We are going to the book of Isaiah. To begin a series through Isaiah. So we'll be going to Isaiah chapter number one. So this will be message number one in our series entitled, What Isaiah Saw. So we're going to start with just verse one as we look at an introduction and overview of the book of Isaiah. The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. So Isaiah is one of the longest books in the Bible. It is the second most quoted and referred to Old Testament book in the New Testament, and of course the first being the Psalms. But all major sections of this book are attributed to Isaiah in the New Testament. I think the prophet is mentioned by name over 20 times in the New Testament. as well. So in our English Bibles, and you may have a table of contents or something in the beginning that divides these books into categories, Isaiah is the first of the major prophets. And our Bibles are divided into the major prophets and the minor prophets. So the major prophets being Isaiah through Daniel. The minor prophets being Hosea through Malachi, and it just has to do with the length of the books that were written. It doesn't have anything to do with anything else as far as major and minor prophets are concerned. But the Hebrew Old Testament was collected into three collections of scrolls. The Law, the Prophets, and what was called the Writings. Now the Prophets were further divided into the Former Prophets and the Latter Prophets. The former prophets included the books that we know of as Judges 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings. And so prophets such as Elijah and Elisha would belong to this group. But it's also worth noting that none of the former prophets, those that are classified former prophets in Israel, none of the former prophets left any written prophecy. All of the written prophecies that we have comes from the latter prophets beginning with Isaiah. So those latter prophets include Isaiah through Malachi, and Lamentations was actually a part of the collection known as the Writings, though generally it's included in the major prophets in our English Bibles. And we've talked about this before in studying the Hebrew Old Testament and our English, which our English organization is mostly based on the Septuagint translation, but it's all the same material as what it was, but the books were arranged a little differently in the Hebrew Old Testament. So the latter prophets can then be further subdivided into three categories. You had those that were prior to the exile, the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon. You had those that were during the time of the exile, those 70 years of exile. And then those that were post-exile. So of those three categories, Those that were prior to the exile were Obadiah who prophesied to Edom, Jonah and Nahum who prophesied to Assyria, Amos and Hosea who prophesied to Israel, and those that prophesied to Judah were Zephaniah, Joel, Micah, Isaiah, Habakkuk and Jeremiah. And then during the time of the exile, you had the prophets to Judah, Ezekiel and Daniel. And then after the exile, you had the prophets to Judah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. Some commentators and scholars and such have referred to Isaiah as the Bible within the Bible because its scope, its scope of history, its scope of prophecy, its scope of theology, just the sheer amount of material and the type of material that's covered in this book makes Isaiah somewhat difficult to read, to study, and to preach. And some commentators refer to it as more of a prophetic encyclopedia, or even an anthology of prophecy, rather than a book. And there's good reason for that, because in Isaiah there's no narrative flow. It's not like reading You know, even the Pentateuch or some of the earlier books, the historical books and so on. And even among some of the other prophets. Some of the other prophets deal with usually one main event and everything is sort of centered around that. And Isaiah is not structured that way. And the book also includes pretty much every type of writing in Scripture can be found in the book of Isaiah. But there is sort of a rough chronological progression. in Isaiah. We can follow it this way, and this would be the line. Israel and Judah are guilty of covenant disobedience. There are Assyrian invasions. Ultimately, through the Assyrian invasions, the northern kingdom of Israel ends up captive and scattered. Judah is greatly threatened and seems to be on the verge of falling, but then Judah is delivered. And then comes... the prediction of the Babylonian invasion that is to come, and when Judah will fall and will go into captivity. And then the fall of the Babylonians, they're being conquered by the Medo-Persians, and Judah's exile, and all of that. Isaiah speaks of the suffering servant of Yahweh, the day of the Lord, the restoration of Israel, the Messianic kingdom, and the eternal ages. So you can tell it's quite a scope. But there is sort of a rough progression. But the problem is, as you read those things, they don't necessarily always appear in order and