Isaiah--An Overview

ISAIAH-AN OVERVIEW Spring Valley Mennonite; June 26, 2022; Isaiah 1:1-20 I imagine out of curiosity everyone has read in the bulletin that we are beginning a study in the Book of Isaiah. For the past four plus years we have been primarily in the New Testament, studying the books of Revelation, Hebrews, Ephesians and most recently, 1 Thessalonians. If only for the sake of variety, it is time for exploring something from the Old Testament. There are some questions that arise in your minds: If it has taken six months to cover five chapters in 1 Thessalonians, at the same rate, it would take 6 1/2 years to cover the 66 chapters in Isaiah! Let me set your mind at ease; I don't plan on that sort of study, but something more like "major themes in Isaiah." You might also wonder about the relevance of such a book written seven centuries before Christ. My answer to that question would be that two things never change: people and God. God's truth, wherever it is found is timeless and relevant. It is significant that the book of Isaiah is quoted by the New Testament writers more than any other Old Testament book other than the Psalms. This book has even been called "The fifth Gospel" because of the completeness of prophesy regarding Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Messiah's birth, life, death, resurrection and especially His future reign in the Millennial Kingdom. If we are unfamiliar with Isaiah's material, we will lack vital background to the truths of the New Testament. To anyone who might be tempted to doubt the relevance of the Old Testament, I would again observe that God never changes. He is the same today as He was in Isaiah's day. He does not think differently, or act differently now that He did then. One of the predominate themes in Isaiah is the character of God, particularly His holiness. We see in Chapter 6 Isaiah prostrate on his face before God when, through a vision, he was brought into the heavenly throne room of God. He exclaimed, "Woe is me! For I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips!" As he heard "Holy, Holy, Holy" from the angels around the throne, he demonstrated humility and repentance. If there is anything we need today-in the world, in America, and for all of us personally, it is a fresh view of the holiness of God. There is continually a need to refresh our respect for our awesome, majestic, and utterly holy Heavenly Father. Neglect of the Old Testament and concentrating solely upon the blessings of the New Covenant may result in our losing sight of the majesty of God who made Himself so powerfully known through writers such as Isaiah. But even if we accept the relevance of the Old Testament, perhaps we have become simply indifferent toward it. Consider this: the New Testament requires the Old Testament for a foundation: unless we understand and have a working knowledge of the Old Testament, we will be in the dark about much of the New Testament. Found in the New Testament are numerous allusions to the Israel and God working with her-such allusions will pass right over us, and we will miss the richness of instruction waiting for us. There is much prophesy left to be fulfilled; God is not finished with the Nation of Israel, and there is great comfort that comes from learning about the faithfulness of God to His eternal covenants. Jesus affirmed the timeless value of the Old Testament, saying that not one "jot or tittle" will pass away from God's Word, which spoke of the smallest features of the Hebrew alphabet in which the Old Testament was written. 2 Timothy 3:16: "All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." Romans 15:4: "For what was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope." Both in Timothy and Romans, the main reference is to the Old Testament, as only later were the New Testament books available. Neglecting part of the counsel of God will leave us spiritually weak and impoverished. Isaiah contains some "meaty truths" that we may feast upon to fuel our spiritual growth. Having considered the importance of the Old Testament, let's turn to this important book. I will begin reading in the first chapter and read the first 20 verses. I. WHEN DID ISAIAH MINISTER TO ISRAEL? To place this book in the timeline of the Bible, we remember how we read in Genesis how God sovereignly chose one man named Abraham and made promises that out of his children would come a nation upon which God's blessings would fall. God made everlasting promises or covenants with Abraham, confirmed those promises to his son Isaac, then to Isaac's son Jacob. Jacob, whose name was changed by God to "Israel", had 12 sons whose descendants became the 12 tribes of Israel. Hence, the Jews are called "The Children of Israel." A famine took Jacob's family to Egypt, where over the period of 400 years they became a mighty host of several million people. But a Pharoah arose who did not know Joseph and enslaved the people and they cried out to God for deliverance. God revealed Himself as the Savior of Israel, liberating them from Egypt through the leadership of Moses. In the wilderness of Sinai, God gave the nation detailed instructions on how to live and please God, the "Law of Moses" as it is called. In due time, they possessed the land of Canaan which had been promised them. And God blessed them in the land, far above all other nations. Yet God warned the nation that if they ever turned away from Him and worshipped the gods of the surrounding nations, there would be dire consequences. God would not tolerate sin, which He had detailed in the Law of Moses. When Isaiah was called to prophesy to Israel, they were in deep trouble as a nation. In fact, 200 years before, Israel had undergone a civil war which split the nation into a northern kingdom, called "Israel" and a southern kingdom called "Judah." (By the way, the term "Jew" comes from Judah, the name taken by the Southern Kingdom.) Within the territory of Judah was Jerusalem and the Temple. The northern kingdom quickly fell into rank idolatry, suffering under uniformly wicked kings. God sent prophets to speak and warn them, but these prophets were largely ignored. Elijah, Elisha, Amos and Hosea warned of God's coming judgment to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The Southern Kingdom of Judah fared somewhat better, with some good kings who listened to God's prophets-Joel, Isaiah, Micah, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk. These prophets spoke before the Babylonian captivity. During the captivity in Babylon, Daniel and Ezekiel prophesied. After the return from Babylon, the returning remnant heard from the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. A side note regarding the prophets: their ministry was two-fold, first to speak God's words of challenge about keeping the Covenant, usually words warning of judgment unless they repented; and only secondly of telling of the future plans of God. We usually think of prophets in their role of prophesying the future. With that history of Israel in mind, we turn our attention to