Isaiah: Introduction

I want you to image for a minute that you live in Jerusalem. The year is 701BC and Hezekiah is king of Judah. He’s a good king who’s made sweeping religious and social reforms:

• He reopened the temple during the first month of his reign
• He purified it from the idolatrous practices his father Ahaz introduced
• He re-instituted Passover and possibly other feasts in the Levitical calendar
• He raised a lot of money for repairs to the temple and support of the Levites
• He was one of the most prolific and innovative builders in Judah’s history

But there are problems with Assyria…

• A huge empire about 500 miles northeast of Jerusalem (think upstate New York from Muncie)
• Known cruelty to captives
• Began really aggressive empire building in 745BC under Tiglath-Pileser III
• It was a yearly ritual for the armies to go out and conquer more territory every spring
• Devastated the northern kingdom of Israel in 721BC, deporting or killing almost everyone
• 704BC – Sennacherib becomes king of Asseria
• Hezekiah withholds tribute – an act of open defiance
• Assyria marches out, destroying Tyre (think Chicago from Muncie) first
• They work their way down to Lachish (think Indianapolis), destroying every fortified city in Judah on the way. Capturing Lachish would have cut off help from Egypt.
• At some point Hezekiah sends a bunch of gold and silver as tribute, but either it didn’t satisfy Sennacherib, or Hezekiah changed his mind and decided to trust the Lord instead.
• Hezekiah fixes the walls of Jerusalem and gathers the people, rallying them to trust the Lord
• Eventually Sennacherib surrounds Jerusalem, besieging it

A good picture of this would be the siege of Gondor from Return of the King. Or imagine what it would have been like to live in Baghdad, knowing what happened in the first Gulf War, knowing that they are strong, more numerous, and more technologically advanced, but if the inviding nation were much more cruel than Saddam Hussein ever dreamed of being. That’s how it MIGHT have felt to live through the siege of Jerusalem in 701.

So at some point in this story, Isaiah stands up in a marketplace, or the city gates, or maybe even the temple and gives a speech. He tells them how God sees their predicament, the real reasons why they are where they are, and what the future holds for them…

Who was Isaiah son of Amoz?

• Long ministry during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, and probably Manasseh: two good kings, a bad one, a really good one, and a really, really bad one.
• Probably married with at least two children
• Probably had a group of disciples, maybe a “school of the prophets” like Elijah
• Probably from an aristocratic background; seemed to have easy access to kings
• Jewish tradition has him sawn in half by Manasseh (see Heb 11)

If the book were a movie:

• Ch. 1-5 would set the stage
• Then a flashback to the beginning: Isaiah’s call in ch. 6
• Ch. 6-39 tell all the backstory, getting us caught up to the scene at the beginning and finishing the story
• Ch. 40-66 would be a long, confusing-but-beautiful epilogue that would make much sense until the sequel comes out, but would introduce a new and enigmatic character and end on a hopeful, unfulfilling “To be continued…”

How do we interpret prophecy?

• Humbly and carefully
• Like someone doing shadow puppets with a flashlight, OT prophecy often has an immediate, concrete subject (like the hand) but is speaking poetically and typologically of something bigger (the shadow), which is God’s eternal kingdom.
• Because God’s kingdom touches this present age in many ways – Jesus’ life and death, the Church, my life and choices, etc. – it can often be applied in many different contexts (just look at how the NT writers used the OT).

Links

• The Taylor Prism - a picture of the Assyrian account of the siege of Jerusalem in 701 BC.
• The text of this account - Sennacherib speaks (kings were known to inflate their accounts)