Isaiah was a remarkable prophet, perhaps the most important in the Old Testament. In the Hebrew canon Isaiah appears first among the “Latter Prophets,” a section that includes Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and “The Twelve” (the Minor Prophets).

New Testament authors quoted Isaiah more than any other prophet, directly 66 times and indirectly 130 times. His book continues to amaze Christians, even though Isaiah wrote it more than 700 years before Christ. As I wrote this article, the music and words of Handel’s Messiah reverberated in my head. Handel’s inspiration? Sixteen of Handel’s 52 pieces in Messiah were verses of Isaiah set to music.

Ministers may ask their church members to turn to Isaiah 7:14 for a sermon before Christmas: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel.” Who can forget glorious passages such as Isaiah 1:18 as God speaks through the prophet: “‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be as wool’”?

Consider Isaiah 40:8 and its emphasis on the endurance of the Word of God: “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” And let’s not forget Isaiah 40:31 and the encouragement it offers in these difficult economic times: “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.”

Scholars can clearly date Isaiah’s prophecies. He wrote in the first verse of his first chapter that he saw his vision “during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.” Uzziah ruled from 792-740 B.C. and the other three kings followed in succession until 687 B.C.

Chapter 6:1-13 reveals Isaiah’s divine call in 740 B.C. Isaiah saw a vision of the Lord in the year King Uzziah died. That led Isaiah to conviction (v. 5) and then to confession (v. 5). God cleansed him (vv. 6, 7), Isaiah made a commitment (v. 8), and God commissioned him (vv. 9-13). God still cleanses those who come to him with confession and humility.

True cleansing by the Lord always leads to service in his name. When God called Moses, he replied in effect, “Who, me?” When God called Jonah, he answered in effect, “Not me.” But Isaiah, fresh from confession and cleansing, volunteered “Here am I, send me” (6:8). God made plain to Isaiah that the task wouldn’t be easy, but Isaiah’s call was so clear that he continued his ministry at least 53 years.

The prophet Amos lived in the country. He formed figures of speech from field and flock. Isaiah, in contrast, was a man of the city. He developed references and imagery from city life. Tradition holds that his father Amoz was a brother to Amaziah. Since Amaziah’s son was King Uzziah, Isaiah was his first cousin. He had access to the kings.

Highly cultured, Isaiah used 2,186 different words in his book. Compare that to 1,535 in Ezekiel and 2,170 in the Psalms.

The court prophet began his ministry in a day of political and material prosperity but also a day of spiritual decline. He lived to see some of the judgments he predicted come true. Other nations plundered Judah’s wealth and left the people to lives of poverty. Isaiah spent three years walking barefoot on the streets of Jerusalem dressed only in a loincloth, like a slave, in order to demonstrate the coming conditions of captivity unless the people repented.

Strong tradition, including the Mishnah, part of the Jewish Talmud, contends wicked King Manasseh killed Isaiah. Justin Martyr tells how: he was sawn into pieces with a wooden saw.

Isaiah is a microcosm of the entire Bible. The Bible has 66 books and Isaiah has 66 chapters. The first 39 books of the Bible are the Old Testament and are characterized by law and judgment. The first 39 chapters of Isaiah speak mostly of judgment and fit well with the rest of the Old Testament.

The last 27 chapters of Isaiah, however, speak of mercy and the coming kingdom. These chapters correspond with the 27 books of the New Testament and could easily fit there. Some call Isaiah “the Gospel in the Old Testament” or “the fifth Gospel.”

Isaiah 11 is an important chapter in the judgment section of the prophet’s work. Christians can see in that chapter some prophecies about the second coming of Jesus.

We cannot leave the early section of Isaiah without considering two other passages. Chapter 12:2 has been a verse of promise for many of God’s people through the years: “Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.” The other passage is Isaiah 25:6-9, a foretelling of the Lord’s banquet table.

A major emphasis in this section is the prediction of exile due to the nation’s rebellion against God (39:5-7). In the first 39 chapters the exile had not yet come upon the people.

After the exile, Assyria, the enemy in the first 39 chapters, faded from the scene. Babylon and Cyrus (45:1), the Persian ruler, then came to power. The judgment of which Isaiah warned had come to pass (40:2) and Jerusalem was in ruins (44:26, 28). God had given Judah into Babylon’s hand (47:5, 6) to taste the wrath of God (51:17). The temple had been destroyed (63:18; 64:10, 11).

Chapters 1-39 of Isaiah are as different in tone from 40-66 as the Old Testament is from the New. Some scholars have attributed it to another writer. Some cannot conceive that Isaiah could have known the Babylonians would have overcome the Assyrians or that their province, Persia, would come to power and rule the empire. Some find it hard to believe Isaiah would have known the name of the Persian ruler, Cyrus, who lived more than 100 years after Isaiah.

Most conservative scholars, however, believe Isaiah wrote the entire book that bears his name. They cite the fact that the Septuagint, the ancient translation of the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek that dates before 200 B.C., includes the book as a whole.

Also, the Dead Sea Scrolls include an entire book of Isaiah without any differentiation between the first 39 chapters and those which follow. Furthermore, Isaiah’s uncommon title for God, the Holy One of Israel, occurs almost equally in the first part and in the second.

Is it hard to conceive that a prophet who was open to God’s revelation of the virgin birth (7:14) and the titles of the future Messiah (9:6, 7) could also receive from God clear details that would happen less than 200 years after his life?

Isaiah used several images: light and dark (5:20, 30; 9:2; 42:16; 50:10; 59:9; 60:1-3); blindness and deafness (6:10; 29:10, 18; 32:3; 42:7, 16-19; 43:8; 44:18; 56:10); people as fading flowers (1:30; 40:6, 7; 64:6); and God as potter with man as his vessel (29:16; 45:9; 64:8).

Isaiah often referred to a “remnant.” He named one of his sons Shearjashub, “a remnant will return.” After the prophesied exile came, a remnant would return to possess the land again. The term “remnant” was both positive and negative. Most of the people would be destroyed or never return from exile; however, a remnant would return. God’s judgment for sin is certain, but his mercy extends beyond his judgment.

Isaiah also stressed the sovereignty of God in history. In Isaiah 10 Assyria is only a rod in God’s hand. Likewise, God used Babylon in Isaiah 47. God controls history and sometimes uses the nations to accomplish his plan. Since God is sovereign, he is the true security. Safety does not lie in military alliances with other nations, but in faith in God (7:9; 28:16; 30:15).

The Suffering Servant is a common theme in the last section of Isaiah. At times the servant is a person like Cyrus (45:1). At other times Isaiah seems to have the nation Israel in mind. Still other times the Suffering Servant is clearly an individual whose characteristics are only met in our Lord Jesus. Isaiah 52:13–53:12 reads as if Isaiah had been standing at the foot of the cross describing our Lord in his sufferings on our behalf. No wonder some call Isaiah the “Old Testament Evangelist.” |L

The New Testament writers found numerous occasions where Isaiah’s predictions of the Suffering Servant were fulfilled in Jesus. Consider the prophecies from Isaiah 53: