We never know what we’re going to get with Isaiah! Judgments on the nations from chapters 13 – 23. Judgment on the whole cursed world in chapter 24. And then…(BOOM!)…Isaiah 25, a message of hope.

O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure. (Isaiah 25.1, ESV)

…

For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat… (Isaiah 25.4, ESV)

…

On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. (Isaiah 25.6 – 8, ESV)

Compare Revelation 21:

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”(Revelation 21.4, ESV)

And this praise:

It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (Isaiah 25.9, ESV)

It’s really nice in The Message:

Also at that time, people will say, “Look at what’s happened! This is our God! We waited for him and he showed up and saved us! This GOD, the one we waited for! Let’s celebrate, sing the joys of his salvation. (Isaiah 25.9, MSG)

Amen.

We’re moving through a section of Isaiah that pronounces judgment on various nations (Isaiah 13 – 23). In chapter 24, Isaiah pronounces a curse upon the whole earth:

The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are left. (Isaiah 24.5, 6, ESV)

Is this reminiscent of Romans 8?

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. (Romans 8.19 – 22, ESV)

Somehow we think that the natural order of things ought to be peace and joy. And for most of us in the US, it is, most of the time. Then violence breaks out in Minnesota, for example. Oh my! But for some people, maybe most people in the world, that’s ops normal. We’re coming up on the 4th anniversary of Russian’s invasion of Ukraine, for example.

Sometimes we need to be reminded that we’re not yet on the New Earth:

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21.1 – 4, NIV)

We’ll have death, mourning, crying and pain UNTIL the former things have passed away.

I was continuing my parallel reading in John’s gospel while also following our Prophets Reading Plan. I started to read the last half of John 3 about Jesus and his disciples baptizing people in the Judean countryside along with John the Baptist. But I wanted to find the verse that said that Jesus didn’t baptize. It’s in John 4:

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples)… (John 4.1, 2, ESV)

But it’s verse 1 that grabbed me: “Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John.”

Years ago, Randy Pope, a Presbyterian pastor in Atlanta, told us at a Navigator staff conference that he disagreed with our use of the word “disciple.” We were living by a progression. I was taught:

• Decision (as at a Billy Graham Crusade or responding to someone sharing the gospel one on one)
• Convert (Someone that sticks. When I was on staff of a large church, we would send out teams to the apartments behind the church to share the gospel. From time to time, someone would burst into my office: “Bob, we were sharing the gospel and someone made a decision for Christ! Now what do we do?” I had a plan for following them up, but… we never saw any of those people again. The “decisions” didn’t turn into a “converts.”)
• Disciple: the convert is followed up and begins to grow.
• Disciple-maker: the disciple matures and begins to reproduce the process.

This is widely accepted terminology. I just saw this in an email from The Forum of Christian Leaders:

Why is it that so many women are believers but not disciples? How can we faithfully call women to true discipleship? In this talk, we discuss the current landscape of women’s discipleship, are reminded of why discipleship is so important, and gain practical resources in paving the way forward for women to make disciples who make disciples.

“Believers” -> “Disciples” -> “Disciple-makers”

This is not a bad rubric, but Randy said it wasn’t consistent with scripture. And here’s the verse: “…making and baptizing disciples.” Randy said, “We make a disciple, then we train a disciple.” Combine John 4.1 with Matthew 28.18 – 20, and we have:

• Make disciples
• Baptize disciples
• Train disciples

Disciple just means follower. It doesn’t connote any level of proficiency. The baptism marks the beginning of the journey. After baptism, they have to be trained.

As an analogy, an Army recruit becomes a soldier immediately upon signing the paper. He’s given a uniform (baptism?). Then he’s trained. Before long he’s training others. But he’s a soldier from the beginning.

The Marines do it a bit differently. They earn the title “Marine” by completing boot camp.

Does it matter what we call the stages of the process? Probably not, as long as we remember there is a process, a process that sometimes isn’t completed:

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. (John 6.66, ESV)

Moving along, we’re in Isaiah 22 which opens with a warning of impending judgment on Judah. Then this observation: God took away Judah’s protection, and Judah tried to fend for itself rather than look to God.

He has taken away the covering of Judah. In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool.

