Isaiah 1:1-2:22; 2 Corinthians 10:1-18; Psalm 52:1-9; Proverbs 22:26-27
Today we begin Isaiah. I have an Isaiah – our third born. He
is wonderful (says the unbiased mother) and he is named after the prophet who
wrote this book. We love this name because it means ‘the Lord is generous.’ Can
I get an Amen to that? And while the Isaiah of this book certainly tells of
God’s generosity (“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as
snow”) (Isaiah 1:18), he also has some very serious words for Israel, as we’ll
see over the next few weeks.
I’m going to focus this entry on some basic background info,
as you know I like to do whenever we start a new book and it’s my day to write.
So here we go!
Isaiah says in chapter 1 verse 1 that this book is the
vision he saw during the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of
Judah. Right of the bat, we’ve got some historical context for this book.
Uzziah we read about in 2 Chronicles 26, Jotham in 2 Chronicles 27, Ahaz in 2
Chronicles 28-30 and Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles 29-32 (and of course, they are
also in 2 Kings). These men ruled over the divided kingdom of Judah, meaning
that Israel had already split into the northern kingdom of Israel and the
southern kingdom of Judah. Uzziah ruled in the middle of the 8th
century BC, and the rest going forward from there. If you can remember back to
the days earlier this summer when we were reading in 2 Chronicles, then you
might remember that Uzziah, Jotham and Hezekiah “did what was right in the eyes
of the LORD” and that Ahaz “did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD.”
So these are the kings that Isaiah is serving as a prophet for. Doing the math
(which I didn’t do myself, I looked it up), that means Isaiah was a prophet for
somewhere near 64 years. That’s a long time to try to tell a stubborn and
stiff-necked people what God is saying to them!
A few other things about Isaiah – we gather from 8:3 that he
had a wife (she’s called the “prophetess” probably because of their marriage)
and they had two sons (7:3, 8:3) and while commentators vary (as they always
do), most people feel like the major themes of Isaiah are:
- Jesus Christ, his first and second comings (roughly 1/3 of the book)
- Warnings and assurances to Israel and Judah (a large majority of the book)
- The Day of the Lord (we’ll have to get into this more in a future post)
- The Kingdom of God (the actual term “kingdom” doesn’t actually appear in the book but this “future age” is described in many instances
Even in the verses we read today, we can see these themes
beginning. Look at 1:19-20: “If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the
good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword;
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” I’d say that’s a pretty clear warning
for Israel and Judah! And look at 2:2: “It shall come to pass in the latter
days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the “highest
of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations
shall flow to it…” That sounds very kingdom of God-ish to me.
Anyway, more to come. But hopefully this framing will help
us all as we read further and deeper into one of God’s most faithful prophets.
Happy reading!
- Esther McCurry
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