the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah prophesied over a period of roughly 60 years, as verse 1 states, during the reign of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, from around 750 to 690 B.C. Those dates may not mean much to you but let me put them in a timeline: the conquest of Canaan under Joshua was about 1400 B.C. King David reigned beginning around 1000 B.C. Isaiah ministered about 250 years after King David. During the 200 years since the nation had divided into northern and southern kingdoms, Judah had repeatedly fallen into sin, experienced God's judgment, and then had enjoyed revival under a good king. One of these good-king-revivals had occurred early in Uzziah's reign, the first king mentioned in Isaiah 1:1. But Uzziah's reign ended in tragedy, when the king became quite proud of his many accomplishments and tried to usurp the job of the priest. God had established a clear division between the Priestly line of Aaron and Kingly line of David. Uzziah in his pride wanted to act not only as King, but also as priest, and when he tried to offer incense in the Temple, something only a priest was authorized to do, as judgment for his sin, God struck him with leprosy. The last few years of his reign, Uzziah lived in isolation as a leper, and his son Jotham co-reigned with him. Jotham was generally a good king, but like dry rot which affects a tree from within but visually cannot be detected, the spiritual condition of the nation was deteriorating. King Ahaz who followed Jotham was a wicked man who even offered his children as a sacrifice to the pagan god Molech. And the spiritual dry rot emerged as the people gladly followed their king into rank idolatry. It is to the spiritual condition during Ahaz's reign that Isaiah spoke many of his most condemning words. His words did have an effect, for the godly King Hezekiah followed Ahaz, leading Israel in spiritual revival. But the pattern of idolatry and revival then idolatry finally resulted in catastrophic judgment. During Isaiah's tenure as prophet, the Northern Kingdom was conquered by Assyria and ceased to exist. Assyria then attacked Judah, but God miraculously delivered Judah under King Hezekiah. 100 years later, Judah herself was conquered by Babylon. Such were the days of the prophet Isaiah. II. ISAIAH'S MESSAGE OF HOPE While condemning sin and warning of judgment, Isaiah always tempered his message with a message of hope. The name "Isaiah" means "Jehovah is salvation." Isaiah presents the most complete picture of the Messiah who would come and ultimate bring salvation to Israel and to all mankind. The message of salvation through repentance is laced throughout the book and constitutes the main theme of Isaiah. The theme of hope and salvation is developed most clearly in the second half of this book, chapters 40-66. While the first 39 chapters are largely historical, dealing with the problems during the reigns of the four kings mentioned in verse 1, Chapter 40 begins looking ahead 100 years to the Babylonian captivity and beyond. The Messiah and the Millennial Kingdom are clearly presented in the latter half of the book. God gave these words to Isaiah to comfort those who would go into captivity in Babylon about 100 years later. III. COME, LET US REASON TOGETHER With that background (by the way, there will be a test...), I want to spend a few moments considering the amazing words of Isaiah 1:18: "Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be white as snow; thought they be red like crimson, they will be like wool." Is it not striking that God describes Himself as a God who desires to "reason" with us? He wants us to relate to Him with our minds. What He says is logical and makes sense. When He invites us to reason together, He is not giving us opportunity to try and rationalize or argue about out sin. Our "reasoning together" is not trying to reach a compromise, where each side gives a little and we find common ground in the middle. God is God. He has established truth. It seems to me that so often we approach God with our minds made up about the outcome of an issue, and we try and persuade God or coerce Him, or try to bargain with Him. This is not the meaning of coming together to reason. We must humbly come before God recognizing that He is Almighty God, absolutely holy, realizing that as sinful people, we have no right to even come into His presence. Yet we find that because of His great love He has made provision for our sin. His great mercy, love, and compassion make no sense from man's point of view. We come, not for justice, but for mercy. Justice demands death as a penalty for sin: "The wages of sin is death..." Mercy cries out, "But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." The color of red or crimson cannot be hidden. These colors stand out and are easily noticed. To God, all sin is very apparent. People try and hide sin, but while that may work for a while with other people, our sin is never hidden from God. How does God respond to us as sinners? He calls out saying, "Come to Me, let us take advantage of the solution. You are not beyond help. You can be cleansed as white as snow; your sins can be covered and look as white as wool." This is the gospel message, the good news for us, as it was for the sinful nation of Israel. Isaiah is the Prophet of Hope. Even though our sins are blindingly apparent to God, glaring in His holy eyes, He has made provision for them. That provision? Verse 16: Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow." Repent; change your ways, return to Me. You cannot reason with someone without coming near to communicate. Judah had strayed from the pathway of righteousness as evidenced by the social problems around them. The poor were being oppressed; the orphans and widows neglected; the powerful were oppressing the weak. God points out these problems, and says to sinners, "Come, let us reason together." He loved His chosen people Israel. He called them to come back to Him and deal with their problems. Doesn't this remind you of the actions of the Father in Jesus' parable of the Prodigal son? That father longed for his wayward son to return. God has not changed. He still extends His forgiveness and love toward us, saying, "Come near, Let's talk about your problems. I can fix them. I can make that sin-stained life like new fallen snow or newly shorn and washed wool." It is so easy for us to lose our way. It can happen because we follow the wrong leader or take the wrong advice or by choosing to yield to temptation. God says "Come. Let's talk about it. Repent and agree with Me about that sin and forsake it. Receive my forgiveness." Then look at the two choices: verse 19 "If you consent and obey, you will eat the best of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword." Blessing will always come from following God's ways; misery and the harsh disciplines of life will always follow disobedience. As God through Isaiah challenged Israel, He challenges us today: Choose this day whom you will serve, either God or yourself. 2