The Book of Isaiah
On
October 27, 2012, I took on the rather daunting task of reading, studying and
taking notes over the book of Isaiah. It’s a book with 66 chapters that
provides some of the most profound prophecies found in the Old Testament. Some
scholars consider Isaiah as the high ground of the Old Testament. Nearly nine
months later here on July 19, 2013 my study on Isaiah is complete. What an incredible study. I dedicated a Top 20 list of my favorite themes
from this incredible book of the Bible.
The
setting for Isaiah is the 8th Century BC and there had been a Civil
War in Israel that split the nation into two. Isaiah is writing at a time just prior to and
about the time the Northern Kingdom is going into captivity. He is primarily
the prophet to Judah and the Southern Kingdom.
This Top 20 List is not your typical list where Number 1 is the most important and Number 20 is the least important. This list is simply identified in chronological order as they appear in Isaiah. So number 1 is from Isaiah 1, and number 20 is at the every end of Isaiah. I would not even attempt to rank these messages because I would be doing God a complete injustice with all of the incredible messages and fulfilled prophecies from this book.
1.
Crimson
is the color of sin.
· Come now, let us
reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool. – Isaiah 1:18
2. We will call good
evil, and evil good.
·
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put
darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet
for bitter! – Isaiah 5:20
·
We are in an age in which we are really calling evil good, and
good evil. Men and women who try to stand up for something that is decent and moral are
made to look like fools in the liberal media. The promotion of homosexual marriage
and abortion by the left are two such issues today. Many claim men should be
allowed to marry other men and Christians are “intolerant” for not accepting this gay marriage. Many also support the slaughter of the innocent in the mother's womb, and they label this as a “women’s right” to murder their baby. When Christians
and others stand up for life, the left labels us as “attacking women’s rights.”
And they are applauded and praised in the world as enlightened heroes for being
non-judgmental, when in reality these groups are evil in the eyes of God.
3.
Jesus Christ is the Rock of the Old and New Testament.
· And he will become a sanctuary
and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of
Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And
many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they
shall be snared and taken.” – Isaiah 8:14.
·
therefore thus says the
Lord God, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’ –
Isaiah 28:16
· Paul sums up this idiom of Jesus Christ as the rock in 1
Corinthians: For I
do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that
our fathers were all under the cloud, and
all passed through the sea, and all
were baptized into Moses in the cloud in and
in the sea, and all ate
the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink.
For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was
Christ. – 1 Corinthians 10:1-4.
·
Who is the rock? Jesus is.
4. The Lord is
bringing judgment to non-believers
·
I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for
their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the
arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the
ruthless. – Isaiah 13:11
·
I trampled down the
peoples in my anger; I made them drunk
in my wrath, and
I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.” – Isaiah 63:6
·
This judgment will come during the Great Tribulation Period. Many
who don’t study scripture have this simplistic Sunday school view that Jesus
Christ. While that may be true, it is also true He is going to bring judgment
and many fail to realize that.
5.
God is not yet done with Israel
· For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will
again choose Israel, and will set
them in their own land, and sojourners
will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob. – Isaiah 14:1
·
For I am
the Lord your
God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
Because you are precious in my
eyes, and
honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. – Isaiah 43:3-4
·
For thus says the Lord: “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken,
and the prey of the tyrant be
rescued, for I
will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children. – Isaiah 49:25.
·
The church has not replaced Israel. They each have different
origins and different destinies. Paul hammers this idea home in Romans 9-11.
6. Isaiah gives us a
visual image of hell.
· Your pomp is brought down
to Sheol, the sound of your
harps; maggots
are laid as a bed beneath you, and worms are your covers. – Isaiah 14:11
·
For those who are too prideful or arrogant to have a personal
relationship with Jesus Christ, they better get used to spending eternity with
maggots and worms.
7. Isaiah identifies
the origin of sin.
· You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the
north; I will
ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ – Isaiah
14:13-14
·
These are Satan’s 5 “I will” statements. This is the beginning
of rebellion. Satan wanted to be God. Sin began in Satan’s heart and the root
of sin was his pride. And as we understand that, we begin to understand why in
the Bible, from cover to cover, the thing that God hates most is pride. The
thing that causes us the most trouble is our ego and our pride. And that is
exactly what caused Lucifer to blow the mission.
8. Isaiah predicts
the fall of a world power in Babylon before she became one.
· “Fallen, fallen is
Babylon; and all the
carved images of her gods he has shattered to the ground.” – Isaiah 21:9
·
Isaiah prophesizes about the fall of Babylon. What makes this
more amazing is that this was over a hundred years before Babylon existed as a
kingdom. At the time of Isaiah, it was a little troublesome city at the pawn of
Assyrian politics, and he is describing to his readers the fall of a kingdom
yet to be established.
9.
Judgment on the earth is coming.
