I have to confess that I made an error. I guess when you read a chapter a day, sometimes you forget what you read the day before, or don’t connect it to the next chapter. I did this with Isaiah 2-4, and having read through Isaiah several times, I didn’t see that this section is one complete prophecy until this week.

Having read, from time to time, other authors on the same passage, sometimes it is difficult to reject what we have read and simply accept the text for what it says.  So we read books by well meaning people who are sometimes mistaken in one place or other.

I have stated that Isaiah 3 starts with a condemnation of ancient Israel, and then changes to modern Israel, by the end of the chapter. This was wrong.

Isaiah chapter two through four is one complete End Times prophecy; The whole section is about modern Israel.

Chapter 5 is a separate prophecy that goes back to ancient Israel, the Israel of Isaiah’s time, but the preceding three chapters concern the times in which we live.

Chapter 2 begins with a clear End Times statement;

And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

This is actually a statement about the millennial reign of Christ, but then the prophet goes back a bit, but not all the way back to ancient Israel. The condemnations could be about ancient Israel, since their sins were the same, but this is the Israel of today and of the Tribulation period;

10 Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty.

19 And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

Jesus actually referred to this event in Revelation, which identifies the context as End Times;

And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: Revelation 6:16

But in case we didn’t get it, He tells us plainly that this is an End Times prophecy, right in the text itself;

12 For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:

You see the one little word I missed, and which a lot of people miss, all the time, is the little word “For”, at the beginning of the next chapter. This word connects the previous chapter with the next. The whole of chapter 3 is a condemnation of modern Israel, and it is the reason that the Day of the Lord, the Great Tribulation, comes upon Israel, and the world.

In fact the conditions of chapter 3 have not quite been met in modern Israel, just yet. We are not yet at the time it speaks about, but it is a time within decades of where we are now, if not years!

9 The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.

No doubt the gay pride parades in Tel Aviv are a fulfilment of this verse, but there is something that has not happened yet in the passage;

All Israel will be gathered at this time, but as yet there are still millions of Israelites living in other countries around the world. Many of them are living as Muslims, in places like Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, and are constrained by the moral system of Islam. Verses 12 through 23 refer to a time when the people of Israel have thrown off the shackles of Islam, and have gone wild!

The time referred to is the time following the Psalm 83, and Ezekiel 38-39 wars with Islam. After these two major victories against Islam and the west, Israel will think of themselves as invincible.

Instead of realizing that it is the Lord who has protected them from their enemies, they will view the victory of Psalm 83 as their own, and the defeat of the Gog/Magog coalition as God’s approval of their theology!

God does not approve of Jewish theology, He is merely protecting them. He is keeping His promises to the patriarchs, to preserve a remnant of Israel, and He will do it. This does not mean that He approves of traditional Judaism, but rather He is going to bring the Day of the Lord upon them in order to correct their theology!

Armageddon makes an appearance in chapter 3 verses 24-26.

24 And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty. 25 Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. 26 And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.

When the Antichrist sets up his abomination of desolation, his idol, in the Temple in Jerusalem, Jesus told His followers to flee to the hills.

15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) 16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: 17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: 18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. Matthew 24:15-18

The believers of Israel will obey Jesus at this point, and Zechariah (13:8) tells us that it will be 1/3 of the nation. The unbelievers will be split in two, with one group supporting the Beast and the false prophet, but the rest picking-up arms against them. After almost two thousand years without a Temple, many Jews will pick-up arms at this offence.

Knowing human nature, I am sure that some “believers” will tell their wives to go into the wilderness for protection, while they stay behind to fight for Israel’s honour. They will die for their trouble.

This End Times civil war in Israel will result in Armageddon, with the nations of the earth joining in the attack.  While many will support the Beast, some may actually go to fight him, but in any case most will die there.

At the end of Armageddon, the survivors of Israel will exist in a ratio of seven women to one man. No doubt the rest of the world will be in a similar situation, since most armies consist entirely of men, and the ones that do allow women usually have no more than 10% female conscripts, nevertheless, the prophecy specifically concerns Israel.

