The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.
Isaiah 9:15 stands inside the record of a plot formed against Judah, and the plots laid out across chapters 7-9 foreshadow plots that will be formed in the last days. The verse belongs to a foretelling of blessings intended for the Jewish nation and for the Gentiles, blessings made dependent on believing in Christ and obeying the gospel. The promised return of heaven's government to the Jews did not take place because they rejected Christ, and the foretelling does not portray the kingdom as it will exist after the resurrection and the judgment.
The same foretelling speaks of the birth of the Messiah as if already accomplished though it lay centuries in the future, showing that prophecy may describe coming events in present or past terms. The aged and respected man is the head, while the prophet who instructs in falsehood is the tail. The following verse carries the figure forward to rulers who mislead the people into error and to followers who are brought to destruction, proving that corrupt religious leadership and its sway end in ruin.
The tail stands for false doctrine, which acts like a sting that wounds those it touches, and that false doctrine or sin is imposed upon Christians who yield to another faith because they lack the moral courage to stay loyal to their own. In matters of religious authority the order must be kept, with the tail never put in the place of the head nor the head in the place of the tail, since religious power descends from God and not from the people, while civil and political power ascends from the people.
Isaiah 9:15 stands inside the record of a plot formed against Judah, and the plots laid out across chapters 7-9 foreshadow plots that will be formed in the last days. The verse belongs to a foretelling of blessings intended for the Jewish nation and for the Gentiles, blessings made dependent on believing in Christ and obeying the gospel. The promised return of heaven's government to the Jews did not take place because they rejected Christ, and the foretelling does not portray the kingdom as it will exist after the resurrection and the judgment.
The same foretelling speaks of the birth of the Messiah as if already accomplished though it lay centuries in the future, showing that prophecy may describe coming events in present or past terms. The aged and respected man is the head, while the prophet who instructs in falsehood is the tail. The following verse carries the figure forward to rulers who mislead the people into error and to followers who are brought to destruction, proving that corrupt religious leadership and its sway end in ruin.
The tail stands for false doctrine, which acts like a sting that wounds those it touches, and that false doctrine or sin is imposed upon Christians who yield to another faith because they lack the moral courage to stay loyal to their own. In matters of religious authority the order must be kept, with the tail never put in the place of the head nor the head in the place of the tail, since religious power descends from God and not from the people, while civil and political power ascends from the people.