who needs to use it for decades.

All royalties from the books are assigned to The Master’s Academies International for them to use however they see fit.

So how about it? Ready to mine some more gold from Isaiah to see both Him—and His doctrine—throughout this wondrous book?

The King and His Glory (Part 2):

More Gold from the Book of Isaiah about the Coming King of Glory

CHAPTER ONE

ISAIAH 1–5

PANORAMIC OVERVIEW OF THE

BOOK OF ISAIAH

Introduction to Our Studies

We open by paraphrasing and borrowing short excerpts from my previous book, The King and His Glory: From His Return to Earth Into the Eternal State because the methodology will be the same for both editions and, since it is already written, we will use some pages throughout the first part of that publication, although they will not be notated as such.

Let me start by saying the Book of Isaiah plays the most significant role of any biblical book in this present work. This is not a commentary on Isaiah even though, as many of you know, there are more prophecies and promises about the Messiah in Isaiah than are in other Old Testament (OT) writing prophets. As with the first part, the main subject is The Return of the Messiah/King in Glory, and the book of Isaiah supplies more than ample Scriptural nuggets and biblical trails for us to follow. We will have to leave out more than what we could have put in.

Further, the printed edition of the Handbook which I authored entitled, The Bible Expositor’s Handbook (OT/NT) (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2020, [used by permission], is the one that we will refer to with material and page numbers whenever we quote from there. Originally, the Handbook was going to have three parts to it (OT digital, NT digital, and the printed edition referred to above with its title page used). LOGOS is making a software edition of the 30-chapter book. We will put the title page at the beginning of two chapters in this treatise; however, when we quote, we will refer to the shortened 30-chapter version’s title: The Bible Expositor’s Handbook.

Realizing that people all over the world will be reading this—prayerfully written unto our Lord—we have such a large gap of biblical knowledge among the readers: for many, this study will be the first deep Bible study they have had, and many others—especially those who have read the five previous Glory Books, or any of the 3-part The Bible Expositor’s Handbook, and additional studies we’ve covered—will find familiar territory. For some who have been with us, let’s consider (1) that prayerfully you will be stirred up by way of reminder (2 Pet 1:13), and (2) that you will be part of discipling some younger believers, in person or in platforms like FaceTime, Zoom, or through new inventions yet to be released in the future.

We begin our studies just as we have done before—especially when studying from any Old Testament book—by reminding people what Jesus taught twice on Resurrection Sunday; first, to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:27, And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. Later that same day, to those who had gathered together with the eleven Apostles, Jesus affirmed for a second time in Luke 24:44, Now He said to them, ‘These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Some of the messianic prophecies were certainly fulfilled in the First Advent of Jesus Christ during His relatively short Incarnation, but many more were not fulfilled that day—or even up to the present—because they apply directly to the Second Coming of Jesus to earth and must be fulfilled—in most cases—to the smallest detail.

Even earlier in His life and ministry, Jesus voiced this condemnation to His critics, as shown in John 5:44–47:

How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another, and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?

Whether or not these questions are answered, and the way that they are answered, has eternal consequences. So many churches, seminaries or colleges begin their study of the Bible in Matthew 1—if at all in the Bible which, sadly, is often not taught. By not starting where Jesus started, in the