Isaiah
The Book of Isaiah
Although this book has traditionally been thought to be the work of a single prophet, scholars now believe the Book of Isaiah is an anthology of prophetic literature. Many scholars divide the book into three different parts, each representing a different historical period and a different author.
1. Chapters 1-39 are called First Isaiah. This section contains oracles by Isaiah of Jerusalem, the prophet for whom the entire book is named. Isaiah was active between 742-701 B.C.E. During this time, Assyria destroyed Israel and much of Judah as well. Many of the oracles and prophesies in this section focus on doom and destruction.
2. Chapters 40-55 are called Second Isaiah. The prophet is never identified by name after Chapter 39. In this section, the time of judgment is past, and the prophet utters words of comfort and encouragement to a community exiled in Babylon and about to be released by Cyrus of Persia. The book's abrupt change from the Assyrian crisis to the Babylonian captivity and from oracles of doom to oracles of hope, as well as differences in literary style, vocabulary, and theology, indicate a change of author.
3. Chapters 56-66 are called Third Isaiah. This section includes various types of oracles. These oracles come from an anonymous prophet who lived in Judah after the exiles' return from Babylon.
First Isaiah
Scholars have related First Isaiah to three principal crises of Isaiah's lifetime:
1. the Syro-Ephraimite War; also known as the Syria-Israel Crisis (735-734 B.C.E.)
2. King Hezekiah's temptation to ally Judah with Egypt around 711 B.C.E.
3. The Assyrian invasion of Judah in 701 B.C.E.
Isaiah’s prophecy had four distinct ideas:
1. The holiness of God.
2. A quiet, confident faith.
3. A righteous remnant.
4. The Messiah.
Isaiah's basic message was:
If Judah's leaders persist in exploiting the poor and governing unjustly, they are doomed. However, if they obey Yahweh by placing human welfare above profit they will prosper. The quality of Judah's future depends upon the ruling classes' willingness to show compassion and practice social justice.
Isaiah's Call
In Chapter 6, Isaiah recounts a mystical experience in the Jerusalem Temple.
Isaiah experienced a vision of Yahweh surrounded by myriads of seraphim, each equipped with three sets of wings. Overwhelmed by the seraphim's praise of God's holiness and an awareness of his own imperfection, Isaiah feels his lips symbolically cleansed by a burning coal, and he volunteers to carry Yahweh's words to Judah. God says “Who shall I send and who will go for us?” Isaiah responds “Here I am Lord; send me.”
Judah's Destiny
According to Isaiah, Judah's destiny is not fixed because, if the people change their behavior, God is willing to forgive the wrong-doers. Even though their "sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow" (1:18).
The Syro-Ephraimite Crisis
This is also called the Syria-Israel Crisis. Syria and Israel formed a coalition to resist Assyrian expansion into the area. The kings of Syria and Israel tried to force King Ahaz of Judah to join their alliance. Isaiah counseled Ahaz to rely on God to deliver the holy city (Ch. 7). Ignoring Isaiah's advice, Ahaz negotiated with Assyria. This saved Judah from the Syria-Israel coalition. However, in the end, Judah was forced to pay a substantial tribute to the Assyrians, thus making Judah subservient to Assyria. Isaiah regarded Ahaz's compromise as a betrayal of Yahweh. Isaiah announces that Assyria will soon become the "rod" of God's anger to punish Judah for the king's lack of faith (7:18-25; 10:5-6, 28-32).
As a pledge that Yahweh would rescue his people from this crisis with Syria and Israel, Isaiah stated that a young woman, perhaps Ahaz's wife, would conceive and bear a son, whose name would be Emmanuel. This name signified that Yahweh was present to protect his people (7:13-15). Emmanuel means "God (El) is with us". The heir born to Ahaz and his queen was Hezekiah.
