CHRIST IN EVERY BOOK PROPHETS OBADIAH THROUGH ISAIAHCHRIST IN EVERY BOOK PROPHETS OBADIAH THROUGH ISAIAH
Augustine, in his interpretation of the Cana miracle where Jesus turned water into wine, wrote of the difference that Christ makes in understanding the OT: “Read all the prophetic books; and if Christ be not understood therein, what canst thou find so insipid and silly? Understand Christ in them [however], and what thou readest not only has a taste but even inebriates thee.”
—FREDERICK BRUNER1
THE OLD TESTAMENT PROPHETS
Some think of prophets as those who foretell the future, but that’s only part of what the biblical prophets do. They are primarily “forthtellers.” Think of them as preachers who have a direct line to God on certain matters, who communicate to the people on behalf of God, and who, in some cases, also engage in “foretelling.” The prophets’ primary task is to correct moral and religious abuses and to proclaim the great moral and religious truths flowing from God’s character that inhere in the foundation of His government.2
God called more people to serve as prophets than those who wrote books that made it into the Old Testament canon. Those who minister only through the spoken word are called oral prophets, and those who communicate both through preaching and as authors of Old Testament books are considered writing prophets.3 Elijah, Elisha, and the female prophetess Huldah are examples of oral prophets, while Isaiah and Malachi are writing prophets.
The prophets, as God’s mouthpieces, communicate messages to a disobedient Israel. Their messages include God’s holiness, the sin and disobedience of God’s people, calls to repentance, warnings of God’s impending judgment on the Israelites, warnings of His judgment on surrounding nations, the return of the people from captivity, the coming of the Messiah, the second coming of the Messiah, and others.4
We’ll mainly deal here with the sixteen writing prophets, how their ministries fit into Old Testament history, and how their writings point to Christ. There are sixteen writing prophets who authored the seventeen Old Testament prophetic books—Jeremiah is believed to have written both Jeremiah and Lamentations. (Some call Moses a writing prophet as well,5 but he wrote the first five books of the Bible, not any of the books classified as prophetic books.) These sixteen are categorized into the Major Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel) and the Minor Prophets (Obadiah, Joel, Jonah, Amos, Hosea, Micah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi). The Major Prophets aren’t designated as such because their ministries were more important, but because their books are longer than those of the Minor Prophets.6 The books of the Major Prophets each took an entire parchment roll, whereas the Minor ones fit together into only one—the Roll of the Twelve Prophets.7
Bible scholars classify the writing prophets, Major and Minor, according to two main criteria. The first is the biblical period during which they ministered. These divide into three periods:
1. The pre-exilic—this includes both those who ministered before the Assyrian captivity of the Northern Kingdom in 722 BC and those who ministered before the Babylonian captivity in 586 BC.
2. The exilic—those who ministered during the Babylonian exile.
3. The post-exilic—those who ministered during the people’s return to the land following the Babylonian exile.8
The pre-exilic prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah; the exilic prophets are Ezekiel and Daniel; and the post-exilic prophets are Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.9
The second criteria for classifying the writing prophets is based on whom the prophets primarily ministered to (mostly Israel or Judah, but some largely ministered to foreign nations, such as Obadiah’s ministry to Edom, and Jonah’s and Nahum’s ministries to the Assyrian capital of Nineveh).10
The dominant subject addressed by the Major and Minor Prophets is God’s dealings with the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of the Israelites—though the ministries to foreign nations are also important, for they show that God works among the Gentiles as well.11 The prophets frequently preach about the coming Messiah, both about His suffering (in His first coming) and His triumphant kingship in His second coming.12 “The preaching of the great prophets,” observes British Old Testament scholar R. E. Clements, “supplied a kind of God-given commentary on the events that took place: forewarning that they would happen, offering reasons why they must happen, and seeing in them the judgment of God upon a sinful people.” Along with these warnings, Clements writes, the prophets also “provided Israel and Judah with a message of hope, looking beyond the defeat and national humiliation to eventual renewal and restoration.”13
Grouped together, the seventeen prophetic books do not appear in strict chronological order in the Bible. For example, the Major Prophets appear first beginning with Isaiah, who wrote in the mid-eighth century BC, even though Obadiah, whose ministry was the first of the writing prophets, worked in the mid-ninth century BC. The following chart shows when and to whom the prophets ministered,14 though some dates are debated. After the chart, we’ll look at the prophetic books in their chronological order.