This 7:1 female:male ratio is the ratio that Jesus will find on the earth when He returns and sets up His kingdom, and is the reason for Isaiah 4:1, and remember that Isaiah did not insert chapter divisions when he wrote his book, they were added later. The thought that ends chapter 3 is the same thought that begins chapter 4;

1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.

What is it when a woman takes a man’s name? Isn’t that when she is marries him?  Of course it is!

The “reproach” in this passage is the same reproach that the barren women of the bible feel.

This is the same “reproach” that Rachel referred to when she was pregnant with Joseph;

And she conceived, and bare a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach: Genesis 30:23

And Elizabeth when she conceived John in her old age;

Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men. Luke 1:25

It is natural for women to feel reproach when they can’t conceive.  Our western society has repressed this feeling in many women, by constant propaganda to the contrary, but a woman’s greatest contribution to society is to have children, and to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

God has placed in women the desire for a husband and children.  This is the same desire referred to in Daniel 11:37, and while the Antichrist will inherit a world in a similar condition as Jesus Christ, his response will be the opposite.

In places like Europe when wars have killed off many men, as in World Wars 1 and 2, women often felt they had to resort to seduction to attract a man and have a family.

These women, in Isaiah 4, are entering the millennial reign of Christ, and immoral behaviour will not be tolerated. Besides this, of course, is the fact that these women will be 100% believers, and this is behaviour that would not even be considered. So, what is being described to us in Isaiah 4:1 is God’s solution to their problem; polygamy, or more properly polygyny. God’s ratio for families in that day will be one man for seven women!

Polygyny was not God’s perfect plan in the Garden of Eden, but is a result of sin entering the world.   Wars often leave more women than men, and polygamy was the solution to the problem in ancient Israel, and even in much of the rest of the world, as a result. 

The greatest time of sin in the future is the Tribulation period, and the destruction of Armageddon is the result. God’s solution for the survivors of this particular generation, is polygyny, but they themselves will have children in the same ratio that people have always had them, about 50:50.

After this time there will be one woman for every man, and there will be no need for polygamy in succeeding generations. The existence of these families of one man with seven wives will serve as proof of the events of the Tribulation. In the generations following, young people will be able to talk with their ancestors and ask them about the Tribulation and Armageddon, and the existence of these unusual families will be evidence that what they are saying is true.

Many of these families will live for the entire thousand years of the millennial reign, and thus their eye-witness accounts will stand as a warning to their descendants for the entire age in which they live!

In case you doubt what I am saying read the rest of the chapter;

2 In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. 3 And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: 4 When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. 5 And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence. 6 And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.

“In that day” means either “at a time immediately following, and directly resulting from” or “at the same time”. In this case the phrase in verse1 has the first meaning, but in verse 2 it is the second. No one will be thinking of getting married and starting a family during the Tribulation, but the 7:1 families will occur as Jesus is setting up His kingdom and He will approve of it.

The Branch of the Lord, is the Old Testament title for the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who is ruling the earth at this time.

The rest of the chapter is a description of life in the millennial kingdom. Notice that verse 4 talks about the Lord “shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion”. Notice tht they are called “holy”. These are the very same women from verse 1, who desire to be one of seven wives. This is a very great change from their attitude in chapter 3:16 where they thought they could have any man they wanted;

Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet:

These are changed people. The Tribulation, and the Holy Spirit, have done their work, and God has kept his promises to the people of Israel, and to the people of the earth!

Unfortunately, many in the Church today have placed their traditions above the Word of God, and thus God has set a trap for them in Daniel 11:36-37.  Their ignorance of His word will lead them to support the Antichrist!

This is why I have written my book, and this blog; to warn the Church of what is coming, so you are not taken-in by the wiles of the devil!  And my error, which I spoke of at the beginning?  It is not serious, since I did understand the main points and have passed them on to you.