Misleaders
Isaiah 5:12 They (the leaders) never give a thought
To the plan of the Lord,
And take no note
Of what He is designing…
Isaiah 5 :14 And down it shall go,
That splendor and tumult
That din and revelry …
Isaiah 5 :20 Ah,
those who call evil good
Such people are all around us. They are our leadership class (the class of the power elite). The confusion created by ‘those who call evil good and good evil’ is also all around us today. Values seem to be upside down from what they should be. But those who love God will not succumb because:
Isaiah 8 :10 Hatch a plot—it shall be foiled.
Agree on action—it shall not
succeed.
For with us is God!
The effect of this cataclysm will be to defeat the ‘multitude of nations’ that are upon Mount Zion attacking Jerusalem/Israel.
The "multitude of nations" is similar to another phrase; ie: "all the nations" that will bring a final war against Jerusalem and modern Israel.
Recently, the United States has abandoned its long-standing support of modern Israel and has now joined the rest of the world’s nations in currying favor with the Arab contingent. NATO, a previously defensive organization, has now become the United Nations’ "world police force." If and when this police force is used against modern Israel, the prophecy of "all the nations" coming against Israel will have been fulfilled. The political activity in the Middle East is a clock for the fulfillment of prophecy; for when the hour of this war strikes, the Messiah will sometime thereafter make his entry and all the world will know it. Also the Lord through Isaiah says to these leaders:Misleaders
Isaiah 29:12 Act stupid and be stupefied!
Act blind and be
blinded!
(They are drunk, but
not from wine,
They stagger, but not from liquor.)
For the Lord has spread over you
A spirit of deep sleep,
And has shut your eyes, the (false) prophets,
And covered your heads, the seers;
So that all prophecy has been
Isaiah 29:11 If it is handed to one who can read and he is asked to read it,
he will say, "I can’t, because it is
sealed;" and if the document
is handed to one who cannot read and he is
asked to read it, he
will say, "I can’t read."
My (Isaiah’s) Lord said:
Because that people has approached [Me]
with its mouth
And honored Me with its lips,
But has kept its heart far from Me,
And its worship of Me has been
A commandment of men, learned by
rote—
Truly, I shall further baffle that people
With bafflement upon bafflement;
And
Still others, including this narrator, look for the Messiah's appearance any day or hour."
Continuing:Ps 82:8 Arise, O God, judge the earth,
For
all the nations are Your possession.
Isaiah 52:8 Hark, your watchmen raise their voices,
As one they shout for joy;
For every eye shall
behold
The Lord’s return
to Zion.
Raise a shout together,
O ruins of Jerusalem!
For the Lord will have
His Holy arm
In the sight of all the nations,
And the very ends of earth shall see
The victory of our God.
The watchmen are the prophets looking for the Messiah’s arrival. Note that this is a very visible display in "sight of all the nations to the ends of the earth." What kind of display could be so visible?
There is hardly a decent leader in the whole world today. Almost all are out for their own gain. As a group they are the most depraved and ruthless people on the entire planet. The world is full of wonderful people, but hardly any of them are in positions of real power. The ruthless crave power and seek it. They are willing to crush anything or anyone that gets in their way. The meek are passive and are not willing to trade their soul for power. But there is a long line of those that will. As in ancient Israel, the "leaders are misleaders," who lead so many so far astray. God expects leaders to be the shepherds of His children. God’s infinite spark of divinity lies within each of us. Just as biologic fathers give a genetic piece of themselves to their children, our spiritual Father gives us a spiritual piece of Himself. Now let’s switch gears regarding the kingdom within:
Walt Whitman Each is not for its own
sake,
Song of Open Road I say the whole earth
and all the stars in the sky
Are for religions sake.
I say no man has ever yet been
half devout enough,
None has ever yet adored or worshipped enough,
None has begun to think how divine he himself is, and
How certain the
future is.
Song of Myself O, I could sing such glories
and grandeurs about you!
You have not known what you are,
You have slumber’d upon yourself all your life,
Your eyelids have been the same as closed most of
The time.
We are unaware of the presence of the spirit within and so "we have not known what we are"and haven’t begun to realize "how divine" we ourselves can become. The voice within points the way, if we but listen. Follow the guide within and experience the reality of the divine indwelling. Behold, "all things are becoming new"-- once we experience and are aware of God’s spirit within; that "little voice" that speaks silently. And now, back to Isaiah. He turns 180 degrees and addresses our elite and illustrious leaders:
the "blind watchmen," "the negligent shepherds," and "the greedy dogs."
Misleaders
Isaiah 56:10 The watchmen are blind, all of them,
They perceive nothing.
They are all dumb dogs
That cannot bark;
They lie sprawling,
They love to drowse.
Moreover, the dogs are greedy;
They never know satiety.
