Transcript

Podcast Introduction

Today is Prophecy Friday, and our reading today is Isaiah 7-11, after which I’ll have a gripe about something in one of our chapters, and then a close examination of a verse in another chapter. I’m calling the show “Quick and Fast”. After the reading, I have a couple of comments from the Lifespring Family to share with you.

Comments on Isaiah 8 and 9

Thoughts on Isaiah 8

Ok, I’m all for modern English translations as long as the new translation makes the text easy to understand, and it conveys the original meaning that was intended in the original language. But in the beginning of chapter 8 we have, what is to me, an excellent example of why we need to keep the older translations around. 

At the beginning of chapter 8, God tells Isaiah to “Take a large piece of writing material and write on it in large letters: “Quick Loot, Fast Plunder.” It it me, or did you sort of say, “What?!?” when you heard that? I did not immediately grasp the meaning of that sentence. What exactly is a large piece of writing material, and what is the meaning of  “Quick Loot, Fast Plunder”?

In the King James Version, Isaiah is told, “Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a man’s pen concerning Mahershalalhashbaz.”. Now, other than Mahershalalhashbaz, doesn’t that make more sense? I’ll explain Mahershalalhashbaz in a moment. But you probably easily understood the instruction to “Take thee a great roll.” What did they write on in those times? Scrolls. The modern translation could have easily said, “Get a large book and write on it.” In my opinion, that would have been much better.

And did you notice something in the King James Version I just read to you that was not in the Good News Translation? Let me read them to you again. First the KJV: Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a man’s pen concerning Mahershalalhashbaz. And now, the GNT: Take a large piece of writing material and write on it in large letters: ‘Quick Loot, Fast Plunder.’ 

Did you hear the missing element? In the KJV Isaiah is told to write with a man’s pen. There is nothing at all about what to write with in the GNT. Why is this point important? I like the way the Jamieson, Fausset, Brown commentary explains it: (Isaiah was to write it) in ordinary characters, which the humblest can read. Not in hieroglyphics. The object was that, after the event, *all* might see that it had been predicted by Isaiah.”

This was God telling Isaiah that He wanted everyone, from the most noble to the most humble, to know what God told Isaiah would take place. It was not to be only for the aristocracy.

Now for Mahershalalhashbaz. Again, the KJV says: Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a man’s pen concerning Mahershalalhashbazz.

The GNT says: Take a large piece of writing material and write on it in large letters: ‘Quick Loot, Fast Plunder.’ 

Mahershalalhashbaz means, “Make speed to the spoil, hasten to the prey.” Don’t you think that is actually more clear than  “Quick Loot, Fast Plunder.” Quick Loot, Fast Plunder sounds like a fast food slogan or something. 

The message here is that the Assyrian army will come upon them with great speed and make great spoil. They’re coming in quickly, and they will bring a great deal of destruction upon them. 

So there’s a short lesson on one way to get more meaning from the reading of scripture. Use more than one version. Compare translations. Don’t just let things go by that you’re not clear on. 

Thoughts on Isaiah 9:6

Ok, I’m going to cheat just a little bit here. We read from the Good News Translation, but for my remarks, I’m going to use the King James because I like how it sounds, and many of us are more familiar with this verse in the KJV because when we hear the Christmas story, it is the KJV that is most often quoted.

Here’s Isaiah 9:6 from the KJV: For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

This is, of course, a prophecy about the coming Messiah. Now, there’s something about prophecy that many people do not understand. And this point was explained to me many years ago by an old preacher who specialized in Biblical prophecy. Imagine you’re looking at a mountain range from a long distance away. From your perspective, you see mountains. You probably see, as you look at them from left to right, several peaks. But do you know what you don’t see? You don’t see the dist ance between them. There are peaks and valleys in a mountain range, but from a distance, you don’t see the valleys. 

Some prophecies are like that. The peaks are the prophetic events, the valleys are the time between them. From the time that the prophecy is given until the fulfillment of the prophecy begins, the prophecy looks like it all happens at once. But there could be a valley of time between the actual events, or fulfillment of the prophecy.

