Through the Bible - Isaiah

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem... (Isaiah 1:1)

How a 2,700-year-old vision still bears God's fingerprint—and still calls a remnant home.

Prophecy as the Divine Fingerprint

The book of Isaiah has been a blessing to me individually and to the church as a whole throughout the years. It's a powerful book that begins the portion of Scripture we'll be studying for the next several weeks—the major and minor prophets. Prophetic Scripture is what I like to call the divine fingerprint. It is God's thumbprint on Scripture, showing us that it was truly authored by someone outside of time.

It's important to understand that you will not grasp the prophetic books unless you study their corresponding history. That's why 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles come before the prophetic books. I've talked to many people who've read Isaiah—or Ezekiel—and said it went right over their heads. When I ask whether they've read through Kings and Chronicles, the answer is usually no. If you really want to understand what's going on, you have to read it within its historical context.

Much of the prophecy in these books was spoken to the prophets' own time and people. There are later fulfillments too, but the bulk of Isaiah's 66 chapters was fulfilled during his lifetime or shortly thereafter. Yet there's also much about the coming of the Messiah—700 years away—and his second coming, which still hasn't happened. To understand Isaiah, read the corresponding passages in 2 Kings 15–21 and 2 Chronicles 26–33 first. I guarantee the book will make far more sense.

A Bible in Miniature

This is the longest prophetic book of the Bible. It's called a "major prophet" not because Isaiah was a big-leaguer while Hosea and Micah were double-A ball—it's "major" because it contains more than the other prophecies. It's been called a Bible in miniature. The Bible has 66 books; Isaiah has 66 chapters. The Bible divides into the Old Testament (39 books) and the New Testament (27 books); Isaiah divides into 39 chapters and 27 chapters.

The outline we'll use tonight is this: chapters 1–35 deal with condemnation; chapters 36–39 give us the historical context; and chapters 40–66 are the comfort or consolation for Israel. So you have the condemnation upon Israel and the whole world, the historical context, and then the comfort that comes at the first and second comings of Christ.

One Author, Outside of Time

These divisions have led some to think the book was written by more than one author. Isaiah's prophecies are so clear and specific that people have trouble believing they were written in the 8th century BC. When you reach Isaiah 45, God tells Israel—who hadn't yet been taken captive by Babylon—the name of their future deliverer.

Consider this: Isaiah lived from about 740 BC to 680 BC. Israel would not be taken into Babylon until 586 BC, and they wouldn't be delivered for another 70 years after that. The king who would deliver them was Cyrus, king of Persia, and Isaiah names him, saying Cyrus was called of God for this very task. People read that and say it simply couldn't have been written when we say it was.

Those people do not believe in the God I believe in—a God truly outside of time, who knows the end from the beginning, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the one who was and is and is to come. He can tell us exactly what's going to happen a hundred years from now. That is how he proves his authorship. Through Isaiah, God questions Israel for following after gods who cannot tell the end before it happens. "I am the only God who can tell you what's going to happen before it comes to pass." That was the very litmus test for prophets in Deuteronomy: if what a man says comes to pass, he is a true prophet; if not, harsh judgment came upon him.

A Visionary's Long Career

Isaiah had a very long career, and we learn this from the very first words: "The vision of Isaiah." The writer of Hebrews says God in past times and in diverse manners spoke to our fathers by the prophets. He spoke to Moses through a burning bush, to Amos through a basket of fruit—and to Isaiah through visions. This man was a visionary who saw things others didn't see, then spoke about them. Many wouldn't believe him, so he was persecuted like so many prophets.

His vision was concerning Judah and Jerusalem. After Solomon's reign, the nation split: ten northern tribes (Ephraim, or Samaria) and two southern tribes (Judah, with its capital Jerusalem and the temple). Isaiah's primary focus was the south, but his prophecies reached farther—he also spoke to the northern ten tribes, who would be destroyed during his ministry. Over about 40 or 50 years, four kings of Assyria overtook the north, and God warned that they would overrun Judah too unless the people repented.