OBADIAH
Obadiah was probably written around 850–840 BC, but some scholars date it much later—in 586 BC—because it describes Edom’s attack on Jerusalem. Though it’s debated whether that attack occurred during the assault by the Philistines and Arabians on Jerusalem in 848–841 BC or during the attack by Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC, most scholars prefer the former date.15 This is one of the three prophetic books directed mostly to a foreign nation: Edom, a country south of Israel whose people descended from Jacob’s brother Esau and were a constant thorn in Israel’s side. Having denied Moses passage through their land (Num. 20:14–21), the Edomites opposed two of the three kings of the United Kingdom—Saul (1 Sam. 14:47) and Solomon (1 Kings 11:14–25)—as well as Judean kings Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. 20:22) and Jehoram (2 Chron. 21:8).16 Obadiah prophesies Edom’s destruction (Obad. 1:18) due to the violence it inflicted on Jerusalem and its arrogant gloating over the attack. This prophecy is dramatically fulfilled when the Edomites are removed from their land and subsequently disappear from history, with their land eventually becoming “a place of foreigners.”17
There are no direct, obvious messianic references in this book, but there are important prefigurings and connections. As a further outworking of the prophesied enmity between Edom and God’s people, Herod the Great, who rules Judea when Jesus is born and attempts to kill Him in His infancy, descends from the Edomites (Matt. 2:13).18
Obadiah also emphasizes the Lord’s judgment against Israel’s enemies (Obad. 15, 16), thereby anticipating the judgment that is to be administered by Christ, Who is the Savior of Israel (Obad. 17–20)19 and the One Who Possesses the kingdom (Obad. 21).20 Israel will eventually triumph through Christ.21
Furthermore, David Field points out that the first half of Obadiah prefigures Christ in that God’s nation is betrayed, mocked, and stripped of its possessions and dignity, then exiled and humiliated. Obadiah’s outrage at this injustice foreshadows our outrage as we see God’s Son on the cross. As the story unfolds, Field explains, “God’s own is delivered, restored, vindicated, set apart, given possession, triumph and rule, taking over the world under the kingship of God, surrounded by the mocking of those who should have known better, restored to enter the inheritance promised by God.” This pattern, he contends, points to “God’s own”—Jesus Christ.22 Similarly, Gary Staats observes that Edom represents all those who will fall under God’s judgment when Christ returns. He points to Jesus’ words, “I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matt. 25:40).23 Like Christ, the prophet Obadiah doesn’t avoid the world and its challenges. He is willing to get his hands dirty, plunging into the world to denounce the wickedness he witnesses.24
JOEL
Joel writes during the period of the Divided Kingdom to warn Judah of the “Day of the Lord” (1:15, 2:1, 11, 31, 3:14). Like the psalms discussed in the previous chapter, this prophecy has dual meanings that apply to the time of the writing and also to a future day of judgment.25 Though Joel initially invokes the “day of the Lord” to describe God’s judgment on Israel by a plague of locusts (1:15–2:11), he also refers to a final day of the Lord far into the future (2:31, 3:14–17).26 While there will be a future day of judgment for Israel’s enemies, the future day of the Lord will be a time of glorious blessing and prosperity for Israel (3:18–21). The phrase is also used by Amos and Zephaniah (Amos 5:18; Zeph. 1:7) and by New Testament writers, who speak of “the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 1:8; 2 Cor. 1:14) and “the day of God” (2 Peter 3:12; Rev. 16:14).
Furthermore, just before He ascends into heaven, Jesus assures His disciples He will send the Holy Spirit upon them (John 16:7–15; Acts 1:8). Joel had prophesied that Christ would return and pour out His Spirit on all flesh (Joel 2:28), gather and judge the nations (Joel 3:2, 12), and be a refuge to His people (Joel 3:16).27 While these events did occur at Pentecost during the early days of the Church as recorded in the Book of Acts, John Walvoord argues that the prophecy awaits complete fulfillment at Christ’s second coming.28
Joel also anticipates a gathering of all nations in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, where the Anointed One of God would judge them (Joel 3:2, 12). When the Old Testament addresses the subject of God’s judgment against sin, whether it’s speaking of individual or national sin, it’s usually foreshadowing the coming judgment of Christ. Christ’s judgment on that day will be unbearable except for those who have placed their faith in Him29—for with that promise of judgment is an assurance of grace. Peter, in his sermon at Pentecost, quotes the Book of Joel, concluding with, “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:17–21).
JONAH
Jonah also writes during the Divided Kingdom period, having been ordered by God to direct his message toward Israel’s enemy Assyria—though it’s also a message for Israel. G. Campbell Morgan notes that God’s commission to a foreign nation must have seemed odd to Jonah.30 He initially flees to the far-away city of Tarshish to avoid God’s command, but after God disciplines him, Jonah obediently travels to Nineveh and tells the Assyrians to repent or face God’s imminent judgment. When they believe the message and repent (Jonah 3:5), God spares them from disaster.
Curiously, this angers Jonah, who admits that he initially disobeyed God’s order to minister at Nineveh because he opposed God’s sparing of the Assyrians. God teaches Jonah a lesson by scorching a plant that is protecting him from the sun. When Jonah grieves for the plant, God rebukes him, saying, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” (Jonah 4:10–11). God is denouncing Jonah’s callousness about the damnation of hundreds of thousands of human beings God created while becoming heartbroken over the death of a plant that Jonah had not created.
