November 5, 2023 – Isaiah in the New Testament – Two Flocks become One

Two Flocks become One

Isaiah 27:6-13 - New International Version (NIV)

⁶ In days to come Jacob will take root,
    Israel will bud and blossom
    and fill all the world with fruit.

⁷ Has the Lord struck her
    as he struck down those who struck her?
Has she been killed
    as those were killed who killed her?
⁸ By warfare and exile you contend with her—
    with his fierce blast he drives her out,
    as on a day the east wind blows.
⁹ By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atoned for,
    and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:
When he makes all the altar stones
    to be like limestone crushed to pieces,
no Asherah poles or incense altars
    will be left standing.
¹⁰ The fortified city stands desolate,
    an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the wilderness;
there the calves graze,
    there they lie down;
    they strip its branches bare.
¹¹ When its twigs are dry, they are broken off
    and women come and make fires with them.
For this is a people without understanding;
    so their Maker has no compassion on them,
    and their Creator shows them no favor.

¹² In that day the Lord will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, Israel, will be gathered up one by one. ¹³ And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

How will Jacob (Israel) change the world (verse 6)?

In your opinion, what is different between the way Lord struck Jacob (Israel) and the way He struck “those who struck her” (verse 7)?

How does the Lord “contend with” Jacob (verse 9)?

What will happen to Jacob “when he makes all the altar stones to be like limestone crushed to pieces” (verse 9)?

How does the “fortified city stand” (verse 10)?

Why does “their Maker” have “no compassion on them” (verse 11)?

How will Israel be gathered when the Lord “will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt” (verse 12)?

Who will come to “worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem” on that day (verse 13)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage reveal to us about how the Lord gathers His people?

John 10:11-18 – New International Version (NIV)

¹¹ “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹² The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. ¹³ The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

¹⁴ “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— ¹⁵ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶ I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. ¹⁷ The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. ¹⁸ No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

How did Jesus describe Himself (verse 11)?

Who “lays down his life for the sheep” (verse 11)?

What does the hired man do when “he sees the wolf coming” (verse 12)?

Who “cares nothing for the sheep” (verse 13)?

Who knows Jesus (verse 14)?

What does Jesus do (verse 15)?

In your opinion, what does Jesus mean when He says “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen” (verse 16)?

How many flocks will there be (verse 16)?

Why does the Father love Jesus (verse 17)?

What does Jesus have the authority to do (verse 18)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage reveal to us about how the Lord gathers His people?

In your opinion, are the people being gathered in Isaiah 27:6-13 who will “worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem” part of either of the flocks that Jesus is talking about in John 10:11-18?  Why?

Romans 11:25-32 - New International Version (NIV)

²⁵ I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, ²⁶ and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written:

“The deliverer will come from Zion;
    he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
²⁷ And this is my covenant with them
    when I take away their sins.”

²⁸ As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, ²⁹ for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. ³⁰ Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, ³¹ so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. ³² For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

Why does Paul not want the Christians in Rome “to be ignorant of this mystery” (verse 25)?

What is the mystery (revelation of something not clear in the Old Testament) of why “Israel has experienced a hardening in part” (verse 25)?

In your opinion, does the context of the passage that Paul lifts the quote from (Isaiah 27:9) change the way that you interpret “all Israel” (verse 26)?

What will the Deliverer who comes from Zion do (verse 26)?

When is this covenant active (verse 27)?

In your opinion, who are the “enemies for your sake” (verse 28)?

What are irrevocable (verse 29)?

What have the Roman Christians received “as a result of their disobedience” (verse 30)?

What may they receive “as a result of God’s mercy on you” (verse 31)?

Why has God “bound everyone over to disobedience” (verse 32)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage reveal to us about how the Lord gathers His people?

In your opinion, what does Romans 11:25-32 help us understand about how the promise in Isaiah 27:6-13 that “Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit” will be fulfilled?

In your opinion, what does Paul in Romans 11:25-32 help us understand about the two flocks that Jesus was talking about in John 10:11-18?  Is the way God’s mercy is received different or the same for the two flocks?

Hebrews 8:7-13 – New International Version (NIV)

⁷ For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. ⁸ But God found fault with the people and said:

“The days are coming, declares the Lord,
    when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
    and with the people of Judah.
⁹ It will not be like the covenant
    I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
    to lead them out of Egypt,
because they did not remain faithful to my covenant,
    and I turned away from them,
declares the Lord.
¹⁰ This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel
    after that time, declares the Lord.
I will put my laws in their minds
    and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.
¹¹ No longer will they teach their neighbor,
    or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
    from the least of them to the greatest.
¹² For I will forgive their wickedness
    and will remember their sins no more.”

¹³ By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.

What would not have happened if “there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant” (verse 7)?

Who will the Lord make the new covenant with (verse 8)?

Why will it “not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt” (verse 9)?

Where will the Lord put His laws (verse 10)?

What will the people be (verse 10)?

Why will they no longer “teach their neighbor” (verse 11)?

What will the Lord remember “no more” (verse 12)?

Why will the first covenant “soon disappear” (verse 13)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage reveal to us about how the Lord gathers His people?

In your opinion, how does comparing Isaiah 27:6-13 and Hebrews 8:9-13 help us understand what some of the differences between the old and the new covenants are?

In your opinion, is the covenant that Hebrews 8:7-13 talks about being with the people of Israel and Judah for both of the flocks that Jesus was talking about in John 10:11-18?

In your opinion, is the new covenant of Hebrews 8:7-13 connected to the way “Jacob’s guilt” will be atoned for in Isaiah 27:6-13?  

In your opinion, what do these passages from Isaiah, John, Romans, and Hebrews teach us about how salvation is accomplished?

In your opinion, how are two flocks made into one?

 

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)