Woe to the rebellious children, says the LORD, that take counsel, but not of Me; and that cover with a covering, but not of My spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
Continuing: The above is followed by telling of the same offenses as walking into the decline of Egypt, the place we know tells of the captivity, but more so the ways learned and trusted in that led there. These words appear in Isaiah 30, which then goes on speak of those taking this bad advice, the strength of Pharaoh, saying it will be their shame and is the confusion that overshadows (causes) the captivity. Verse 4 then says, “For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.”
In this final sentence in context, when examined in more detail, we see the deep meaning the LORD provided for us, to see when, why and how these wicked and unreasonable men destroy themselves.
Isaiah 30
1 Woe to the rebellious children, says the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
2 That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
3 Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
4 For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes.
5 They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be an help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.
6 The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.
7 For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.
8 Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
9 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.
Zoan is the capital of Egypt where these princes are giving and following bad advice. The name means the place of departure and tells of the place where our leaders have departed from the reliable advice of the LORD, instead listening to those whose words are meant to manipulate and further confuse. Hanes, a word only used here, is from the Hebrew word chanaq, meaning to hang oneself to death, and thereby telling of where the advice of these ambassadors (mal’ak – angels as messengers with evil intent) leads them and any who follow.
The names tell of those who now lead us in our capitol and follow the same manipulative words that have led the nation into decline. The ambassadors of evil are the fake new media and the manipulative words meant to continue the captivity in their world of reversed values and the resulting confusion.
The word translated confusion in verse 3 above is the Hebrew word klimmah, meaning to wound, as in to taunt or to insult. It is the word next used in Isaiah 43:16 to tell of the these wicked men’s confusion returning upon their own heads. The chapter tells of Cyrus who the LORD has raised up to raise up His nation and His people who have been wounded and shamed by these evil men. (So, when you see President Trump taunting and insulting the left and the fake news media he is fulfilling the word and will of God before our eyes.)
Isaiah 45
1 Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;
2 I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:
3 And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, which call you by your name, am the God of Israel.
4 For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called you by your name: I have surnamed you, though you have not known me.
5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded you, though you have not known me:
6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
8 Drop down, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.
9 Woe unto him that strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashions it, What make you? or your work, He has no hands?
10 Woe unto him that says unto his father, What begets you? or to the woman, What have you brought forth?
11 Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command you me.
12 I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.
13 I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, says the LORD of hosts.
14 Thus says the LORD, The labor of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto you, and they shall be yours: they shall come after you; in chains they shall come over, and they shall fall down unto you, they shall make supplication unto you, saying, Surely God is in you; and there is none else, there is no God.
15 Truly you are a God that hides yourself, O God of Israel, the Savior.
16 They shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all of them: they shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols.
17 But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: you shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.
18 For thus says the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he has established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.
19 I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek you me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.
20 Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save.
21 Tell you, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who has declared this from ancient time? who has told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Savior; there is none beside me.
22 Look unto me, and be you saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.
23 I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.
24 Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed.
25 In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.
The wicked are those spoken of in Isaiah 30:5 as we read of them being ashamed of us, those of us against who their evil manipulations have to power. The next verse tells the beasts who carry the reward to those who have joined the confederacy of the disobedient and allow themselves to be ruled into captivity. We are told the place is the land of trouble and anguish, where and when comes the young and the old lion, the serpent and the fiery flying serpent. It says these are what actually comes from the Egyptians (captors) whose help is in vain, whose strength is to sit still.
It is impossible to read these passages and not think of Esther and its centering on Mordecai and Haman (and his ten sons). The pattern tells of when evil Haman conspired to kill off all the people of God, just as the wicked in our time have conspired to end this nation under God by destroying His people. As we know, it tells of Haman (the name is said to mean brilliant, while it actually refers to the noose around his neck, as chain unknown to him) who conspired to kill all God’s people and also publicly hang Mordecai (because he refused to bow to him.) The name Mordecai is said to mean little man, meaning of low degree and its deeper reference is to him as all the people of God who refuse to bow to the wicked in power, and rebel against the same.
We know Haman built a gallows on which he sought to hang Mordecai. The gallows look exactly like the fabricated attacks of the modern Trump haters who seek to hang him because he refuses to bow to their self-proclaimed brilliance. As we know, they seek to hang him because he represents the will of the little people, those the wicked see as the insignificant people of God, of whom they are ashamed. We know the end of the story is Haman and his ten sons are hanged on the gallows they themselves built, in effect hanging themselves to death by their own fabrications and evil intentions.
This is the end and it will not fail, nor does it sleep.
Esther 9
20 And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh and far,
21 To stablish this among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly,
22 As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day: that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor.
23 And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written unto them;
24 Because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them;
25 But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
26 Wherefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. Therefore for all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and which had come unto them,
27 The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to their writing, and according to their appointed time every year;
28 And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed.
Here is how Isaiah 30 continues from the point it is left above.
Isaiah 30
12 Wherefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:
13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly at an instant.
14 And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters’ vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withal out of the pit.