That is what happened with the prophecies of the coming Messiah, and that is why the Jewish scholars of Jesus’ time missed Him. They were expecting the Messiah to establish an earthly kingdom when He came. They missed the valley between His first coming and His second coming.

Now, in the interest of time, I’m just going to talk about one aspect of this part of verse six: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Most of those descriptions (or names) are easy to see as they apply to Jesus, right? There is an awful lot that I could say about each one of those names, but I’m just going to mention the one that probably makes you say, “Wait. What?” Do you know which one I’m going to mention? Here it is. What about “The everlasting Father”? Wait a minute. I thought Jesus was the Son. So what gives?

It’s not really difficult, once you hear the explanation. In the original Hebrew, what this means is Jesus is the source, the author, the Creator of all eternity. He is the Father of time everlasting. The everlasting Father. 

Not sure you believe me that Jesus is the Creator? How about this. In Colossians 1:15-17, the apostle Paul says, “15Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, 16for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.

Everything was created through him and for him. 17He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.

Sounds pretty clear to me.

Today’s Bible Translation

Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch. 7 NASB; Ch. 8-11 GNT

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Isaiah 7-11: Quick and Fast (LSFAB S13E013)

[TEASER – 00:00]
It was not only to be for the aristocracy,

[INTRO S13E013 – 00:11]
This is the Lifespring Family Audio Bible coming to you from Riverside, California, and podcasting since 2004, I’m your OG Godcaster, Steve Webb. This is the daily podcast where we’ll read the entire Bible in a year. What’s new with you? Today is Prophecy Friday, and our reading today is Isaiah 7 through 11, after which I’ll have a gripe about something in one of our chapters, and then a close examination of a verse in another chapter.

I’m calling today’s episode “Quick and Fast”. After the reading, I’ll have a couple of comments from the Lifespring family to share with you. But before we read, let’s pray.

[OPENING PRAYER – 00:47]
Our heavenly Father, as we open your Word today, we thank you for giving us this way to learn about you and how you’ve revealed yourself to us, and we ask that you speak to our hearts and our minds today.

I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Alright, let’s begin.

[ISAIAH 7 (NASB) – 01:07]
Isaiah, chapter 7.

(1) Now it came about in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not conquer it. (2) When it was reported to the house of David, saying, “The Arameans have camped in Ephraim,” his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake with the wind.

(3) Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the fuller’s field, (4) and say to him, ‘Take care and be calm, have no fear and do not be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands, on account of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah.

(5) Because Aram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has planned evil against you, saying, (6) “Let us go up against Judah and terrorize it, and make for ourselves a breach in its walls and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,” (7) thus says the Lord God: “It shall not stand nor shall it come to pass. (8) For the head of Aram is Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin (now within another 65 years Ephraim will be shattered, so that it is no longer a people), (9) and the head of Ephraim is Samaria and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not believe, you surely shall not last.” ’ ”

(10) Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, (11) “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” (12) But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!” (13) Then he said, “Listen now, O house of David! Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well? (14) Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. (15) He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. (16) For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.

(17) The Lord will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house such days as have never come since the day that Ephraim separated from Judah, the king of Assyria.”

(18) In that day the Lord will whistle for the fly that is in the remotest part of the rivers of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. (19) They will all come and settle on the steep ravines, on the ledges of the cliffs, on all the thorn bushes and on all the watering places.

(20) In that day the Lord will shave with a razor, hired from regions beyond the Euphrates (that is, with the king of Assyria), the head and the hair of the legs; and it will also remove the beard.

(21) Now in that day a man may keep alive a heifer and a pair of sheep; (22) and because of the abundance of the milk produced he will eat curds, for everyone that is left within the land will eat curds and honey.

(23) And it will come about in that day, that every place where there used to be a thousand vines, valued at a thousand shekels of silver, will become briars and thorns. (24) People will come there with bows and arrows because all the land will be briars and thorns. (25) As for all the hills which used to be cultivated with the hoe, you will not go there for fear of briars and thorns; but they will become a place for pasturing oxen and for sheep to trample.

