Isaiah

The name “Isaiah” means “God is salvation”.  Isaiah was a court prophet during the late Judea Kingdom.  He announced the message of God’s judgment and salvation to the people of his contemporary time. 

Isaiah prophesied to a nation that had turned a deaf ear to the Lord in 739-681 BC. The nation of Judah turned their backs on God and indulged themselves in idolatry.  Instead of loving their neighbours, the nation was filled with injustice.  Under such circumstances, God spoke through Isaiah of His judgment and mercy, calling His people to return. 

The Book of Isaiah can be divided into two parts: Chapter 1-39 and Chapter 40-66. 

In the first part (Ch. 1-39), Isaiah declared the destiny of Jerusalem.  The city would be torn down by the enemy because of Israelites’ betrayal against God and injustice to their neighbors.  If Israelites did not repent, they would ultimately be defeated and lived a life of captivity. 

But that was not the end intended by God.  In Chapter 7-12, Isaiah prophesied that, through all the judgments, God would cleanse His people and would ultimately raise His own holy seed out of all the brokenness.  The Lord would still fulfill His promise to David.  It was at this point, the name “Emmanuel” appeared, which meant God be with His People always. 

With such hope in sight, Isaiah continued to call the Israelites to repent and turn back to God.  Together, they could look upon the New Jerusalem,  which was filled with God’s justice, peace, healing and love. Then we entered into the second part of the Book of Isaiah (Ch. 40-66). The key message was a message of hope and comfort. 

Some people questioned if Isaiah was the author of this section, as the prophet had died at least 150 years before Chapter 40-66 took place.  A more convincing and well-accepted theory was that Isaiah did write these messages.  He was believed to hand these messages to his disciple to keep as a proof in the future.  A few generations later, his disciples opened these messages.  Realizing the accuracy of the messages, they began to apply the teachings to their contemporary people.  Therefore, in the second part of the book, we are actually hearing both the voice of Isaiah and his disciples.

In this section, God has fulfilled His earlier promises and continued to call the Israelites to become His servants.  Unfortunately, the invitation was met with doubt and rejection.   Therefore, in Chapter 41-47, the Lord responded to Israelite’s accusation and reinstated Himself as the Lord of history. 

Facing the Israelites’ rejection, God began to do a new thing.  In Chapter 49, the prophet declared that the Lord would raise His servant to become the light of the nations and to bring God’s Kingdom into the world.  He was the holy seed, who became our scapegoat to pay the price of our sins.  Yet, this servant would come back to life, so that our relationship with God could be restored. 

Today, we know who is the Servant of God. The holy seed is Jesus, who came to die for us on the cross. He defeated death so that everyone of us has the opportunity to restore our relationship with God in eternity - the new heaven and new earth.