15 For thus says the LORD God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall you be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and you would not.
16 But you said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall you flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift.
17 One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall you flee: till you be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill.
18 And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.
19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: you shall weep no more: he will be very gracious unto you at the voice of your cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer you.
20 And though the LORD give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not your teachers be removed into a corner any more, but your eyes shall see your teachers:
21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way, walk you in it, when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left.
22 You shall defile also the covering of your graven images of silver, and the ornament of your molten images of gold: you shall cast them away as a menstruous cloth; you shall say unto it, Get you hence.
23 Then shall he give the rain of your seed, that you shall sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall your cattle feed in large pastures.
24 The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.
25 And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD binds up the breach of his people, and heals the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the LORD comes from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire:
28 And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.
29 You shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel.
30 And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.
31 For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod.
32 And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.
33 For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he has made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, does kindle it.
The public hanging of the self-appointed hangmen is what is alluded to in Nahum 2:12 as we are told of them as the lion that strangled the prey. The word “strangled” is one of the two times the word chanaq is used, and here tells of the strangler not knowing he is in effect hanging himself to death. As we saw in the previous post, Nahum 3 then tells of the LORD uncovering the nakedness of these men and bringing the shame upon them which they have unjustly brought on others.
The only other time chanaq is used it is in 2 Samuel 17:23 when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was no longer followed, not even by the unfaithful son, and hanged himself to death.
This takes us to the two times root word puwr (Strong’s #6331) is used. It is the root word from where is derived the identical Hebrew word (Strong’s #6332) translated “Pur” and “Purim.”
The first use is in Psalms 33:10 where it tells of the LORD bringing the counsel of the heathen to “naught.” It says this happens as the LORD speaks it, saying, “For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” Let all the world see and know these are the word of the LORD I have spoken here today in His name, of which you are witnesses.
Psalms 33
1 Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous: for praise is comely for the upright.
2 Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.
3 Sing unto him a new song; play skillfully with a loud noise.
4 For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth.
5 He loves righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.
6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
7 He gathers the waters of the sea together as an heap: he lays up the depth in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
9 For he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.
10 The LORD brings the counsel of the heathen to naught [puwr]: he makes the devices of the people of none effect.
11 The counsel of the LORD stands for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance.
13 The LORD looks from heaven; he beholds all the sons of men.
14 From the place of his habitation he looks upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
15 He fashions their hearts alike; he considers all their works.
16 There is no king saved by the multitude of a host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.
17 A horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.
18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;
19 To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waits for the LORD: he is our help and our shield.
21 For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.
22 Let your mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in you.
The other use of puwr is in Psalms 89:33 where the LORD tells of His will that all would come to repentance. As we know because we have seen, His mercy endures forever. We have seen the only condemnation is to those who reject the light and love the darkness, and in this wrong choice, they choose to themselves condemnation and eternal darkness.
John 3
11 Truly, Truly, I say unto you, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and you receive not our witness.
12 If I have told you earthly things, and you believe not, how shall you believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
13 And no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
15 That whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18 He that believes on him is not condemned: but he that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that does evil hates the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21 But he that does truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Psalms 89
14 Justice and judgment are the habitation of your throne: mercy and truth shall go before your face.
15 Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of your countenance.
16 In your name shall they rejoice all the day: and in your righteousness shall they be exalted.
17 For you are the glory of their strength: and in your favor our horn shall be exalted.
18 For the LORD is our defense; and the Holy One of Israel is our king.
19 Then you spoke in vision to your holy one, and said, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.
20 I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him:
21 With whom my hand shall be established: mine arm also shall strengthen him.
22 The enemy shall not exact upon him; nor the son of wickedness afflict him.
23 And I will beat down his foes before his face, and plague them that hate him.
24 But my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him: and in my name shall his horn be exalted.
25 I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers.
26 He shall cry unto me, You are my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.
27 Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.
28 My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.
29 His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.
30 If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;
31 If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments;
32 Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
33 Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take [puwr] from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.
34 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
35 Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.
36 His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.
37 It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.
38 But you have cast off and abhorred, you have been wroth with your anointed.
39 You have made void the covenant of your servant: you have profaned his crown by casting it to the ground.
40 You have broken down all his hedges; you have brought his strong holds to ruin.
41 All that pass by the way spoil him: he is a reproach to his neighbors.
42 You have set up the right hand of his adversaries; you have made all his enemies to rejoice.
43 You have also turned the edge of his sword, and have not made him to stand in the battle.
44 You have made his glory to cease, and cast his throne down to the ground.
45 The days of his youth have you shortened: you have covered him with shame. Selah.
46 How long, LORD? will you hide yourself for ever? shall your wrath burn like fire?
47 Remember how short my time is: wherefore have you made all men in vain?
48 What man is he that lives, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah.
49 LORD, where are your former loving-kindnesses, which you swore unto David in your truth?
50 Remember, LORD, the reproach of your servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people;
51 Wherewith your enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of your anointed.
52 Blessed be the LORD for evermore. Amen, and Amen.