[ISAIAH 8 (GNT) – 04:45]
Isaiah, chapter 8.

(1) The Lord said to me, “Take a large piece of writing material and write on it in large letters: ‘Quick Loot, Fast Plunder.’ (2) Get two reliable men, the priest Uriah and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah, to serve as witnesses.”

(3) Some time later my wife became pregnant. When our son was born, the Lord said to me, “Name him ‘Quick-Loot-Fast-Plunder.’ (4) Before the boy is old enough to say ‘Mommy’ and ‘Daddy,’ all the wealth of Damascus and all the loot of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.”

(5) The Lord spoke to me again. (6) He said, “Because these people have rejected the quiet waters of Shiloah Brook and tremble before King Rezin and King Pekah, (7) I, the Lord, will bring the emperor of Assyria and all his forces to attack Judah. They will advance like the flood waters of the Euphrates River, overflowing all its banks. (8) They will sweep through Judah in a flood, rising shoulder high and covering everything.”

God is with us! His outspread wings protect the land.

(9) Gather together in fear, you nations! Listen, you distant parts of the earth. Get ready to fight, but be afraid! Yes, get ready, but be afraid! (10) Make your plans! But they will never succeed. Talk all you want to! But it is all useless, because God is with us.

(11) With his great power the Lord warned me not to follow the road which the people were following. He said, (12) “Do not join in the schemes of the people and do not be afraid of the things that they fear. (13) Remember that I, the Lord Almighty, am holy; I am the one you must fear. (14) Because of my awesome holiness I am like a stone that people stumble over; I am like a trap that will catch the people of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel and all the people of Jerusalem. (15) Many will stumble; they will fall and be crushed. They will be caught in a trap.”

(16) You, my disciples, are to guard and preserve the messages that God has given me. (17) The Lord has hidden himself from his people, but I trust him and place my hope in him.

(18) Here I am with the children the Lord has given me. The Lord Almighty, whose throne is on Mount Zion, has sent us as living messages to the people of Israel.

(19) But people will tell you to ask for messages from fortunetellers and mediums, who chirp and mutter. They will say, “After all, people should ask for messages from the spirits and consult the dead on behalf of the living.”

(20) You are to answer them, “Listen to what the Lord is teaching you! Don’t listen to mediums—what they tell you cannot keep trouble away.”

(21) The people will wander through the land, discouraged and hungry. In their hunger and their anger they will curse their king and their God. They may look up to the sky (22) or stare at the ground, but they will see nothing but trouble and darkness, terrifying darkness into which they are being driven.

[ISAIAH 9 (GNT) – 07:30]
Isaiah, chapter 9.

(1) There will be no way for them to escape from this time of trouble.

The land of the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali was once disgraced, but the future will bring honor to this region, from the Mediterranean eastward to the land on the other side of the Jordan, and even to Galilee itself, where the foreigners live.

(2) The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light.
They lived in a land of shadows,
but now light is shining on them.
(3) You have given them great joy, Lord;
you have made them happy.
They rejoice in what you have done,
as people rejoice when they harvest grain
or when they divide captured wealth.
(4) For you have broken the yoke that burdened them
and the rod that beat their shoulders.
You have defeated the nation
that oppressed and exploited your people,
just as you defeated the army of Midian long ago.
(5) The boots of the invading army
and all their bloodstained clothing
will be destroyed by fire.
(6) A child is born to us!
A son is given to us!
And he will be our ruler.
He will be called, “Wonderful Counselor,”
“Mighty God,” “Eternal Father,”
“Prince of Peace.”
(7) His royal power will continue to grow;
his kingdom will always be at peace.
He will rule as King David’s successor,
basing his power on right and justice,
from now until the end of time.
The Lord Almighty is determined to do all this.

(8) The Lord has pronounced judgment on the kingdom of Israel, on the descendants of Jacob. (9) All the people of Israel, everyone who lives in the city of Samaria, will know that he has done this. Now they are proud and arrogant. They say, (10) “The brick buildings have fallen down, but we will replace them with stone buildings. The beams of sycamore wood have been cut down, but we will replace them with the finest cedar.”

