Day 23 – Monday -- The Book of Isaiah

Day 23 – Monday

The Book of Isaiah

Isaiah spoke for God from 742 to 701 BCE (or perhaps a few years more). He was married and had children.

Legend has it (in the Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah) that Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh, killed Isaiah by having him sawed in half (see Heb. 11.37).

KEY DATES:
742-690 BCE – Isaiah prophecies (speaks for God) from Jerusalem/Judah.
722 BCE – Israel (northern kingdom) disappears. (Conquered by the Assyrians.)
586 BCE – Judah (southern kingdom) is conquered by the Babylonians, and the Jews are taken into exile in Babylon.


The Book of Isaiah is actually three books, only the first written by Isaiah:
• First Isaiah – Chapters 1-39 written by the prophet Isaiah during the 700s BCE.
• Second Isaiah (also called Deutero-Isaiah) – Chapters 40-55 – written toward the end of the Babylonian exile, perhaps around 540.
• Third Isaiah (also called Trito-Isaiah) – Chapters 56-66 – written after the exile, i.e., after 538.

ISAIAH 1.17 – seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. This is the meaning of “justice” in the Bible. It has nothing to do with seeking vengeance, or tit-for-tat. It is about helping the poor and powerless—orphans, widows, anyone who is oppressed or downtrodden.

ISAIAH 2.4 – God shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. God says, “I have a dream…” This is the vision of future peace.

ISAIAH 6.1-10 – The call of Isaiah. It gives us the shape of the Sunday Liturgy of the Word:

• The Call to Worship: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts (6.3).
• Prayer of Confession: I said, “Woe is me, I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips” (6.5).
• Declaration of Pardon: Now that this (fire) has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out (6.7).
• Sermon: Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” (6.8).
• Response: And I said, “Here am I; send me!” (6.8)
• The Charge: And he said, “Go and say to this people: Keep listening, but do not comprehend….” (6.9).



Many familiar texts are from First Isaiah, particularly those the Church uses during Christmas:

• Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow (1.18, KJV).

• Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (7.14, KJV).

• 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 (9.6-7, KJV).

• The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them (11.6, KJV). [Notice that it is not the lion and the lamb; that is nowhere in the Bible.]

First Isaiah is full of warnings against unethical behavior, alliances with foreign powers, the neglect of the poor, and the hypocrisy of worship when actions don’t follow. Isaiah was alive when the northern kingdom (Israel) was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BCE.



SECOND ISAIAH may be the pinnacle of theology in the Hebrew Scriptures. Of course you will find the source of some of Handel’s lyrics for The Messiah. A key feature of 2nd Isaiah is the Four Suffering Servant Songs:

• 42.1-4
• 49.1-6
• 50.4-9
• 52.13-53.12

The Suffering Servant described in these four songs is both the Jews and Christ. The Jewish people have suffered throughout history because of being God’s chosen people. The 20th century Holocaust was just the last in a long series of pogroms. Yet, the Jews continue to exist and bear witness to the ethical claims of the Creator on humanity. The Church has also identified the Suffering Servant as Jesus. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. After all, Jesus was a Jew. Christians see him as the embodiment and fulfillment of Israel. He suffering and died to bear witness to Israel’s God who is full of compassion and mercy.

He was despised and rejected by others;
    a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;
and as one from whom others hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him of no account.
Surely he has borne our infirmities
    and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken,
    struck down by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
    crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
    and by his bruises we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have all turned to our own way,
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
    and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.(Isa. 53.3-7)

A favorite name for God in 2nd Isaiah is the Holy One of Israel. The author tells the people who are still in exile that God is preparing a highway; that the Persian King Cyrus has been chosen by God to set them free; that the Lord is the only real God; that they are to be his witnesses; that God is doing a new thing; that they shall renew their strength and mount up with wings like eagles, run and not be weary, walk and not faint; God is like a woman in labor—in agony—until they are free; that God is their Mother who gave them birth as a people; that they are to be a light to the nations; that God can no more forget them than a mother can forget her nursing child; that God’s Word shall not return void.


THIRD ISAIAH is written after the people have returned to their homeland. This section of Isaiah has visions of a new heaven and a new earth; people will be happy; they will live long lives; they shall have their houses and gardens; (and again) the wolf and the lamb will feed together; God says, “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you”; those who were once excluded because of sexual aberrations will not be included; “my house shall be a house of prayer for all peoples.”

The whole Book of Isaiah contains many warnings and poetic descriptions of God’s judgment. But it is also a call to trust in God and indwell the vision of hope and peace. Indeed, Isaiah has been called the Fifth Gospel.

Finish this sentence: When I think of God being a comforting Mother to me,…