Hezekiah's Alliance with Egypt
In 711 B.C.E., the Assyrians attacked the city of Ashdod, which bordered on Judah's southwest frontier. This time Egypt attempted to form a defensive alliance of Canaanite states to protect its own boundaries. In order to dissuade King Hezekiah from involving Judah in this coalition, Isaiah paraded naked through the streets of Jerusalem for three years. He wanted to graphically illustrate the public humiliations of defeat and slavery that would result from relying on Egypt instead of Yahweh to save them from the Assyrians (Chapter 20).
Hezekiah took Isaiah's advice and did not commit himself to Egypt. Isaiah said depending on this unreliable nation was equivalent to leaning on a broken reed that pierces the hand of one who grasps it (36:6). A decade later Hezekiah did join Egypt in an anti-Assyrian treaty. This "unholy" alliance elicited some of Isaiah's harshest condemnations of Judah's king.
Second Isaiah
The Second Isaiah was among the exiles, as was Ezekiel. He obviously was an admirer of and probably considered himself a disciple of Isaiah of Jerusalem, even though one hundred years separated them. Deutero-Isaiah brought a message of hope and consolation to his fellow exiles during the last years of the Babylonian captivity. This is circa 540 B.C.E.
Announcing that Judah's time of punishment is fulfilled, Deutero-Isaiah proclaims not only that the Lord has fully pardoned his people but also is granting them freedom, guiding them on a "new exodus" out of Babylon and back to the Promised Land. From this point forward, all references to the Near Eastern political scene concern Assyria's successor, Babylon, and the rise of a new dominant power, that of the Medes and Persians.
Deutero-Isaiah was urging the dispirited exiles to see these international developments as evidence of God's hand at work. God's agent in delivering the exiles is Cyrus the Great, king of Persia. Although Cyrus does not "know" the Lord of the Jews, the Persian leader is nonetheless God's instrument of change.
Because he refers to Babylon's fall to Cyrus as imminent but not yet accomplished, Second Isaiah's oracles were probably delivered shortly before 539 B.C.E., when Cyrus captured the city of Babylon. A year after Cyrus took Babylon, the prophet's optimistic view of him as a liberator was vindicated. The Persian king implemented a policy that encouraged all groups who had been deported to Babylon to return to their respective homelands.
The Book
The book, in reality, is not a separate book as the Old Testament now stands; it is Chapters 40 to 66 of the Book of Isaiah. It falls naturally into two parts:
1. Chapters 40 to 55 -- This part was set in Babylon.
2. Chapters 56 to 66 -- This second part seems to be set in the restored community of Jerusalem.
Key sections of Second Isaiah
1. Isaiah 40:12-32
This is in praise of the Lord, the Creator. Read 40:25-31. There was no one to whom the LORD could be compared. His people, therefore, had no reason to question His concern for them. The message is that young children can reach their full potential ("mount up like eagles"); young people can still reach high goals ("run and not be weary"); and the elderly can still have a meaningful life ("walk and not faint").
2. Isaiah 55:8-9
3. The Servant Songs.
One of the unique features of Second Isaiah is the Servant Songs. There are four poems:
a. 42:1-4
b. 49:1-6
c. 50:4-11
d. 52:13-53:12
They are called the Servant Songs because they introduce a figure referred to as the LORD'S Servant. Each poem adds more information about the Servant, with the climax coming in 52:13 thru 53:12, where the Servant’s trial and death are described. The Suffering Servant is portrayed as one "despised and rejected of men: a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" (53:3, KJV).
a. The first Servant Song describes the servant's mission. The mission of the Servant is to "bring justice to the nations" (42:1).
b. The second Servant Song describes the Servant's responsibility in the world. Instead of being written in the third person, this poem was written in the first person. The Servant describes his call from God. One of the Servant's responsibilities is to bring Jacob and Israel back to the LORD.