(11) The Lord has stirred up their enemies to attack them. (12) Syria on the east and Philistia on the west have opened their mouths to devour Israel. Yet even so the Lord’s anger is not ended; his hand is still stretched out to punish.

(13) The people of Israel have not repented; even though the Lord Almighty has punished them, they have not returned to him. (14) In a single day the Lord will punish Israel’s leaders and its people; he will cut them off, head and tail. (15) The old and honorable men are the head—and the tail is the prophets whose teachings are lies! (16) Those who lead these people have misled them and totally confused them. (17) And so the Lord will not let any of the young men escape, and he will not show pity on any of the widows and orphans, because all the people are godless and wicked and everything they say is evil. Yet even so the Lord’s anger will not be ended, but his hand will still be stretched out to punish.

(18) The wickedness of the people burns like a fire that destroys thorn bushes and thistles. It burns like a forest fire that sends up columns of smoke. (19) Because the Lord Almighty is angry, his punishment burns like a fire throughout the land and destroys the people, and it is each of us for ourselves. (20) Everywhere in the country people snatch and eat any bit of food they can find, but their hunger is never satisfied. They even eat their own children! (21) The people of Manasseh and the people of Ephraim attack each other, and together they attack Judah. Yet even so the Lord’s anger is not ended; his hand is still stretched out to punish.

[ISAIAH 10 (GNT) – 10:48]
Isaiah, chapter 10.

(1) You are doomed! You make unjust laws that oppress my people. (2) That is how you keep the poor from having their rights and from getting justice. That is how you take the property that belongs to widows and orphans. (3) What will you do when God punishes you? What will you do when he brings disaster on you from a distant country? Where will you run to find help? Where will you hide your wealth? (4) You will be killed in battle or dragged off as prisoners. Yet even so the Lord’s anger will not be ended; his hand will still be stretched out to punish.

(5) The Lord said, “Assyria! I use Assyria like a club to punish those with whom I am angry. (6) I sent Assyria to attack a godless nation, people who have made me angry. I sent them to loot and steal and trample the people like dirt in the streets.”

(7) But the Assyrian emperor has his own violent plans in mind. He is determined to destroy many nations. (8) He boasts, “Every one of my commanders is a king! (9) I conquered the cities of Calno and Carchemish, the cities of Hamath and Arpad. I conquered Samaria and Damascus. (10) I reached out to punish those kingdoms that worship idols, idols more numerous than those of Jerusalem and Samaria. (11) I have destroyed Samaria and all its idols, and I will do the same to Jerusalem and the images that are worshiped there.”

(12) But the Lord says, “When I finish what I am doing on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I will punish the emperor of Assyria for all his boasting and all his pride.”

(13) The emperor of Assyria boasts, “I have done it all myself. I am strong and wise and clever. I wiped out the boundaries between nations and took the supplies they had stored. Like a bull I have trampled the people who live there. (14) The nations of the world were like a bird’s nest, and I gathered their wealth as easily as gathering eggs. Not a wing fluttered to scare me off; no beak opened to scream at me!”

(15) But the Lord says, “Can an ax claim to be greater than the one who uses it? Is a saw more important than the one who saws with it? A club doesn’t lift up a person; a person lifts up a club.”

(16) The Lord Almighty is going to send disease to punish those who are now well-fed. In their bodies there will be a fire that burns and burns. (17) God, the light of Israel, will become a fire. Israel’s holy God will become a flame, which in a single day will burn up everything, even the thorns and thistles. (18) The rich forests and farmlands will be totally destroyed, in the same way that a fatal sickness destroys someone. (19) There will be so few trees left that even a child will be able to count them.

