Community Bible Study -- Isaiah
Text of Introductory Presentation, Lesson 0
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Isaiah: The Prophet
and His Times
Isaiah is a special
prophet who wrote a very special book. He's the author of so much
of the prophesy of Jesus the Messiah - called Messianic prophesy
- which we read in the New Testament and hear at Christmas and
Easter. This makes Isaiah an important guide to understanding the
identity and mission of Jesus. Moreover, Isaiah's writings are
beautiful poetry . . . and highly quotable.
Another reason for choosing Isaiah is the way the religious and
moral/ethical conditions at his time seem so similar to ours
today. Isaiah lived in what I'll call a "nominally Jewish
nation." The people knew about the One True God . . . but
most of them paid no attention to Him. And most of those who
followed God practiced a religion of blindly following rules -
including traditions by which they violated the spirit of God's
laws even as they followed all the religious rules. They made no
effort to practice a heart attitude of loving God and man. Isaiah
characterized their practices like this:
Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule a little here, a little there (Isa 28:10)
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, . . . who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent (Isa 5:20, 23)
We find this kind of
"rule on rule" religion practiced today in both
tradition-based churches and legalist churches which are often
called "fundamentalist." And today's liberal churches
consistently "call evil good and good evil" by adopting
an "anything goes" attitude, based on
mischaracterization of the doctrine of "love" preached
by Jesus. We also find in the secular world many who "acquit
the guilty for a bribe," and in so doing "deny justice
to the innocent."
The Jews of Isaiah's day also faced a severe military threat from
pagan neighbors - just like today's Jews face from Arab neighbors
. . . and (to a much lesser extent) the rest of the world faces
from Al Qaeda and other Wahabists, increasingly influential
within Islam.
Tonight's session is designed to set the scene for our study by
discussing the cultural and historical context of Isaiah. The
reason for this is that our goal is to attempt to ferret out how
the original hearers understand scripture . . . then lift it to a
modern application.
Where do we begin? The book of Isaiah can be precisely dated; we
read in Isa 6:1: "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw
the Lord seated on a throne." King Uzziah - also knows as
Azariah - died about 740 BC, so that's when Isaiah's ministry
began. But to set the historical/cultural context, we'll go back
about 200 years, to the end of Solomon's reign . . . when ancient
Israel is at it's zenith: a kingdom forged by David and expanded
by his son Solomon . . . with it's capital in Jerusalem.
Solomon is often thought of as the wisest king of Israel . . .
author of most of the Proverbs . . . builder of the first Jewish
temple . . . the king who brought Israel to its zenith of wealth
and power by expanding its boundaries, exploiting its copper and
other mineral wealth, and beginning a merchant marine force. But
when Solomon built the temple and fortified cities like Megiddo,
he placed a horrendous tax burden on the people. And Solomon
married many foreign wives as part of ttreaties with his pagan
neighbors, and allowed these pagan wives to worship their idols
in shrines here on the Mount of Olives. One of Solomon's wives
was pharaoh's daughter, for whom he built a special tomb.
Solomon's high taxes and pagan wives brought about disaster when
he died in 922 BC. His oldest son and heir, Rehoboam was a
spoiled rich kid . . . he rejected the good advice of his
father's counselors to lower taxes, and listened instead to his
young drinking buddies, who told him to raise taxes . . . a lot.
Hence Solomon's chief builder, Jeroboam, led a revolt which split
the kingdom. Jeroboam became king of the ten northern tribes of
Israel, and chose as his capital the historic city of Shechem:
rich in Jewish history at the gap between Mts Ebal and Gerizim,
where Jacob built a well, and where Joshua built an altar to
thank God after the Israelites conquered the land God promised
their forefathers. Only David's tribe of Judah remained loyal to
Rehoboam, who ruled from David's capital of Jerusalem. {1 Kings
6-12}
Jeroboam realized that if the people of his new nation had to
enter Rehoboam's kingdom to worship in the temple in Jerusalem,
they would not develop national identity - and might even fail to
follow him as king. Therefore, he built two altars with golden
calves for worship: one at Bethel, en route to Jerusalem, and the
other at Dan, in the northern part of the kingdom, which was
recently excavated and is being restored. These altars made
worship more convenient - because the people didn't have to
travel so far - but it also began a rejection of God by the
people of Israel. {1 Kn 12} Furthermore, when later kings moved
Israel's capital from Shechem to a new city of Samaria, Jacob's
well and Joshua's altar no longer stood as constant reminders of
God's promises to the people - and vice versa.
