Isaiah lived during the late eighth and early seventh centuries BC, which was a difficult period in the history of Jerusalem. This was the time of the divided kingdom with:
• Israel in the north
• Judah in the south
There was prosperity for both kingdoms during Isaiah’s youth, with little foreign interference. He was part of the upper class, but urged care of the downtrodden.
As we previously learned, he was the son of someone named Amoz. Jewish tradition teaches that Amoz was a brother to King Amaziah.
This would make King Amaziah, Isaiah’s uncle and it would also make him the cousin of Amaziah’s son, King Uzziah. Being a part of the royal family let’s us know why it seems that he enjoyed a free pass into the royal courts to speak.
According to tradition, he was martyred by being cut in two by a wooden saw, during the reign of Manasseh, who came to the throne in 687 BC.
The prophecies of Isaiah were very widespread, dealing with Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Syria, Israel (the northern kingdom), Ethiopia, Egypt, Arabia, and Phoenicia.
The prophecies against these nations were simply this; these nations that thought of themselves as secure in their own power, could be conquered by other nations at God's command.
Perhaps the easiest way to remember the divisions in the Book of Isaiah is to look at two divisions.
(1) The first thirty-nine chapters reveal the judgment of God
(2) A marked change takes place in chapter 40, and twenty-seven chapters reveal comfort
We could talk a great deal about Isaiah’s prophecies dealing with God’s judgment on Judah and these surrounding nations, but I feel our time will be better spent if we talk about two things:
(1) ISAIAH’S CALLING
Look at Isa. 6:1-8, “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.”
We can see from these scriptures that even though Isaiah came from a very affluent family, he was a very humble man. It is unusual to see men in prominent places, displaying humility.
Illus: Today . . .
• We have politicians that are not grateful to be where citizens have placed them, but they act like they are gods and we are the poor peasants they rule over.
• We have actors and actresses today that think so highly of themselves that they act like they are doing ordinary people a favor just to let us get a glance of them.
We need to consider something else in the Book of Isaiah.
(2) THE PROPHECIES OF CHRIST
We have looked at THE MAN, in the first part of this sermon on Isaiah, but now let’s look at-
II. THE MESSAGE
Look especially at the message of the Messiah that was to come 700 years later.
The Old Testament is full of “Types and Shadows” of what was to come in the New Testament. These “Types and Shadows” were meant to prepare us for the reality that would come in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Illus: Have you ever bought something by mail? Perhaps you bought something out of a magazine and you had a description of the product, but you could not hold it or touch it! You decide to buy it under those conditions, and one day the UPS man delivers the product. You open the package and now you can actually see the product and hold it in your hands.
In the Old Testament, we get to see the picture and description of the coming Redeemer. In the New Testament they actually got a chance to see Him and touch Him. Let’s look at-
A. HIS APPEARANCE
Illus: Through the ages, artists have been painting pictures of Christ, but yet no artist really knows what He looks like.
Isaiah never saw Him personally, but yet 700 years before He came, God showed him what He would look like. He gives us a very vivid picture of the Redeemer that was to come.
Look at Isa. 53:2-3, “For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
In other words, the Lord was not known as a handsome young man that folks would look at and say, “Wow!”
God’s Word says, “…there is no beauty that we should desire him….”
Listen, there are a lot of folks today that are successful only because:
• They have the looks
• They have the voice
• They have the personality
• They have the hair
• They have the affluent family
• They have the wealth
And if it were not for these things, you and I would have never heard of them.
The Lord was not great because of these things, He was great BECAUSE HE WAS WHO HE WAS!
We tend to put a lot of importance on physical appearance. But when God “put on flesh” and came to earth as a man, He did not choose to come as one of the “beautiful people.”
Jesus was evidently an ordinary, average-looking person. And yet, all through scripture you find people are drawn to him. The attractiveness and power of Jesus did not come from outward strength or beauty.
B. HIS LIFE
700 years before Christ came, Isaiah prophesied.
• In Isaiah 7:14, we read that He would be born of a virgin. “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
• In Isaiah 9:6-7, we read of His life. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.”
• In Isaiah 14:23, we learn that Babylon would become a swampland. “I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts.”
• In Isaiah 35:4-6, we see His many miracles. “Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.”
• In Isaiah 45:1, we see the deliverance of the Jews by Cyrus. “Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut.”
• In Isaiah 49:6, we learn that God's salvation would reach the ends of the earth. “And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”
• In Isaiah 49:13-17, we see that God will never forget the children of Israel. “Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted. But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. Thy children shall make haste; thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee.”