But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago. (Isaiah 22.8 – 11, ESV)

“…the weapons of the House of the Forest…” refers to Solomon:

King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold; 600 shekels of gold went into each shield. And he made 300 shields of beaten gold; three minas of gold went into each shield. And the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon. (1 Kings 10.16, 17, ESV)

Then this condemnation I’ve not noticed before: God called for repentance, and the people threw a party:

In that day the Lord GOD of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and wearing sackcloth; and behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears: “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,” says the Lord GOD of hosts. (Isaiah 22.12 – 14, ESV)

King Belshazzar in Babylon while Daniel was there did the same thing…

King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand. Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. (Daniel 5.1 – 4, ESV)

…and was judged in the same way:

But you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored …MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians…That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. (Daniel 5.23 – 30, ESV)

We’re going through the prophets this year in our Reading Plan, and some chapters are harder than others. Isaiah 21 is such a chapter. I’m sure we could glean something out of it if we spent enough time researching the geography. It does contain the famous line:

Fallen, fallen is Babylon. (Isaiah 21.9, ESV)

Reminds me of:

After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory. And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. (Revelation 18.1, 2, ESV)

But that’s all for me…let’s go back to John’s gospel for a different kind of sobering word:

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3.17, ESV)

This is Jesus talking. He came to save the world even though he knew the world would reject him then…and now:

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. (John 3.19, 20, ESV)

It’s not just “Babylon” that will be judged.

I saw something striking in John 2 after Jesus cleanses the temple (John 2.13 – 16). He is challenged by the Jews and offers an enigmatic reply.

So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. (John 2.18 – 21, ESV)

But the next sentence is the kicker. This is John’s gospel. John, who walked with Jesus for three years. What does John say about himself and his fellow followers?

When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. (John 2.22, ESV)

After the resurrection, the disciples believed. Think about that.

Rest assured, the greatest evidence of the resurrection of Jesus is that we have what we call the New Testament telling us about it. Without the resurrection, there wouldn’t have been anyone to write the New Testament!

As Jesus is calling his first disciples, as told in John 1, we have two instances of “come and see.”

The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. (John 1.35 – 39, ESV)

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” (John 1.43 – 46, ESV)

“Come and see” is the cure for doubt and prejudice (“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”). I experienced an amusing example of this phenomenon a couple of weeks ago.

The Wall Street Journal published an intriguing article about a leading mathematician leaving academia to work for an Artificial Intelligence (AI) company with a goal of creating a machine that can do real mathematics (discovery and proof).

I sent a mathematician friend of mine a link to it. He responded: “Thank you, Bob. Have no WSJ.”

I had sent him the “Gift article” link. Doesn’t matter that he’s not a subscriber. So I resent him the same link and said, “This link should get you the article whether you are a subscriber or not. Try it:”

I confirmed that I sent him the same link in both messages. In other words, he didn’t try the link the first time!

As with the Moylan Arrow, a “gift article” link that someone doesn’t believe in enough to click on, won’t get him to the article.

Also, he didn’t really believe the article was about real mathematics. Apparently he hadn’t heard of Ken Ono, the subject of the article. But he did know Ken Ribet, quoted in the article:

“He’s a larger-than-life figure in mathematics,” said Ken Ribet [about Ken Ono], a former president of the American Mathematical Society.

My friend wrote:

I would have thought it was a typical journalistic bubble around math, but Ken Ribet is a true and fine mathematician, who contributed to Fermat’s Last Theorem proof. I attended his talk at CC.

Finally, my friend wrote: Thanks for the article,

“Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” “Come and see.”

We’re in the middle of Isaiah’s judgments against the nations:

• Babylon (Isaiah 14.3 – 23, 21.1 – 17)
• Assyria (Isaiah 14.24 – 27)
• Philistia (14.28 – 32)
• Moab (Isaiah 15.1 – 16.13)
• Damascus (17.1 – 14)
• Cush (Isaiah 18.1 – 7, 20.1 – 6)
• Egypt (Isaiah 19.1 – 15, 20.1 – 6)
• Jerusalem (Isaiah 22.1 – 25)
• Tyre and Sidon (Isaiah 23.1 – 18)
• “The earth” (Isaiah 24.1 – 23)

Isaiah 19.1 – 15 is judgment on Egypt, followed by a graphic prediction of that judgment in Isaiah 20:

Then the LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt. (Isaiah 20.3, 4, ESV)

But in between is this startling prediction:

In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border. It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry to the LORD because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them. And the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the LORD and perform them. And the LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the LORD, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them.

In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.” (Isaiah 19.19 – 25, ESV)

When? “In that day.” What day? Some think the Millennium suggested by Revelation 20.1 – 4 . Or the new earth of Revelation 21.1 – 4. Or some time before? We really don’t know the when.