God Defends His City

The Assyrians nearly overran Judah, taking every city except Jerusalem—not because Judah was good, but for God's own namesake. God allowed the Assyrian army under King Sennacherib to surround the city (recorded in Isaiah 36–39), then defended it just as he promised. In one night, God dispatched an angel who destroyed 185,000 men of the Assyrian army, and Sennacherib went back to Nineveh with his tail between his legs.

Sennacherib was about the most boastful king of his time. We have his writings, the Annals of Sennacherib, in the British Museum, detailing how he conquered cities and toppled kingdoms. But about Jerusalem, all he says is, "We locked King Hezekiah up like a bird in a cage"—then nothing about destroying the city, and nothing about losing 185,000 soldiers. Kings don't talk about that. But you see the hand of God in this book in a powerful way.

A Remnant Shall Return

The whole theme of the book is: a remnant shall return. This is prophesied through Isaiah's first son, named in Isaiah 7—Shear-jashub, which literally means "a remnant shall return." That was Isaiah's constant message: you're going to be judged, but God's judgment always has a purifying and redemptive purpose.

God disciplines his people the same way you parents discipline your children—to train them in righteousness. He brought judgment on a people in rebellion, throwing a temper tantrum, saying God doesn't love them or listen to them. In chapter 5, God says, "My hand is stretched out still"—I've spanked you once, and my hand is ready to strike again. Would you like me to stop? You see God as a loving Father here, warning his people repeatedly: I'm going to judge you unless you repent. His judgment comes in waves, escalating.

Indicators of Judgment

When you read the prophetic books, you see a God intimately involved in the things of this world—and he still is. When Sennacherib took 200,000 men captive and sacked cities in a single day, it had nothing to do with his greatness. Isaiah 8 reveals God saying, "Sennacherib, you are a tool in my hand." God still works like that, and that's a sobering thing—because the indicators of judgment in Isaiah are the same indicators we see upon America today.

One indicator is famine—not just of food, but of leadership (Isaiah 3 and 5). The standard for a ruler became simply having a nice coat of clothing—you look the part, so you can be our leader. We live in such times. I heard a woman call into an AM radio station saying a certain candidate should run because he "looks presidential."

Another indicator: "As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them" (Isaiah 3:12). A realtor from our church, who is from Korea, told my wife and me a saying from her country: "When the hen crows, the nation falls." When there's no leadership on the side of the men and women stand into those roles, it is an indicator of judgment. Isaiah continues: "O my people, they which lead you cause you to err." The Lord stands up to plead with his people—but he also stands up to judge them.

Judgment Begins at the House of the Lord

Peter says judgment must begin at the house of God. The first five chapters of Isaiah deal with judgment upon Judah and Jerusalem. Then God turns to the northern ten tribes, and from Isaiah 13–23 he pronounces judgment on all the other nations—Babylon, Assyria, Edom, Moab. Every one of those judgments has already come to pass; those nations don't exist today because God judged them. Yet from each nation, a remnant returns—because that is the theme of the book.

Then Isaiah 24 is a judgment spoken upon the entire earth—and it has not yet happened. The great and terrible day of the Lord's vengeance shall come. How do we know? Because of the way God speaks prophecy.

Two Fulfillments in One Verse

In Isaiah 7, Judah was led by wicked King Ahaz. The northern ten tribes had allied with Syria (not Assyria) to destroy Judah and set up a puppet king in Jerusalem. When the news came, the whole nation was shaken like trees in the wind. God sent Isaiah and his son Shear-jashub to meet Ahaz at the conduit of the upper pool—where the king was securing his water supply in anticipation of a siege. The Bible says nothing by accident; this shows us real events in a real place and time.