• In Isaiah 50:6, we see Jesus would be spat upon and beaten. “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.”
• In Isaiah 53:1-3, we see the Messiah would be rejected. “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
• In Isaiah 53:7, we see God's servant would be silent before his accusers. “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.”
• In Isaiah 53:9, we see God's servant would be buried in a rich man's tomb. “And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.”
• In Isaiah 53:12, we see God's servant would be numbered with the transgressors. “Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
• In Isaiah 61:1-2, Isaiah foreshadows the ministry of Jesus. “The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn.”
• In Isaiah 66:22, we see God would preserve the people of Israel. “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain.”
Isaiah said all this and much more about the Lord. He also shows us something else about Christ.
C. HIS PERSONALITY
Jesus was a man of astounding magnetism and power. But his attractiveness did not come from physical beauty. We are told there are three types of personalities:
• Introvert - Generally considered to be a shy person.
• Extrovert – A person who is friendly and outgoing
• Ambivert - Someone who is both extroverted and introverted
The Lord Jesus probably would fall into the category of being an ambivert. His authority did not come from a forceful, assertive personality.
Look at Isaiah 42:1-3, we read, "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.”
Yet He is such a strong personality, He will be able to bring justice to the nations WITHOUT EVEN RAISING HIS VOICE. How unexpected and astounding; that the King of the Universe would come so quietly.
When ALMIGHTY GOD came to earth, He lived with such gentleness that Isa. 42:3 said that he wouldn’t break a bruised reed or snuff out a smoldering wick. No wonder crowds followed him.
This gentle Messiah was entirely approachable.
• Little children ran to him
• The outcasts, the lame, the sick, all flocked to him
And when they came, He ministered to them.
D. HIS MINISTRY
Isa. 42:7, tells us the Messiah will come, “To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.”
Here the Messiah is speaking in first person through the prophet Isaiah. Jesus spoke with wisdom that came straight from His Father, the Sovereign LORD.
He also predicted that his teaching ministry would be unparalleled.
Look in Isa. 50:4, we read, “The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.”
Jesus said, in John 14:10, “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”
E. HIS SERVANTHOOD
The Jews had a difficult time accepting the Lord Jesus as the Messiah, because they could not understand the two-fold prophecy of Christ’s coming.
• One part of prophecy tells how He must come and suffer and die for our sins.
• The second part of prophecy tells how He will become our resurrected Savior who one day will rule and reign over the nations.
They were looking for a heroic Messiah that would deliver them from their afflictions, not a MESSIAH that would come as a servant.
Their understanding came from one of the earliest messianic prophecies in the Holy Bible, found in Deuteronomy 18:18. “I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.”
Since MOSES was a DELIVERING PROPHET that had DELIVERED the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt, then it stood to reason that the Messiah, who would be a Prophet LIKE UNTO MOSES, would also be a delivering Messiah.
He was the SUFFERING SERVANT OF GOD.
F. HIS EXALTATION
Look at Isa. 53:13, we read, “See, my servant will prosper; he will be highly exalted.”
In Phil. 2:5-7, we read, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:”
The Holy Bible is teaching us that Jesus is CO-ETERNAL AND CO-EQUAL WITH GOD THE FATHER ... from the beginning.
• John 1:1 clearly declares: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
• John’s 1:14 declares: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
The Son of God emptied Himself of every Divine privilege to become a servant...JUST AS ISAIAH HAD PROPHESIED.
G. HIS NAME
Phil. 2:9, says, “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,”
HOW DID GOD EXALT HIM?
• God did not allow Jesus to remain in the grave
Psa. 16:10, “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”
The mighty God Himself has declared Jesus to be the Son of God...and, He did that by raising Jesus from the dead!
• God has given Him a name of POWER and AUTHORITY
Phil. 2:10-11 says, “...that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
This means that …
• Every Prophet, whether a FALSE PROPHET or a TRUE PROPHET, will one day bow the knee at the name of Jesus
• Every RELIGIOUS, CIVIL, and GOVERNMENT LEADER will one day bow to the name of JESUS
• Every DEMON, EVERY SPIRIT, EVERY ANGEL, will bow
• EVERY MAN, EVERY WOMAN, EVERY BOY, and EVERY GIRL will one day bow to the name of Jesus
WHY? Because GOD HAS HIGHLY EXALTED HIM!
Conclusion:
In the Book of Isaiah, we have looked at:
I. THE MAN (1 of 2)
II. THE MESSAGE (2 of 2)
