Bind the testimony, seal the law, we are for signs and wonders.

Isaiah 8:16-18

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.
Click for a description of the image of the beast.

“Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.” Isaiah 8:16

Isaiah was living at a time when the Israelites embraced a military confederacy, united by the threat of war, instead of being united by faith in the word of God. That is described in the post on Isaiah 8:11-15. Isaiah, and a few faithful disciples, did not join the confederacy of the multitudes, and they remained faithful to the word of the Lord. The Lord instructed them to bind up the testimony and to seal the law. That meant the faithful few would would bind up the word of God and seal His law within their heart, mind, and soul. By doing that, the word of God would continue from generation to generation, despite the majority of the Israelites turning away from God to trust in armed forces.

Today, we who serve God through Jesus Christ have instructions from the Lord to bind up the testimony and to seal the law within our heart, mind, and soul. Our born-again experience is the Gospel of Jesus Christ written on our heart. We live in a world where the majority of people, the global population, have turned away from God to serve the beast that gives them what to speak, do, think, and feel. They oppose the testimony of Jesus and intend to rid the world of the Bible. They are those who serve the beast who “…was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life.” Revelations 13:7-8. The faithful few of this world will be the only Gospel that people will have to read. The message of the Cross will be passed from generation to generation by the testimony and word of God written on our heart. That is how important our born-again testimony is.

“And I will wait on the Lord, who hides His face from the house of Jacob; And I will hope in Him.” Isaiah 8:17

Isaiah affirmed that he would wait for the Lord…just him and a faithful few, They promised to wait for the Lord while the majority of the Israelites sped forward to do things their way, with force and violence. Isaiah’s hope was in the Lord. Today, we see how the face of the Lord is hidden from Israel, and yet, the Lord of Israel is the same God of Jesus Christ, whom we serve. We will wait on the Lord, waiting for His return. While the majority of the world serves the beast, our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The patience and the faith of the followers of Jesus Christ is this, “He who leads into captivity will go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword.” Revelations 13:9-10. That describes the judgment coming against this world in the name of Jesus Christ

“Here am I and the children whom the Lord has given me! We are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells in Mount Zion.” Isaiah 8:18

Isaiah is making his declaration of faithfulness to the Lord, as he put himself and his disciples forward in a time when the majority of Israelites had turned away from God. The spotlight of their faithfulness to God would be for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord. Those sign sand wonders would be the fulfillment of God’s word spoken through Isaiah and Isaiah’s children in the Lord. By saying, the Lord dwells in Mt. Zion, he was saying that Jerusalem was the land of God, no matter how much the Israelites trampled on it with their rejection of the word of God.

Today, our Lord Jesus Christ is saying, “Here am I and the children whom the Lord has given me!” As followers of the Christ, Jesus, we are His children, given to Him by His Father, God. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:12-13 With the Christ, we stand as the light of the world for everyone to see our faith in God our Creator. With Jesus Christ, we are for signs and wonders to the Jewish people and to the global culture. Today’s culture lives for the beast that gives them what to speak, do, think, and feel, but we are the signs and wonders of the resurrected Christ, living in our spirit with the promise of our inheritance of eternal life, “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance…” Ephesians 1:13-14

Our Lord Jesus is alive and well in Mount Zion, the eternal New Jerusalem. After His death on the Cross to atone for sin, He was resurrected from the grave, then ascended up into Heaven to be with God forever. He gave us the Holy Spirit to guide and comfort us through this life until He returns. The Christ, Jesus, lives within us through the Holy Spirit. One day, we will be in Mount Zion with our Lord, “We’re marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful, Zion: We’re marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God.” [We’re Marching to Zion” song].

“…you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.” Hebrews 12:22-24

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:1