The Gospel of Isaiah: Introduction
The Gospel of Isaiah: Introduction.
WANTED: An imaginative scribe who can write exquisite poetry. A faithful, articulate believer in Yahweh who can switch from one extreme to another at the Lord’s command… from a sublime vision of God’s glory, to a ridiculous demonstration of shameful nakedness; from confronting the people over their sinfulness, to comforting people with hopefulness; from being an outspoken messenger one minute, to a living object lesson the next; from having one foot in the immediate surroundings one minute, to one foot in the future messianic realm the next. Must be adaptable, thick-skinned, and extraordinarily brave. Person who answers “Here I am. Send me!” will be especially considered. (from The Jerusalem Post, 740 BC).
Isaiah-At-A-Glance. Isaiah, whose name means “Lord Saves,” was a young, highly literate, and well-educated scribe in the royal palace of Jerusalem, sometime around 750-740 BC. He was married with children, his wife being a prophetess. His prophetic ministry lasted many decades, with some scholars estimating as many as 60 years. He was committed to staying close to home in Jerusalem for all that time, serving as prophet during the reign of five different kings of Judah. He started his ministry during times of relative peace and prosperity, and so because there wasn’t as much of a hard edge to his messages, he was initially well-liked and generally popular with the people. But soon Isaiah spoke words of the Lord’s judgment and coming punishment for their sins. He was very active in addressing the shortcomings of those five different kings during his ministry, and continued to call them to repentance. Because his messages from the Lord became very difficult to hear, the people and the kings often rejected what he had to say. Isaiah grew to be quite unpopular during much of his ministry, especially the first few decades when he warned them of God’s judgment for rebellion (1:2), abandoning God (1:3), corruption (1:4), violence (1:15), injustice (1:16-17), apostasy (1:10-23), materialism (2:7), idolatry (2:8), immorality with women (3:16-26), and occultism (1:6 and 8:19). Hosea and Micah were contemporaries of Isaiah during this time and they spoke much the same messages. Nonetheless, he also continued to speak powerful words of comfort and encouragement to his people in the last part of his book in chapters 40-66. He was considered by most Biblical scholars to be the greatest of all the prophets, and his book is the first of the writings of the prophets in the Hebrew Bible. Isaiah was by far the most quoted prophet in the New Testament, over 50 times. He was highly gifted as a poet, and his writings are considered literary masterpieces. He combined the simple and the complex into what has been called a “Salvation Symphony.” His writings are still accepted as unsurpassed works of art, and they poetically, prophetically point to events that would happen soon, and events that would happen in the distant future. Isaias has been called “the Prophet of God the Son,” just as Jeremiah was the Prophet of God the Father, and Ezekiel the Prophet of God the Holy Spirit. Isaiah discusses Messiah more than any other book of the Hebrew Bible, referring to the Anointed One in many ways, from the Suffering Servant to the Sovereign Lord to the Everlasting Savior. As Eugene Peterson once wrote, “Isaiah is the supreme poet-prophet to come out of the Hebrew people.” Jewish tradition has Isaiah dying a martyr’s death, executed under the reign of the wicked king Manasseh. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the last thing Isaiah saw in his life was the very first thing he witnessed all those years before… Yahweh in all His glory, high and lifted up. fiery angels attending Him, shouting praises to the King on His throne. That would truly be a sight for sore eyes.
Mr. Flexibility. Much like so many of the other prophets, the people refused to take his words to heart. They wouldn’t listen to Isaiah’s messages from God. He would announce God’s judgment only to be ignored. But Isaiah was adaptable. He would both confront the people and comfort the people. Sometimes he was harsh and condemning, and sometimes he was soothing and hopeful. His encouraging words were based on God’s promise of a future Messiah who would redeem and heal them, and save them from permanent judgment. So Isaiah spoke of God’s justice one minute and God’s mercy the next. He spoke more about the coming Messiah than any other prophet in the Hebrew Bible. His poetry painted a picture of both woe and hope, and is probably the finest in all of Scripture, so the reader has to be adaptable as well and get ready for metaphor, simile, analogy, exaggeration, symbol, and imagery.
