The indignation of the LORD is upon all nations [those who hate Him and His people], and his fury upon all their armies [tsaba’, hosts – their masses who they make their armies]: he has utterly destroyed them, he has delivered them to the slaughter.
Continuing: in the sense of a historical finality, the current judgment, there are three types of people, all here and now. The first, the elect remnant who have not been defiled by corrupted words and their ensuing confusion/delusion, and therefore have been raised to follow the Lamb. There are God’s people, still sleeping as the dead in Christ, whose end is to come out of tribulation, raised to life by the Word of God preached from the Lamb and the elect who follow him as he follows God.
The last group are those who will never be raised to life, but instead are the dead who are raised by the power of death that now works in them, whose end is to remain among the dead, forever in Sheol (Hades).
It is not up to me to decide who is who. The words that I and the elect speak in the Father’s name, His commandments, which He gives us to deliver as received, are those by which men judge themselves. If they hear and obey, they are the children of obedience. If they reject His word/correction, they show themselves in agreement with “the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience: (Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”)
These last verses are from Ephesians 2:2 & 3, where Paul is describing how all arrived here in a state of disobedience, and we were quickened: raised to life by the LORD’s working, by the power contained in the Word of God in us and then preached through us. We know this power (energes) works toward revealing the LORD presence in us, preaching His word to reconcile man to His ideas and ways (peace and security – sustainable civilization). We know, when and only when the hearer receives His word as the word of God in us (the Father in heaven validating with signs and wonders: meaning supernatural events that coincide with His word and our thoughts) is the person raise as a son of God. We are born again with a mind (Christ) formed in us as we are submerged (baptized) in His word into His kingdom (accepting His rule and reign over all the natural and spiritual realms).
Ephesians 2
1 And you has he quickened [brought to life from the dead], who were dead in trespasses and sins;
2 Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works [energeo] in the children of disobedience:
3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ, (by grace you are saved;)
6 And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.
11 Wherefore remember, that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
12 That at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
14 For he is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
19 Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
21 In whom all the building fitly framed together grows unto an holy temple in the LORD:
22 In whom you also are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
The title is Isaiah 34:2, the chapter telling of the LORD’s indignation and fury against those who have made themselves enemies of His people: who they hate without any cause other than they are His people. The word “indignation” is the Hebrew word qatsaph, meaning wrath, when the LORD knows He needs to intervene. The word is used in Zechariah 1:2 & 15 to tell of this point of intervention when the [final] seventy years has ended. (Zechariah is the closer, he comes after all the major and minor prophets (except Malachi) have ended their work.)
Qatsaph is rendered “displeased,” first in verse 2 saying the LORD is displeased with the current crop of leaders; and speaks of how He sent prophets to speak to the forefathers, who then saw the LORD in His works matching His words.
Zechariah 1
2 The LORD has been sore displeased [qatsaph – reached the point where I intervened] with your fathers.
3 Therefore say you unto them, Thus says the LORD of hosts; Turn you unto me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, says the LORD of hosts.
4 Be you not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus says the LORD of hosts; Turn you now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, says the LORD.
5 Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?
6 But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so has he dealt with us.
The chapter goes on to tell of the LORD sending an angel to assess the present condition of the earth. He sees it all sitting still, and at rest. We are later told in verse 15 that the LORD is sore “displeased” with the heathen (the same word as “nations” in the title verse) who are at ease; who have increased the affliction of those he has been a little “displeased” with; the latter speaking of the fathers (leaders) spoken of in verse 2.
Zechariah 1
9 Then said I, O my LORD, what are these? And the angel that talked with me said unto me, I will shew you what these be.
10 And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they whom the LORD has sent to walk to and fro through the earth.
11 And they answered the angel of the LORD that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sits still, and is at rest.
12 Then the angel of the LORD answered and said, O LORD of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which you have had indignation these threescore and ten years?
13 And the LORD answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words.
14 So the angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry you, saying, Thus says the LORD of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.
15 And I am very sore displeased [qatsaph] with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased [qatsaph], and they helped forward the affliction.
16 Therefore thus says the LORD; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, says the LORD of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem.
The chapter goes on to tell of these men (those who are still, at rest, and at ease) as the horns (worldly powers) that have scattered God’s people, and LORD sending others to “fray” them: meaning stir (scatter) them from their rest.
In chapter 2 the LORD announces the recovery of Jerusalem, as He becomes a wall of fire in their midst protecting them. He continues to tell of the process, first calling all to flee from the north, which is referring to the idolatry of Samaria (Israel), and defines as Zion those who do come out of the confusion the idol worship has caused: the place He calls Babylon (meaning confusion). As we know from past discussion, chapter 3 then tells of the cleansing (from idols) of the priesthood, which is spoken of as Joshua (Jesus – Jehovah’s Salvation), and of Satan standing at His right hand to resist Him.
Zechariah 2
1 I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand.
2 Then said I, Where go you? And he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof.
3 And, behold, the angel that talked with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him,
4 And said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein:
5 For I, says the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.
6 Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north, says the LORD: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, says the LORD.
7 Deliver yourself, O Zion, that dwells with the daughter of Babylon.
8 For thus says the LORD of hosts; After the glory has he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he [the serpent] that touches you touches the apple of his eye.
9 For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me.
10 Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of you, says the LORD.
11 And many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of you, and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me unto you.
