Alright, so today we're going to do something that might be a little bit challenging. We're going to take 30 minutes and we're going to work our way through the book of Isaiah. So, Isaiah in one lesson. Okay, so before we get started with the lesson, a little bit of quiz time. Which of the, okay, first of all, who are the major prophets? Isaiah. And? Jeremiah. And? Ezekiel. Okay, and? Daniel. Alright. Of those four, which is the longest book? Isaiah. Isaiah. Why do you say Isaiah? How many chapters in Isaiah? Sixty-six. Sixty-six in Isaiah. How many in Jeremiah? Fifty-two. How many in Ezekiel? 48. So, on the surface, it does seem like Isaiah is the longest. But if you go by verse, then Jeremiah is the longest. And Ezekiel and Isaiah are just about the same size. So, Jeremiah is 1300 plus verses. Isaiah is like 1270. And Ezekiel is like 1240 or something like that. So you see, and Daniel of course is much smaller. Daniel is 13, I believe. All right, so you see Jeremiah is close to the largest, not quite the largest. It's 70 versus shy of the size of Jeremiah. So there's going to be lots to summarize, and as you try to summarize 66 chapters, almost 1,300 verses in a half hour, you're bound to not be able to cover everything. So just be ready for that. I'm not going to talk about all the individual passages. There's many beautiful passages in Isaiah that we could talk about, but we're not going to have time to do that today. So first we want to consider the historical setting of Isaiah. If we turn right to the beginning, Isaiah 1.1, It summarizes Isaiah's ministry as taking place during the reign of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Now if you turn to your timeline of redemption, the kings and prophets of Israel, this one that has the names of the individual kings on it. you will be able to see that even though Isaiah lists four kings at the beginning of his prophecy, that it's not as impressive as it might be. And the way you can see that is by looking at Uzziah's reign, or Azariah as he's also called. Azariah. Who remembers what happens to Azariah during his reign? Say that again? Yes, he becomes a leper. Do you remember how he becomes a leper? He offers incense in the temple, and the priest rebukes him, and he gets mad at the priest, and as soon as he gets mad at the priest, leprosy breaks out on his forehead, and he is quarantined for the rest of his life. And so then his son, Jotham, rules in his place, but Jotham dies before Uzziah is dead. And so then his grandson, Ahaz, takes his place, and Ahaz just barely survives Uzziah. So when it says that Isaiah prophesied during the reigns of Azariah, Jotham, and Ahaz, there's really quite a bit of overlap there. So really, primarily, he's prophesying during two segments of kings, and that's Uzziah and his son and grandson, but then also Hezekiah, who was a righteous king. Okay, so when we're trying to determine the timing for Isaiah, we have some guidelines that we can go from. So we have those rules, the mentioning of the different kings of Israel at that time. And we know that Hezekiah's reign ended in 699. So we know that he was around the 8th century. But also we can look in Isaiah 38, 38. And Isaiah 36 through 39, as we're going to see, is kind of a historical interlude in the midst of prophecy. And in the middle of that prophecy, in that historical interlude, you have the account of the death of Sennacherib. Sorry, it's Isaiah 37. Isaiah 37, verse 38. And it says there that Sennacherib, when he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch, his god Adrammelech and Sherezer, his sons struck him down with a sword and they escaped. Okay? Now from history, we know that that took place in 681 BC. So that would be after Hezekiah had died. So, does that mean that Isaiah got it wrong at the beginning of his book? No, it just means that the prophecies that Isaiah was recording, they took place during the rule of those four kings, but the historical interlude includes this death of Sennacherib. So we know that Isaiah was at least prophesying until 681, which is into Manasseh's reign, or he was at least alive during Manasseh's reign, but the bulk of his prophetic ministry took place during the rule of these four kings in Judah. Isaiah, he's prophet to which kingdom? Southern Kingdom. He's prophet to the Southern Kingdom. There are only two to the Northern Kingdom, Amos and Hosea, and we looked at those last time together. Hezekiah is king during the reign, sorry, Isaiah is king during the reign of Hezekiah. Now, again, you're on the same timeline with the different kings. What is significant when you look at Hezekiah's reign, specifically as it pertains to the northern