· He shall judge between the
nations, and shall decide
disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning
hooks; nation
shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. – Isaiah 2:4
· Behold, the Lord will empty the earth and
make it desolate, and he will twist
its surface and scatter its inhabitants. – Isaiah 24:1
· Therefore a curse
devours the earth, and its
inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the
earth are scorched, and few men are left. – Isaiah 24:6
· There is an outcry in the
streets for lack of wine; all joy has grown
dark; the gladness of the earth is banished. – Isaiah 24:11
· I also will choose harsh
treatment for them and bring their fears upon them, because when I called, no one
answered, when I
spoke, they did not listen; but they did what was evil in my eyes and chose that in which I did not
delight.” – Isaiah 66:4
· For behold, the Lord will come in fire, and his chariots like the whirlwind, to render his anger in fury,
and his rebuke with flames of
fire. For by fire will the Lord enter into judgment, and by his sword, with all flesh;
and those slain by the Lord shall be many. – Isaiah 66:15-16
·
In other words, devastation is coming to everybody left on the
earth. The church will have already left the earth by that point.
10. Isaiah gives us a
preview of the Kingdom Age through Eternity
· He will swallow up death
forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will
take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. – Isaiah 25:8
· The wilderness and the dry
land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; it
shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with
joy and singing. – Isaiah 35:1-2
· Instead of bronze I will
bring gold, and instead of
iron I will bring silver; instead of wood, bronze, instead of stones, iron.
I will make your overseers
peace and your
taskmasters righteousness. Violence shall no more be heard in your land,
devastation or destruction
within your borders; you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise. – Isaiah
60:17-18
· The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the Lord will be your everlasting light,
and your God will be your
glory. Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the Lord will be your everlasting light,
and your days of mourning shall be ended.
– Isaiah 60:19-20
· John echoes the same statement about the New Earth. And night will be no more. They will need
no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. –
Revelation 22:5.
· For behold, I
create new heavens and a new earth,
and the former things shall not
be remembered or
come into mind. But
be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy,
and her people to be a
gladness. – Isaiah 65:17-18
·
Israel’s future kingdom will be rejoicing and the abundance of
material possessions. Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your
borders; you shall call your walls
Salvation, and your gates Praise. Jerusalem in the future kingdom will be a
place of beauty and peace where right will prevail. There will also be no sun
or moon in the Kingdom Age.
11. God view of liberalism
· The vile person shall be no more called liberal,
nor the churl said to be bountiful. – Isaiah 32:5
·
I think that that's a very interesting verse, because we hear of
liberals today, and for the most part, especially a theological liberal is an
extremely vile person. And here Isaiah is speaking of the day when the King
comes and these liberals will be called what they really are.
12.
Isaiah provides obvious illusions and prophecies of Jesus
Christ
· Therefore the Lord
himself will give you a sign. Behold,
the virgin shall conceive and
bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
– Isaiah 7:14.
·
The book of Isaiah gives us the prediction of a virgin birth.
Something that we read glibly at Christmas time, but how interesting that it is
that God calls the shots in every detail.
·
For to us a child is born, to us a son is
given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. – Isaiah 9:6
·
God will become human, will possess authority and will be
divine.
· He will tend his
flock like a shepherd; he
will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with
young. – Isaiah 40:11
· All we like sheep have
gone astray; we have
turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. – Isaiah 53:6.
Here
it is; crisp and undeniable. Who are the sheep? We are.
·
Who
is the shepherd? Jesus Christ is of course. Jesus said, "I am the good
shepherd: I lay down My life for My sheep" - John 10:11.
·
“Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called! I am he; I am the first, and I am the last. – Isaiah 48:12
· For
those of you that know the Book of Revelation, that verse sounds obviously familiar
to a quote from Jesus Christ. "I
am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end" – Revelation 1:8.
· He was despised and
rejected by men; a man of sorrows,
and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was
despised, and we esteemed him not. – Isaiah 53:3
·
Was Jesus despised in the final hours of his life? He took an
unimaginable physical beating. Who is one of the most despised figures in the
public schools and the workplace? If you said Jesus Christ, you are correct. You cannot mention
his name at school, work without the threat of discipline, suspension or termination.
· Surely he has borne our
griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our
transgressions; he
was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are
healed. – Isaiah 53:4-5.
·
Jesus Christ bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, and he was
wounded for our transgressions, and with his stripes, we are healed. The core
of gospel is right here in this verse.
· He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before
its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. – Isaiah 53:7
13. Scientists in the
8th century BC believed the earth was flat. What did Isaiah believe?
· It is he who sits above
the circle of the earth, and its
inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to
dwell in – Isaiah 40:22
·
Notice He sits upon the circle of the earth. The Bible did not
and does not and has never taught a flat earth. That was the view of the
scientists of those days, not the men of God. The earth is round. God's Word
declared it. Scientists finally caught up with it.
14. Isaiah gives an incredible
prophecy on King Cyrus the Great of Persia.
·
Isaiah writes about a letter about King Cyrus over a century
before he was born. Daniel (who lived
until the third year of Cyrus) presented Cyrus with the writings of Isaiah that
includes a letter addressed to Cyrus by name, written over 150 years earlier.
He gives a detailed prophecy on how Cyrus would take control over Babylon.