The lowest spiritual level of Israel may have occurred when Ahab
became king. Ahab was controlled by his wife Jezebel, a pagan
Phoenician princess he married as part of a treaty. Jezebel
instituted worship of the Canaanite gods Baal and Asherah, and
she murdered those who followed God. {1 Kn 16} Ahab built palaces
at Dan, Megiddo, and Jezreel, in addition to his main palace in
Samaria. The excavations at Dan have uncovered a royal ceremonial
road and throne built by Ahab. We can almost picture him and
Jezebel holding court here . . . using this scepter head, which
archaeologists tell us belonged to him! {1 Kn 16}
As God's people are falling away, He sends prophets to set them
straight. Hence Jezebel's proselytizing for to Baal precipitates
a confrontation with the first of God's major OT preaching
prophets, Elijah. Elijah stages a contest on Mt. Carmel to prove
God is more powerful than Baal. After Baal's priests spend an
entire day trying without success to get Baal to send fire to
light a sacrifice, at Elijah's call God sends fire from heaven to
light a sacrifice . . . clearly showing God is more powerful. But
Jezebel doesn't accept God's victory; she plots to have Elijah
killed, and forces him to flee to the Sinai desert. But "One
man with God is always a majority"; God tells Elijah to
ignore Jezebel, and explains who's in charge. God then instructs
Elijah to anoint a godly king of Israel, a man named Jehu. Soon,
Ahab dies in battle; and God's instructions to anoint Jehu are
carried out by Elijah's successors, after Elijah is taken to
heaven in a chariot of fire {2 Kn 2}, As soon as Jehu is
anointed, he seizes the throne of Israel . . . and watches as
Jezebel is thrown from the window of her summer palace in
Jezreel, trampled by horses and eaten by dogs, leaving nothing to
bury.
Unfortunately, Jehu eventually turns away from God. As a result,
he loses Israel east of the Jordan to Aram (or Syria); and is
forced to pay tribute to Assyria, an event commemorated by the
Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, now in the British Museum. {2
Kn 3, 10}
When Jehu's successors to the throne of Israel are even more
evil, God responds by sending more prophets. Elisha shows the
power of God by raising a widow's son in Shunem, just across the
hill of Moreh from Nain, where Jesus repeats the miracle about
800 years later. It was a key sign to the Jews that Jesus was
Messiah when he repeated Elisha's miracle. Amos comes from Tekoa,
near Bethlehem in Judah, and preaches repentance in Israel. But
the people still fail to return to God.
Meanwhile, in the southern kingdom of Judah, David's offspring
have continued to sit on the throne. These kings are the human
ancestors of Jesus . . . but following the bad example of
Rehoboam, they have also generally led the people away from God
and allowed idol worship - just not quite as badly as in Israel.
Kings, priests, and common people so consistently ignored God
that by the 7th century BC, the Jewish scriptures - the very word
of God - were lost and forgotten in a back corner of the temple.
But perhaps the salvation of Judah was Solomon's temple in
Jerusalem, the capital conquered by King David; merely living and
working in the vicinity of the temple surely reminded the people
of God's promises to them . . . and their commitment to God.
God finally had enough . . . and because of sin and idol worship
in both Israel and Judah, God brought a visible, earthly
punishment upon His people, to be administered by a pagan people:
the Assyrians, based in modern Iraq. And since the Assyrians were
legendary for their brutality - taking delight in torturing their
victims - "punishment" by Assyria should be especially
painful. Assyria was a factor in the Middle East from the time of
Solomon and Jonah; King Jehu was forced to pay them tribute. But
in the middle of the 8th century BC, the Assyrians begin a
military buildup in preparation to conquer the entire Middle
East. And God sends more prophets, to explain to His people what
He is doing and why.
This is the situation
when Isaiah enters the scene around 740 BC. We don't know much
about Isaiah. He is a resident Jerusalem, and hence a citizen of
the kingdom of Judah. He is an ordinary layman - not a priest or
levite. (It's been said that all major religious reform movements
in history have been led by lay people, and this is no
exception.) We don't know if he was of royal blood. Isaiah was
not a goody-goody, either; he was terrified when he first saw God
in a vision; he protested:
"I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips" (Isa 6:5).
But God had Isaiah's
"guilt . . . taken away and (his) sin atoned for" (Isa
6:7). Then came Isaiah's famous call to the office of prophet:
"I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!' (Isa 6:8)
When Isaiah heard his
call from God, Assyria was poised to overrun the Arameans (aka
"Syrians") and the Philistines. A scant 8 years after
Isaiah began preaching, the Assyrians had conquered these nations
- and the entire Mediterranean coast all the way down to Egypt.
This means the Assyrian Empire borders Israel on the north and
west, and Judah on the west.
So let's imagine the situation faced by the people of Judah and
Israel. They aren't economic powerhouses with trading ships; they
aren't technological leaders in things like smelting; they don't
have large populations; hence they aren't major military powers.
Their only source of strength - as we read in 1 & 2 Kings -
is their protection by the one True God: who gave His people land
along major trade routes so they might serve as witnesses to the
blessings that come to those who follow God's law. But God's
people have broken His law . . . they have turned away from the
One True God to follow idols. Can they count on the God they have
forsaken to protect them now against the most powerful army of
their time?