(20) A time is coming when the people of Israel who have survived will not rely any more on the nation that almost destroyed them. They will truly put their trust in the Lord, Israel’s holy God. (21) A few of the people of Israel will come back to their mighty God. (22) Even though now there are as many people of Israel as there are grains of sand by the sea, only a few will come back. Destruction is in store for the people, and it is fully deserved. (23) Yes, throughout the whole country the Sovereign Lord Almighty will bring destruction, as he said he would.

(24) The Sovereign Lord Almighty says to his people who live in Zion, “Do not be afraid of the Assyrians, even though they oppress you as the Egyptians used to do. (25) In only a little while I will finish punishing you, and then I will destroy them. (26) I, the Lord Almighty, will beat them with my whip as I did the people of Midian at Oreb Rock. I will punish Assyria as I punished Egypt. (27) When that time comes, I will free you from the power of Assyria, and their yoke will no longer be a burden on your shoulders.”

(28) The enemy army has captured the city of Ai! They have passed through Migron! They left their supplies at Michmash! (29) They have crossed the pass and are spending the night at Geba! The people in the town of Ramah are terrified, and the people in King Saul’s hometown of Gibeah have run away. (30) Shout, people of Gallim! Listen, people of Laishah! Answer, people of Anathoth! (31) The people of Madmenah and Gebim are running for their lives. (32) Today the enemy are in the town of Nob, and there they are shaking their fists at Mount Zion, at the city of Jerusalem.

(33) The Lord Almighty will bring them crashing down like branches cut off a tree. The proudest and highest of them will be cut down and humiliated. (34) The Lord will cut them down as trees in the heart of the forest are cut down with an ax, as even the finest trees of Lebanon fall!

[ISAIAH 11 (GNT) – 15:16]
Isaiah, chapter 11.

(1) The royal line of David is like a tree that has been cut down; but just as new branches sprout from a stump, so a new king will arise from among David’s descendants.

(2) The spirit of the Lord will give him wisdom
and the knowledge and skill to rule his people.
He will know the Lord’s will and honor him,
(3) and find pleasure in obeying him.
He will not judge by appearance or hearsay;
(4) he will judge the poor fairly
and defend the rights of the helpless.
At his command the people will be punished,
and evil persons will die.
(5) He will rule his people with justice and integrity.

(6) Wolves and sheep will live together in peace,
and leopards will lie down with young goats.
Calves and lion cubs will feed together,
and little children will take care of them.
(7) Cows and bears will eat together,
and their calves and cubs will lie down in peace.
Lions will eat straw as cattle do.
(8) Even a baby will not be harmed
if it plays near a poisonous snake.
(9) On Zion, God’s sacred hill,
there will be nothing harmful or evil.
The land will be as full of knowledge of the Lord
as the seas are full of water.

(10) A day is coming when the new king from the royal line of David will be a symbol to the nations. They will gather in his royal city and give him honor. (11) When that day comes, the Lord will once again use his power and bring back home those of his people who are left in Assyria and Egypt, in the lands of Pathros, Ethiopia, Elam, Babylonia, and Hamath, and in the coastlands and on the islands of the sea. (12) The Lord will raise a signal flag to show the nations that he is gathering together again the scattered people of Israel and Judah and bringing them back from the four corners of the earth. (13) The kingdom of Israel will not be jealous of Judah any more, and Judah will not be the enemy of Israel. (14) Together they will attack the Philistines on the west and plunder the people who live to the east. They will conquer the people of Edom and Moab, and the people of Ammon will obey them. (15) The Lord will dry up the Gulf of Suez, and he will bring a hot wind to dry up the Euphrates, leaving only seven tiny streams, so that anyone can walk across. (16) There will be a highway out of Assyria for those of his people Israel who have survived there, just as there was for their ancestors when they left Egypt.

[COMMENTARY – 17:38]
Before I talk about my gripe today, let me ask you a question. Did you notice the prophecies of the coming Messiah in our reading today? Yeah, me too.

I’ll be talking about that in a moment. But first, let me talk a little bit about our reading of chapter 8 of Isaiah. Now I’m all for modern English translations as long as the new translation makes the text easy to understand and it conveys the original meaning that was intended in the original language.

