Category Archives: Isaiah

I’m going to skip over chapter 8 with but one comment.  The sign of Maher-shalal-hash-baz (Isa 8:1-4) is the sign that is often wrongly understood as the sign of Immanuel.  That is to say, MSHB signals the timing of the destruction of Aram and Israel by Assyria.  Immanuel does not.  It doesn’t make much sense… Read More »

I want to answer a few issues that more advanced readers may be interested in with regard to the interpretation presented in the previous post in this series.  Other readers can skip this one without missing the flow of Isaiah.  I simply want to respond to what some might consider barriers to adopting my interpretation.… Read More »

We have now arrived at the place where messianic prophecies start to come “fast and furious.”  It all begins with the prediction of a woman giving birth to a boy she calls “Immanuel.”  For this reason, some have called chapters 7-12 the “Book of Immanuel,” and I think this is an appropriate name.  The “Immanuel”… Read More »

I want to show you something in Isaiah 6 that you may not have seen before, but I ‘ll just note in passing that the reason that I am skipping Isaiah 5 is not because it’s not good.  In fact, it fits my understanding of the book very well.  But since this is already my… Read More »

As we continue through Isaiah, we come to another passage of hope in 4:2-6.  There is some debate about just what the nature of the hope described here is.  Those who work hard to deny the presence of the Messiah in the Old Testament may have an easier time with this one than with other… Read More »

I want to make two suggestions that will help you as you read and try to understand Isaiah.  One is what you should do, and the other what you should not do.  First, do NOT get bogged down in judgment passages.  These are the majority of the material in the first 39 chapters.  Since Isaiah… Read More »

In one sense, you can see the whole book of Isaiah as the weaving together of two threads.  The first thread is judgment, and the second is hope.  Judgment is decreed because God’s people are guilty.  But God’s promises require that judgment is not alone.  When the Lord blasted the Philistines, he didn’t say, “but… Read More »

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… Read More »