Perhaps Jonah’s lack of compassion for his enemies is shown to highlight the stark contrast between his attitude and God’s love toward all His creatures. Though human beings are often slow to absolve their enemies, God is forgiving, and His forgiveness extends to the Gentiles. According to Scottish theologian George Adam Smith, “That God has granted to the Gentiles also repentance unto life is nowhere else in the Old Testament so vividly illustrated.”31 J. Sidlow Baxter suggests that the revelation of God in the closing three verses of Jonah “is perhaps the tenderest anticipation of John 3:16, and the parable of the prodigal son, and the world-embracing message of the Gospel, to be found anywhere in the Old Testament.”32 Scottish Presbyterian minister James Hastings adds, “Nowhere in pre-Christian literature can be found a broader, purer, loftier, tenderer conception of God than in this little anonymous Hebrew tract. [German theologian Carl Heinrich] Cornill describes it as ‘one of the deepest and grandest things ever written.’”33
Baxter notes that Jonah has to learn that God’s election of Israel doesn’t mean the rejection of other peoples—a point we’ve made repeatedly. “Israel,” writes Baxter, “had not been chosen simply for Israel’s own sake, but to fulfill a Divine purpose, the end of which was the blessing of all peoples.”34 Indeed, the Book of Jonah provides the first blueprint for foreign missions—some eight hundred years before the birth of Christ.35
This book includes the classic story of Jonah being swallowed by a fish and spending three days in its belly. Some treat the story as allegorical, but Jesus affirms it as historical (Matt. 12:40), even implying it is a prefiguring sign of His resurrection: “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12:40).
Perhaps it’s fitting that Jesus would give a sign to a hard-hearted audience not by unlocking the mystery for them then and there, but by hinting at something that most of them would understand only after He had arisen on the third day. That sign would wholly vindicate Him and His authority while repudiating theirs. We noted that sometimes the Old Testament prophets may not have fully understood the future implications of their prophecies, as part of the process of progressive revelation. But in this case, the One delivering the message is no ordinary prophet—it is the Son of God Himself. As such, He is undoubtedly aware of its full ramifications but, it seems, He doesn’t want to translate this sign right away.
Jesus also contrasts the Ninevites’ repentance in response to the preaching of a mere mortal, with the Pharisees and teachers of the Law who are rejecting One “greater than Jonah” (Matt. 12:41). Consider the gravity of this lesson. The Pharisees are of God’s chosen people yet they turn blind eyes and deaf ears to God in the flesh, while the Gentiles had embraced the message of a human messenger. “The Pharisees were Israelites, participants in the covenant God had made with that nation,” states Charles Price. “They had failed to recognize Christ, yet both Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria, and the Queen of Sheba who were outside of the covenant Israel enjoyed with God had recognized and responded to the truth.”36
The message of repentance and salvation through faith is universal: it applies to the Ninevites, to the Pharisees and Law teachers, and to the Gentiles and all nations (Jonah 2:9; John 14:6; Luke 2:32; Acts 9:15, 11:18; Gal. 2:2). In Romans, Paul asks, “Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith” (3:29–30).
This book is extraordinarily Christ-centered and forward looking, as Christ likens Jonah to Himself, cites Jonah’s experience as foreshadowing His culminating act of salvation in death and resurrection, and uses the story to point to the Gospel’s universal applicability to all who will place their faith in Him. It gives us a foretaste of the Great Commission wherein Jesus Christ commands His disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:18–20).
AMOS
Amos ministers around 760 BC, during the period of the Divided Kingdom when King Jeroboam II rules Israel. This is a time of prosperity and relative peace and political stability for both kingdoms. Trade routes traversing the area enrich many people,37 some of whom own winter and summer homes (Amos 3:15), expensive furniture, ivory beds, and luxurious couches (6:4). They drink wine by the bowlful and anoint themselves with the finest oils (6:6).
Instead of accepting their good fortune with humility and thanksgiving to God, the people congratulate themselves, exclaiming, “Have we not by our own strength captured Karnaim for ourselves?” (6:13). Soon the sins of idolatry, corruption, and greed proliferate, and the rich and powerful oppress the poor. The privileged people sell “the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals,” trampling “the head of the poor into the dust of the earth” and turning “aside the way of the afflicted” (2:6–7). They lose their souls in the process. Amos issues a stern warning first to other nations and then to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, predicting that God will use Assyria to punish the Hebrews for their sinfulness, pride, and complacency. “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria,” he declares (Amos 6:1).
The people dismiss Amos’ warnings, wrongly assuming their prosperity signifies God’s blessings—a mistake some Christians make to this day. Amos continues to warn of Israel’s imminent demise (5:2), invoking images of flight, ruin, death (2:13–16),38 and “wailing all around” (5:16–17) that stand in blunt contrast to their current condition. Christians should not assume the seeming harshness and finality of this message was rendered moot by the New Covenant, for the New Covenant avails us of nothing if we don’t appropriate its promised blessings. Indeed, the certainty of judgment is the very reason we need the Gospel. As Old Testament professor Robert Martin-Achard reminds us, “The Gospel does not in fact make us take his indictment and his verdict, pronounced twenty-eight centuries ago, any less seriously; on the contrary, it should show us its truth and its relevance for today.”39
Amos’ message is not entirely negative, however. He prophesies that the Messiah will come and that the true Israel of God will be restored and revived. “In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom. . . . I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel. . . . I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted” (Amos 9:11–15).40
The Book of Acts records that James quotes these verses in affirming that Amos rightly foretold that God would raise up and deliver His people in accordance with His covenant promises, including the land promise:41 “And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, ‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old’” (15:15–17). Clearly, the promise to “plant them on their land” reiterates the land promise first made to Abraham as part of the Abrahamic Covenant and later reaffirmed in the Palestinian Covenant.