kingdom? What can we see about what takes place in Hezekiah's reign? Yes, the Northern Kingdom goes into captivity during Hezekiah's reign. So the Northern Kingdom and the Northern Kingdom being carried off into exile by the Assyrians is a central historical context which you have to kind of know in order to make sense of Isaiah. You can understand the message of Isaiah without knowing the historical context. I'm not saying that, but it helps you to see where Isaiah is going in his prophecy. So, he's prophesying at a time where there's tremendous unrest in the Northern Kingdom, and the anxiety that Judah would face as a result of the anguish of the Northern Kingdom, you'd also see that in Judah, as they come face to face with the judgment of God against them for their sin. Now, in the past, we've kind of always done a context of the prophet. We've done some objections, if there are any, about the prophet, and then we've looked at the message. So, I want to talk a little bit about objections that might come when it comes to Isaiah. And Steve and I were already mentioning it before the supper started. The biggest objection to the book of Isaiah is whether or not Isaiah wrote the whole book. And so people try to come up with explanations as to why he would not have written the whole book. Now, we don't need to spend a whole lot of time on this, because in the final analysis, you're really dealing with the same problem that we've seen with any objection against God's Word, and that's the human mind setting itself in judgment over and against what God has said to be true in His Word. But I do think it's helpful to be familiar with the objections just so that if somebody, if you have some friend who's liberal-minded theologically, you're not going to be cut off guard by what he says. So, in the 18th century, so late 1700s, scholars began dividing Isaiah into two books. And so what they would do, they would take Isaiah 1 through 39, that they would call Proto-Isaiah. And they would take Isaiah 40 through 66, and that would be Deutero-Isaiah. So, 1st Isaiah and 2nd Isaiah. A little later, of course, if you, if you go down that road, A little later, Deutero-Isaiah got divided again. So then you had Proto-Deutero and Trito-Isaiah. So Isaiah was divided into three books. Now, many fancy arguments are made as to why this book should be divided in this way. But let me boil the essence of it down for you. The essence of the division is that Isaiah could never have written what he did about what would happen in the future, and so therefore these different sections must be written at different times. So Isaiah could not have written in the 8th century BC about Cyrus, the king of Persia, who would set the people of Israel free, and when did he do that? Anybody have a wild guess? Ballpark? 6th century, so the 530s. So Isaiah's writing at 700. Cyrus doesn't come into the picture until 530. And beyond that, the Persians were not even thought of as a power at that time. And so, the reasoning goes, well, he couldn't have known about Cyrus, so obviously that was written by somebody afterwards. Later on in the prophecy, also in chapters 46 and 47, in the second part, what would be considered Deutero-Isaiah, the main object of his prophecy is shifted. So the beginning is kind of the current scene. In 46 and 47, he's talking against Babylon. Well, Babylon, at the time of Isaiah's life, was a subjugated province of the Assyrian Empire. And so again, the thinking is, well, he couldn't possibly have even been able to anticipate that Babylon was going to be a world power. Now, here's the thing. They're right. Isaiah could not know about Cyrus, and he could not know about Babylon, But if God is speaking through Isaiah, it's not a problem, because God is the author of history. And so they make these arguments, they flesh it out with, well, it's a different style, he's using different words, all of these things, not necessitating a different author at all, but that's the foundation of their argument. And that's because at the base of the argument is the reality that they just don't like what Scripture says. And so it's man setting himself above God. So just by way of response, how do conservative scholars, Bible teachers respond to this kind of a division, artificial division imposed on the book of Isaiah? Well, first of all, you could say that there's not any warrant to suggest that kind of a division, right? The book is introduced in chapter one as the prophecy of Isaiah. And never anywhere in the book is it said that it's not Isaiah anymore. And so there's no real warrant for making that kind of a division other than, as I said before, a failure to trust God. And