2. The Vision of Isaiah (2)

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Hymns: RHC 386 Be Thou My Vision 385 May the Mind of Christ, My Saviour 389 Teach Me Thy Way, O Lord

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 (2)

INTRODUCTION

Our prophet lived midway between Moses and Christ, and his active life falls in that crisis (so important and full of results to the theocracy) of the conflict of the Assyrian power with the kingdoms of Israel and Judah in its struggle with the great Egyptian monarchy for the sovereignty of the world. “Isaiah had this peculiar mission to Israel, that he must accompany, introduce, and explain the earliest, preliminary, and typical realization of the threatenings which the Lord had expressed by Moses to Israel in the event of their unfaithfulness. The crisis resulted in two equally decisive moments for the development of the theocracy under the administrations of Ahaz and Hezekiah. Under the former, when the allied Syrians and Israelites invaded Judah, the culpable unbelief of the ungodly Ahaz brought Judah into actual danger, and threatened greater destruction in the future; under the latter, when Sennacherib invaded Judah, pious Hezekiah’s believing confidence in the Lord issued in the annihilation of the Assyrian host; and in this triumph the pious members of the theocracy received the pledge of victory over every form of ungodly worldly power. In accordance with this, the prophetic activity of Isaiah assumed different forms. To the unbelieving, he announced the divine judgments in the whole of their extent, to the pious believers he prophesied redemption throughout the whole series of judgments until the glorious consummation of the theocracy. [Keil, Introduction to the Old Testament Volume 1, Hendricksen, 1988, 283-284]

Luther said insightfully concerning the book, “All the powers and all the beauties of prophetic discourse meet in Isaiah, in order to be mutually balanced there; it is less any single quality that distinguishes him, than the symmetry and perfection of the whole.” The individual discourses and portions of this book have been arranged and placed together, neither purely chronologically in the order of time, nor merely in the material order according to the homogeneousness of subject matter; but according to a principle of the successive unfolding of his prophetic activity, which resulted from the historical course that his mission ran. This has so combined them into one complete whole, with a well-contrived connection and a constant development, that chronological relations and homogeneousness of subject matter are brought into finest harmony with this principle. [Keil, Introduction to the Old Testament Volume 1, Hendricksen, 1988, 285-286]

Isaiah had a ministry covering 40 years from 740 – 700 B.C. and to the time of the death of Sennararib in 681 B.C., another 19 years, which is 59-60 years of preaching. The longest of the biblical preachers, 60 years of ministry and possibly in his later years he wrote down these sermons with the Holy Spirit’s guidance so that they would be enshrined in this inscripturated writing before us. [Whitcomb] 

The format in the introduction of the Book of Isaiah is interesting and 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. 

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.

Isaiah 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. [Wilmington Bible Guide]

The study of Isaiah requires a background of the entire Bible. We need the background of the other 65 books to understand what Isaiah has to say in his 66 books. The depth of it requires a lifetime of study. It requires a reverent, prayerful searching of the Scripture which we shall endeavour to do daily to see if these things are so.

The entire mission of our prophet has for its object and central point the two events of his time which constituted the theocracy; namely, the expedition against Jerusalem made by the allied kings of Syria and Ephraim, and the invasion of Judah by Sennacherib. With reference to these events, the individual elements in the book of Isaiah are organically arranged into two great groups of prophecies, in such a way that the words of the prophet spoken in regard to these events form the kernel and focus of each of these groups; while the remaining prophecies are subordinated to these, either preceding as preparatory and opening up the way, or succeeding them to carry them out still further, and to develop their consequences for the future of the kingdom of God. [Keil, Introduction to the Old Testament Volume 1, Hendricksen, 1988, 286]

 The former of these events was a test sent from God for Judah and the house of David; in which it was their duty to decide in favour of faith and confidence simply in the omnipotent and the grace of the Lord; instead of which, they placed their confidence in the earthly power of Assyria, and, as a punishment, were given over to this earthly kingdom, and by it were drawn into the secular historical process of the heathen nations, in order that being purified by severe judgments, they might be led through deep sufferings to the glory of their divine calling. The first group of prophecies refers to this event and its consequences for the theocracy chapters 2-27. Its kernel is formed by the cycle, chapters 2-12, whose centre lies in the history of the invasion of Judah by the allied kings of Syria and Ephraim, and the prophecy spoke on occasion of this event, chapter 7.  

The design of this chapter is to show the connection between the sins and the sufferings of God’s people, and the necessity of further judgments, as a means of purification and judgment.

Popular corruption is first exhibited as the effect of alienation from God, and the cause of national calamities (v2-9). It is then exhibited as coexisting with punctilious exactness in religious duties, and as rendering them worthless (v10-20). It is finally exhibited in twofold contrast, first with the former, state of things, and then with one still future, to be brought about by the destruction of the wicked, and especially of wicked rulers (v21-31).  

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.

We see here the reason for the broken heart of Isaiah because he gave a sketch of the whole history rich with the grace of God but dragged down by depravity and rebellion. [Whitcomb]

I have nourished and brought up children – history dates back to the womb of Rebekah, Isaac’s wife who brought forth twins, one of whom is Jacob, Israel. And their miraculous childhood in Egypt for 400 years, multiplying and protecting and isolating them, from Egyptian paganism. The miraculous youth, the Exodus in the 40 years of wilderness wandering, He purged and purified the nation of all idolatry and unbelief, and brought the army into the Holy Land with Joshua and Caleb. And the miraculous period of their adolescence during the period of the Judges where He sent one prophet after another Gideon, Jephthah, Deborah and Barak, to protect them from total destruction which they deserve and now Uzziah and Jotham, the Israelites were more politically matured than before and at the same time more idolatry and spiritual rebellion has reached new heights. How sad!

3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.

Dumb animals the ox and the ass have the capacity to recognize where they are going to get their food but Israel does not know and my people do not understand, they are worse than animals. Animals never sinned, just people sin. Only people are depraved. Only people will be judged. But God expects a few things from animals, at least they know where they get their nourishment but my people Israel has forgotten me [Whitcomb]

He charges them with base ingratitude, a crime of the highest nature. Call a man ungrateful, and you can call him no worse. Let heaven and earth hear and wonder at, 1. God’s gracious dealings with such a peevish provoking people as they were: “I have nourished and brought them up as children; they have been well fed and well taught” (Deut. 32:6); “I have magnified and exalted them” (so some), “not only made them grow, but made them great–not only maintained them, but preferred them–not only trained them up, but raised them high.” We owe the continuance of our lives and comforts, and all our advancements, to God’s fatherly care of us and kindness to us. Their ill-natured conduct towards him, who was so tender of them: “They have rebelled against me,” or (as some read it) “they have revolted from me; they have been deserters, nay traitors, against my crown and dignity.” 

All the instances of God’s favour to us, as the God both of our nature and of our nurture, aggravate our treacherous departures from him and all our presumptuous oppositions to him–children, and yet rebels!

He attributes this to their ignorance and inconsideration (v3): The ox knows, but Israel does not. Observe, 1. The sagacity of the ox and the ass, which are not only brute creatures, but of the dullest sort; yet the ox has such a sense of duty as to know his owner and to serve him, to submit to his yoke and to draw in it; the ass has such a sense of interest as to know his master’s crib, or manger, where he is fed, and to abide by it; he will go to that of himself if he be turned loose. [Matthew Henry]