·
I
will dry up your rivers’ who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall
fulfill all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the
temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’” –
Isaiah 44:27-28.
·
Thus
saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose
right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the
loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall
not be shut; - Isaiah 45:1
·
Babylon was thought to be impenetrable because it had a 300 foot
high wall, gates around the city, and the great river Euphrates running through
it. The gates around Babylon not being shut is one of the things that
contributed to the Persians quiet victory over Babylon. King Cyrus of Persia came
up with a scheme of building diversion channels for the river Euphrates. And
they went upriver to divert the river Euphrates into these channels. The
Persian soldiers conquered the city by entering through on the banks of the
river under the wall.
15. There is one true
God.
·
For thus says the Lord, Who created the
heavens, Who is God, Who formed
the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it
to be inhabited: “I am
the Lord, and there is no other. –
Isaiah 45:18
·
“Remember this and stand
firm,
recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no
other; I am God,
and there is none like me – Isaiah 46:8-9.
16. Fake “Christians”
·
Hear
this, O house of Jacob,
who are called by the name of Israel, and
who came from the waters of Judah, who swear by the
name of the Lord
and confess the God of Israel, but not
in truth or right. You've been called by the name, but not in truth.
You've sworn by God, but not in righteousness.- Isaiah 48:1
·
So many people today claim to be Christians, but not only is no
evidence for it, but their lives demonstrate quite the opposite. So they take
the name. Here Isaiah says, you've been called by the name of Israel. You've
taken the name "Governed by God" but God isn't governing your lives.
You've not submitted your life to God. You take the name of Christian but
you're not living as Christ. So God is rebuking them for taking the name, when
in reality it isn't taken in righteousness nor in truth.
17. Isaiah reconfirms that the Genesis account that
God created the Heavens and the Earth.
· My hand laid
the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens;
when I call to them,
they stand forth together. –
Isaiah 48:3
· And I have put my words in
your mouth and covered you
in the shadow of my hand, establishing the
heavens and laying the foundations of the earth,
and saying to Zion, ‘You are my
people. – Isaiah 51:16
·
Many believers and non-believers do not understand that the
Bible is the inerrant Holy Word of God. They allow for some contrived
scientific theory that human beings were created by accident. You know the
story; first there was nothing and that nothing exploded and humans derived
from a rock or whatever the latest progressive theory is today.
18. Isaiah gives a
possible explanation on why Jesus was not recognizable after the Resurrection.
·
In Luke 24 we learn of the Emmaus Road Experience. This was
where Jesus Christ gives these two disciples a Bible Study over a seven mile
walk on the Emmaus Road. They are obviously upset after the Resurrection but they don’t even
recognize Jesus; that’s weird. In John 20, there is another example where
a disciple that is very close to the Lord doesn’t recognize him. Mary
Magdalene doesn’t recognize him either! In John 21, the eleven apostles don’t
recognize him either. What is going on??
· I gave my back to those
who strike, and my cheeks to
those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. – Isaiah 50:6.
· Just as there were many
who were appalled at him— his appearance
was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human
likeness – Isaiah 52:14
·
Simply put, they ripped off his beard. We are told that they
covered His face and they began to hit Him. And with these beatings, His face
was so distorted that you could not even recognize Him as a human being.
Spitting is a sign in the oriental culture of total disdain and disgust. The
Jews not only rejected Him, but they spit upon Him. These may very well be the reasons why Jesus
Christ was not recognized by so many that were his followers. This is the
section of Isaiah that is very messianic and therefore this conclusion is as good
of reason why the disciples did not recognize Christ a few days after he was
executed.
19. Abortion - Old
Testament style
· Whom are you mocking? Against whom do you open your mouth wide
and stick out your tongue?
Are you not children of transgression, the offspring of deceit,
you who burn with lust among the oaks, under
every green tree, who slaughter
your children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks? – Isaiah 57:4-5
·
The illusion here is the worship of Moloch. Moloch had
associations with a particular kind of child sacrifice by parents. They heated this bronze idol until it was
intensely hot and then putting their children in its arms. The Museum of
Natural History in Jerusalem has a case filled with little idols that have been
uncovered in the land that would generate this intense heat. It was a bizarre
practice, but not quite as bizarre as the ones we practice today. What we try
to do is to legalize the destruction of the child before he/she is born.
20. Jesus Christ’s began
his Ministry by reading from a scroll of Isaiah.
·
And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He
unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year
of the Lord's favor.” And he rolled up the
scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all
in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this
Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” – Luke 4:17-21.
· Jesus in Luke 4 is quoting here directly from Isaiah 61. Jesus began his ministry by reading from this chapter of Isaiah. What's interesting he stops reading from Isaiah at the comma and what followed next in Isaiah 61 was, "and the day of vengeance of our God." Jesus is claiming in Luke to be the fulfillment of Isaiah 61. Secondly, it’s great that Jesus confirmed the authenticity of
scripture by reading it, preaching it and believing in it. There is a lesson to
be learned here. Read the Bible, and most importantly, apply it to our daily lives.