then the second thing is that script, beyond not having any warrant to say it should be divided, Scripture explicitly considers all the parts of Isaiah's prophecy to be written and declared by Isaiah. So let me give you some examples of that. I need some people to look some things up. So I need some people to be in Romans 9 and 10, and I need some people to be in Isaiah. Well, no, that's not true. Just stay in Romans, and I'll tell you where we are in Isaiah. You'll have to take my word for it. Okay, so let's look first at Romans 9.27. Who can read for us Isaiah 9.27? Emma, read it nice and loud for us, okay? Romans 9.27. For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay. Thank you. If I didn't say that verse, I was supposed to. Okay, so 9 verse 27 and 28. That, if you have a Bible with cross-reference in it, you can see that that's cited from Isaiah 10, verses 22 and 23. Isaiah 10 is, according to the critics, okay, we're going to play the game of the critics. According to the critics, what part of Isaiah are we in? Yeah, we're in Proto-Isaiah. Isaiah 10 is in Proto-Isaiah. Now, next, look at Romans 9, verse 29. Just a couple of sentences down. Who can read that one for us? Jackson? Okay, there, the Apostle Paul is quoting Isaiah again, and that's Isaiah 1 verse 9. Again, in proto-Isaiah. Both of those passages are attributed to Isaiah. Explicitly to Isaiah. Okay? Now let's look at Romans 10 verse 16. Just a couple of verses down again. Romans 10 verse 16 says, But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah says, Lord who has believed what he has heard from us. Does anybody recognize that passage from Isaiah? Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 would be, according to the critics, Deutero. Deutero or? No, it would be Deutero. It would always, it would still be Deutero. But who is it attributed to in Scripture? Isaiah. So it's attributed to Isaiah in Scripture. And then we see one more example, and you could look at other places as well, but Isaiah 10 verse 20. Isaiah is so bold as to say, I have been found by those who did not seek me. I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me. Again, if you have a cross-reference Bible, that's Isaiah 65 verse 1. That would be Trito, Isaiah. And it again says that Isaiah says this thing. So, in all three parts of Isaiah's... supposed divided prophecy, they're all attributed to Isaiah in Scripture. Now, if you're a critic, of course, that's not going to slow you down, because you don't believe the Bible's inerrant anyway, so it doesn't matter to you. But for those of us who value Scripture, and who treat it as the authoritative Word of God, you see that God, in His authority, declares that the book of Isaiah is a unified book. It's written by one person, even as it's introduced in the beginning. Okay? Any questions about the artificial division of Isaiah? Okay, good. So let's talk a little bit about the message of Isaiah. And we're going to have to go fairly quickly over this. And so we're not going to look, as I said before, at any specifics in terms of passages. Although there are, there's no shortage of beautiful passages that we could turn to. Isaiah 6, Isaiah 9, Isaiah 52 and 53, Isaiah 40. So many beautiful places where God's word is given through the lips of Isaiah. But we want to simply look at the basic building blocks of this passage and see the overall connection as we're working our... So that when you're working your way through the book, you have some kind of a framework as to where this should be placed. And I want to quote from an Old Testament introduction book. the basic idea behind Isaiah. Tremper Longman, who is not a, I wouldn't recommend him for everything, but in this particular case, I think he's right, says, Isaiah is not a theologian of the abstract. He applies his apprehension of God's nature and purpose to the practical issues confronting Israel. What's Mr. Longman saying? He's saying, Isaiah is a book that focuses on the sovereign work of God not only in the present circumstance of Israel, but also in the future redemption, the future restoration of Israel. Okay? So, it's going to blend, it's going to, it's going to blend focusing on the sovereign working of God during that time, with a trust, a full confidence in the future deliverance of the Messiah, which happens in the second part of the book. So, we can divide Isaiah into three basic sections. There is the Book of Judgment, Judgment. And that's 1 through 35. Then you have the historical narrative. In 36 to 39. And then you have a book of comfort. in chapters 40 to 66. So this is our basic structure. And what we want to see is that this deals with the present, this deals