BOOK OF ISAIAH

SIMILARITIES BETWEEN ISAIAH AND THE WHOLE BIBLE

ISAIAH
66 chapters
Two sections: chapters 1—39 and 40—66
Emphasis in chapters 1—39 on God's righteousness, holiness, and justice
Emphasis in chapters 40—66 on God's glory, compassion, and grace
Chapters 1—39 emphasize Israel's need for restoration.
Chapters 40—66 predict God's future provision of salvation in the Servant.
Isaiah begins with a description of Israel's rebellion and ends with predictions of restoration.
Message: A holy God will gain glory by judging sin and restoring His people.

BIBLE
66 books
2 Testaments: 39 OT books and 27 NT books
Emphasis in the 39 OT books on God's righteousness, holiness, and justice
Emphasis in the 27 NT books on God's glory, compassion, and grace
The OT emphasizes humanity's need for salvation.
The NT describes God's provision of salvation in the Messiah.
The Bible begins with a description of humanity's rebellion and ends with a depiction of salvation
in Jesus Christ.
Message: A holy God will gain glory by judging sin and saving those who call on the name of His
Son Jesus.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Internal and external evidence points to the unity of authorship. The title for God, “Holy One of
Israel,” which reflects the deep impression that Isaiah’s vision in chapter 6 made on him, occurs 12
times in chapters 1—39 and 14 times in chapters 40—66, but only seven times elsewhere in the
entire Old Testament. Other key phrases, passages, words, themes, and motifs likewise appear in
both parts of the book.6 Jewish tradition uniformly attributed the entire book to Isaiah, as did
Christian tradition until the eighteenth century.
The Isaiah Dead Sea Scroll, the oldest copy of Isaiah that we have, dating from the second century
B.C., has chapter 40 beginning in the same column in which chapter 39 ends. All the major
commentaries and introductions deal with the unity problem.

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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. The prophet was married and had at least two sons,
to whom he gave significant names that summarized major themes of his prophecies (8:18):
Shearjashub (a remnant shall return, 7:3), and Maher-shalal-hash-baz (hastening to the spoil, 8:3).
Hosea’s children also received names with prophetic significance.

Isaiah received his call to prophetic ministry in the year that King Uzziah died (740 B.C.; ch. 6). He
responded enthusiastically to this privilege, even though he knew from the outset that his ministry
would prove fruitless and discouraging (6:9-13). His wife was a prophetess (8:3), probably in the
sense that she was married to a prophet; we have no record that she prophesied herself. Isaiah also
trained a group of disciples who gathered around him (8:16). His vision of God, which he received
at the beginning of his ministry, profoundly influenced Isaiah’s whole view of life as well as his
prophecies, as is clear from what he wrote. As Paul’s Damascus road vision of God shaped his
theology, so Isaiah’s vision of God shaped his.
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

THEOLOGY
The Book of Isaiah (1,292 verses), the fourth longest book in the Bible after Psalms (2,461 verses),
Genesis (1,533 verses), and Jeremiah (1,364 verses), deals with as broad a range of theology as any
book in the Old Testament. In this respect it is similar to Romans. However, there are four primary
doctrines, all arising out of the prophet's personal experience with God in his call (ch. 6), that
receive the most emphasis.
These are: God, man and the world, sin, and redemption.
Isaiah presented God as great, transcendently separate, authoritative, omnipotent,
Majestic, holy, and morally and ethically perfect. In contrast, he described sarcastically the
stupidity of idolatry. God creates history as well as the cosmos, and He has a special relationship
with Israel among the nations. The adjective "holy" (Heb. qadosh) describes God 33 times in Isaiah,

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but only 26 times in the rest of the Old Testament. Holiness is the primary attribute of God that this
prophet stressed.
Isaiah showed the tremendous value that God places on humanity and the world, but also the folly
of pride and unbelief. Assuming pretensions to significance leads to insignificance for the creation,
but giving true significance to God results in glory for humanity and the world. As all the other
eighth-century prophets, Isaiah condemned injustice.

Sin is rebellion, for Isaiah that springs from pride. The book begins and ends on this note (1:2;
66:24). All the evil in the world results from man's refusal to accept Yahweh's Lordship. The
prophet repeatedly showed how foolish such rebellion is. It not only affects man himself but also
his environment. God's response to sin is judgment if people continue to rebel against Him, but He
responds with redemption if they abandon self-trust and depend on Him. Sin calls for repentance,
and forgiveness for the penitent is available.