The Servant was also given the responsibility of being "a light to the nations," so that the LORD'S salvation might "reach to the ends of the earth" (49:4-6).
c. The third Servant Song describes the Servant's submission to persecution. The Servant spoke of his God-given ability to comfort and encourage the weary and downtrodden. He was also open to the teaching that the LORD gave him day by day. But his work aroused opposition. He faced it with courage (50:4-5). With God's help, he had not been discouraged by the insults and persecution. He depended upon God. He urged all who feared God to keep up their courage. Those who were trying to plot against others would answer to the LORD in the end (50:10-11).
d. The fourth Servant Song describes the Servant's trial and death. With this poem, the Servant songs reach their climax.
In poem 1, the LORD was the speaker.
In poem 2, the Servant describes his call from the LORD.
In poem 3, the Servant talks of his initial suffering.
In poem 4 there are at least two different speakers, God and a narrator.
Important points of the Servant songs
1. The physical appearance of the Servant -- 52:13-15
2. The rejection of the Servant -- 53:1-3
He was hated and shunned, a lonely man who knew great sorrow.
3. The Servant suffering for others -- 52:4-6
The narrator described the Servant's suffering for "us." This kind of suffering, in which an innocent person suffers for another, is called "vicarious" suffering.
4. The death and burial of the Servant -- 53:7-9
The Servant offered no defense as he was unjustly condemned to death.
5. The vindication of the Servant -- 53:10-12
The Servant would see his reward because his action would lead to many being counted as righteous.
Because of the unselfish act he had done for others, the one who was despised and rejected would be classed with the great and the strong.
6. Who was the Servant?
a. Some identify the Servant in a group or collective sense. Both Jewish and non-Jewish interpreters argue for Israel as the Servant. But some see the reference to Israel as a whole. Others argue that the remnant (or ideal) Israel is meant.
b. Some identify the Servant as an individual. A number of historical persons have been suggested: Jeremiah, or King Jehoiachin, or even Moses. Some identify the Servant with an ideal person. Christian interpreters have looked upon the Servant as Jesus Christ. When one does this, however, one must realize that, as a Christian, he is looking back into the Servant songs through a Christian perspective.
A New Development
Many scholars think that this poem represents a new development in biblical attitudes toward the meaning of suffering. Traditionally, as in the Deuteronomistic History of Joshua through Kings, misery was regarded as God's punishment for sin.
In Second Isaiah, however, the afflicted person is guiltless and willingly takes the punishment for others' wrongdoing, graciously enduring pain on their behalf.
Second Isaiah sees the imminent return to Judea as a new exodus. The prophet defines the covenant community's new task as witnessing to God's incomparable majesty and purpose, bringing "light" to a dark world.
Disappointments in the Restored Community
The third section of the book of Isaiah covers chapters 56-66. Some see this as a third book with a different author, called Third Isaiah. Parts of this third section appear to depict conditions in postexilic Judah when the returned exiles confronted an unsatisfying reality of poverty and political helplessness. This reality was painfully different from the brilliant prospects that Second Isaiah had envisioned. The prophet denounces the restored community's lapses into idolatry, social injustice, religious apathy, and failure to keep the Sabbath properly.
Universal Salvation (56:1-8)
Particularism is the name given to a later movement in Judaism which rigidly held that the Jews were the only people of the LORD. However, this oracle extended the LORD'S salvation and deliverance to such outcasts as eunuchs and foreigners. The prophet showed a universal spirit. These foreigners and outcasts are to be integrated completely into Judah's religious life. These foreigners may have been Gentile converts to Judaism and fellow victims of Babylonian oppression, as well as other former citizens of Mesopotamia.
The book ends with an apocalyptic element. An ideal age with a new heaven and a new earth would come to be. Jerusalem and its inhabitants would prosper with long, good lives filled with prosperity and peace (65:17-25). Read 65:25. This promise of a renewed creation, would become an important eschatological hope of early Christianity. The penultimate chapter of the last book of the Christian Bible describes the still-future fulfillment of Third Isaiah's vision (Rev. 21:1-4).