The Glorious Hope of Isaiah (#1: Intro)

While I had two other courses, and the third was about the “Latter Prophets” as a whole (16 books), I could in some ways characterize this as my Isaiah semester.  This was not only because I wrote two major papers related to Isaiah in the Prophets class, but I also studied the use of Isaiah 7:14 in Matthew 1:23 for the Hermeneutics class.  Of the last, a common approach (indeed the approach of the others in the class who wrote on this topic) is to study 7:14 in near isolation.  After all, if you want to understand Isaiah 7:14, you have to study Isaiah 7:14.  They ‘ll relate it to the chapter to some degree, and possibly also to chapter 8, but no further.  The problem, here, (and LISTEN UP, THIS IS IMPORTANT), is that Isaiah wrote a BOOK, and he expected his readers to start in chapter 1 and continue beyond chapter 8.  Indeed, I will argue that any ambiguity in 7:14 is cleared up once you read chapters 6, and 9, and the rest.  [Footnote: 5 minutes ago I finished reading through 1-2 Chronicles in two sittings.  This cleared up a problem I’ve long had: was Josiah’s death at the hands of Neco the result of his sin?  The answer, if you read all of Chronicles, is clearly yes.  What is not necessarily clear from the immediate text is clear from the larger context.  The details are for another day, but I think this a relevant supporting point.]

Isaiah has meant much more to me in the past months than an academic assignment.  He is with me always.  There’s rarely a sermon in church, a passage of Scripture, a movie (tonight we watched The Nativity Story) that doesn’t send me to Isaiah.  Friends, the guys who wrote the Bible loved Isaiah.  We should too.

You will see, in the course of this series, that the messianic thread in Isaiah is very important to me.  You will see my delight in Isaiah’s revelation of who the coming ruler and deliverer is.  You will likely wonder at times if I had ever read my Bible before this semester.  You will certainly be correct if you sense that I’ve not spent much time studying the messianic prophecies of the OT.  And you ‘ll know that I am destined for some delightful years ahead as I learn what I long ago should have known.  But, here’s a key to this Isaiah study: I did not study Isaiah in order to ferret out messianic prophecies.  Frankly, I wasn’t even thinking about them.  I studied Isaiah to understand Isaiah.  What came out surprised me in significant and wonderful ways.  What I’m going to share in this series is what I learned from Isaiah. 

There certainly are other relevant references to the truths found in Isaiah, and you may well wonder why I’m not talking about those too.  Frankly, I am ignorant of them.  I do not know how they connect and interrelate.  I should know.  I certainly should never confess such bald ignorance.  But I do so for this purpose: I intend to lay out for you the teaching of one prophet.  I want to understand him first.  That is, I want to interpret Isaiah on Isaiah’s terms before I am influenced by Jeremiah, Daniel, or Zechariah.  I believe this is a more appropriate and profitable approach.  How so?  Well, this is how God revealed it and the ancients heard it.  First, Isaiah prophesied and then Jeremiah who knew Isaiah’s message well prophesied and added some new details.  Later Zechariah.  Those guy are important, I am sure.  But here’s what I’m challenging.  Don’t go read a book about messianic prophecies or a theology of the OT.  Instead study Isaiah.  Figure him out.  Then go to Jeremiah.  Figure him out.  Etc.  By going straight to a systematized work you are skimming the top of the forest and missing out on the wonderful and delightful development of God’s revelation of Messiah.

My goal is to get you excited about Isaiah, or rather, about his message, which is about God’s glorious promises to his people, including a righteous judgment and a gracious salvation through a glorious Servant.  To get you excited, you have to read what I write.  I know that you ‘ll only read if it’s interesting and readable.  I am going to try my best.  That means that 1) posts will be briefer; 2) therefore the series will be longer; 3) I will avoid non-exciting detail and other technical matters.  This last point means that I do not anticipate recycling anything I previously wrote this semester.  All of this is from my head and an open Bible.  The reason I can do this is that I don’t have disconnected pieces of a puzzle in my head, but rather I see the whole picture.  Thus I can describe the picture to you without consulting notes. 

I wish that I could have written this series before Christmas, because I think it makes a great preparation for the birth of Jesus.  I guarantee you that Simeon and others who were so longing for the coming of the Messiah were steeped in this book.  Unfortunately, I have not been able to begin writing until now.  I choose to do so rather than wait until next Christmas because, frankly, I can’t wait.  More in the days ahead.