A MONUMENTAL PROPHET OF GOD:
- A Prophet of the Light. Isaiah seemed to be especially focused on light in his writings… light to represent the presence of God and His glory, light to symbolize the Lord’s salvation that brings divine light and healing to the desperate darkness of the entire world, light to represent spiritual enlightenment and understanding to replace the darkness of ignorance and foolishness, light of hope and restoration in the era of God’s favor. Each of these passages are certainly worthy of a deep dive into what we can learn about light according to the gospel of Isaiah. The following passages are memorable words about light from Isaiah:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord Yahweh, to the House of the God of Jacob that He may teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths… House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” (2:3,5);
“Woe to those who call what is evil, good, and what is good, evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who think themselves wise and believe themselves enlightened.” (5:20-21);
“To the word of instruction and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn, they do not see the light of day.” (8:20).
“Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the Lord binds up the brokenness of His people, and heals the wounds inflicted by His love.” (30:28);
“I will lead the blind by a road they do not know, by paths they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, and the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do – without fail, and I will not forsake them.” (42:16);
“I am the Lord Yahweh, and there is no other; there is no other God except Me; I equip you, though you do not know Me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides Me. I form the light and I create the darkness; I make well-being, and I create disaster; I the Lord, do all these things.” (45:7);
“Who among you fears the Lord with reverence and awe, and obeys the voice of his prophet-servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. Behold, all you who kindles his own fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches! Walk by the light of your fire, and by the torches that you have kindled! This you have from my hand: You shall lie down in torment!’ (50:10-11).
“Give attention to Me, My people, and give ear to Me, My nation; for a teaching will go out from Me, and I will make My saving justice a light to the peoples. My righteousness draws near, My salvation has gone out, and My arms will judge the peoples.” (51:4-5).
2. A Prophet of the Holy One. When we read “the Holy One” in Isaiah, the literal translation is “The Holy,” and the “One” is assumed. Yahweh God, the Lord of the universe, is The Holy. Isaiah calls the Lord “The Holy” 25 times in his book, which makes it his distinctive catch-phrase. It’s not that God is merely in another category by Himself, it’s that God can’t be categorized. There is no comparison to God in this world, there are no parallels. The Lord is utterly distinctive, set apart in every imaginable way, and then some. Because God is Wholly Other, He is worthy to receive one-of-a-kind honor, respect, reverence, and adoration. He is completely separate from any taint of sin, any meager hint of evil, and He has perfect freedom from anything that would compromise His character. God is Truth dwelling in his sacred Spirit. He is comprised of uncreated light. God is high and lifted up, above and beyond comprehension and imagination. Yahweh God has no personal shape or form, and yet remains a Person, Someone in whose image we are all made. God is the source of whatever holiness exists in the world, so God is the only Being for whom the word holy truly applies. When Isaiah 6:3 is recited in the Jewish daily liturgy, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of power and might! Heaven and earth are full of your glory!“ it is customary for the worshippers to stand on their tiptoes and stretch upwards three times. This is a wonderful picture of our rising up to grasp at the unreachable holiness of God. (Rabbi Arthur Green). In the universe, on the one hand there is The Holy, and then on the other hand there is everything else. To describe the indescribable Holy One is like a slug attempting to explain how a human brain functions.
3. The Prophet of Holy Foolishness. Throughout his ministry, Isaiah was called more often to be a literary and vocal mouthpiece than an audacious object lesson. But the one main exception was a doozy (chapter 20). Isaiah was instructed to be a visual aid to God’s judgment of Egypt. The Lord asked Isaiah to “remove the sackcloth from your loins” and appear like a prisoner of war. In other words, Isaiah was told to walk around naked and barefoot, to demonstrate how Assyria was going to take Egypt captive. This was also an allusion to what might happen to Israel and Judah if they agree to unwise foreign alliances. One hopes that God would allow Isaiah to at least wear his underwear loincloth. To walk “naked” could mean wearing nothing but one’s underwear. One would hope so. Otherwise, God would be illogically asking Isaiah to be obscene, which somehow doesn’t fit with the Lord’s character. But even walking around in nothing but one’s underwear is bad enough. It is humiliating and shameful. Imagine all the mothers putting their hands over the eyes of their children as Isaiah walked by. Not to be too graphic, but in announcing His instructions to Isaiah, this street theater rated “R”, the Lord wanted the people to know that the Egyptian captives would have “their buttocks bared.” Please, please, not Isaiah’s. Amazingly, Isaiah did just what God asked, for three years! Isaiah must have been ridiculed, jeered, avoided, and publicly scorned during that difficult time in his ministry. Certainly, Isaiah became a laughingstock, and he earned the title of holy fool of God. It’s a wonder how Isaiah recovered from this episode, but apparently he did just fine once he got his clothes back on.
