A) RECAP/ SUMMARY
In part one of the “Full Armor of God” study, it shows that:
(1) Before “Putting on” the Full Armor of God, believers have to “Put off” the old self, which is the deed of darkness, and sexual immorality first. (See Ephesians 4,5 and 6).
It also shows that true believers have the POWER and ABILITY to “Put off sinful lifestyles.” It means when people accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour, they are given with certain spiritual power. This is against modern teaching that says no one can sin-not, except Christ Jesus.
(2) Secondly, it is only when believers “Put Off” or get rid of deeds of darkness, they shall then “Put On” the Full Armor of God. That means the Full Armor of God is not there to cover believers’ sins, sexual immorality, and deeds of darkness.
Similarly, no one expects to Put On new clothing before bathing, hoping the new clothing can clean their dirty bodies.
(3) Thirdly, it is when believers “Put off” deeds of darkness and “Put on” Full Armor of God”, they can then start to PRAY effectively. Living a clean life and with the Full Armor of God, without prayer life, the believers might not be able to combat the evil powers. PRAYER is the key.
(4) Fourthly, the Full Armor of God is not to ensure believers live a victorious, prosperous, healthy, sick-not, lack-not life as suggested by modern teachings. The fact that Paul, Peter, John, and early Christians weren’t living life prosperous, victorious, without lack and sickness.
Importantly, St Paul, under the guidance of the Spirit becomes the pioneer and writer of Full Armor of God. Yet, he didn’t live a prosperous, lack not life. Unless we are saying that we are better than Paul.
In this part 2 study, I shall look at the metaphor according to the Book of Isaiah 59 to understand what exactly the Full Armor of God is.
Essentially, Isaiah 59 is deemed as a parallel message of the Armor of God for those modern teachings.
B) SUBTITLES
The subtitles given in the GNT Bible of the Book of Isaiah 59 are as below:-
-Prophet condemns the people’s sins (verses 1-8)
-The people confess their sin (verses 9-15a)
-The Lord prepares to rescue His people (verse 15b-21)
C) PORTION ONE: – PROPHET CONDEMNS THE PEOPLE’S SINS (VERSES 1-8)
(Subtitle given by GNT Bible)
In the first portion of Isaiah 59, the Prophet opens with the condemnation and confrontation message from God. Prophet Isaiah is saying “Don’t think that the Lord is too weak to save you or too deaf to hear your call for help! (Verse 1 GNT).”
Prophet Isaiah continues to say that the problem for God not hearing and hiding His face from them because of their misdeeds, and sinful life that separates them from God. Not only that, their hands are stained with blood and their lips are speaking lies.
Furthermore, Isaiah says that no one sues honestly and no one pleads truthfully. They depend on webs as clothing that can’t substantially cover their deeds of malice and their feet run to evil, shed innocent blood, and with destructive thoughts.
Besides, their ways are unjust and without peace. Their roads are crooked paths. (Verses 1-8)
D) PORTION 2: – THE PEOPLE CONFESS THEIR SIN
(Subtitle given by GNT Bible)
The second portion of Isaiah 59 is found in verses 9-15a. It witnesses that they realize their sinfulness and confession of their sins after the Prophet Isaiah’s condemnation in verses 1-9.
They come to realize that because of all their injustice, the Holy God is far from their rescue. In other words, His presence is far from them. They expect light but only darkness. They stumble at noonday as if living in the twilight.
They are waiting for salvation but they are far from it. Their sins testify against them. Truth and honesty are missing them. Anyone turning from evil is being plundered (verse 15).
You see, how dark it is. Whoever wants to live a righteous, godly life makes himself prey (verse 15). Let’s compare and contrast verse 15 in two different translations as below:
| Verse 15 GNT | Verse 15 NKJV |
| 15 There is so little honesty that those who STOP DOING EVIL find themselves the victims of crime.” | 15 So truth fails, And he who departs from evil makes himself a PREY. |
E) THIRD PORTION
It is good to read the third portion of Isaiah 59 in at least two translations and allow the word of the Lord to speak to individuals. The verses are as follows:
| Isaiah 59 (GNT) | |
| Third Portion:- The Lord Prepares to Rescue His People (GNT’s Subtitle) |
|
| 15b The Lord has seen this, and he is displeased that there is no justice. | |
| 16 He is astonished to see that there is no one to help the oppressed. So he will use his own power to rescue them and to win the victory. | |
| 17 He will wear justice like a coat of armor and saving power like a helmet. He will clothe himself with the strong desire to set things right and to PUNISH AND AVENGE THE WRONGS that people suffer. | |
| 18 He will punish his enemies according to what they have done, even those who live in distant lands. | 18 According as their deeds deserve, so will He repay wrath to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; on the foreign islands and coastlands He will make compensation. |
| 19 From east to west everyone will fear him and his great power. He will come like a rushing river, like a strong wind. | 19 So [as the result of the Messiah’s intervention] they shall [REVERENTLY] fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him and put him to flight [for He will come like a rushing stream which the breath of the Lord drives]. |
| 20 The Lord says to his people, “I will come to Jerusalem to defend you and to save all of you that TURN FROM YOUR SINS. | 20 The Lord says to his people, “I will come to Jerusalem to defend you and to save all of you that TURN FROM YOUR SINS. |
| 21 And I make a covenant with you: I have given you my power and my teachings to be yours forever, and from now on you are to OBEY ME and TEACH your children and your descendants to OBEY ME for all time to come.” | 21 As for Me, this is My covenant or league with them, says the Lord: My Spirit, Who is upon you [and Who WRITES THE LAW OF GOD INWARDLY ON THE HEART], and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouths of your [true, spiritual] children, or out of the mouths of your children’s children, says the Lord, from henceforth and forever. |
F) PERSONAL UNDERSTANDING
My understanding of this third portion of Isaiah 59 is that God is astonished because of sin, no one is fit to intervene for those who are in oppression. He is upset by the injustice.
