Isaiah 's Immanuel, Dr. Edward Hindson

Isaiah 58:6-14 is a very powerful passage. The first bible version that I read it in was the King James Version. That version didn't really make very much sense to me because of all the "thou's" and "thee's" and "thines". So then I looked it up again in the New Revised Standard Version. It was a lot clearer when I looked it up in that bible. There are a few similarities and differences from the different versions that I read. The two that stood out the most to me was the King James Version, and the New Revised Standard Version. The differences were like night and day. Probably because they were the first two that I read, and maybe because the King James Version, like I said earlier, has a lot of the "1800's language," like "thou"

Isaiah's commission begins with Isaiah protesting that he is not worthy to see the Lord. He recognizes that he has seen the Lord and worries about the consequences to him because of this sight. "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips,and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty" (Isaiah 6:5). Likewise, Jeremiah protests that he is not worthy after the Lord appoints him as a prophet. Jeremiah says, "Alas, Sovereign LORD," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am too young" (Jeremiah 1:6). These two quotes reveal that both Isaiah and Jeremiah did not believe that they were worthy of seeing the Lord and being His prophet.

The book of Isaiah has a lot of unique historical, social, and political factors to it. The prophet Isaiah prophesied during the reign of King Ahaz and Hezekiah (740-681 BC). Isaiah mainly worked during the reign of Hezekiah, However; his first narrative was under King Ahaz in 734-733 BC. In which, King Ahaz was dealing with crisis regarding foreign powers and was struggling on how to protect his people. One of main themes in the book of Isaiah is that not to trust in human power but instead one should trust in God. Isaiah prophesied under a very complicated social setting, Isaiah lived during a time of rapid corruption in the government of Israel. He preached that the government was not following God's covenant. He also preached to the people of Israel who rebelled against God’s covenant. The prophet Isaiah also guided the leaders of Israel during very tough political times.

“Amos is the third of the minor prophets. His name is usually taken to signify ‘Carrier’, but is better interpreted ‘Heavy’ or ‘Burden’, in allusion to the grievous message which he had to deliver.” Before he

Isaiah has never denied the sexual things he did to the victim in this case. He was able to fully describe what he was originally charged of as well as his conviction. He was able to fully describe how he chose his victim, how he groomed the victim, and the thinking errors he used to overcome all of the internal and external barriers to commit his sexual offense.

Before the Enlightenment people believed prophesying in the Bible was possible because of Divine intervention (Dillard). After the Enlightenment some began to believe that Isaiah was written by two or three different authors because the prophecies in it were fulfilled. They believed a later author came back to the book and wrote what occurred (Rochford). However, “Hebrew scholar Walter Kaiser states that roughly 27% of the Bible was predictive at the point it was written (Rochford).” To deny the legitimacy of Isaiah’s authorship would deny the validity of a significant portion of the rest of the Bible. The three main reasons scholars defend Isaiah’s authorship are because of it’s claim, New Testament citations, and themes and

A pre-critical, or traditional, understanding, still found in some conservative scholars. They keep the entire book of Isaiah connected to the prophet Isaiah of the eighth century B.C.E. There is nothing intrinsically impossible as the approach is ‘prophecy’. With the rise of ‘historical criticism’, such an approach has been commonly rejected in the interpretive world.

Some scholars feel that Isaiah 1-35 and Isaiah 40-66 must be works of different authors. The first part of Isaiah reveals a Messiah who is a mighty Ruler and King. The last part of Isaiah reveals a meek and lowly Messiah who is a suffering victim. This shift from “a mighty ruler” to “a suffering victim,” make some critics feel there are at least two authors to Isaiah. Other critics claim that certain portions of Isaiah 13:24-27 and certain verses in Isaiah 14 and 21 were also written by someone other than Isaiah. Therefore, according to

71Richard J. Clifford, Fair Spoken and Persuading : An Interpretation of Second Isaiah (New York: Paulist, 1984), 186. Cf. Goldingay, The Message of Isaiah 40-55, 537; F. Stummer, “Einige keilschriftliche Parallelen zu Jes. 40-66,” JBL 45 (1926): 188.

Isaiah’s advice to Ahaz in the Syro-Ephraimitic crisis was sound. Isaiah encouraged Ahaz to trust the Lord (Tullock & McEntire, 2012). Ahaz had been unsteady in his convictions to follow the Lord and also was afraid of the cruel plans of the Kings of Damascus and Israel (Tullock & McEntire, 2012). Isaiah’s advice would have brought Ahaz a new insight.

The prophet Isaiah and Ezekiel dining with the speaker, Blake. Blake is asking many unbelief questions such as “roundly assert that God spake” to the prophets. (5) In other terms, Blake position is a worldly board view of the prophets in the bible and doubts that people would misunderstand them. Isaiah states he didn’t physically see nor hear God, yet his faith, “my senses discover’d” Him in everything. Isaiah also says because that “voice of honest indignation” is God, I figured the honest indignation, to a high power or authority through judgment can discern actions or thoughts thus being honest is fair, that Isaiah does agree this kind of voice is God.

Within the second part of Isaiah in chapters, 40 through 66 is the Servant Songs, which we observed in four separate passages (Wilcox, 2014). These four passages contain poems portraying a servant who endures hardship in his following of God’s will for his life (Tullock, & McEntire, 2012). With each reference to the servant, we observe a progression from his purpose to the culmination of his service to God. The first reference in the second section of Isaiah is in Isaiah 42:1-4, and speak of the servant’s subtle yet determined task to impart God’s justice on the earth.

The book of Isaiah is a collection of many stories and writings from multiple authors. The book is commonly split into two parts (chapters 1-39 and chapters 40-66). It is a rough estimate that the book was written around the fifth and sixth century BC. It is a common misconception that the book Isaiah was written only by Isaiah but that has been argued by scholars. Many agree that it was multiple writers who contributed to the book of Isaiah. While reading this book many readers get confused because the chapters aren’t well organized. Many themes go into the book of Isaiah from many different perspectives.

|Yahweh more ably than any other biblical writer. As a writer, Isaiah without a peer among the Old Testament prophets. |

As we continue with Worship Lessons from the Old Testament we will dive into the book of Isaiah. Before I get into my main point, I wanted to give you a quick biography of the prophet Isaiah, since many of us, including myself, have at one time or another skimmed through this book. Who exactly was the prophet Isaiah?