The theme of the redemption of God’s remnant, as we’ve seen, is carried forward into the New Testament, where Paul writes, “And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: ‘Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved” (Romans 9:27). He adds, “So too at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. . . . And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob’; and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins’” (Romans 11:5, 26–27).
In the prophecies, Amos refers not only to the coming blessing of the remnant of God’s people, but of all the nations, which are to be beneficiaries of God’s covenant promises with Israel—for it is in the Promised Land, and through the Davidic line, that the Messiah will reign and bestow His blessings to all. “Though most of Amos’s prophecy is about God’s authority to judge an apathetic and ungrateful nation,” notes Kenneth Boa, “he ends his book with the promise that God will restore His people and raise up the ‘Tabernacle of David’ (Amos 9:11). This obviously refers to more than just the kingdom of David and the Temple his son Solomon built. It speaks of the fulfillment of the Davidic dynasty, which finds its focus in the Son of David—Jesus.”42 So despite God’s judgment on His people being forecast by Amos, an heir of David—Jesus Christ—would arrive someday to bless them and all the world and give them peace.43
Many believe that Amos 8:9—“I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight”—is a messianic prophecy about the crucifixion that is fulfilled in Matthew 27:45,44 and that it also prophesies Christ’s second coming (fulfilled in Matt. 24:29; Acts 2:20; Rev. 6:12). Shadows of Christ (Luke 4:18, 6:20, 7:22, 11:41, 14:13, 21, 18:22, 19:8, 21:2–3) can also be seen in Amos’ call on his people to be righteous and to care for the poor, themes likewise emphasized by Paul (1 Cor. 11:22) and James (James 1:27, 2:1–10, 5:1–6).
HOSEA
Hosea prophesies during the period of the Divided Kingdom in the latter years of Jeroboam II’s reign and, like Amos, he ministers primarily to Israel. This book focuses on one event: Hosea’s tragic marriage.45 When Hosea’s wife Gomer is unfaithful, he separates from her but later accepts her back. Many interpret the book as wholly allegorical because they doubt God would instruct Hosea to marry a woman who is or would become a prostitute (Hosea 1:2). But most conservative scholars believe in the book’s historicity, arguing that God uses Hosea’s painful experience to equip him for this particular ministry to the adulterous nation of Israel. Hosea can better understand Israel’s betrayal of God because of what he suffered with Gomer. When God tells Hosea to love Gomer despite her sin, he is made to understand, firsthand, God’s deep and abiding love for His people.46 Though Hosea is anguished by his wife’s betrayal, his love for her remains unshakable. Thus, the book’s overriding theme is God’s inexhaustible love for His people, even when they turn away from Him.47
The book vividly reminds us why God insisted His people remove the Canaanites completely from the land, lest they lure the Israelites into idolatry and debauchery. Israel disobeyed that command, and in the time of Hosea the Canaanites and their religion remain in the area. According to H. D. Beeby, this false religion insidiously intermixes with the Israelites’ true religion, yielding a “disastrous syncretistic mixture which threatened to distort and possibly engulf the faith once delivered to Moses.”48 The Hebrew faith having become so debased that it bears little resemblance to the true religion,49 God commissions Hosea to demand repentance.
Chapter 11 sets forth the book’s main theme: God has elected Israel and bestowed countless blessings on her, but “the more they were called, the more they went away: they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols” (11:1–2). Despite God’s loving-kindness, Israel turns further astray, leading to God’s just punishment. But God’s love endures and He would eventually save them—for it is precisely God’s unbounded love for His people that leads to His judgment, as He disciplines those He loves (Heb. 12:6; Prov. 3:12).
But it’s more than that. God doesn’t become angry with Israel’s apostasy because He is a jealous God Who demands full devotion for His own sake; it’s for their sake—and our sake—that He commands that they—and we—love Him and worship Him, the only true God, because we were created in His image for an intimate relationship with Him, which is impossible if we are “whoring” with false gods. John Peter Lange observes: “Love is indeed angry and most deeply so, but it is and remains nothing but love, for it is pained that it must be angry, and with all its wrath it can only aim to remove that which interrupts and prevents the display of itself to the object beloved, and must ever aim to secure salvation, reconciliation, and restoration, else it would itself stand in the way of realizing its object, and would thus contribute most surely to its own failure.”50
Duane A. Garrett, professor of Old Testament Interpretation, agrees that the Book of Hosea uses the metaphor of the unfaithful wife to depict the apostasy of Israel, but says that is only half the story. To be sure, Hosea has a wife, but he also has three children. Gomer, he says, represents the “leadership, institutions, and culture of Israel,” while the children represent “the ordinary men and women who are trained and nurtured in that culture.” The mother not only breaks her wedding vows with Hosea, but also leads her children away from God to serve Baal. Their only chance for salvation is to abandon their Mother Israel and turn back to their Father, Yahweh (God). Yet not only do they fail to repent, but they don’t “even understand the need for it, nor recognize that Baal is a lie.” God, then, has no choice but to “strip Mother Israel of all she has. . . . The institutions of Israel must die” and the mother and her children must “again wander in the wilderness.”51 Only then will they distinguish between truth and lies and return to God.