with the future, and this connects the two. Okay, so this is not, it's not like that Isaiah thought, oh man, I really want to get to 66 chapters, and I'm four chapters short. So why don't I put a historical account in there, in the middle of it, so I can get to the top. No, you have the Book of Judgment, you have the Book of Comfort, and the historical narrative in the middle connects them both. Okay, so the Book of Judgment, it contains several aspects. It contains a section of God's judgment over all the nations. So it's not the same as Nahum and Obadiah and Jonah. But it does speak to other nations. It speaks in the land of Israel, but it speaks to the judgment that God will bring to the other nations. And it includes all those nations that are being devoured by the Assyrian Empire at that time. So Assyria is the dominant nation. It's capturing kingdoms all over the place, and they're all being included in this narrative, or this prophecy of judgment that Isaiah gives. There's no question about it. It would be an artificial boundary to say that there's no comfort in the Book of Judgment. There are certainly passages where Isaiah speaks of the comfort that belongs to the people of Israel that will be theirs when the Messiah comes. But this section is primarily associated with the present. This is primarily associated with the present. And the present is associated with Assyria. Book of Judgment deals with judgment of all the nations, is rooted in what Isaiah's people are currently experiencing, and that's associated with Assyria. Now, the Book of Comfort is not the same thing as the Book of Judgment. The Book of Comfort includes a shift. The words in the Book of Comfort, those words are aimed more at the future. And because it's aimed at the future, It's going to be talking a lot about Babylon, even though that wasn't on anybody's radar screen at the time. That was what God knew already and he was making it clear to, through his prophet. And so we can see through this, in this book of Comfort, we see God addressing the future, which means restoration, but it's also significant for the church because it's describing the messianic age. Now how do you get from present to future? You get from present to future by looking at the transition that takes place in power. Now when the book, the historical narrative starts in Isaiah 36, where are we? What's going on in Isaiah 36? Steve. Sorry. Okay, beyond that even. There's something beyond that. There is definitely stuff going on in the Northern Kingdom. But where is Sennacherib? Yeah, he's outside Jerusalem. And he's invaded Jerusalem. He's besieged Jerusalem in which Hezekiah is the king. Okay? Now, you have all that, that same account is recorded also in 2 Kings, I think it is, or maybe it's 2 Chronicles, but that same account from Isaiah's prophecy is also in 2 Kings, shows how Hezekiah is delivered. Rapsaca, which is some kind of an official of the king of Assyria, he comes and he has this blasphemous letter where he says that the God of Israel isn't strong enough to deliver him. They go through this whole thing, they withdraw, they come back, and Hezekiah spreads the letter, before the Lord you remember, and then one day God sends his deliverance, and 185,000 Assyrian soldiers die in one day. And Sennacherib returns to Assyria, where he is murdered by his sons. Okay? So, what do we read about? Well, we read the demise of Assyria. But then, what do we read next? What's next in Isaiah, is it 39 or 38? What does Isaiah do next? Say that again? It talks about Babylon, what does he do with Babylon? So the next thing is Babylon, still an insignificant province, comes along and Hezekiah shows them all the treasuries. So Hezekiah is a moment of pride, right? He wants to show how rich he is. He shows it to Babylon and God says, because of your pride, Babylon one day is going to have all of your wealth. And so there's that transition where there's the book of judgment in the present, which works its way to the book of comfort in the future. But the historical narrative allows, well, allows. It's not like God needs permission to do it. But by using the book of narrative, God transitions from Assyria, the agent of judgment in the present, to Babylon, who will be judged by God at the return of Israel. And so there's that transition through the historical narrative. So it's not, hey, this is proto-Isaiah, and this is utero-Isaiah. It's all Isaiah, and Isaiah, by God's inspired Holy Spirit, is writing down a prophecy that deals not only with the present but also deals with the future and the deliverance and transitions from Assyria to Babylon. All right. Any questions? All right. Let's pray together.