they don't always appear neatly divided or given transition marks and such so that you always know where you are. So it's sort of further complicated in Isaiah because there's a blending of immediate, things that are more immediate to Isaiah's time and those that he's prophesying to. There are things that are in the future that is nearer, that's closer. There are some things that he prophesies that later are fulfilled in within the book or within a short time after the book. And then there are things that go to the far future. And again, these things are not sort of neatly categorized as they oftentimes appear very, very close to one another. And one example would certainly be when Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth read from the Stroll of Isaiah, and he just stops mid-sentence. And if you read in Isaiah, it all just flows together, and yet Jesus clearly made a distinction, and a part of that he fulfilled during his incarnation, and the rest of that is going to be fulfilled at his second coming. But you read through Isaiah, and there's nothing there to indicate a break necessarily, it just all appears together. There are two different figures that Isaiah speaks of. There's this son of David, this Davidic Messiah that is very prevalent in the book, but then there's also this suffering servant. So you have this Davidic figure that is going to reign as a king. The government of the nations is going to be up on his shoulders. And then on the other hand you have this suffering servant who is going to suffer and be rejected and die and be resurrected. And one of the questions, and in fact, one of the typical objections that arise within Judaism pertaining to the book of Isaiah is that these are different figures. They can't be the same figure. And Isaiah doesn't alone in this book reconcile that tension, although it is reconciled, but not necessarily just in reading the book of Isaiah. And another thing to think about the book of Isaiah, though, is where would we be without it? Where would we be without it? This book has the most descriptive and extensive prophecies of the Messiah of any other single book. This book also has the most descriptive and extensive prophecies pertaining to the messianic kingdom of any other single book. And time after time, many of these references to Isaiah in the New Testament are things that were fulfilled in Jesus Christ when he came. So obviously, Isaiah is very crucial, central to Old Testament theology, but also to New Testament theology as well, that continuing revelation. It's almost like a center, a linchpin, as it were, that holds and binds the two together. So it is extremely important, all difficulties pertaining to it aside. Just to give sort of a quick breakdown of this book and there There are some pretty well general agreed that you could divide the book into two halves Chapters 1 to 39 and in chapters 40 to 66 and then that's pretty common And there's good reason for that when you're dealing with this much material There's obviously a number of ways that it can be broken down, but this is sort of what I'll be following so in chapters 1 to 6 These first six chapters really give us something of an introduction to the book itself. It's sort of like a prologue that's leading to the rest of it, and these are oracles of judgment against Israel, and they culminate in the call of Isaiah in chapter 6. Verses 7 to 12 is oftentimes referred to as the book of Emmanuel, because those key prophecies pertaining to the coming of the Messiah. in that part of the book, his Davidic ancestry, his being born of a virgin, all of these sort of things that are found there. Chapters 13 to 23. are woes to the nations, these nations that are around Israel and Judah. And so you just get chapter after chapter of condemnation and judgment that is pronounced on all of these various nations. Chapters 24 to 27 deal more specifically on God's victory, His judgment as overcoming His his enemies. Chapters 28 to 35 is where we get many warnings for trusting in nations rather than in God. And if you would want to pinpoint sort of a central issue in Isaiah, and it's somewhat challenging, but if you wanted to pinpoint a central issue in Isaiah, it would be that issue. Is Israel, is Judah going to trust in God, or are they going to trust in the nations and the gods of the nations? And Isaiah also contains one of the lengthiest, most extensive denunciation of idols and exaltation of the sovereign supremacy of God of any single book. chapters 36 to 39, and this is where you get a difference, you get a shift, because in chapters 36 to 39, Isaiah gives us historical narrative. It's the account of the invasion by the Assyrians of Jerusalem, and during Hezekiah's day, and the deliverance of Judah, when it seems like Judah is about to fall, but God delivers them, and so that's historical narrative there in the midst of this book. And then chapters 40 to 48 is where we get the words from the prophet, from God, for comfort for God's nation. And that's also where we get that section with those wondrous denunciations of idolatry