But we do know the how: “The LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians…and they will return to the LORD…”

What’s the lesson? Maybe we need to learn that there are no permanent categories. Any person or nation can turn to the LORD. For that matter, any person or nation can turn away from the LORD as the US appears to be doing now.

Saul of Tarsus is a positive example:

And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” And they glorified God because of me. (Galatians 1.22 – 24, ESV)

Demas, a negative example:

For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica… (1 Timothy 4.10, ESV)

And at the end?

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7.9, 10, ESV)

Our reading plan has us going through judgments on various nations:

• Babylon (Isaiah 13 and 14)
• Moab (Isaiah 15 and 16)
• Damascus (Isaiah 17)
• “Cush” (Isaiah 18)

Where is Cush? My online ESV bible’s note says that it’s “the region of the Upper Nile, south of Egypt, corresponding roughly to modern Ethiopia.” On this map, it appears that such a region would more closely correspond to modern Sudan, not Ethiopia. The yellow arrow points to the extreme southern tip of modern Israel, a town called Eilat. I’ve been there.

In Eilat live the most marvelous people, John and Judy Pex, who run a hostel. Some day I’ll tell you more about them, but today, let’s focus on Isaiah 18:

Ah, land of whirring wings that is beyond the rivers of Cush, which sends ambassadors by the sea, in vessels of papyrus on the waters! Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide. (Isaiah 18.1, 2, ESV)

Judy has written a book A People Tall and Smooth. Here is the book’s summary on Amazon – it’s about Isaiah 18!

Illustrated with photos and a map, here are the very real stories of how and why five refugees escaped from genocide in southern Sudan and Darfur, made their way through Egypt and smuggled into Israel, the only country their Islamic government prohibited them from entering. In desperation they fled across the border anyway, with nothing but the clothes on their backs. No food. No money. No papers. No possessions. Just thankful to be alive.

When hundreds of these tall, dark Africans showed up in the popular beach town of Eilat, at the southern tip of Israel, and a group of them entered the Shelter Hostel run by John and Judy Pex, curiosities were piqued. As the Pexes learned the almost-unbelievable stories of mostly-Christian Sudanese refugees, Judy began to interview and write the stories. She shares the first-hand accounts of Gabriel, Muna Maria, Yien and Rose from South Sudan, as well as Muna from Darfur. Chapter subtitles such as, “Bullets like Rain,” “God Knows our Suffering,” “No One Will Know When We Kill You,” Tea and Torture in Khartoum,” and “A Miraculous Reunion” express the extremes of these true stories, which represent many thousands of others. Many are still happening.

And why were they overjoyed to be in Israel? The Sudanese refugees in Israel believe that a prophecy in Isaiah chapter 18 speaks of them: “At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord Almighty (to Mount Zion) from a people tall and smooth-skinned.” – Amazon description of A People Tall and Smooth by Judy Pex

Here’s the text from Isaiah:

At that time tribute will be brought to the LORD of hosts from a people tall and smooth, from a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the LORD of hosts. (Isaiah 18.7, ESV)

Years ago when I traveled for business, when I got my rental car, I tried to make a note where the gas tank opening was: right side? left side? I wanted to pull in to the gas station properly.

Did you know that since the early nineties ALL cars’ dashboard fuel gauges have an arrow pointing to the side where the gas cap is?

I’m sure I didn’t know that until well into the 2000s. Here’s the short version of what happened, told by Elliot Eisenberg on January 16, 2026:

The Friday File: Cars have a small arrow on the dashboard telling drivers which side of the car the gas tank is on. That’s the Moylan Arrow, named after Ford engineer Jim Moylan, who died last month at 80. He pitched his idea in 4/86. In 11/86 he was told it was great, and the first Arrow appeared in model year 1989. 2.5 years from idea to implementation. 

Moylan came up with the idea after being caught in the rain pulling up to the wrong side of a gas pump in a Ford company car. You can read the whole story here.

Here’s his original memo:

Here’s the challenge: how many people know that the arrow is there? Did YOU know it was there? I wrote to Dr. Eisenberg asking how many people knew and what were we doing about that? He responded:

Well I am doing my part.  And a number of folks have said their car does not have The Arrow. I said look again and lo and behold it is there.  You are so right.  So many have no idea it is there. – Elliot Eisenberg

So here we have a marvelous feature that a great many people don’t know about. And a feature we don’t know about is a non-feature.

The Gospel is GOOD NEWS…but only if someone knows about it.

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” (Romans 10.14 – 15, ESV)