God's judgment, the outworking of the personal rage of offended deity, takes many forms: natural
disaster, military defeat, and disease being a few, but they all come from God's hand ultimately. The
means of salvation can only be through God's activity. Substitutionary atonement makes possible
God's announcement of pardon and redemption. This redemption comes through the promised
Messiah ultimately, the Lord's anointed King. The goal of redemption is not just deliverance from
sin's guilt but the sharing of God's character and fellowship. Salvation could only come to God's
people as they accepted the role of servant. Deliverance cannot come to man through his own effort,
but he must look to God alone for it. His emphasis on salvation has earned Isaiah the title of
"evangelist of the Old Testament." One writer called the fifty-third chapter "the fifth Gospel."19
Isaiah's name, "The Lord (Yahweh) is salvation," meaning the Lord is the source of salvation,
summarizes his message.
Isaiah is also strongly eschatological. In many passages the prophet dealt with the future destiny of
Israel and the Gentiles. He wrote more than any other prophet of the great kingdom into which the
Israelites would enter under Messiah’s rule.
“We stand precisely on 56:1, looking back to the work of the Servant (now fulfilled in the person,
life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus) and looking forward to the coming of the Anointed
Conqueror.”21

CHRIST IN ISAIAH
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
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(refuge), light, child, king, and especially servant. In some of the passages in Isaiah, Israel is the
servant of the Lord that is in view, in others he is Cyrus, in others the faithful remnant in Israel is
the servant, and in still others a future individual, the Messiah, must be in view. As Matthew
clarified, Jesus Christ was the fulfilment of what God intended the Israelites to be (Matt. 2:15; cf.
Hos. 11:1-2).

MESSAGE
In contrast to the New Testament prophets, Isaiah had very little to say about an individual’s
relationship with God. His concern was more the relationship of God’s people as a whole to the
Lord, specifically: the nation of Israel’s relationship to God. This is true of most of the Old
Testament writing prophets. Isaiah focused on Israel’s past, her present, her near future, and her
distant future. He also gave considerable attention to the fate of the Gentile nations.
In the first section of the book (chs. 1—39), Isaiah insists that judgment is necessary before there
can be peace. He was dealing with judgment here and now: repentance and divine intervention. In
the last section of the book (chs. 40—66), Isaiah stressed the importance of righteousness before
there can be peace: righteousness here and now before there can be peace on earth in the future.
The great value of Isaiah is its revelation of the throne of God. This book clarifies the principles by
which God rules the universe. In chapter 6, Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on His throne. This vision of
God impacted the rest of Isaiah’s ministry and the rest of his book. In chapter 53, the prophet
revealed the Servant of the Lord, in whom and through whom God reigns. Isaiah balanced the
transcendence of God with the immanence of God. These great revelations of Isaiah come together
in the Book of Revelation 5:6: “And I saw between the throne and the elders a Lamb standing.”
God reigns through people, especially one crucial person.
Isaiah had much to say about the coming Messiah throughout this book. One writer identified 22
prophecies in Isaiah as messianic.

Isaiah lived the early part of his life under the reign of King Uzziah. Uzziah was a good king, and
he provided stability for the kingdom of Judah. But when Uzziah died, everyone had questions
about the direction Judah would go. It was “in the year that King Uzziah died” that Isaiah saw his
vision of the throne in heaven (6:1). He realized in a deeper way than ever before that the true king
of Judah was Yahweh, and that Yahweh was still firmly on His throne.

There are two things that mark God's throne:

(1) Government and (2) grace.
Isaiah's contemporaries needed a deeper appreciation of God's government and His grace, and so do
all the readers of this book. When Isaiah spoke of God's government and His grace, the Israelites
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mocked him for presenting such a simple message (28:13). God told his prophet to expect rejection
(6:9-10), and that proved to be Israel's characteristic response to Isaiah's ministry. We also need a
reminder of the basic principles of God's government and His grace. It is not because they are
unknown to us, but because people do not heed these truths that they are so needful today. Let us
consider, first, what Isaiah revealed about the government of God. There are three principles by
which God governs, according to Isaiah's emphases. These are holiness, righteousness, and justice.
Holiness is the inspiration, righteousness the activity, and justice the result of God's government.
The most outstanding characteristic of God that this book reveals is His holiness. The title "the
Holy One of Israel" was Isaiah's hallmark. The angelic beings that Isaiah saw assembled around
God's heavenly throne ascribed perfect holiness to Him: "Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of Hosts"
(6:3). The holiness of God describes His distinctness and uniqueness" from all His creation.
God is different in His essence; He is spirit, whereas the creation is material. He is also different in
His morality; He is absolutely upright, in contrast to the creation that has suffered from the fall and
its contacts with sin. All of God's government, how He governs, derives from His holiness. Because
God is holy, He always does what is right. Conduct issues from and reflects character. Because God
is holy in His character, He conducts Himself in righteousness.