and exaltation of the sovereignty of God. Chapters 49 to 55, These are the chapters of the suffering servant of Yahweh that speaks of his various sufferings and afflictions, his rejection by the nation, his death and his resurrection, that great chapter 53 that's right in the midst of those chapters. And then in chapters 56 to 66, the end of the book is where we get the deliverance. And so you've had all of these chapters pronouncing judgment after judgment after judgment. Of course, mingled in there has also been prophecies about this restoration, but we get this deliverance and actually the redemption of creation, and we get that view by the end of the book of Isaiah. And there have been some that have sort of pointed out how that Isaiah roughly follows Genesis to Revelation, and that's one of the reasons why it's referred to as the Bible within the Bible, and there's something to that, but we don't want to observe that too strictly, but nevertheless. So that is the outline of the book that we will follow. So let's begin to look here and just learn a little bit about Isaiah here from verse number one. The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Now the word for vision that is used here is an important word in the Old Testament. The word itself literally means a sight. The sight that Isaiah saw is essentially what it says. Now, there are no uses of this term prior to 1 Samuel. So 1 Samuel, as far as if you're looking at sort of the progression of the books, 1 Samuel is the first place that this word is even used. The most uses of this word, unsurprisingly, is in the books of the prophets. But through usage in the Old Testament, this word for vision referred to a means of divine revelation. And in sort of more general terms, just divine revelation. The fact that God has given revelation to this prophet. And so here it stands sort of as a title for the book of Isaiah, the vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, essentially gives a title to this book. the book of Isaiah as the message from the Lord that Isaiah received. Now, so immediately we can, and we'll look at some of the aspects of the setting, the social circumstance and situation culturally in Isaiah's day, and we'll see a lot of that unfold as we go through the book. But we should immediately take note that what we read here are not called Isaiah's thoughts and opinions about the ills of the day. I imagine he probably had those, but what Isaiah has given us here is the vision that he saw. This is from the Lord, in other words. Isaiah is called a seer in chapter 30 and verse number 10. One of those words, not the most common word used for the prophets, but one of those words used for the prophets. And a seer essentially was one that had sights, had vision, had revelation from God. And so Isaiah received the word of God in a few different ways in this book. A vision, obviously a literal vision. We read about one in chapter number six. In chapter 22 and verse number 14, there's reference to God speaking to him. Now whether that was speaking to him through a dream or through a vision or just simply through an audible voice, I mean, we're not told, but God speaking to him to give him revelation. And also one other way in chapter eight and verse number 11, God gave him revelation, he says, with a strong hand, which is an unusual way or method of revelation, but what it refers to is of Isaiah being empowered and compelled. He is sent, you might say, with this Word. It's almost as if you could say He can't resist this Word. God has given Him this Word and He has to deliver it. So he also communicated revelation, he received it in different ways, and he also communicated it in different ways. So in Isaiah's ministry, we will certainly find prophetic preaching and teaching. In Isaiah's ministry, we will find Isaiah involved in various symbolic acts, where he is acting out something in some way, that is communicating to them and also obviously in writing, the writing of placards as well as this written prophecy that we have as well. So when we think about Isaiah as a prophet and you think about the book of Isaiah, There are a number of remarkable prophecies in the book of Isaiah, those that have been historically attested and confirmed, and the date of Isaiah and the prophecies of Isaiah, there is much, much evidence, even externally, to the date of those things, and then historically of those things coming to pass. It's a remarkable book of prophecy in that regard. Now Isaiah is here identified as the son of Amoz, and really little is known about him or his family. So we're able to tell that he lived in and ministered in and around Jerusalem, And it seems that he had pretty free access to the kings of Judah. And we see four kings that are listed here. He had pretty free access, and so that's led many scholars to think that he probably was some sort of a family relation to the king, some sort of family, maybe distant cousin, something, you know, in some ways he's somewhat related to the Kings. He seemed to have pretty free access to them. We don't know that