Hosea, like all Old Testament books, has a profound message for Christians. The book, writes Lloyd J. Ogilvie, “is disturbing before it is comforting. We are drawn irresistibly into the book and find ourselves inside the skin of Hosea as he endures the pain of his marriage and realizes the anguish of God. But we will also be forced to identify with Israel and be led into a deeper realization of our own need to return to the Lord.”52 Thus, the book’s entire message is ultimately centered on Christ.
In addition, a central theme of Hosea that extends through other Old Testament prophets such as Jeremiah and Ezekiel and into the New Testament (Eph. 5:22–33), is that God’s covenantal relationship with mankind, his love relationship with us, is mirrored by the institution of marriage.53 An even more compelling prefiguring of Jesus is seen not simply in marriage generally, but specifically in Hosea’s marriage to Gomer and Gomer’s unfaithfulness to him. “The picture is of our God who loves us even as we stray away from Him and into sin,” Earl Radmacher remarks. “As Hosea brought back his wife despite her adultery, so God, through His Son Jesus, identified with our plight and lovingly paid the cost of our freedom with His blood.”54 Indeed, we can view Hosea’s redemption of Gomer from slavery—after she had betrayed him—as a shadow of Christ’s redemptive work on our behalf.
There are a few messianic prophecies in Hosea, such as Israel being restored: “the Children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days” (Hosea 3:5, fulfilled in Romans 11:25–27). Additionally, in his Gospel Matthew quotes Hosea 11:1: “This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I called my son’” (2:15). Matthew here is casting Israel’s exodus as a prefiguring of the calling of Jesus out of Egypt during His childhood. And just as God used Jonah to preach to the Gentiles as a foreshadowing of Christ’s blessings of salvation to all nations, God delivers His promise of blessing through Hosea to those who are not originally God’s people: “And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God’” (Hosea 2:23). Paul quotes this passage in his letter to the Romans (9:25–26).
ISAIAH
Many consider Isaiah to be the greatest of the writing prophets. His book, the first of the Major Prophets, is one of the longest and contains more messianic prophecies than any other prophetic book. “Isaiah (‘Jehovah is salvation’) is the great messianic prophet and prince of OT prophets,” writes Old Testament scholar Merrill Unger. “For splendor of diction, brilliance of imagery, versatility and beauty of style, profundity and breadth of prophetic vision, he is without peer.”55 New Testament writers highly esteem the Book of Isaiah, which was cited repeatedly by Christ Himself56 and is the second most quoted Old Testament book in the New Testament. (Psalms is first.)57 As we’ll see, it preannounces Christ’s incarnation, His earthly ministry and atoning death, His second coming, and His global kingship.
Isaiah ministers from 739 to 680 BC, mostly to Judah but also to Israel. He lives when Israel is declining and Assyria is on the ascent. While it’s difficult to summarize Isaiah’s voluminous and multifaceted message, it seems to convey three central points to Judah:
1. You’ve broken God’s covenant through disobedience, idolatry, social injustice, and improper religious practices.
2. You’ve been called to repent but have refused, so judgment will come upon you as well as upon the nations.
3. There is hope beyond the judgment for a glorious future restoration for God’s chosen people and the nations.58
This sequence demonstrates that sin must be rectified before a proper relationship with God can be restored. Judgment, then, as emphasized in chapters 1–39, is the purifying force that leads to the forgiveness of sins, which is the focus of chapters 40–66. This final redemption must come from the Messiah.59 Aiming to comfort those taken captive and those threatened with captivity,60 Isaiah affirms that there would be reconciliation and redemption through three different people: Isaiah himself, King Cyrus, and the Messiah. Isaiah would pray for his people, Cyrus would be their political deliverer (from the future Babylonian captivity), and the Messiah, of course, would be the centerpiece of redemption, the Suffering Servant who would commit no sin and would deliver Israel and the world from their sins.61
Emphasizing present suffering but also future glory, Isaiah applies these themes both to the coming Messiah, Who will suffer in His first coming and reign gloriously in His second, and to the nation of Israel, which experiences great hardship and suffering but will be glorified in the end.62 James Smith views Isaiah’s ultimate message as coinciding with the meaning of his name, “Yahweh (God) is salvation.”63 Some compare Isaiah to Paul’s New Testament Book of Romans in that it first makes a strong case against sinning and the depravity of the human heart, but then reveals the path to salvation for Israel. Like Paul, Isaiah, as God’s spokesman, preaches repentance and promises forgiveness. It’s thus unsurprising that Paul quotes Isaiah seventeen times in Romans.64
Most scholars agree that Isaiah falls into two main sections—chapters 1–39 and 40–66. Chapters 36–39 serve as a kind of historical bridge or “hinge” that connects the two sections together. Chapters 1–35 deal with the threat from the Assyrian Empire—the world’s leading power at the time—and chapters 36–37 bring this subject to a climax with Assyrian King Sennacherib’s unsuccessful attack on Jerusalem. Then chapters 38–39 serve as an introduction to material concerning the Babylonian problem, which follows in chapters 40–66.65
Having witnessed Assyria’s conquest of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Isaiah is intimately familiar with God’s judgment on His people for sustained disobedience. As such, from his ministry in Jerusalem, he tries to warn Judah—the Southern Kingdom—to avoid the same fate. God does intervene to spare Jerusalem from the Assyrians just in the nick of time, prompting Isaiah’s exclamatory message, “God has saved.” But Isaiah warns Judean King Hezekiah that his nation will fall to the Babylonians, not the Assyrians. Nevertheless Isaiah also delivers a promise of restoration: God would not abandon His covenant and would restore the people to the land.