4. A Prophet of Obedience. When Isaiah responded to the Lord’s call in 6:8 with “Here I am, send me!” the Hebrew word “Hineni” was used, which literally means, “Behold, I am!” but is generally translated in the Hebrew Bible as “Here I am.” In Scripture it is a response of someone to someone else asking for attention. The Biblical “Here I am” means you have my full attention; I am at your service; I am completely available to you; whatever you want, I’m all in; I am in total readiness to hear and obey you; I have no hesitation in responding to you. Most of the time in Scripture the person saying Here I am doesn’t yet know what the caller wants from him. So hineni can essentially be a statement of faith. Generally, hineni is often stated in a pivotal moment of that person’s life. Clearly, Isaiah was ready, willing and able in God’s presence to obey His orders.
The Trees of the Field – Praise dancing
5. A Prophet of a Worshipful Creation. Was it merely poetic license when Isaiah declared that “the mountains and the hills will burst out in song, and all the trees in the countryside will clap their hands.” (Is. 55:12). Was Isaiah taking flights of fancy when he encouraged the heavens to sing and the mountains to break out into joyful song in a duet with the trees in the forest? (Is. 44:23). Was he just overextending his imagination when he claimed that wild animals will honor Creator God, including the jackals and the ostriches? (Is. 43:20). Or, instead, that Isaiah truly believed that nature could literally praise God in their own unique way? Is Isaiah seeing something here in his inspired, prophetic vision that most of us refuse to see, that creation is designed by God to worship Him, to rejoice and dance to His rhythm? Is this poetic expression, or is it a “living reality” (Virginia Stem Owens)? Perhaps Isaiah stood in the long line of believers who, like novelist Flannery O’Conner, observed that it is wise to engage “in a way of reading nature that includes the most possibilities.”
6. A Prophet of Divine Waters. The image of divine water is prominent throughout Isaiah, and was one of his favorite pictures of God. The high priest, for example, always quoted from Isaiah 12:3 during the highly important water ceremony at the Feat of Tabernacles: “And you shall draw water with rejoicing from the spring of salvation.” And let’s not forget that it was just as the water ceremony was reaching a climax on this last day of the Feast when a young man from Galilee stood up, got everybody’s attention as he interrupted the water ritual, and shouted for all to hear Isaiah 55:1, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me! Let anyone who believes in me come and drink! For as scripture says, ‘From his heart shall flow streams of living water!” Other memorable prophetic references to the divine waters include 35:6, “Gushing waters will spring up in the wilderness and streams will flow through the desert.” And the beautiful poetry of 41:17-18, “I the Lord will respond to the cry of the poor and needy when they are thirsty and their tongues are parched with thirst! When they seek a drink of water but there is none, I, the God of Israel, will not abandon them. I will open up refreshing streams on the barren hills and springing fountains in the valleys. I will make the desert a pleasant pool and the dry land springs of water.” And this prophecy about Pentecost in 44:3-4, “I will pour refreshing water on the thirsty and streams on the dry ground. I will pour out my Spirit on your children, my blessing upon your descendants. They will spring up like grass blanketing a meadow, like poplar trees growing by gushing streams.” Finally, we can’t forget Isaiah’s anticipation of God’s favor in 49:10, “They will never be hungry or thirsty. Neither scorching sun nor desert wind will hurt them, for He, the Loving One, will guide them and lead them to restful, renewing streams of water.”