for certain, but we can see that that certainly was the case, that he had that access. There is a mention of his wife and the fact that he had at least two sons in chapter 7 and 8. We can also discern that Isaiah didn't seem to be an extremely popular prophet, though he did have a small group of followers according to chapter 8 and verse number 16. Isaiah's prophecy in his writing here certainly show the signs of a higher education. If you look at the vocabulary, his Hebrew vocabulary, there are 2,186 different words that are employed, which is a pretty big range of words in terms of vocabulary. So the second closest to that, and that is the most in the Old Testament, And the second closest to that is actually the Psalms. You probably wouldn't think that the Psalms would be less in range of vocabulary than Isaiah, but it actually is. It's about 2,170 words, so very close, but it is just slightly under. But if you compare him to probably the closest major prophets, which would be Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Jeremiah's vocabulary was 1,653 words and Ezekiel's was 1,535 words. much greater in the case of Isaiah than in the case of Jeremiah or Ezekiel. So he does show those signs, as well as he shows quite a bit of rhetorical skill. In other words, as a writer and as a communicator, he was able to employ a lot of different rhetorical tools. He uses metaphors, he uses proverbs, he uses rhymes, he uses irony, parables, poetic expression, historical narrative, and even sarcasm. He was prolific as a writer. He wrote biographies of King Uzziah. That is mentioned in 2 Chronicles 26, verse 22. He wrote a biography also of King Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles 32, verse number 32. So he was something of a scholar, we can certainly say. Now he prophesied during the reigns of these four kings of Judah that are mentioned here, Uzziah, Jopham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Now, the latter part of Uzziah's reign, and Uzziah reigned for 52 years, and when you get into studying the kings and their reigns, and sometimes there's some co-regency, it's referred to as, you have overlap sometimes of a king toward the end of his reign and the beginning of another. And so it's a little bit trickier than you would think it would be to actually nail down the length of these reigns and so on. But roughly, we know that he reigned for something like 52 years. And during Uzziah's reign over Judah, the nation prospered. And in fact, the prosperity can only be compared to that of Solomon, probably coming second only to Solomon in terms of prosperity. Judah became actually a very powerful nation under the reign of Uzziah. But during his time, particularly toward the latter part of his reign, was the rise of the nation of Assyria. And their very real threat to Israel and to Judah. And of course, Uzziah became lifted up in pride in his later years. He tried to take to himself the office of the priest, for which he was stricken with leprosy and ultimately died. You can read about that in 2 Chronicles 26 and 27. And then we have his son, Jotham, and he reigned for 16 years. It seems like most of that was actually, or at least some of that was co-regent with Uzziah. And during his reign, things pretty much remained the same for Judah, except Assyria was continuing to increase and and gain power. They were becoming the true world power at that time. And Judah was beginning to be threatened not only from Assyria and their rise but also from Israel and the alliance that Israel had made with Syria to try to fend off the Assyrian Empire. And then we have the reign of Ahaz. Ahaz reigned about 16 years And during Ahaz's reign, Judah rapidly increased in paganism and idolatry. And Ahaz refused the alliance with Israel and Syria, which he knew was just a thinly veiled effort to depose him. They wanted to remove Ahaz from the throne, they wanted to install their own king that they could control. Essentially they were trying to bring an end to the line of David. They were not successful in that, but they sought this alliance sort of as a guise and Ahaz refused that. But then he secretly was seeking alliance with Assyria whom they had felt some threat from. before, but this alliance, it did help them in terms of the threat from Israel and Syria, but it led to the adoption of many of the idolatries of the Assyrians within Judah. They worshiped Bel and Molech. Ahaz burned two of his sons at Hinnom. He replaced the altar at the temple with an altar to an Assyrian idol. He robbed the temple in order to pay tribute to the Assyrians and eventually closed the temple, declared the worship of Yahweh finished. Israel, of course, went on to be conquered by Assyria and dispersed among the nations. And then we get to the reign of Hezekiah. Hezekiah reigned for 29 years. Hezekiah was responsible for a lot of reforms and something of a revival within Judah. And this threat of invasion from the Assyrians as they'd grown so powerful by this time, this threat was so real and so impending on them that it actually forced them into tribute