Isaiah: Hope of Restoration

Introduction
• "Yahweh is salvation"...son of Amos...Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah...740BC...Assyrian campaign 701BC...Sennacherib...Manasseh not mentioned (1:1)
• Isaiah the person: Jerusalem...married to a prophetess (8:3)...two children...nobility? Why this book is important: We left off last year with Isaiah 9.
• References in the NT to Isaiah: Suffering Servant...Luke 4...Acts 8...Jesus quotes Is. 6
• Imagine the New Testament without Isaiah Isa 7, 9, 35, 40, 53, 51

I. Big Picture
• Where we left off...the North (Israel) deported (722 BC); The South's decline is slower...Hezekiah and Josiah...Babylon deports them 585 BC
• Isaiah is speaking to the Southern kingdom (Judah with Jerusalem as its capital, the temple).
• Isaiah covers three time periods
• Is. 1-39 Southern Kingdom, Jerusalem 740 - 700 BC (722BC North overtaken by Assyria and deported).
• Is. 40-55 Exile; living in Babylon 585 - 540 BC (Daniel, Esther)
• Is. 56-66 Return from exile 539BC (Ezra, Nehemiah)
• Creation/Fall/Redemption
• Creation: YHWH gives them their own land...light to the nations...God gave Israel kings...David and Solomon are long dead
• Fall: Kings trust themselves...the office of Prophet...conftonted all forms of idolatry...Isaiah 2...Israelites putting their hope in wrong things
• Redemption: Isaiah speaks of hope...not because peoples' worthiness...God's faithfulness...covenant...kingdom

II. Prophetic Hope for the Future
• Hope and Judgment constantly interplay; Is. 1 - 6 hope/judgment; Is. 7-39 judgment; but Is. 40-66 focuses on hope
• Zion...a king like David
A. God's purpose will prevail
Is. 36-39: Climax of this first section (trust the nations or YHWH)
• Judah tempted to disbelieve God's sovereignty...Assyrian commander is taunting them.
• Spring of 1942: What did the world look like? Isaiah speaks of hope amidst Assyrian threats, exiled in Babylon, returning to their delapidated city...God can be trusted.

B. New covenant, new kingdom
Is. 54 "covenant of peace" (v10)

C. Through a Messiah
Is. 7, 9, 11, 32-33, 42, 53
• the “Messianic” prophecies...birth of a child (7:14)...David’ royal throne (9:6–7)...“servant of the Lord” (42:1–4)...“suffering servant” (53:1–12).
• Hezekiah is clearly not the Messiah. It would a completely different kind of king.

D. Israel gathered and purified
Is. 1 & 49

E. Nations drawn to Israel
Is. 49
• Suffering Servant will draw the nations
• God is speaking about a deeper hope

Isaiah implores his people to trust not in themselves (nations, armies, storehouses, idols) but in God alone.
• Oswald Chambers quote

Conclusion:
NIV Application Commentary p. 43 "Isaiah's point seems to be that if there is to be hope for the nation, it is only through judgment." (43)
• Is there hope? There is when you have a covenant God, a King who redeems
• Vickie Ruvolo forgave

 

Questions related to the book of Isaiah:

1. Read Isaiah 1: After reading from Is.1, what does God want from his people? What of Gods characteristics are revealed here?
2. Read Isaiah 6: Identify the ways God engages with all 5 senses of Isaiah (seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching). What does this teach us about the way God desires to be active in our lives?
3. Read Is. 43:1-4a. What image of God do you see illustrated and revealed through this passage?
4. Read Is. 53:4-6 [cf. Rom. 4:25]. This passage points to Israel’s need for Christ and the
promise that he is coming. More than 2000 years have passed since the first coming of Christ.
How are these promises fulfilled through Christ still active in your life today?
5. Where do you recognize themes of Creation, Fall, Redemption and the Coming King in Isaiah? How are the ideas of covenant and kingdom present?
6. What are the various theories as to how and why Isaiah seem to speak to the audiences in three different time periods, two of which are beyond Isaiah's lifetime?
7. What would Scripture be like without the book of Isaiah?