Introducing Isaiah

Isaiah 1-2

            We’ve come through two of the three major sections of the Old Testament: we have read the History and the Wisdom literature and today we begin the Prophets. The prophets will occupy us for a good five months!

            A reasonable question to start with is, “What exactly is a prophet?” That’s a harder question than one might think. I’d start by comparing an Old Testament prophet to a New Testament pastor, at least insofar as a pastor is a preacher. The fundamental task of the prophet was to answer the question, “What is the Lord up to?” For this reason, it is better to think of the prophets as forthtellers, men who interpret the world and the Lord’s actions in it. To be sure, there is a foretelling aspect to their work; they are interested in what the Lord will do, too.

            This means that to interpret the prophets correctly we need to start by asking, “What did these sermons mean to those who first heard them?” Only after we have struggled with that issue will we be in the right place to see their fuller meaning, a meaning that very often takes us to the Lord’s work in the Jesus and sometimes looks into our own lives, as well. Our progression, then, is 1) the prophet’s own day and context, 2) the messianic fullness of the message (see 2 Corinthians 1:20), and 3) the appropriate application to our day. Many times, we’ll find that the application to our day isn’t as specific as we would like.

            Now, Isaiah in particular is a great place to start reading the prophets. We know quite a lot about Isaiah’s times, so we can often have a sense of what his words meant to his first hearers. Isaiah was commissioned in the year that king Uzziah died—740 BC (Isaiah 6:1) and he was in ministry until the reign of Hezekiah, who was on the throne from about 715 to 687 BC. Isaiah’s ministry extended at least 40 years, perhaps up to 50 years. (Jewish tradition says that Isaiah was sawn in two by King Manasseh, Hezekiah’s son.) This was a period of several threats to Judah, recorded both in the Bible and in other ancient sources.

            Further, Isaiah is explicitly quoted in the New Testament more than any other book except Psalms. As we read through Isaiah 1-11, a churchgoer will find a number of the passages familiar. Isaiah 7, 9, and 11 are all read near Christmas as prophecies of the coming Messiah. Other familiar passages include chapters 40, quoted by the Baptizer, Isaiah 35, alluding to the Messiah’s ministry, and Isaiah 61, quoted by Jesus Himself about Himself. More than any other prophet, Isaiah’s words point to Jesus.

            Finally, some of Isaiah’s words are simply beautiful and comforting in their own right. Personal favorites are Isaiah 35, 40, and 55. These passages talk about the Lord’s care and His promise to restore all things to their perfect, Edenic state.

            To today’s reading, Isaiah 1 sounds several themes that will occupy the prophet. First and foremost, he condemns idolatry, likening it to adultery and beastliness. Second, there is a condemnation of faithless religion and social injustice, which Isaiah portrays as evidence of an idolatrous heart. Finally, there is a call for repentance and an invitation to restoration.

            Isaiah 2 also sounds a common Isaianic theme: the Lord’s coming restoration. Here it is a vision of the establishment of the mountain of the Lord, with the nations coming to Him and an age of peace being established. Before that day, idolatry must be rooted out.

            So, for Israel, her current troubles are explained as the judgment of the Lord on her faithlessness. Christians can see how the confrontation between the Lord and faithless humanity led to Jesus’ crucifixion, an event which fulfilled the Lord’s purposes in paying the debt of sin and opening the way to His everlasting kingdom. That kingdom exists now in the church, called to holiness of living, and will be fully revealed when Christ returns in glory.