Today we’ve reached Isaiah: glorious, indispensable, once we find the path through it; the OT’s greatest prophet – so, one of history’s most significant books.
Where else can we see the majesty of the living God as we do in Isaiah 6 or 40? How better to grasp our rescue through the cross than via the astonishing prophecy of ch53? What more striking picture could there be of what the Spirit does than ch61; what more joyous celebration of God’s gracious restoration than chs11-12 or 35 or 54-55; what stronger challenge to social righteousness than ch58?
We need to get to know this book! Well, hopefully we will; and the opening chapters are quite something…
We can identify with Isaiah. When he began his ministry, when Uzziah was king, his nation (Judah) was seemingly not doing badly. But Isaiah could see how his culture’s forsaking the Lord would result in disaster; so right at the start he’s trying to wake them up to the situation, and its true causes. `Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! For the LORD has spoken!` (Am I listening? If God really has spoken – and through Isaiah as well – it’s stupid not to give attention!) `Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted`… and then prophetically he describes the terrible events of the brutal Babylonian invasion, an absolute catastrophe that happened after his death, yet need not have happened at all had his hearers paid attention to God (1:7-8). (`Catastrophe` – global warming comes to my mind. Maybe that’s just me.)
But then he focuses his challenge – and alarmingly, his target is the Jewish worshippers. Their sacrifices, their temple attendance, their sabbath-keeping and so on (1:11-13) might have seemed very spiritual. But the prophet announces that it is nothing short of obnoxious to God. Feel this!: `Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom… “The multitude of your sacrifices – what are they to me?” says the LORD. ”When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings!… I cannot bear your worthless assemblies! Your festivals I hate with all my being…` And then comes this: `When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening!` Wow. If ever that’s truly my situation, Lord, please [and I mean this] help me to hear You…. `Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong, learn to do right. Seek justice, defend the oppressed, take up the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow…`
Oh yes, it can feel very contemporary: Isaiah’s targets are out grabbing for themselves on the property market (5:8-9), filling their houses with what should belong to the poor (3:14); party people with all the trappings of music and wine (5:11-13), dedicated followers of high fashion (3:16-23); `full of superstitions from the East` (2:6); `Their land is full of silver and gold; there is no end to their treasures` (2:6) – this apparent prosperity actually being at a time when God has abandoned them… And underneath it all Isaiah discerns (and we should pray to be kept from the `spirit of the age` as our culture follows suit….!) the fatal symptoms of humanistic pride and arrogance (2:12-17)…
And yet there is `gospel`, the possibility of repentance and mercy, of being `redeemed` (1:27), being cleansed and restored (1:25-26): ‘”Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool”’ (1:18). Indeed – and we’ll have to get used to Isaiah, or God, doing this – Isaiah’s next vision, chapter 2, goes to the other extreme by showing us the huge glory that will centre on redeemed Jerusalem at the end of history for the benefit of all humankind. And it’s wonderful: `In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war any more… Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD!`.
(There’s the future, and in passing let me say that this doesn’t seem to be talking about heaven – these are nations that have had weapons that they now abandon. So it seems it must be happening on earth after Christ’s return as King, in the restored paradise of the millennium described in Revelation 20 and in much of the old testament. Lots more about why in the post about the millennium in `Other Useful Stuff`.)
Glorious things, things that will feed our souls. But then, having shown us this glory of the future, Isaiah returns equally suddenly, with renewed prophetic ardour, to the desperate state of the nation. All the apparent prosperity and (2:7) military strength actually marks a culture that God has abandoned to judgment (2:6); brutal invasion is coming, and darkness will have the final word (5:30)…
And – but – there’s also this that we need too (a saving vision perhaps?): `Men will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from the fearful presence of the LORD, and the splendour of His majesty when he rises to shake the earth… Go, into the rocks, hide in the ground, from the fearful presence of the LORD and the splendour of His majesty!… The LORD alone will be exalted in that day!`
Wow….. It’s quite a change of gear from the parts of Scripture we most often feed on; and our hearts need it…
(PS: Really with a great book like Isaiah we shouldn’t just go for the `greatest hits`, we should try to get the overall flow, but… Anyway here are some `greatest hits` – it’s all good, but read these and you’ll see what Isaiah has to offer… Isaiah ch40; ch53; 61:1-4; ch6; ch58; ch35; 55:6-13; 2:1-5; 9:1-7; 11:1-9 and ch12; 43:1-13; 52:7-10; 65:17-25…)