That's one thing we'll find out in this study, because Isaiah's
prophesy is interspersed with narratives about what happens as
the Assyrian juggernaut approaches . . . first to Israel, then to
western Judah, and finally to Jerusalem itself. Isaiah preaches
to the kings and people of Judah - not Israel. Hence the
perspective is: "look at the sins of your cousins in Israel
. . . look at the Assyrian military power coming against them . .
. and listen to what the Lord says will happen to them as
punishment! Now took at your own sins . . . you're going down the
same road, and the Lord has a word for you, too!
What is Isaiah's message? God has protected and provided for His
people ever since he rescued them from slavery in Egypt over 500
years before. But for 200 years they have turned their backs on
God, and now they are in for hard times. But side by side with
"doom and gloom," Isaiah preaches Repentance, Return to
God, and be Renewed . . . by a loving and forgiving God, who said
to Isaiah
If the people would only "see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts," they could "turn and be healed" (Isa 6:10).
Isaiah preaches
Salvation . . . as well as Judgment.
But most important, Isaiah's message of salvation is not just an
abstraction: follow God's laws and be blessed. Isaiah promises a
physical, identifiable savior: God's anointed Messiah, God's own
son. This is especially important in the historical context.
Recall: Isaiah is preaching to the people of Judah, the tribe of
David, ruled by kings who are direct descendents of King David.
God has promised David an eternal kingdom and an eternal throne
(2 Sam 7:16). Does this give license to the Kings of Judah to do
whatever they like, because God will not break His promise? Will
God overlook their sin . . . or will God break His promise and
allow Assyria to overthrow Judah and kill off the royal line of
David - as was the case among every other conquered Middle
Eastern people?
Through Isaiah, God addresses this question. The people learn for
the first time that God's promise of an eternal throne for
David's descendants is not an earthly throne and earthly kingdom.
If God's will is to teach the people of Judah a lesson by
removing David's offspring from the throne . . . God reserves the
right to do that. But at the same time Isaiah brings hope: God
will not allow the line of David to be wiped out . . . and at
some future date He will send the ultimate "Son of
David" as a savior - a Messiah - to restore David's eternal
throne . . . and this Messiah will also be God's own son. The
evil kings of Judah will not escape punishment for their sins . .
. yet these evil kings will nevertheless be vessels through which
David's seed is transmitted - until it comes to fruition in Jesus
of Nazareth. And through Isaiah, God tells us about the ministry
of the Messiah . . . and of his fate. In this way, the prophesy
of Isaiah serves as an important guide to the character and
message of Jesus . . . and even to His actions, because the
ultimate proof to believing Jews that Jesus of Nazareth was the
true Messiah is that his miracles matched those prophesied by
Isaiah (and successor prophets).
How about the reliability of Isaiah's prophesy? To answer this,
we need to discuss the "source documents" for our
modern English bible. Isaiah's original writings disappeared long
ago. The oldest complete Hebrew Bible is dated about 1010 AD, and
is now in a museum in St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad). The
oldest fragments of the Hebrew Bible are the Dead Sea Scrolls,
dated about 1000 years earlier around the time of Jesus. Since
everything in the Hebrew Bible happened more than 400 years
before Jesus, scholars must guesstimate when the texts were
written . . . and sometimes these guesstimates reflect scholarly
prejudice. For instance, some scholars suggest late dates for
biblical texts merely because they don't believe in prophesy;
they believe Isaiah was written after the events occurred . . .
and maybe by 2 or 3 authors! But I believe with most faithful
most Christians that God has the power to give His anointed
prophets the ability to foresee the future - at lease in certain
cases.
So with that assumption, let's look at the reliability of
Isaiah's prophesy:
1. Isaiah prophesied and witnessed (from afar) the conquest of
Israel by Assyria and the deportation of her people. This might
have seemed a "no brainer" based on the might of
Assyria and the weakness of Israel - but much of Isaiah's other
prophesy is extremely unlikely.
2. Isaiah was in Jerusalem as Assyria attacked Judah, and Isaiah
prophesied that a miracle by God would prevent Assyria from
conquering Jerusalem . . . and this happened, even though the
Assyrian King Sennacherib wrote in his report that the King of
Judah was caught "like a bird in a cage."
3. Isaiah prophesied the destruction of Assyria by Babylon.
4. Isaiah prophesied the conquest of Jerusalem by the
Babylonians.
5. In the most extraordinary example of God's "calling His
shots" in prophesy, Isaiah predicted by name that Cyrus the
Persian would conquer Babylon, set the Jews free, and rebuild
Jerusalem and the temple. And all this happened.
6. Lastly, Isaiah prophesied the birth, character, ministry, and
death of Jesus the Messiah
Hence we approach this study of Isaiah with three things in mind:
1. First, to learn what God may be saying to 21st century
Americans, based on what he said to ancient Jews in similar
circumstances of failing to follow God's laws and worship Him
properly.
2. We will learn in Isaiah's prophesy more about the role and the
purpose of Jesus as Messiah - helping us to better understand him
for ourselves.
3. We'll learn what God is saying to us, to help us follow Jesus
more closely.