1. The Vision of Isaiah

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Hymns: RHC 237 Revive Us Again 243 The Comforter Has Come 244 Fill Me Now

Isaiah 1

1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. 2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. 3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. 4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. 5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. 7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. 8 And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. 9 Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. 10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. 

The Vision of Isaiah

INTRODUCTION

The Book of Isaiah has 66 chapters just like the Bible. The Old Testament has 39 Books just as it was in the first section of the Book of Isaiah consisting of the first 39 chapters. The 27 Books of the New Testament tell us of the Person and Ministry of Christ, just as it was in the Book of Isaiah which has 27 chapters from chapters 40-66, it focuses on Messiah Christ, the Lord, in His redemptive work not only for Israel but for all entire human race, past, present and future.

The New Testament closes in the Book of Revelation with the new heavens and the new earth. Isaiah ends his book describing the same (Isaiah 66:22; Rev. 21:1-3).

Isaiah 66:22 (KJV) For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.

Revelation 21:1-3 (KJV) And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 

The name “Isaiah” means “Jehovah Saves”, the ending of his name “ah” is the Name for God in Hebrew or Jehovah is salvation. This is the theme of the whole Book. Indeed, a perfect name for the prophet that wrote the prophecies of this portion of divine revelation. There is little said about Isaiah’s life compared with what God tells us of Jeremiah’s life or Daniel’s life or Ezekiel’s life among the writing prophets, although there are lots of descriptions of non-writing prophets like Elijah and Elisha which we have studied earlier in our prayer meeting series. He seemed to have disappeared from the record. But he seemed to have spent most of his life in the vicinity of Jerusalem in the royal court like he was part of the royal court (It is believed that his father, Amoz, was the brother of King Amaziah of Judah. This then would make Isaiah of royal seed. [Willmington’s Bible Guide] He is the John of the Old Testament for the John of the New Testament was related to the High Priest and it gave him access to the courtyard when Jesus was being tried on the night before His crucifixion [Whitcomb]) and he had access personally to the Davidic kings, perhaps he was a court preacher, like his conversations with Ahaz and Hezekiah were recorded whose reign saw the defeat of the Assyrian when God sent the death angel to destroy the entire Assyrian army in one night. 

Isaiah 37:31 (KJV) And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward:

Isaiah 37:32-38 (KJV) For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this. Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD. For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake. Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Armenia: and Esar-haddon his son reigned in his stead.

Isaiah was a family man. We know that Isaiah is married and had two sons. His wife was amazingly a prophetess like Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, and Anna, the four daughters of Philip the Evangelist. The two sons had prophetic names – the eldest Shear-jashub, meaning “A remnant shall return”, the country is going to be destroyed but a remnant will survive and the younger, Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, meaning, “Speed to the spoils, plunder speedily, haste to the prey”, the catastrophe to come, the sons had to bear the burden of his ministry. Jewish tradition had it that he was sawn asunder as Hebrews 11 tells us. He was persecuted for his message and did receive not much honour. But God honours His own in His time. 

He is the greatest, the Prince of the Old Testament prophets for the Book of Isaiah is “the most theologically significant book in the Old Testament.” “Of all the books in the Old Testament, Isaiah is perhaps the richest.” “From ancient times Isaiah has been considered the greatest of the Old Testament prophets.” His style of writing and vocabulary is complex. He must be a learned man.  It may be asserted that he was the most eloquent prophet of the Old Testament era. We know Moses was trained in the wisdom of the Egyptians but for Isaiah’s training, there was no mention, his mentors, his teachers were not recorded. Isaiah like the other inspired writers of Scripture, was led by the Holy Spirit, using his vocabulary and style to express the ideas of God, was protected and moved by the Holy Spirit.

