Isaiah
Let’s quickly review “My Approach to Prophecy”
1. Accept statements as literally as possible.
2. Interpret things figuratively when that is the only way that will make sense.
3. Let prophecy interpret prophecy.
4. Compare scriptures that are apparently talking about the same event and let one shed light on the other.
5. Approach the study from the point of view: What would my conclusions be if I had no commentary or pre‑conceived ideas.
6. Not to force an interpretation upon a passage to make it fit a pre‑conceived idea.
7. Use the context to help explain a verse.
8. Understand that God is timeless. Prophecy may apply directly to the ones to whom it is spoken, or its fulfillment may be hundreds or thousands of years later.
9. Many prophecies have double meanings, or fulfillments, and both make completely good sense.
10. Understand that prophecy is like the rest of scripture in most respects:
• It is God given.
• He had a purpose for giving it.
• No scripture should be dealt with lightly.
While we may not all agree with each other, that also means we cannot all be correct.
We need to avoid making it more specific than it really is, we also need to avoid making it so global that it really says very little to give additional enlightenment.
(I Thessalonians 5:1‑5 NKJV) But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. (2) For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. (3) For when they say, "Peace and safety!" then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. (4) But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. (5) You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.
Where Are We Going?
· I want to tie the Old Testament together.
· To do that, we’ll tie things together by date.
· We also want to look at the message of Isaiah!
1) There was a message for the people of his day.
2) There was also a message about the Messiah: Isaiah has been called the Messianic prophet.
3) There are also prophecies about the world that is yet to come.
4) It is a very long book, consisting of 66 chapters. It is longer than the book of Genesis and about 4/5th the length of the Psalms. We cannot exhaust it’s contents in two or three lessons.
Let’s tie the Old Testament together.
(Isa 1:1 NKJV) 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.
We know who the human author is.
The main thrust of attention is Judah and Jerusalem.
Dated by the four kings of Judah.
His focus is Judah, not Israel. Israel will go into captivity during his lifetime, but his focus is not Israel (the ten northern tribes).
Dated by the four kings of Judah.
(2 Chr 26:1 NKJV) Now all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah.
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(2 Chr 26:4-5 NKJV) And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. {5} He sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God; and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper.
He sought God in the days of Zechariah,
“Who this was we know not, but by the character that is given of him here. He was wise in the visions of God—in giving the true interpretation of Divine prophecies. He was probably the tutor of Uzziah.” – Adam Clarke
He may have been a priest. There are several men with this name, and we can’t be sure to which one this refers.
How do we know it wasn’t Zechariah, the next to the last prophet?
(Zec 1:1 NKJV) In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,
Darius (king of Persia) came to the throne 70 years after the captivity of Judah. Isaiah was writing before the fall of Jerusalem. This was too long afterward to be his advisor.
(Isa 1:2-3 NKJV) Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the LORD has spoken: "I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against Me; {3} The ox knows its owner And the donkey its master's crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider."
(Isa 1:13 NKJV) Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies; I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.
There is a message for God’s People: a sermon if you will.
But who is Isaiah?
(Isa 6 NKJV) In the year that King Uzziah died, [a date] [A scene from heaven] I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. {2} Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. {3} And one cried to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!" {4} And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. {5} So I said: "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts." {6} Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. {7} And he touched my mouth with it, and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged." {8} Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."
"Here am I! Send me."
It obviously applied to Isaiah because of the message of God that follows.
It is also a message that applies to Christ. This was His attitude. I will go.
Isa 6 :9 And He said, "Go, and tell this people: 'Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.' {10} "Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And return and be healed." {11} Then I said, "Lord, how long?" And He answered: "Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, The houses are without a man, The land is utterly desolate, {12} The LORD has removed men far away, And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. {13} But yet a tenth will be in it, And will return and be for consuming, As a terebinth tree or as an oak, Whose stump remains when it is cut down. So the holy seed shall be its stump."
All of this was literally fulfilled!
Even so, Jesus said it would be fulfilled again!
(Mat 13:14-15 NKJV) "And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: 'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; {15} For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.'