F E AT U R E S
Book introductions
provide a “Storyline”
perspective on how
each book relates to
the rest of the Bible
ISAIAH
THOSE WHO HOPE IN THE LORD WILL RENEW THEIR STRENGTH.
THEY WILL SOAR ON WIN GS LIKE EAGLES; THEY WILL RUN AND
NOT GROW WEARY, THEY WILL WALK AND NOT BE FAINT.
ISAIAH 40:31
IN TROD UCTION
Isaiah was staggered by a vision of the Lord, who was sitting on His throne, with the train of His
robe filling the temple. Winged seraphim sang His praises; the foundations of the building trembled;
smoke was everywhere. No wonder Isaiah cried out, “Woe to me!” He knew that he was “a man
of unclean lips,” and that he was not fit to be in the presence of the holy God. But then and there,
God cleansed him and called him to be His spokesman (Isaiah 6:1–10).
B AC KG ROU N D
God called Isaiah around 740 BC, roughly 200 years after the twelve tribes were split into two
entities— Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Now the northern tribes were on the brink of
destruction for their sins at the hands of the Assyrian army. To the south in Jerusalem, the chief
city of the southern kingdom of Judah, Isaiah spoke words of warning to his northern neighbors,
and also to his countrymen— who would face their own destruction some 150 years later.
Scarcely anything is known of Isaiah’s personal life. The Bible simply says that he was the son
of Amoz and a family man (Isaiah 1:1; 7:3; 8:3,18). The essential thing to know is that he proclaimed
God’s full counsel in a time of national disintegration, and that he did so with courage and elo-
quence. He was present when God defended Jerusalem from the Assyrians by killing off their
mighty army before they could engage the city (see chapters 36 and 37). But Isaiah knew that
another enemy— Babylon to the east— would be God’s agent of punishment in the years ahead.
CON TEN T
Isaiah’s listeners may have enjoyed the first part of his prophecy beginning in chapter 13, for he
verbally circled the region around Jerusalem, declaring judgment on its neighbors— Babylon, As-
syria, Philistia, Moab, Syria, the northern tribes of Israel, Cush, Egypt, Arabia, and Tyre. But, in effect,
God was drawing the rings around Judah, which would prove to be the “bullseye” on His target.
Faced with external military threats, chiefly from Assyrians in the early going, the nation had
to answer the question, “Whom do we trust?” Would they make alliances with other countries
to secure their own future? Or would they trust in the Lord who had promised to deliver them?
In this connection, Isaiah was particularly scathing in his condemnation of attempts to get help
from the people’s former captors, the Egyptians (see chapters 30 and 31).
Chapters 40–55 move the reader to consider events that occurred over a century later, when
Babylon defeated Judah and carried many of its people into exile. With most of God’s people
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