Introduction to Isaiah
Author
The prophet Isaiah
Isaiah was called to his prophetic ministry “in the year that King Uzziah died” (6:1), around 740 B.C. He lived long enough to record the death of Sennacherib (37:38), in 681.
Audience - Israel and Judah
Setting - The prophecies of Isaiah took place during the rise of the Assyrian Empire. Assyria posed a great threat to Israel and Judah as well as the entire Near East.
Themes -
The central theme of the book is God himself, who does all things for his own glory (48:11).
God is offended by religious practices that come from an empty heart or a careless life (1:10–17; 58:1–12; 66:1–4).
God’s true people will someday become a multinational community of worship and peace that will last forever (2:2–4; 56:3–8; 66:18–23).
The only hope of the world is in one man:
the promised Davidic king (7:14; 9:2–7; 11:1–10)
the servant of the Lord (42:1–9; 52:13–53:12)
the anointed preacher of the gospel (61:1–3)
the victor over all evil (63:1–6).
Unlike Jeremiah, who discloses aspects of his inner personal life (Jer. 20:7–12), Isaiah says little about himself. The Bible’s sole interest is in Isaiah’s message, which is summed up in the meaning of his name: “Yahweh is salvation.”
A book this large, and lacking a narrative line, must be viewed as an anthology or collection of individual compositions. It is often futile to look for a smooth flow from one unit to the next. The book swings back and forth between oracles of judgment and oracles of salvation.
The whole book portrays God’s plan for Judah as a story that is headed somewhere, namely, toward the coming of the final heir of David who will bring light to the Gentiles. Israel was created for this very purpose, and it will require that God’s people be purified of those members whose lives destroy that mission
Section 1: (1-39) - First, in his own times, Isaiah prophesied “in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah” (Isa. 1:1). The external threat of Isaiah’s day was the militant Assyrian Empire rising to power in the east. The question forced upon Judah by this threat was one of trust: in what will God’s people trust for salvation—in human strategies of self-rescue, or in prophetic promises of divine grace?
Section 2: (40-55) - Second, Isaiah was enabled by God to address the Jewish captives far away in Babylon in the sixth century B.C. He announces a promise that God is coming with a world-changing display of his glory (Isa. 40:5). To prepare for his coming, the exiles must return to the Promised Land (Isa. 48:20). They must not be demoralized by the impressive but empty culture of idolatry in which they live.
Section 3: (56-66) - Third, Isaiah addressed the returned exiles and subsequent generations of God’s people with messages of challenge and hope, to keep their faith and obedience steady until God fulfills all his promises.
God’s servant Isaiah lived in Jerusalem, where he was an adviser to several kings of Judah. He was a person of importance, and over many years he used his position to try to influence Judah’s policies in both local and international affairs.
With the long and prosperous reigns of Uzziah (or Azariah) in Judah and Jeroboam II in Israel, both kingdoms enjoyed expansion and progress (2 Kings 14:23-25,2 Kings 14:28; 2 Kings 15:1-7; 2 Chronicles 26:1-15). However, the prosperity brought with it severe religious, social, moral and political evils. The prophets of this time, Amos and Hosea, tirelessly denounced the moral and religious corruption of the people and tried to defend the poor against the exploitation of the rich.
A common practice among the Old Testament prophets was to refer to countries by some representative feature, such as a king, a god, a river, a mountain, a tribe, or a city. The reader of the prophets will therefore find that the northern kingdom Israel is often called either by the name of its leading tribe, Ephraim, or by the name of its capital, Samaria. In the same way the southern kingdom Judah is sometimes called by the name of its capital, Jerusalem. Among foreign nations, those most commonly referred to by their capital cities are Assyria (called Nineveh) and Syria (called Damascus).
The apparent inconsistency in relation to time is typical of all prophetic prediction. Within the one prediction there may be some parts fulfilled within the prophet’s lifetime, other parts fulfilled within a hundred years or so, and other parts still not yet fulfilled. In the course of history, as ordinary people see it, events may be separated from one another by hundreds or even thousands of years, but in the message of the prophet they may not be separated at all. They may be mentioned together as if they happened almost at the same time.
Isaiah ministered during the reigns of four Judean kings (Isa_1:1): Uzziah (792-740 B.C.), Jotham (750-732 B.C.), Ahaz (735-715 B.C.), and Hezekiah (715-686 B.C.)
Isaiah lived in Jerusalem, and that capital city features prominently in his prophecies. Isaiah referred to Jerusalem by using more than 30 names. His easy access to the court and Judah’s kings, revealed in his book, suggests that he ministered to the kings of Judah and may have had royal blood in his veins. Jewish tradition made him the cousin of King Uzziah. His communication gifts and his political connections, whatever those may have been, gave him an opportunity to reach the whole nation of Judah.
There is no historical record of Isaiah’s death. Jewish tradition held that he suffered martyrdom under King Manasseh (697-642 B.C.) because of his prophesying. The early church father Justin Martyr (ca. A.D. 150) wrote that the Jews sawed him to death with a wooden saw (cf. Heb_11:37). [Note: See also The Martyrdom of Isaiah 5:1ff.] Another ancient source says he took refuge in a hollow tree, but his persecutors discovered and extracted him. This may account for the unusual method of his execution.
The prophet had a very broad appreciation of the political situation in which he lived. He demonstrated awareness of all the nations around his homeland. Judah and Jerusalem were the focal points of his prophecies, but he saw God’s will for them down the corridors of time, as well as in his own day. He saw that the kingdom that God would establish through His Messiah would include all people.
Isaiah’s emphasis on the coming Messiah is second only to the Psalms in the Old Testament in terms of its fullness and variety. God revealed more about the coming Messiah to Isaiah than He did to any other Old Testament character. Messianic themes in Isaiah include: the branch, the stone (refuge), light, child, king, and especially servant.
This period of Israel’s history is told in 2 Kings 15 through 21 and 2 Chronicles 26 through 33. Isaiah was a contemporary of the prophets Hosea and Micah. By the time of Isaiah, the prophets Elijah, Elisha, Obadiah, Joel, Jonah, and Amos had already completed their ministry.
By this time, Israel had been in the Promised Land for almost 700 years. For their first 400 years in Canaan, judges ruled Israel. These were spiritual, military, and political leaders whom God raised up as the occasion demanded. Then, for about 120 years, three kings reigned over all Israel: Saul, David, and Solomon. But in 917 B.C. Israel had a civil war and remained divided into two nations, Israel (to the north) and Judah (to the south) up until the time of Isaiah.
Up until the time of Isaiah, the kingdom of Israel – the northern ten tribes – had some 18 kings, all of them bad and rebellious against the LORD. The kingdom of Judah – the two southern tribes – had some 11 kings before Isaiah’s ministry, some good and some bad.
In the time of Isaiah, Israel was a little nation often caught in the middle of the wars between three superpowers: Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon.
As Isaiah’s ministry began, there was a national crisis in the northern kingdom of Israel. The superpower of Assyria was about to overwhelm the kingdom of Israel. During the span of Isaiah’s ministry as a prophet, the southern kingdom of Judah was faced with repeated threats from the larger surrounding nations.