Judah’s predicted return from captivity foreshadows a far more significant future event prophesied by Isaiah. In the words of Derek Thomas, this occurrence would be “the recovery of the heavens and the earth to the glory that was originally intended, but which had been ruined by the Fall and the introduction of sin into the beauty that God had created—a transformation so spectacular and magnificent that it makes Isaiah’s prophecy a thrilling and captivating read. Truly, the Lord delivers!”66
The Book of Isaiah, located in the center of the Bible, can be seen as a microcosm of the Bible in that it contains sixty-six chapters (the Bible has sixty-six books), and the first thirty-nine chapters (the same number of books of the Old Testament) focus on judgment and condemnation. The last twenty-seven chapters, like the New Testament’s twenty-seven books, deal mostly with redemption.67 Additionally, the first thirty-nine chapters of Isaiah correspond with the Old Testament in pointing to the coming Messiah. The last twenty-seven chapters parallel the New Testament in dealing with the Messiah and His messianic kingdom.
Finally, the New Testament begins with the history of John the Baptist and ends with the Book of Revelation, with the new heaven and the new earth. Chapter 40 of Isaiah is the beginning of the second part of the book, and it contains the prophetic passage predicting the coming of John the Baptist: “A voice cries: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God’” (Isaiah 40:3). John the Baptist, in fact, says he fulfills this passage (John 1:23), and the other Gospel writers confirm it (Matt. 3:1–4; Mark 1:1–4; Luke 1:76–78). Acting as a perfectly matched bookend, the last chapter of Isaiah—chapter 66—discusses the new heavens and the new earth (66:22).68
A BRIEF REPLY TO CRITICAL SCHOLARS
Before moving on to the messianic threads of Isaiah, I want to say a word about critical scholars who question the authorship of Isaiah and other biblical books. Some critics argue that two or even three authors wrote the Book of Isaiah. As evidence, they cite stylistic, theological, and thematic differences between two sections (chapters 1–39 and 40–66) or three sections (chapters 1–39, 40–54, and 55–66) of the book. Conservative scholars, with whom I agree, believe the entire book was written by one author—the prophet Isaiah—because, among other reasons, there is structural unity between the two sections, and the similarities in style between those sections are more significant than the differences. What differences there are likely stem from Isaiah writing in different settings and about different subject matter in the different sections. Critics deny there is structural unity, but the inclusion of the historical hinge suggests that a single author intended to present a cohesive message. Interestingly, the hinge chapters are written mostly in prose while the two major sections are mostly poetry.69
Professor Herbert Wolf outlines the verbal and stylistic relationships pointing to unity between Isaiah 1–39 and 40–66. The most impressive example, he says, is the continuity in Isaiah’s distinctive title for God, “the Holy One of Israel,” which occurs twelve times in the first section and fourteen times in the second. This title appears only four other times in the entire Old Testament. Wolf concludes, “Since the doctrine of God’s holiness was so important to Isaiah, he used this title repeatedly, and it became an unmistakable sign of his authorship.”70 Dr. Charles Ryrie further notes there are forty to fifty instances of the same sentence or phrase appearing in both sections. (For example, compare 1:20 with 40:5 and 58:14; 11:6–9 with 65:25; and 35:6 with 41:18.)71 It’s also significant that Isaiah writes from a distinctly Palestinian perspective in both sections, which would likely not be the case if a second author had written the second section in the 500s BC, as some critics suggest.72 Dr. Ryrie argues that if a second Isaiah lived in Babylon, it’s odd that he demonstrates little knowledge of Babylonian geography but great familiarity with Palestine (41:19, 43:14, 44:14).73
In fact, no one seriously questioned the single authorship before 1789, when J. C. Doederlein proposed that a “Second Isaiah” or “Deutero-Isaiah” wrote chapters 40–66.74 Then in 1892, B. Duhm theorized that chapters 40–66 were actually written by two different authors, with a “Third Isaiah” or “Trito-Isaiah” having penned chapters 55–66.75 Yet when the Great Isaiah Scroll was later found with other Dead Sea Scrolls, it wasn’t divided in three—it was one long scroll (about twenty-four feet) of all sixty-six chapters.