God told Ahaz not to fear these two kings, calling them merely "two tails of these smoking firebrands"—a couple of smoldering fires, no big deal. "It shall not stand." Within sixty-five years, Ephraim would be broken so as not to be a people. Then God added: "If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established." God offered Ahaz the chance to be established as a good king if he would trust him.

God even told Ahaz, "Ask a sign of the Lord your God"—anything, in the depths below or the heights above. Imagine if God said that to you; my mind would flood with ideas—part the Red Sea, make the sun stand still. But Ahaz, trying to appear spiritual, said, "I will not ask, nor tempt the Lord." Yet God had commanded him to ask, so his false piety was actually disobedience. Why? Because if God proved himself, Ahaz would be obligated to trust and follow him—and his hard, wicked heart refused.

The Sign of Immanuel

Isaiah replied, "Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also?" Then God gave a sign anyway: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14). But this wouldn't come to pass for 700 years—how could that be a sign of protection to Ahaz in his day?

Here is the lesson about prophecy. God speaks something with both an immediate and a later fulfillment in a single verse. The near fulfillment: "Before the child shall know to refuse evil and choose good, the land that you abhor shall be forsaken of both her kings"—within a few years, these two kingdoms would be destroyed. The far fulfillment: a virgin would conceive and bear a son called Immanuel, "God with us," 700 years later.

We see this same pattern in Matthew 24. After Jesus pronounced woes on the religious leaders, his disciples pointed out the temple buildings. Jesus said not one stone would be left upon another. Then on the Mount of Olives they asked, "When shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of your coming and of the end of the world?" Jesus answered with both an early fulfillment—the temple's destruction in AD 70, forty years later—and a latter fulfillment in the same discourse that still has not come to pass. God speaks early and later fulfillment in the very same sentence.

The Lord Has Saved

The name Isaiah means "the Lord has saved," and that is the message: God provides salvation to all who repent—not just Judah and Jerusalem, but also the northern tribes, Moab, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt. To every nation he will judge, the promise stands: if you will repent, you will be part of the remnant; you shall be saved.

Isaiah's message was heavy, and his people hard-hearted. His message was repetitive: repent, repent, turn to the Lord. The people grew tired of it. In Isaiah 28 they mocked him: send him to the toddlers; his teaching is just "line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little." In the Hebrew it reads almost like a taunt—line, line, line, precept, precept, here a little, there a little—you sound like a broken record. So they hardened their hearts, stiffened their necks, and closed their ears. And that is exactly what God sent Isaiah to do.

Holy, Holy, Holy

Isaiah 6 records Isaiah's vision of God's throne room. "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple." Picture the heavenly temple—multiply your imagination by a million—and the train of the Lord's robe fills it. Whoever sees the visible representation of God sees Jesus, seated upon the throne, just as Stephen saw him. A train is worn by royalty; it signals a position of rest, privilege, one who need do nothing.

Around the throne stood the seraphim—the word means "burning ones." Each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two their feet, and with two they flew. Notice the proper proportion of one in God's presence: two-thirds of their wings given to worship, only one-third to service, yet always ready to be dispatched. One cried to another, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory." Throughout eternity there is this drone of holiness, and the angels never tire of it. At their voice the posts of the door shook, and the house was filled with smoke.

Woe Is Me—and the Coal That Purges

Then Isaiah cried, "Woe is me! I am undone, for 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." In chapters 1–5 he had pronounced woe on others eight times; now, seeing God, he sees himself rightly. A seraph flew to him with a live coal from the altar and touched his lips: "Your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged." Notice—his only cry of pain came when he saw his sinful condition; when the coal touched his lips, he didn't cry out, for his sin was dealt with. And only after his sin was purged did he hear the voice of the Lord.

Sent to Preach to a Hardened People

"Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" "Here am I; send me." But notice the commission: "Go, and tell this people... make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see and hear and understand and be converted." G. Campbell Morgan said this was the ministry of Isaiah: go and preach this people to hell. No one would listen; his job was to speak God's word until they hardened their hearts and were ready for judgment.