But in the beginning of chapter 8, we have what is to me an excellent example of why we need to keep the older translations around. At the beginning of chapter 8, God tells Isaiah in the translation we read today, “Take a large piece of writing material and write on it in large letters, ‘Quick loot, fast plunder’.”

Alright. Is it me or did you sort of say, “What?” when you heard that? I didn’t immediately grasp the meaning of that sentence, and I’ll bet you didn’t either. What exactly is a large piece of writing material and what in the world is the meaning of “Quick loot, fast plunder”? Well, in the King James version, Isaiah is told, “Take thee a great roll and write in it with a man’s pen concerning Mahershalalhashbaz”.

Now, other than the Mahershalalhashbaz part, doesn’t that make more sense? I’ll explain Mahershalalhashbaz in a moment, but you probably easily understood the instruction to “Take thee a great roll”. What did they write on in those times? Scrolls. The modern translation could have easily read, “Get a large book and write on it”.

As the famous radio psychologist Laura Schlesinger used to say, “In my never to be humble opinion” that would’ve been much better. Get a large book and write on it or write in it. And did you notice something in the King James version that I just read to you that was not in the Good News Translation? Let me read to you again.

First, the King James, “Take thee a great roll and write in it with a man’s pen concerning Mahershalalhashbaz.”

And now the Good News. Take a large piece of writing material and write on it in large letters, “Quick loot, fast plunder”. Did you hear the missing element? In the King James, Isaiah is told to write with a man’s pen.

There’s nothing at all about what to write with in the Good News. Why is that point important? Well, I like the way the Jamieson, Fausset, Brown commentary explains it: “(Isaiah was to write it) in ordinary characters, which the humblest can read, not in hieroglyphics. The object was that after the event, all might see that it had been predicted by Isaiah.”

So this was God telling Isaiah that he wanted everyone from the most noble to the most humble to know what God told Isaiah would take place. It was not only to be for the aristocracy.

Okay, now for Mahershalalhashbaz. Mahershalalhashbaz means “Make speed to the spoil, hasten to the prey”. Don’t you think that actually is more clear than “Quick loot, fast plunder”?

“Quick loot. Fast plunder”. Sounds like a fast food slogan or something. The message here is that the Assyrian army will come upon them with great speed and make great spoil. They’re coming in quickly and they’re going to bring a great deal of destruction upon them. So that’s a not so short lesson on one way to get more learning from the reading of scripture.

Use more than one version. Compare translations. Don’t just let things go by that you’re not clear on.

Alright, let’s move on now to chapter 9, verse 6. Okay, I’m gonna cheat a little bit here. We read from the Good News Translation, but for my remarks here, I’m going to use the King James because I like how it sounds, and many of us are more familiar with this verse in the King James because when we hear the Christmas story, it’s the King James that is most often quoted. So here’s Isaiah 9:6 from the King James. “For unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder. And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace”.

Alright. This is of course a prophecy about the coming Messiah. Now, listen, there’s something about prophecy that many people don’t understand. And this point was explained to me many years ago by an old preacher who specialized in biblical prophecy.

Imagine you’re looking at a mountain range from a long distance away. From your perspective there, you see mountains going from maybe one side of the horizon to the other. What you probably see as you look at them from left to right is several peaks. But do you know what you don’t see? You don’t see the distance between them.

There are peaks and valleys in a mountain range, but from a distance you don’t see the valleys. Some prophecies are like that. The peaks are the prophetic events. The valleys are the time between them. From the time that the prophecy is given until the fulfillment of the prophecy begins, the prophecy looks like it all happens at once. But there could be a valley of time between the actual events, or fulfillment of the prophecy.

Now, that’s what happened with the prophecies of the coming Messiah, and that’s why the Jewish scholars of Jesus’ time missed him. They were expecting the Messiah to establish an earthly kingdom when he came. They missed the valley between his first coming and his second coming. Now, in the interest of time, I’m just gonna talk about one aspect of this part of verse 6, “And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, The mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”

Well, most of those descriptions or names are easy to see as they apply to Jesus, right? There’s an awful lot that could be said about each one of those names, but I’m just going to mention the one that probably makes you say, “Wait, what?” Do you know which one I’m gonna mention? Here it is. What about “the everlasting Father”?