12 And the LORD shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again.
13 Be silent, O all flesh, before the LORD: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.
The word qatsaph is used its last time in Zechariah 8:14 (numbers meaning new creation and double blessing – perfection). The chapter picks up where the above leaves off after the time of silence (famine and malnourishment) when the word of God was rejected and He scattered those who refused to hear: who scattered and further afflicted His people. I am His qetseph (qatsaph), meaning the one separated for His purposses.
Zechariah 7
9 Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother:
10 And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.
11 But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.
12 Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts has sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath [qetseph] from the LORD of hosts.
13 Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, says the LORD of hosts:
14 But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate.
Zechariah 8
1 Again the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying,
2 Thus says the LORD of hosts; I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury.
3 Thus says the LORD; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth; and the mountain of the LORD of hosts the holy mountain.
4 Thus says the LORD of hosts; There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age.
5 And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.
6 Thus says the LORD of hosts; If it be marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvelous in mine eyes? says the LORD of hosts.
7 Thus says the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country;
8 And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.
9 Thus says the LORD of hosts; Let your hands be strong, you that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, which were in the day that the foundation of the house of the LORD of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built.
10 For before these days there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in because of the affliction: for I set all men every one against his neighbor.
11 But now I will not be unto the residue of this people as in the former days, says the LORD of hosts.
12 For the seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things.
13 And it shall come to pass, that as you were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah, and house of Israel; so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing: fear not, but let your hands be strong.
14 For thus says the LORD of hosts; As I thought to punish you, when your fathers provoked me to wrath, says the LORD of hosts, and I repented not:
15 So again have I thought in these days to do well unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah: fear you not.
16 These are the things that you shall do; Speak you every man the truth to his neighbor; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates:
17 And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbor; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, says the LORD.
18 And the word of the LORD of hosts came unto me, saying,
19 Thus says the LORD of hosts; The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts; therefore love the truth and peace.
20 Thus says the LORD of hosts; It shall yet come to pass, that there shall come people, and the inhabitants of many cities:
21 And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts: I will go also.
22 Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD.
23 Thus says the LORD of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.
Romans 2
1 Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whosoever you are that judges: for wherein you judges another, you condemn yourself; for you that judges does the same things.
2 But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.
3 And think you this, O man, that judges them which do such things, and does the same, that you shall escape the judgment of God?
4 Or despise you the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
5 But after your hardness and impenitent heart treasures up unto yourself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;
6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds:
7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life:
8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that does evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;
10 But glory, honor, and peace, to every man that works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile:
11 For there is no respect of persons with God.
12 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;
13 (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
17 Behold, you are called a Jew, and rests in the law, and makes your boast of God,
18 And know his will, and approve the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law;
19 And are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,
20 An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which have the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.
21 You therefore which teaches another, teach you not yourself? you that preach a man should not steal, do you steal [in God’s name]?
22 You that says a man should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery [have you been unfaithful to God with the idols, ideas of your imagination]? you that abhors idols, do you commit sacrilege [with ideas you’ve imagined, and then say man should not bear false witness]?
23 You that makes your boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonors you God?
24 For the name of God is blasphemed [vilified and demonized because of your hypocrisy] among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.
25 For circumcision truly profits, if you keep the law: but if you be a breaker of the law, your circumcision is made uncircumcision.
26 Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?
27 And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge you, who by the letter and circumcision do transgress the law?
28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
When Isaiah 34:2 tells of the “fury” of the LORD it uses the word chemah, meaning heat, which we are later told in verse 9 turns the streams into “pitch” and the land unto burning “pitch.” The word pitch is the Hebrew word zepheth, meaning it is melted into a liquid. Zepheth is only used one other time, in Exodus 2:3 to tell of the pitch that kept the waters of Egypt (the captivity) out of the Ark where Moses was placed to protect him. The waters turned to pitch is what we are now seeing in the streams of information that flow the now totally confused and deluded ideas to the popular culture. Turned to pitch, is them intentionally keeping the truth from entering and being heard. This itself is what causes the same ideas to destroy themselves, melting away in the fires they themselves have caused (speaking of all the social media and fake news sources – civil and religious stream).
Isaiah 34
1 Come near, you nations, to hear; and hearken, you people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it.
2 For the indignation [qatsaph] of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury [chemah] upon all their armies: he has utterly destroyed them, he has delivered them to the slaughter.
3 Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.
4 And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falls off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.
5 For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.
6 The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea [Esau].
7 And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.
8 For it is the day of the LORD’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion.
9 And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch [zepheth], and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch [zepheth].
10 It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.
11 But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness [and I saw the earth it had become without form, and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep].
12 They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing.
13 And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.
14 The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.
15 There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.
16 Seek you out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it has commanded, and his spirit it has gathered them.
17 And he has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.
Malachi 3
1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the LORD, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom you delight in: behold, he shall come, says the LORD of hosts.
2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appears? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:
3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.
4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.
5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, says the LORD of hosts.
6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.
7 Even from the days of your fathers you are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, says the LORD of hosts. But you said, Wherein shall we return?
8 Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, Wherein have we robbed you?
2 Peter 3
1 This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:
2 That you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the LORD and Savior:
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the LORD as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The LORD is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the LORD will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.
14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
15 And account that the longsuffering of our LORD is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him has written unto you;
16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
17 You therefore, beloved, seeing you know these things before, beware lest you also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.
18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.
