Isaiah of Jerusalem

The first six chapters of Isaiah describe the moral climate of the nation, ending in Chapter 6 with the vision and call of Isaiah to prophesy -- or to describe current events in the light of God's perspective. 

The problem with hearing Scripture read only in church on Sunday is that we have no idea of "what is going on" around the texts we hear.  How many times have we heard the excerpt during Advent: "Ask the Lord your God for a sign....but Ahaz said, 'I will not ask....[Then] The Lord Himself will give you a sign: the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son...."

Of course, this is a beautiful prophecy of the virgin birth and of the Messiah.  But 700 years before Christ, the "sign" had another very powerful meaning.  Reading all of Chapter 7 will give us the background to Isaiah's prophecy.  Here is an abbreviated outline of the events of the day:

742:  Isaiah's vision inaugurated his prophecy (Is. 6)

735: Ahaz became king of Jerusalem/Judah (735-715)

734-732: Syrian-Israelite War against Judah: Isaiah's war memoirs (Is. 7-8)

721: The king of Assyria conquered Samaria/Israel, deporting its upper class and importing Assyrians into the land.

715-701: Oracles during the reign of Hezekiah (king of Judah) (Is. 28-32)

701: Sennacherib (king of Assyria) besieged Jerusalem unsuccessfully (Is. 36-39)

 

When Ahaz became king of Jerusalem/Judah, he sought Isaiah's advice about what he should do as Israel and Syria (Aram) were marching against Jerusalem to destroy it:  "The hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind."  The Lord's answer through Isaiah was this: 

 

Be careful, keep calm, and don't be afraid.  Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood......it will not take place, it will not happen...within sixty-five years Ephraim (Israel) will be too shattered to be a people....If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.

 

Isaiah instructed Ahaz to ask God for sign, but Ahaz would not do it.  So Isaiah himself gave God's sign:  Before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.  Ahaz' queen shortly afterwards gave birth to his son, Hezekiah. Because of Isaiah's prophecy, the people anticipated the royal birth with high expectation. This "sign" of a son "given to us" was intended to provide concrete evidence of God's continued protection, so that Ahaz would trust Yahweh rather than to act rashly in a political way to counter the Syrian-Israelite threat. 

 

Sure enough, in just a few years, the Assyrians had invaded and destroyed both Israel (in 721) and Syria (in 732).  They did not destroy Jerusalem at the time, because Ahaz paid tribute as a client state to Assyria, but later, Ahaz' son Hezekiah established alliances with Egypt and Babylon as a hedge against Assyria.  This rebellion caused Sennacherib, then king of Assyria, to attack Jerusalem in 701.  Before he was able to breach its walls, however, a mysterious illness decimated his troops and he had to withdraw back to his own land (chapters 36-37).  The text tells us that an angel of the Lord killed 185,000 troops besieging Jerusalem.

 

Isaiah continued to advise Hezekiah in loyal opposition to his foreign policies, warning the king that all of his alliances could only lead to disaster.  Yahweh continued to protect Jerusalem until after Hezekiah's death, but the seeds he had sown eventually bore fruit:  the end of the first book of Isaiah (chapter 39) contains a warning to Hezekiah:

 

...the days are coming when everything in your house and everything your ancestors have accumulated up until today will be carried to Babylon.  Nothing will remain (vv.5-6).

 

Hezekiah was not at all upset by the prophecy:  "The word of the Lord you have spoken is good," Hezekiah replied.  For he thought, "There will be peace and security in my lifetime."

 

And he was right; it was not until 587 that Jerusalem was finally overrun by the Babylonians (Nebuchadnezzar) and its people deported to exile in Babylon.  The second book of Isaiah was probably written or dictated by a prophet living in Babylon during the 6th c. BCE.  Scholars know virtually nothing about this prophet, not even his name, so they took to calling him "second Isaiah,"  Though nameless, this prophet is one of the most gifted and inspiring of all time.  He drew from Israel's historic faith and reapplied it to the new setting of exile, giving the people reason for hope.  His poetry is unparalleled and unlike the more narrative text of First Isaiah.  Tomorrow, we will look at the themes of Second Isaiah.