September 27, 2020 summary: Teaching Beauty for Ashes Isaiah 61
Isaiah 61 is poetic in form and wording. It is this portion that Yeshua focused on in Luke 4 when He was given the scroll of Isaiah from the synagogue attendant. It is a proclamation of the Messiah being anointed to break off heavy yokes, a release, or Jubilee, when captives are set free. Even before the Messianic Age, there is going to be release from captivity once more, and it will advance His Kingdom here.
Shalom, shalom; peace, peace in the name of Yeshua. This is Crystal Sharpe and welcome to the Ancient Scrolls program.
I do have a website called ancientscrollsonline.com; it is all one word. I do post prophetic dreams, prophetic words, prophetic visions, articles, sources: ancientscrollsonline.com.
The Shema, Deuteronomy 6
Hear O Yisrael, the Lord God the Lord is One.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength.
Psalm 24
The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell therein.
Father YHVH,
We thank You for being God, the King of the universe, and over heaven and earth. We ask that You cleanse us from all unrighteousness, so that our prayers will not be hindered.
We desire to see Your righteousness and justice to reign in the earth. We pray exposure of the wicked in this nation, and for justice to be served. We pray for the children of this nation that are stolen and sex trafficked, we pray protection over them, the children. We are making petitions for You to expose and pull down these strongholds in our Congress, Senate, military, businesses, the medical field, schools, child protective agencies and churches.
In Yeshua’s name, amen.
We are still in the autumn cycle of the Lord’s feast. I am going to give a brief account of them.
The feasts began September 18th with Yom T’ruah. Yom means day and T’ruah means shout is the day of the Shout, also known as the Day of the Awakening Blast, which is the resurrection. This kick started the Ten Days of Awe.
Sunday night September 27th begins the Day of Yom Kippur. We know it as the Day of Atonement. It can be called the day of reconciliation. Paul called it The Fast, and it known by Israel to be the day when judgments are sealed. Yom Kippur is being referenced in Revelation 20: Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the devil, and satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should not deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be loosed for a little while.
Also, in Revelation 7 John recorded the 144,000 from the twelve tribes of Israel being sealed with the name of God in their foreheads. Revelation 14:1
The Lord’s feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot will begin on the evening of October 2nd. This is known as the Feast of Rejoicing or The Feast of the Nations. It will be observed seven days.
This is the Marriage supper of the Lamb that will last a thousand years because that is how long the Messiah will reign in the earth. It is the millennium of Shalom or Peace. We will sit down and eat with Yeshua, with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, King David, Paul and the apostles, those whom we knew in this life in Messiah who has gone home before us. In the Millennium we will tabernacle with Yeshua, He will tabernacle with us. The last night of Sukkot/Tabernacles is called Hoshanah Rabbah. John 7:37
Then there is a mini feast of the Lord called the Shemini Atzeret, or the Eighth Day. This day is symbolic of Eternity. This is when everything becomes new. In Revelation 21, John teaches a new heaven and new earth, for the first heaven and first earth had passed away. Also, there is no more sea. All things become new at this time. There will be a new Jerusalem. Verse 5: Then He who sat on the throne said: “Behold, I make all things new.” In eternity all things become new. That will be an exciting time for His people.
All the feasts will complete their cycle on the evening of October 10th.
The election is about 37 days out. We are at a critical time in this nation. On the last program I had mentioned a dream that a storm was coming. We have some ideas on what some of this may include, and I would like to share some ideas. This is to just prepare some of you so it won’t come as a big surprise.
So, the year began with the Coronavirus, then the protesters, the burning of cities, vehicles, structures, the murder of children in Chicago and New York, rape in Seattle, the burning of churches and Bibles. South Carolina had a march where the protesters shouted profanities at Jesus. Jesus is still persecuted. I remember a police chief who cried at a press conference that he had never seen such savagery. Arsonists are burning down California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington and calling it climate change. It has been a tough year.
Another storm is coming, and that will bring its own kind of violence unless the Lord intervenes in a drastic way to suppress it; and that is what we are hoping and praying will happen.
If not checked this will bring on, or create new kinds of other issues that we had not become familiar with earlier this year.
I have been doing lots of thinking, and meditating on those things the Lord has spoken to me and shown me since I was a young adult, and especially since 1999. These are like pieces of a puzzle and trying to fit everything in like sequential, or chronological order can be exhausting.
This storm is going to bring many changes. Soon, and this is if things do not change, this nation may face some hyperinflation and then a financial collapse. Earlier this year there was a shortage of coins. Some businesses would not give me change for my paper money. Other places pressured me to use my debit card only, because the business was not going to return change. It was posted just the other day, I sent it out to others so they would know, but a convenient store had posted a sign that read: “We need $1 and $5 please.” So now there is this supposed shortage of one and five dollar bills. The coin shortage was blamed on COVID 19, so we will see what they will blame for the dollar bill shortages. Like I said I have been thinking. We will see how it all comes to pass. We may experience this hyperinflation within a few weeks or months.
I did hear from the Lord the other day and it was the morning of the 15th of September. I heard: “Beauty for ashes.” I had forgotten about hearing this verse, because I did not know what to think of it, or what to do with it. It comes from Isaiah 61:3. I will just go over some history, and make a few comments.
Isaiah, in Hebrew his name would be Yesha’yahu and means God is Salvation. It is similar to Yeshua, a contraction of Yehoshua. Yeshua’s name means Yah is Salvation. Translated in English Jesus’ name would be Joshua, not Jesus; Jesus, or Iseous, is the Greek translation of the name Yeshua.