Overall, I believe one of the main reasons certain scholars question single authorship is that many of Isaiah’s prophecies were so intricately fulfilled. For example, in the latter chapters of the book Isaiah predicts events related to the Babylonian captivity and the people’s later return, so the critics conclude the material must have been added by a postexilic “Deutero-Isaiah.” Another example is Isaiah’s prophecy, mentioned earlier, in which he names King Cyrus of Persia more than 150 years before his birth. But this is not a unique occurrence in biblical prophecy, as we’ve already seen—King Josiah was prophesied by name some three hundred years before his time (1 Kings 13:1–3, fulfilled in 2 Kings 23:15–20), and the prophet Micah identified the town of Jesus’ birth (Micah 5:2) seven centuries prior to the event.
The critics’ skepticism is rooted in their disbelief in supernatural occurrences or divinely revealed prophecy, which has always struck me as incredibly bizarre coming from any Bible scholar, who one would assume believes in the supernatural; otherwise how could he believe in the God of the Bible? Edward Young answers these critics plainly: “If it be asked how Isaiah in the eighth century BC could predict Christ, the answer is that God revealed His words to the prophet and the prophet spoke them forth. Prophecy can really be understood only upon the presuppositions of true Christian theism.”76
Don’t take Young’s word for it. The Apostle Peter affirms that the prophecies of Christ and our salvation were written by the prophets under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 10–12).77 Those who deny Isaiah’s authorship due to the stunning accuracy of his predictions must realize they are denying the authenticity, inspiration, and reliability of the Bible. Of course we must doubt that a mere human being acting on his own power and limited knowledge could pen such prophecies unaided by God. But if you believe in the Triune God of the Bible, it’s not difficult to believe that these prophets, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, accurately predicted the future.
Critics have devised various theories to undermine the authenticity and authorship not just of Isaiah, but of other biblical books as well. These include the entire Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible), which they claim Moses didn’t write, and Daniel, which they argue must have been written after the time that some of Daniel’s mind-blowing prophecies were fulfilled. I mention all this only because students of the Bible should be aware of these disagreements and understand that while these critical scholars seem to get the most attention, there are plenty of brilliant scholars with impeccable credentials who defend the Bible’s integrity and its divine inspiration and inerrancy.
Finally, I must add that Jesus Christ Himself essentially affirms that the entire Book of Isaiah was written by Isaiah. When Jesus is in Nazareth, He customarily goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath day. Luke records that on one such occasion He stands up to read and “the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor’” (Luke 4:17–19). After rolling up the scroll and giving it back to the attendant, Jesus sits down and when all eyes are fixed on him He says, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).78 Jesus not only professes the inspiration of all Scripture on several other occasions, as we’ve said, but through this reading He confirms that Isaiah had written that passage, which was in the very last section of the book (Isaiah 61:1–2).79 He knows, and wants us to know, that the prophet Isaiah was speaking of Him, our Savior!
CHRIST IN THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
Christ permeates the Book of Isaiah. The book’s voluminous messianic prophecies are more explicit than those of any other Old Testament book.80 These include: repentance for the nations (Isaiah 2:2–4, fulfilled in Luke 24:27); hearts are hardened (Isaiah 6:9–10, fulfilled in Matt. 13:14, 15; John 12:39, 40; Acts 28:25–27); born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14, fulfilled in Matt. 1:22, 23); a rock of offense (Isaiah 8:14, 15, fulfilled in Romans 9:33; 1 Peter 2:8); a light out of darkness (Isaiah 9:1, 2, fulfilled in Matt. 4:14–16; Luke 2:32); God would literally be born in human flesh and live with us (Isaiah 9:6, 7, fulfilled in Matt. 1:21, 23; Luke 1:32, 33; John 8:58, 10:30, 14:19; 2 Cor. 5:19; Col. 2:9); from the seed of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1, fulfilled in Romans 1:3); full of wisdom and power (Isaiah 11:1–10, fulfilled in Matt. 3:16; John 3:34; Romans 15:12; Heb. 1:9); reigning in mercy (Isaiah 16:45, fulfilled in Luke 1:31–33); peg in a sure place (Isaiah 22:21–25, fulfilled in Rev. 3:7); death swallowed up in victory (Isaiah 25:6–12, fulfilled in 1 Cor. 15:54); a stone in Zion (Isaiah 28:16, fulfilled in Romans 9:33; 1 Peter 2:6); the deaf hear, the blind see (Isaiah 29:18–19, fulfilled in Matt. 5:3, 11:5; John 9:39); King of kings, Lord of lords (Isaiah 32:1–4, fulfilled in Rev. 19:16, 20:6); Son of the Highest (Isaiah 