to Assyria. And eventually, Hezekiah refused that tribute, and that's what led to the invasion of Sennacherib against Jerusalem. And of course, Hezekiah refused those conditions of surrender. And God ended up destroying the Assyrian army and delivering Jerusalem and Judah. And then we have the reign of Manasseh that came afterward. And Isaiah lived, by all accounts, into the reign of Manasseh, though how long is uncertain. Manasseh was an extremely wicked king of Judah. Tradition holds that King Manasseh was the one that murdered Isaiah and actually had him sawn in two by his order. Again, that's a historical reference. We don't know that from the Bible, but it is thought to be the possible reference that the writer of Hebrews made in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 37 when he talked about those that had been sawn asunder or sawn in two. The historical tradition is that that did indeed happen to Isaiah. So Isaiah's ministry spanned quite a length of time, a number of different kings and situations within Judah and Israel. We can certainly account for over 40 years of Isaiah's prophetic ministry, and it's not hard to to imagine or to be able to conceive of possibly over 50 years of prophetic ministry that Isaiah was involved with before his death. And again, the Bible doesn't give us anything about the death of Isaiah, but there is historical tradition that he was indeed martyred at the hands of King Manasseh. So Isaiah, as a book, presents to us message of judgment but also of salvation and in fact it's I don't know what the percentages might be but as you read and study Isaiah it might seem about equal parts judgment and salvation though it sort of feels like the judgment is more prominent. He prophesied that Israel would be judged and be thoroughly judged and he uses a lot of different imagery and we'll see that in just easily beginning in the first chapter. That they would be judged but also that they would not be destroyed. A remnant would be preserved and ultimately restored in the land promised, exalted above the nations of the earth while the Davidic king reigns from Jerusalem. He prophesied of the Davidic Messiah and the suffering servant of Yahweh, that he'd be born of a virgin in chapter 7 and verse 14, that a forerunner would announce his way in chapter 40 and verse number 3, that he would become the cornerstone that God would use, chapter 28 and verse number 16, that he would arise from Galilee of the nations in chapter 9, verses 1 to 2. that he would be of the root of Jesse, chapter 11 and verse number 10, that he would suffer and be rejected and die and be resurrected in chapter number 53. And again, things written roughly 700 years before Jesus was born. So it might seem like that Isaiah is an old, old book far removed from us today. But in the midst of a world of turmoil and uncertainties, the primary message of Isaiah is really the same as it is today. Trust God and not men, not silver or gold, not in horses and chariots, not in nations and armies. That is the same message today. And so it should prompt us to think as we read these pronouncements of judgment, and we're going to get plenty of sort of denunciations of things going on within Israel and Judah. And it's easy sometimes to sit on the sideline as a spectator and just sort of give them a little tsk-tsk at all of their ways, but do we really think that we are so much better. It's a good time. It's a good cause of reflection. Where am I looking to? What am I looking? Whom am I trusting in, really, to save my life, to deliver me, to bring an answer to all the things that we see going on around us? And the prophets certainly give us that sort of reminder in the Old Testament. God is not unaware of what's going on, but he also is showing us through the prophet Isaiah, as well as through the others, what he's going to do about it. What he has done and is going to do. Isaiah prophesied to Judah and Israel, but he also spoke God's word to the nations, which should not be overlooked. Israel and Judah were guilty of sins of covenant disobedience, and that's going to come out very plainly in this book. The nations were guilty of sins, and they are condemned and promised judgment, but they were not parties of the old covenant. They were guilty of sins and their judgment is pronounced, but they are not accused of covenant disobedience that Israel and Judah were accused of because they were the nation that God chose and entered into that covenant with him as we spent time studying the old covenant recently. The judgments that are spoken of in this book, especially that of the day of the Lord, they are coming on all nations. It's not just Israel, not just Judah that are going to Suffer in this judgment. It is coming upon the world And so there is certainly much in the book of Isaiah. There is much that has been fulfilled to this point There's also a lot in Isaiah that is yet to be fulfilled Meaning that the book of Isaiah speaks as much to us today as it did when it was Written so it certainly is a book that should concern us and does speak to us you