Thus, God decides to bring victory and uphold righteousness with His arm. From the scripture, it appears that God is determined to bring justice to those who are living righteously but being oppressed in verse 15. For those who sinned, God has already chosen not to listen to them. The scripture is not saying that God is redeeming those sinful living people.
Hence, verse 15 is the key to this portion of His truth. His word is not saying God is “Putting on” the Armor of God to rescue those who are living in sins. Unfortunately, modern teaching likes to omit or generalize verse 15. This is how the whole truth of His word is distorted.
Before examining further, it might be good to compare and contrast verses 17 and 18 in different translations to draw its meaning as shown below.
| Verse 17 GNT | Verse 17 AMPC |
| wear justice like a coat of armor | righteousness as a breastplate or coat of mail |
| saving power like a helmet. | salvation as a helmet upon His head |
| clothe himself with the strong desire to set things right | garments of vengeance for clothing |
| and to PUNISH AND AVENGE the wrongs that people suffer. | clad with zeal [and furious divine jealousy] as a cloak. |
| Verse 18 GNT | Verse 18 AMPC |
| 18 He will PUNISH his enemies according to what they have done, even those who live in distant lands | 18 According as THEIR DEEDS DESERVE, so will He REPAY WRATH to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; on the foreign islands and coastlands He will make compensation. |
By saying God put on the cloth of Righteousness as a breastplate, the helmet of salvation (saving power), and garments of vengeance (to set things right and to punish and avenge the wrongs that people suffer.) that means:-
- God wasn’t “Put on” those 4 pieces of garments before verse 17.
- The purpose of these pieces of garments are:-
# Punish the injustice and avenge those who are wrongly suffered and oppressed. It means He is justificating those who are “Right living” but are oppressed people. Those not living rightly are His enemies (Verse 18).
# He “Put On” these 4 pieces for redemption and revenge. In short, He is judging people not living according to the “Garments” of righteousness. That sounds very scary, isn’t it? But that could be the truth.
# I doubt according to the context that He is justifying for those who are living in sin. If it does, He can just choose to hear people who are living in sin, He needs not to send Prophet Isaiah for the rebuking of sins. Prophet Isaiah can just tell them to confess their sins alone.
Verse 18 shows God is there to punish misdeeds.
Next, verse 20 says the Redeemer will come to 2 groups of people. Namely:-
- To Zion
- And to Jacob (Israel),
for those who turn from transgression.
The second group is supposed to be referring to Israel (Jacob). Nevertheless, it suggests that a transgression needs to be “PUT OFF” or “TURNED AWAY”, before His redemption.
And just to be certain, this message is referring to God’s people. Not referring to pre-believers. His word is not saying that he is there to punish nonbelievers alone.
It is not right to draw the context from just a verse or half a verse. The AMPC bible put it very nicely in verse 21.
God’s law which is the Holy Spirit is being written inwardly on His people’s hearts. All His true children know His way (of doing things) and words. His way includes verse 1. That means sin shall separate His people from Him. And avenge and punishment shall be on those rebellious until they turn away from sinful deeds.
Both Hebrews 8:8-12 and Romans 11:25-27 echo the same thing. God put the New Law into His people’s hearts. No longer can His people claim that they don’t know the Law. The Law is from within, by the prompting of the Spirit. And, no one can claim there is any law under New Covenant.
In contrast to modern teachings, no law under the New Covenant. Think twice.
To be sure, God is still on His cloth of vengeance towards Israelites today. They haven’t all returned to Him yet.
(G) CONCLUSION
The entire Isaiah 59 does not say that even if believers are clothed with sins, and deeds of darkness, God shall fight for them. Their sins should be turned away first.
In comparison, modern teaching is saying that believers can still declare that “They are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus”, even if they are falling into sins. However, that is not what Isaiah 59 is saying.
In contrast, modern teaching is saying no law under the New Covenant. Think twice.
To be sure, God is still on His cloth of vengeance towards Israelites today. They haven’t fully returned to Him yet.
The entire Isaiah 59 does not say even if believers clothe with sins, or deeds of darkness, God shall fight for them. Their sins have to be turned away first.
In comparison, modern teaching says that believers have to declare that “They are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus”, even if they are falling into sins. Unfortunately, that is not what Isaiah 59 is teaching. The truth of the word is that believers need to “Turn Away” from their sins first.
In closing, Prophet Isaiah did not rebuke His people for being self-righteous. Rather, Prophet Isaiah is rebuking the sin of His people. It is about “Sins”.
In conclusion, the reason God put on His armor is to redeem those being oppressed by righteous living and bring punishment for deeds of darkness, based on Isaiah 59. If any preaching omits verse 15, the whole context is distorted. In short, He is judging people not living according to the “Garments” or Cloth of righteousness. Amenbible
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