Well, wait a minute. I thought Jesus was the Son. So what gives? Well, it’s not really difficult once you hear the explanation, but it’s good to know. In the original Hebrew what this means is Jesus is the source, the author, the creator of all eternity. He is the father of time everlasting, the everlasting Father.

Not sure that you believe me, that Jesus is the creator? How about this? In Colossians 1, 15 through 17, the Apostle Paul says, “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created, and is supreme overall creation. For through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see, such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before everything else” – and I love this part – “and he holds all creation together.” So even as we speak right now, Jesus is holding creation together.

Wow. Sounds pretty clear to me. Jesus is the creator and he created all of eternity. He is the father of Time Everlasting, the everlasting Father.

[LIFESPRING FAMILY HOTLINE – 25:45]
Well, what did you think about the chapters today and the things that I had to say about it? Let me know. Call the Lifespring Family Hotline at 951-732-8511 or go to the show notes page at lifespringmedia.com/s13e013. Scroll to the bottom of that page where you’ll find a place you can put your comments or email me at st***@*************ia.com.

Tomorrow is Gospel Saturday and our reading will be Matthew 3 and 4. We’ll be introduced to John the Baptist. We’ll read how he baptized Jesus. We’ll read about the temptation of Jesus and the beginning of his ministry.

Kirsty had a comment on the “Genesis Q and A” episode I did the other day, and she said, “I really liked that Top Ten Q and A.” Well, thank you for that, Kirsty. And of course Kirsty is the one who does our newsletter. And by the way, if you also like that Q and A format, let me know. Maybe we can do some more Q and As in the future.

And this comment came in just a little bit ago. It’s from Karen, and the subject line was, “Hello, enjoying the audio Bible”. She said, “I discovered your audio Bible while listening to ‘No Agenda’. I bet you hear that now and then.” Yes, Karen. I do. And thank you for letting me know that’s where you found the show.

Karen said, “I’m very pleased with your statement of faith and believe this will be a wonderful way to learn and grow in God’s word. One question. What Bible version are you using in case I ever wanna follow along?” And she said, “Thank you for your time.”

Well, Karen, thank you for taking some time to write that. She found my statement of faith at lifespringmedia.com under “About”, and if you’d like to read it yourself, I encourage you to do that. And you can also read a bit of a bio about me there to find out more about who I am. To answer your question about which Bible version I’m using, I’m using over the course of the year, I’ll be reading from about 13 or 14 different translations. I bounce around because each translation offers something different.

And as you heard today, sometimes I’m pleased with the translation and sometimes not so much. But I do think it’s important to read from several different translations as you study the Bible. Now, on every show notes page for every episode, I do give you the translations that I used that day. So if you do have a day that you wanna read along, just go to the show notes page for that day and it’ll be right there for you.

Karen, thanks again for writing in.

[LEAVE FEEDBACK – 28:22]
I mentioned a few days ago that I’m having some problems with my Bitcoin node, which makes it impossible for you to send sats and boosts and things like that. Well, that’s still the case. It’s very frustrating to say the least. So if you are an expert with Raspiblitz and are willing to help me out, I would be very grateful. Send me an email at st***@*************ia.com. Let’s see if we can get this fixed please.

Thanks to the team, Kirsty, Sean of San Pedro and Denise, and thanks again Kirsty for your comment. And Karen, thank you for your comment. You can comment on the show by calling the Lifespring family hotline at 951-732-8511, or by going to comment.lifespringmedia.com or you can email me at st***@*************ia.com. And of course, you can also comment on the show notes page for this episode, lifespringmedia.com/s13e013. I do love to hear from you. It just makes my day when I hear from one of the Lifespring family. Please do share the show and until tomorrow may, God bless you richly. Thank you for inviting me into your day today. My name is Steve Webb. Bye.

Transcript corrected by Denise