That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble?
The prophecy comes from Isaiah, whose ministry ran from 760 to 698 B.C., beginning as a young man under Uzziah and continuing through Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah into the reign of Manasseh, by whom he was martyred, in crucial times in Judah typical of the great days to come. His name means Jehovah is salvation, and he is called the Gospel prophet because no other Old Testament prophet speaks so much of the last days, the sufferings and work of Jesus Christ, and the coming kingdom of glory. The book divides into chapters 1-39 and 40-66, placing this verse in the second part, which looks toward the future.
That future-looking section announces deliverance from Babylonian captivity and connects that deliverance with freedom from sin and error through the Messiah, with the two hopes at times interwoven. The Hebrew word behind deep is tehoum, meaning a deep place, abyss, gulf, ocean, or sea, and usable metaphorically for a wilderness. In the English version under discussion it is rendered bottomless pit, yet by itself it does not identify a place of suffering or a receptacle for the dead. The verse describes God leading Israel through the deep in their deliverance, a display of His creative power and redemption that made His name glorious and revealed Him as Creator and Redeemer.
The verse stands among the closing chapters that urge God's children to consecrate themselves to Him and foretell what the Lord Himself would do when He came to this world. The chapter is a testimony to the coming of Jesus and the final judgment, presenting Christ as treading the winepress alone and declaring the day of vengeance and the year of redemption. That treading of the winepress alone and proclamation of vengeance and redemption is linked to the utter destruction of the wicked at His second appearing. The verse belongs to the last seven chapters that have been appealed to for the return of the Jews, the reign of Christ on earth, and the earthly inheritance of the saints, set against the teaching that the saints are taken to heaven at the second coming when the earth is desolated.
The prophecy comes from Isaiah, whose ministry ran from 760 to 698 B.C., beginning as a young man under Uzziah and continuing through Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah into the reign of Manasseh, by whom he was martyred, in crucial times in Judah typical of the great days to come. His name means Jehovah is salvation, and he is called the Gospel prophet because no other Old Testament prophet speaks so much of the last days, the sufferings and work of Jesus Christ, and the coming kingdom of glory. The book divides into chapters 1-39 and 40-66, placing this verse in the second part, which looks toward the future.
That future-looking section announces deliverance from Babylonian captivity and connects that deliverance with freedom from sin and error through the Messiah, with the two hopes at times interwoven. The Hebrew word behind deep is tehoum, meaning a deep place, abyss, gulf, ocean, or sea, and usable metaphorically for a wilderness. In the English version under discussion it is rendered bottomless pit, yet by itself it does not identify a place of suffering or a receptacle for the dead. The verse describes God leading Israel through the deep in their deliverance, a display of His creative power and redemption that made His name glorious and revealed Him as Creator and Redeemer.
The verse stands among the closing chapters that urge God's children to consecrate themselves to Him and foretell what the Lord Himself would do when He came to this world. The chapter is a testimony to the coming of Jesus and the final judgment, presenting Christ as treading the winepress alone and declaring the day of vengeance and the year of redemption. That treading of the winepress alone and proclamation of vengeance and redemption is linked to the utter destruction of the wicked at His second appearing. The verse belongs to the last seven chapters that have been appealed to for the return of the Jews, the reign of Christ on earth, and the earthly inheritance of the saints, set against the teaching that the saints are taken to heaven at the second coming when the earth is desolated.