As for the shepherds, they know not
Shall not save you when you cry out
They shall all be borne off by the wind, Snatched away by a breeze. Here the watchmen (56:10) are our "experts", the erudite prognosticators of conventional wisdom. Their refrain is always the same, everything is fine – just another bright sunny day. Meanwhile justice has gone out from the land and truth out from our hearts. Our leaders are misleaders; their only interest is
self-interest. Gone are the statesmen. Gone are the noblemen. Gone are the wise men. There is no one home. Our shepherds (leaders) are wolves feeding off the flock. Entrusted with much, these misleaders will be answerable for much. The consequences of this blind leadership will shortly rear their ugly heads. And then the cry: "if only we knew." But we close our eyes, and cover our ears, and bury our heads – co-conspirators against truth and justice. "We hear no evil, speak no evil, and see no evil. And we love it to have it so." Now, back to the main narrative of Isaiah:Isaiah 60:17 Arise, and shine, for your light has dawned.
The presence of the Lord has shone
upon you.
Behold! Darkness shall cover the
earth,
And
This "Presence of the Lord" is some sort of visible manifestation of The Messiah. There are repeated references to the light that he radiates in contrast to the "dark clouds" that are present upon the "Lord’s" Messianic arrival. Such dark clouds could possibly be from nuclear detonations or perhaps some natural phenomena, i.e. multiple volcanic eruptions associated with the large scale tectonic event or events that occur in concert with "the Lord’s" arrival, described elsewhere. Next in line, consider:
Isaiah 60:8 Who are these that float like a cloud,
Like doves to their windows?
Daniel 7:14 And to him
This is not a spiritual Messiah, he comes in power and glory to judge the earth and take dominion (sovereignty) of the nations and peoples of the world. Also, the present world leaders are misleaders; they spend no time
truly addressing our global problems such as overpopulation, pollution, environmental degradation, rapid loss of biologic species, ongoing ozone depletion, global social and political unrest, and increasing nuclear weapons proliferation. They talk a lot but actually do very little, after all it may ruffle the feathers of some powerful corporation. This planet is being and has been, raped by the wealthy and powerful. Nary a thought is given to putting back what we take out. The sole motivation is to get as much wealth and power as fast as possible. Because of this, when the Messiah steps in, we will be in the middle of many major problems. But God is not going to let the many good people of the world be destroyed by the strong and powerful. Sovereignty will be taken away from the present leadership elite and given to those who live according to God’s ways:Rev 11: 15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet…
Saying, "the power to rule over the
World belongs now to our Lord and His
Messiah, and he will rule forever and ever.
1Enoch 38:5 Yet shall not the mighty kings of that period be destroyed; but shall be delivered into the hands of the righteous and the holy (Psalms 149:9).
These world's misleaders will be delivered into the hands of those whom they persecuted and tried to destroy.
1Enoch 38:6 Nor thence forwards shall any obtain commiseration from the
Lord of spirits, because their lives in this world will have
been completed.
1Enoch 39:1 In those days shall the elect and holy race descend from the
upper heavens, and their seed shall then be with the sons of men.
1Enoch 39:3 A cloud then snatched me (Enoch) up, and the wind raised me above
the surface of the earth, placing me at the
extremity of the heavens.
1Enoch 39:4 There I saw another vision; I saw the habitations and couches of
the saints. There my eyes beheld their habitations with the angels,
and their couches with the holy ones. He cried aloud to the sheep,
and all the rams saw him and ran unto him. (1Enoch;
Pseudoepigrapha,
James
Charlesworth).
The ram with the "great horn" "opens the eyes" of the others probably by revealing God’s plan for the messianic age. I believe He is the final prophet to come. The rams are the strongest ones among the lambs and sheep, and run to join the final prophet (one with the great horn) after the revelation is made to them.
1Enoch 89:11-12 In spite of this, all those eagles, vultures, ravens, and kites until
now
continue to rip the sheep (Christians and Jews) swooping down on
them and eating them. As for the sheep they remain silent; but the
rams are lamenting and crying aloud. Those ravens gather and battle
with him (the large horned ram/prophet) and seek to remove his
horn (his power), but without success. (James
Charlesworth). (my parentheses)
In the verse above , we witness the persecution and killing of the sheep (predominantly Jews and Christians). The stronger ones among the Christians (the rams) cry out and lament while the rest of the sheep remain silent and blind.
1Enoch 89:13 I saw thereafter the shepherds
coming; and those vultures and
kites cried aloud to the
ravens so that they would smash the horn
of that ram with the great horn (the prophet).
But he (the prophet)
battled with them, and they (shepherds) fought
each other, and he
(prophet) cried aloud, while battling them, so
that God’s help
would come. (James Charlesworth). (my
parentheses)
The shepherds are the misleaders who are supposed to be tending the flock, but are instead killing and enslaving the sheep. The ram with the great horn (the Dabela), the final prophet, calls to God for help as he battles against the agents of evil (shepherd leaders and henchmen ravens).
1Enoch 89:21 Then I (Enoch) perceived that the man came who had written down
the names of the shepherds, and who ascended up before the Lord of the
sheep.
1Enoch 89:22 He (the man) brought assistance, and caused every one to see him
descending to the help of the dabela.
The time frame is all of human history which culminates and climaxes at the "end of the age," beginning in 1948 and unfolding now. The roles in this story are: the principalities of good and evil, the Messiah, the righteous, those who elect God’s will, the people, the misleaders, the Jews, the Christians/Lost Israel, the leaders and nations of the world, the final prophet, and God.
The excerpts above are from the book, "The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand"
by Ed Roache.