Isaiah asked, "Lord, how long?" The answer: until the cities lie waste and the land is utterly desolate. Tradition holds Isaiah was put to death under wicked King Manasseh—placed inside a tree trunk and sawn in half. Yet God added a promise: "But yet in it shall be a tenth... so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof." Preach to them, most will not listen, but a remnant shall return.

Consider this for our own ministry. We think our work is to see people converted, but our work is to preach the gospel whether they're converted or not—that's God's choosing. Sometimes God sends you to preach so that hearts are hardened and made ready for judgment, so that none will be able to stand before him and say, "You never told me." The encouragement is this: a remnant will return.

The Most Messianic Book

Besides the Psalms, Isaiah contains the most messianic prophecy in the Bible. Chapter 7:14 foretells the virgin birth. Chapter 9 speaks of his Galilean ministry and his being heir to David's throne. Chapter 40 foretells the one who prepares his way—John the Baptist. Notice: we first read of John in the 40th book of the Bible, Matthew, and first read the prophecy of him in the 40th chapter of Isaiah.

Chapter 50 says he would be spat upon and beaten. Chapter 52 says he would be exalted. Chapter 53 describes the disfigured, suffering servant—the one who would make blood atonement, be widely rejected, bear our sins and sorrows, be our substitute, voluntarily accept our guilt, die with transgressors (crucified between two thieves), and be buried in a rich man's tomb, saving all who believe in him and healing the brokenhearted. The book of Matthew returns again and again to "Isaiah said"—700 years before Jesus came.

Salvation Planned Before Creation

Why is that important? Because God's redemptive plan was set not merely 700 years before Jesus, but before he ever said, "Let there be light." Revelation 13:8 calls him the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. That's why Isaiah's name matters—"the Lord has saved," not "the Lord will save." The work of redemption was accomplished in the mind of God before creation.

Sometimes we Christians imagine God improvising—setting Adam in the garden, then scratching his head when man fell, trying animal sacrifices, then the law, then finally sending Jesus to fix the mess. No. Before the foundation of the world, Jehovah has saved. He knew exactly what he was doing. Why allow some 4,000 years of human history first? Because at the right time Christ died for the ungodly—after man had exhausted his own strength to reach God (the Tower of Babel) and labored under the law for 2,000 years, only to prove Isaiah 64:6: "All our righteousness is as filthy rags." Man must come to the place of recognizing he cannot do it on his own, and there's only one way—the work of Jesus on the cross.

Enter at the First "All," Walk Out at the Second

There's an old story of a preacher in England who, after preaching on salvation, had to rush to catch a train. A man ran up: "I just heard you preach. What must I do?" With no time, the preacher said, "Do you have a Bible? Go read Isaiah 53—enter in at the first 'all,' and walk out in glory at the second 'all.'" The man went home and read until verse 6: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." The gospel in one verse. We've all sinned and fallen short, but God, rich in mercy, laid down his life for us. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.

The book of Isaiah is all about the salvation of the remnant—Jehovah has saved. It's a beautiful book; I've had the privilege of teaching it for two years at the Bible college, 66 chapters in 14 weeks. Tonight we've done it in one hour. I recommend you read it and study it on your own.

Closing Prayer

Lord, this is a powerful book, and I thank you that in it we see your inexhaustible patience, time and again, as you call out to a people who had hardened their hearts and stiffened their necks—and yet still you cried out to them, "Come to me, come to me." Lord, I thank you that here in this room stands a remnant, that in the midst of all the wickedness of this world, as we see a world fast approaching judgment, there still is a remnant that returns and follows you. I pray you would help us to speak boldly and loudly your truth, that people would see and know who you are and how great you are. But Lord, we also know there will be those whose hearts are hardened by our words, like Pharaoh, their necks stiffened, and they go to their death in that way. It is tragic—and yet they will not be able to stand before you with any excuse, for you have extended your hand of love. We thank you that you have given it to us tonight. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.