Isaiah

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As Americans living during the second half of the 20th century, it is safe to say that we were spoiled.  Although we experienced wars like Vietnam, Desert Storm, and Iraq, we really do not know what it’s like to have major strife on our own soil.  On September 11, we had a brief and shocking wakeup call, but isn’t it amazing how quickly we have slipped back into our complacent, self-indulgent ways?

In order to understand the book of Isaiah we need to shake the cobwebs of complacency off of our perspectives and enter into the world of war, terror, and uncertainty.  Isaiah’s ministry happened during a period of Israel’s history when it seemed that the world was falling apart.  For a much richer comprehension of Isaiah, read Isaiah’s book while you have your thumb stuck in 2 Kings.  It is a great exercise to track Isaiah’s message with the four kings of Judah (Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah) and their war-torn history as it is told in 2 Kings.  If you pay close attention, you will notice that Isaiah 36-39 are almost exact replications of 2 Kings 18-20.

If you were to poll the average person on the street and ask them what a prophet was they would answer, “the money left over in a business after all the expenses were paid.”  Then, after clarifying that you are referring to a “prophet” not “profit,”  they would most likely say either, 1) a crazy man who stands on the street corner yelling out that God is going to kill everyone, or 2) a guy who can predict the future.

Let’s be honest; the Old Testament Prophets are very foreign to us and reading them is not always the easiest thing to do.  In fact, many times it leaves us scratching our heads and saying, “huh?”

In order to make the prophets more understandable there are a few things we must keep in mind.

1. Prophets are real people.

It is easy to look at famous preachers and pastors in our world and elevate them to a sort of demi-god status.  These people walk on water and can do no wrong.  If that is how we view them then it could become possible to doubt whether they really no what “real life” is like.  Hopefully that bubble has already been burst in your perspective of pastors as you have come to realize that pastors are fallible humans like everyone else.

Unfortunately, it seems to be more difficult to remove the writers of scripture from this same lofty pedestal.  The fact that centuries of time, language, and culture create a gulf between us and the biblical writers makes this dethroning process all the harder.

While that may be true, it is still important to do so.  Isaiah was a regular guy.  He was a real man, who lived in a real city, he shared the same hopes and fears that every person has.  His world was the city of Jerusalem during the time when the Empire of Assyria was pressing in on the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  He watched Israel move from being a pompous, self-righteous, arrogant nation, thinking they could conquer the world, to being completely and utterly destroyed.  The Empire of Assyria continually attacked Judah until, in its final stages, was camped only eight miles outside of Jerusalem.  Imagine the pressure and stress the citizens of Jerusalem must have felt as they watched the smoke rise from the burning cities of Judah, fearing that their city would be next.

2. Prophets are primarily preachers.

A prophet is not a sooth-sayer or a fortune teller.  A prophet is a person who is so in tune with the Spirit of God that he or she has the ability to speak God’s truth in a clear, no-nonsense manner to the world.

Isaiah’s preaching ministry was targeted at Jerusalem.  He was desperately trying to get the people of that city to see that the reason their twin kingdom, Israel, was being destroyed by Assyria was because the people of that kingdom had strayed so far away from God.  They didn’t trust in God or obey Him.  They worshipped pagan idols and made alliances with all the countries surrounding them in order to fight against the Assyrians.  Isaiah’s message could be summed up like this, “Jerusalem, if you don’t wake up, what happened to them will happen to you.”

3. Preaching was very different in those days.

One of the main reasons reading the prophets is so difficult is because the popular form of public speaking was so radically different then than what we are used to.  For us, if a person isn’t casual and full of clever antecdotes in his message, then we tune him out.  Back then it was very different.   In the ancient world (everywhere, not just Israel) public speaking was an artform that was done in a highly poetic fashion.  The orators were expected to craft their words in poetic stanzas and weave dynamic imagery into their presentation.  You could say that the prophets were being “culturally sensitive” by speaking in this form of poetry.

4. Isaiah’s book is actually a collection of Isaiah’s messages that were given over a long period of time.

Another thing to keep in mind was that Isaiah did not sit down at a word processor to compose his manuscript and take the notes to the pulpit.  The words of the prophets were first spoken, then written.  Whether Isaiah actually placed the words of his messages on the paper himself, or if it was done by one of his followers is not known.

What we do know is that the book of Isaiah is really a “best of” series of Isaiah’s messages spoken over the course of four different kings’ reigns in Jerusalem.  If you track the book according to which king is in power when each individual message is given, you will notice a very different tone and agenda in each section.

Two Halves to Isaiah

The book of Isaiah can be divided into two halves.

Part 1:  chapters 1-39 Destruction is coming, Judah beware!

During this section Isaiah is preaching during the impending and ever-growing threat of the Assyrian Empire.  The first three kings under his ministry do not listen to his message and the pagan idols remain in the temple and the people continue to oppress the poor and think like the pagans.  The climax of the section is when King Hezekiah changes things and destroys the idols and ceases paying homage taxes to Assyria.  This was a bold step of faith that Hezekiah made, and God honored it.  Assyria was defeated by the Babylonians and Jerusalem experienced a season of peace.

Part 2:  chapters 40-66 The Messiah is coming, World prepare!

Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh became king and took the city in a 180 degree turn, deeper into sin than it had ever been.  This broke Isaiah’s heart.  Tradition tells us that Manasseh had Isaiah thrown in prison and eventually sawed in half.  During this dark time is when the focus of Isaiah’s teaching went beyond the bleak and inevitable annihilation of Jerusalem to the future hope of the Messiah.  From his dark dungeon, Isaiah preaches messages of hope that have lit up the centuries since they were first utterred.

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