Isaiah was the son of Amoz, he was raised in Jerusalem which was in the kingdom of Judah. He was married and from that union produced two sons. He was a preacher and prophet. He served under four kings: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah.
The book of Isaiah consists of 66 chapters which I find interesting because . . . there are 66 books in the entire Bible, Old and New Testaments combined. The Old Testament has 39 books and New Testament contains 27 books. It is like a Bible within the Bible.
The first 39 chapters of Isaiah are filled with judgment upon immoral and idolatrous men. Judah has sinned; the surrounding nations have sinned; the whole earth has sinned. Therefore, judgment must come, for God cannot allow such blatant sin to go unpunished forever. Because of Judah’s disregard for the Commandments or Teachings of God—God will bring the curses of the Mosaic Covenant upon the people (Deuteronomy 28).
The last 27 chapters (books in the New Testament) declare a message of hope and comfort for the nation of Israel.
Many Messianic prophecies are nuanced throughout the book of Isaiah and so it is no wonder Yeshua the Messiah was given the scroll of Isaiah in Luke 4:18 where it speaks of Him.
- So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.
- And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He opened the book, He found the place where it is written:
- The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty (release) to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty (release) those who are oppressed; 19. to proclaim the acceptable year (or time) of the Lord.
Time year in this passage is not to be taken literally, it is rather a space of time that is characterized by God’s grace, redemption, and deliverance. In Isaiah, the acceptable year of the Lord refers to God’s restoration of His people from Babylonian captivity, (we are currently under the Babylonian system. Babylon in Genesis, the beginning and the house of Judah taken into captivity to Babylon. In the book of Revelation we will be released from Babylon) possibly with the intention of likening it to the year of Jubilee, when liberty was proclaimed throughout all the land on Yom Kippur in the fiftieth year. Yom Kippur which is the day judgment is sealed and the devil is thrown in the bottomless pit and set with a seal (see Leviticus 25).
Back to Luke 4
- Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Yeshua stopped at the middle of verse 2 of Isaiah 61, but I will continue on to read the rest of verse 2, and it says: “And the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn,
Note that the “acceptable year of the Lord” is also the “day of vengeance of our God” (Isaiah 61:2). God’s rescue of His people is always accompanied by a judgment on His enemies, as Pharaoh, Sennacherib, Sisera, and many others can attest.
Just to add this: the acceptable “year” . . . and a “day” of vengeance denotes the beginning of a new era.
verse 3. To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning. The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”
Messiah announces in His hometown of Nazareth that He is the Messiah. He has a twofold commission: to bring gospel mercy at His first coming, and judgments on unbelievers and comfort to Zion at His second coming ( Isaiah 61:1-9)
The phrase beauty for ashes is interesting. Beauty is the Hebrew word peh’ayr, It means an embellishment, i.e. fancy head-dress:—beauty, bonnet, goodly, ornament, tire, tiara, or turban of priests and a bridegroom.
Beauty would mean something that a Cohen, a high priest in the Temple would wear, something similar to their mitre, but not exactly. Another word would be maybe a headband. It is a covering of sorts for priests.
Ashes: In ancient times an expression of deep mourning and disturbance of soul was the applying of ashes on the head, sometimes this was accompanied by sitting in ashes. The message of being very humbled before the Lord
In this passage, beauty for ashes, we find that one is being exalted or elevated from ashes to beauty. It is like the process of mourning or sadness is past.
When the Messiah comes, he will not just remove the ashes on our head, but He will replace it with a beautiful headdress. He will not just remove our sorrow, but He will replace it with joy.
In the Messianic kingdom we will serve in the role of priests to God and Yeshua for a 1000 years. It will definitely be beauty for ashes. We receive a promotion because of Yeshua in the Messianic kingdom.
But even today we serve as priests of sorts, as ministers of the gospel, by preaching, teaching, pastoring, evangelizing, and acting as prophets also; because in the last days He said He would pour out of His Spirit upon all flesh and that our sons and daughters will prophesy. Acts 2
When I heard this on September 15th, and I told it to my husband, his question was: “What does this mean?”
I did not know how to answer it. Was our Father speaking of the Messianic Age alone, when the ashes on our heads become instead beauty?
My thoughts are that it is already happening for His people, His remnant. Though there is much grief right now in the nation and quite possibly more to come as we approach the election and even after that—which we are hoping it sort of dissolves; we will see, and we are praying concerning many things; but very soon the remnant is going to receive new breath, new direction, new life and that life (word) the remnant possesses will bring life to others, those that are able to receive, not everyone does.
I am thinking the next few months are going to be difficult, but during this time God’s people are going to go out and minister in areas in this nation like never before. From this will be the advancement of His kingdom that will involve healing, deliverances, salvation, and the preparation for His second coming. I am saying there is coming a revival of great proportions. It has been difficult, it is difficult, and will be difficult, but He is going to exalt His remnant in the ugliness of the dysfunction of this world. He loves His people with an everlasting love.
He is removing the ashes of our sorrows, our human frailties, and He is replacing it with beauty.
I am at the end of the program
If it is God’s will I will be here next week. Remember to walk by faith, not by sight. Keep your spiritual garments clean from spot, wrinkle and blemish. Do two things this week; love and forgive.
Rico Cortes will sing the Aaronic blessing