There is a strong emphasis on righteousness in Isaiah—both God's righteousness, and the need for
human righteousness. Isaiah's emphasis on righteousness is one of the reasons his book has been
called: the Romans of the Old Testament.
The result of righteous conduct is justice. God deals with His own people, and all other people, in
justice. He will do what is fair, what is straight, and what is proper. Because God is just, sin
inevitably brings punishment. Much of this prophecy is designed to help the people of God know
how to avoid sin and its punishment and how to manage sin and its punishment. Justice, both in
interpersonal and in international affairs, is an important motif in Isaiah.
Whereas the principles of God’s government are holiness, righteousness, and justice, the methods
by which He governs are revelation, explanation, and prediction.

According to Isaiah, the outstanding characteristic of God that distinguishes Him from all false
gods (idols) is that He has revealed Himself; He has spoken.
Isaiah referred to three primary revelations of God to humankind: general revelation, special
revelation, and incarnate revelation.
God has built a revelation of Himself into His creation so that everyone can see that a true God does
exist (cf. Rom. 1).

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Second, He revealed His will as well as His existence. The revelation of His will came to the
Israelites through what God taught them, the Torah (instruction).
Third, God revealed Himself through a person: the Messiah, the Servant of the Lord, the Divine
Warrior. The revelation of how God would deal with the sin problem came through this person.
Isaiah reveals that God would deliver Israel from destruction, from captivity, and from sin. He
would make her, in the future, the servant of His that He always intended her to be, but which she
failed to become because of her sin. God went beyond just giving revelations, however. He also
provided explanations. This was one of the major ministries of the prophets in general, and of Isaiah
in particular. God explained through Isaiah why the Israelites and their neighbour nations were
experiencing what they were going through, so they could learn from their past, walk in His ways in
the present, and enjoy His blessings in the future. Not only did God explain the past, but He also
predicted the future.
He did this to prove that He is the only true God. In order to predict the future accurately, one must
be able to control the future. Yahweh is the only true God who can create history in time, as well as
creating the material world in space. His ability to predict the future is the great testimony to His
unique sovereignty. The characteristics of God's government as revealed in Isaiah are also three:
patience, persistence, and power.
God deals with people patiently. He allows them the opportunity to repent and return to Himself.
God had been very patient with Judah, but the day of His patience would end, so she needed to
repent while there was still opportunity. The day of salvation would not last forever.
Second, God deals with people persistently. He does not disregard people's sin after a time, but He
always deals with it righteously. Likewise, He persists in blessing those who faithfully follow Him,
even though they live among a nation of apostates.
Third, God ever demonstrates His supernatural power. What is natural does not limit Him. He can
and does intervene to provide power that overcomes His sinful people and holds them in captivity.
The expectation of more exoduses is strong throughout this book. Isaiah's audience looked ahead to
captivity in Babylon, but beyond that there was the promise of liberation, and beyond that there was
the promise of liberation from sin.

Parallel to these emphases on the government of God is an equally strong emphasis on the grace of
God in Isaiah. Along with the holiness, righteousness, and justice of God, we have an equally
strong emphasis on the love, mercy, and goodness of God. Isaiah wrote that God's children had
rebelled against Him. His "wife" had been unfaithful to Him. The breaking heart of God is as clear
a revelation in Isaiah as are the broken commandments of God.

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Similarly, God’s revelations, His explanations, and His predictions arise out of His mercy. God has
revealed Himself in nature so everyone can enter into relationship with a gracious God. He has
explained Himself so His people can understand His dealings with them as being gracious. He has
predicted the future so everyone will appreciate that His plans for humanity are gracious plans
involving redemption from captivity and sin.

God’s grace is the reason He is patient with people. His grace is the inspiration for His persistence
with people. And His grace is the passion of His power on behalf of people.
The timeless message of this book is that acknowledgment of God’s sovereign rule is the key to
successful human life on every level: individually, nationally, and historically. The only hope for
human failure caused by enslavement to sin is divine redemption that a God of grace provides. God
is not only able but also willing to save.

To enjoy the benefits of God’s grace, people must submit to His government. To submit to His
government, they must receive the benefits of His grace. Israel failed to enjoy the benefits of God’s
grace because she failed to submit to His rule. She failed to submit to His rule because she failed to
appreciate His grace. God brings us into right relationship with His government through His grace.
In order to enjoy the benefits of His grace, we must submit to His government. Both government
and grace find their source in Yahweh and their ultimate expression in Jesus Christ.

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