He uses nearly 2,200 different Hebrew words in this Book from imageries and prophecies to bring home the message to posterity, to be the vehicle to communicate the mind of God to the hearts of His people Israel. It is most often quoted in the New Testament like the Psalms and Deuteronomy and may be called “the major Old Testament Statement of the Gospel”, the Gospel of John of the Old Testament where the Evangel, the Good News of Christ, Messiah Christ’s work on the cross is made so crystal clear especially in Isaiah 53. [John Whitcomb] 

He lived through the last half of the 8th century B.C. beginning his ministry at the death of king Uzziah in 739 or 740 B.C. and continuing down to the 7th century, for he told of the death of Sennarachib in 681 B.C. according to Isaiah 37:38 and this was a period of deep, wide-spread unbelief in Judah leading to the colossal apostasy of the 50-year reign of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah. It was an age of political turmoil and military movement throughout the Fertile Crescent extending to Babylon. Judah was almost completely isolated with great powers on all sides. Judah was completely surrounded by opposition. Assyria had conquered most of the Fertile Crescent. God sent Jonah to preach to Nineveh and they repented, the Ninevites, the Nazis of the 9th, 8th and 7th century B.C. (770 -740 B.C.) and the kingdoms in the west like Judah had independence. In Israel and Judah, there was great lawlessness, the rich got richer, and the poor got poorer. God sent Amos and Hosea to the Northern Kingdom with no result. God sent Isaiah and Micah to the Southern Kingdom to warn the kingdom of Judah of what was to come. The tragedy of Uzziah’s life was that his heart was lifted up against God and went to God’s house to take the role of the high priest. God struck him with leprosy and spent his last days crying out “unclean, unclean” and died in that condition. The high priest and 80 other priests withstood him. It was on the year the king Uzziah died that Isaiah saw the Lord, the true King of Israel who is perfect and infinite in His attributes alone and he was transformed and enabled by God through that vision to preach the sermon that he will preach in chapter 1, chapter 2-4 and chapter 5, three sample sermons from Isaiah as a result of his having met the Lord. [Whitcomb]

Isaiah 6:1 (KJV) In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

The format in the introduction of the Book of Isaiah interesting gives Isaiah’s call recorded in chapter 6, with the first 5 chapters giving 3 sermons of Israel recorded in his ministry. The first sermon in chapter 1, the second sermon in chapters 2-4 and the third sermon in chapter 5. 

Some of Isaiah’s prophecies concerning the Millennium – Isaiah 11:6 (KJV) The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the New Heavens and the New Earth are yet to be fulfilled.

Isaiah warns his people to repent of their sins and judgments coming. God is called, “the Holy One of Israel” a title for God, that occurs 12 times in chapters 1-39 and 14 times in chapters 40-66. This title is used only 6 times elsewhere in the entire Old Testament (2 Kings 19:22; Pss. 71:22; 78:41; 89:18; Jer. 50:29; 51:5).

He was God’s prophet during the reign of Uzziah, the 10th king of the Southern Kingdom who reigned for 52 years from 792 B.C. (2 Kings 15:1-7; 2 Chronicles 26:1-23) to 740 B.C.; who was a mighty warrior and builder but died a leper for intruding the priest’s office to offer sacrifices in the temple.

And Jotham who reigned for 16 years from 750B.C.-736B.C. (2 Kings 15:32-38; 2 Chronicles 27:1-9), a good king who built the upper gate of the Temple and erected fortresses and towers and defeated his enemies and received huge annual tribute from them.

And Ahaz from 735 B.C. – 719 B.C. (2 Kings 16:1-20; 2 Chronicles 28:1-27) for 16 years. He was the 2nd worst king of Judah; the worst being Manasseh – the most wicked king of all who was finally saved; who practised child sacrifice of his own children to the devil. Ahaz was also given the prophecy of the virgin birth (Isa. 7:1-25). 

Finally, Hezekiah from 716 B.C. – 687 B.C. (2 Kings 18:1-20:21; 2 Chronicles 29:1-32:33) who was perhaps the 2nd best king and the richest of all who repaired the temple, organized temple worship and the Levitical choir. [Willmington’s Bible Guide]