33:22, fulfilled in Luke 1:32; 1 Tim. 1:17, 6:15); a highway to Zion for the redeemed (Isaiah 35:8–9, fulfilled in John 14:1–6); healing for the needy (Isaiah 35:4–10, fulfilled in Matt. 9:30, 11:5, 12:22, 20:34, 21:14; Mark 7:30; John 5:9); make ready the way of the Lord (Isaiah 40:3–5, fulfilled in Matt. 3:1–12; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4–5; John 1:23); the Shepherd dies for his sheep (Isaiah 40:10–11, fulfilled in John 10:11; Heb. 13:20; 1 Peter 2:24–25); the meek Servant (Isaiah 42:1–16, fulfilled in Matt. 12:17–21; Luke 2:32); a light to the Gentiles (Isaiah 49:6–12, fulfilled in Acts 13:47; 2 Cor. 6:2); scourged and spat upon (Isaiah 50:6, fulfilled in Matt. 26:67, 27:26, 30; Mark 14:65, 15:15, 19; Luke 22:63–65; John 19:1); rejected by his people (Isaiah 52:13–53:12, fulfilled in Matt. 8:17, 27:1–2, 12–14, 38); suffered vicariously (Isaiah 53:4–5, fulfilled in Mark 15:3–4, 27–28; Luke 23:1–25, 32–34); the Suffering Servant, silent when accused, like a lamb led to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7, fulfilled in John 1:29, 11:49–52); crucified with transgressors (Isaiah 53:12, fulfilled in John 12:37–38; Acts 8:28–35); buried with the rich (Isaiah 53:9, fulfilled in Acts 10:43, 13:38–39; 1 Cor. 15:3; Eph. 1:7; 1 Peter 2:21–25; 1 John 1:7, 9); all thirsty to come and drink (Isaiah 55:1, fulfilled in Rev. 22:17); calling of those not a people (Isaiah 55:4, 5, fulfilled in John 18:37; Romans 9:25–26; Rev. 1:5); deliverer out of Zion (Isaiah 59:16–20, fulfilled in Romans 11:26–27); nations walk in the light (Isaiah 60:1–3, fulfilled in Luke 2:32); anointed to preach liberty (Isaiah 60:1–2, fulfilled in Luke 4:17–19; Acts 10:38); gives liberty to the spiritual captives and brings the redemption of salvation (Isaiah 61:1–4, fulfilled in Luke 4:16–21); called by a new name (Isaiah 62:2, fulfilled in Luke 2:32; Rev. 3:12); the King cometh (Isaiah 62:11, fulfilled in Matt. 21:5); a vesture dipped in blood (Isaiah 63:1–3, fulfilled in Rev. 19:13); afflicted with the afflicted (Isaiah 63:8–9, fulfilled in Matt. 25:34–40); the elect shall inherit (Isaiah 65:9, fulfilled in Romans 11:5, 7; Heb. 7:14; Rev. 5:5); and new heavens and a new earth (Isaiah 65:17–25, fulfilled in 2 Peter 3:13; Rev. 21:1–22).
As others have aptly noted, in some places Isaiah sounds more like a New Testament writer than an Old Testament prophet.81 The book prefigures Jesus’ earthly ministry, His passion, His return to earth as a reigning king, and much more, as you see from the prophecies above. Though scholars sometimes view the main message of this complex book differently, many believe Christ is the dominant theme. For example, we previously noted that James Smith sees the main theme in the meaning of Isaiah’s name, “God is salvation,” which points to Christ. The ESV Study Bible offers another view that also points to Christ. It emphasizes verses 1:2–2:5, wherein God accuses the people of having received so much privilege from Him that they ought to be grateful children, but instead they are rebellious and “they have despised the Holy One of Israel” (1:2–4).82 Doesn’t this perfectly and succinctly relate the fate of Christ? He does everything for His people, yet He is despised and put to death.
One long passage in the book (52:13–53:12) is so amazingly detailed and is fulfilled so completely that the only way to deny it points specifically to Jesus Christ is to disbelieve that it was written before Christ’s incarnation—an absurd proposition on its face because, among other reasons, the Great Isaiah Scroll predates Christ by more than one hundred years. People have been moved to convert to Christianity from reading this passage alone, as I described in Jesus on Trial.83 The five stanzas of this passage, according to Ken Boa and Bruce Wilkinson,84 also represent the five different sacrificial offerings we discussed in Chapter 11: Isaiah 52:13–15 represents Christ’s wholehearted sacrifice (the burnt offering); Isaiah 53:1–3 represents His perfect character (the grain or meal offering); Isaiah 53:4–6 represents that Christ brought atonement that results in peace with God (the peace offering); Isaiah 53:7–9 shows that He paid for the transgression of the people (the sin offering); and Isaiah 53:10–12 depicts Him as dying for the effects of our sins (the trespass offering).85
This section, because of its remarkably minute prophecies that were so perfectly fulfilled in history, has incalculable worth as proof that Scripture is divinely inspired and that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. R. W. L. Moberly points to its opening lines: “Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted” (52:13). He says that in this passage Isaiah uses the same terms he applied to Yahweh (God) in an earlier passage: “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple” (6:1). He uses the same language again in 57:15: “For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy.” Why would Isaiah use such lofty language to describe a mere human being, albeit a noble, sacrificial one? Would that not be a clear case of blasphemy, unthinkable by a holy prophet? Moberly notes, “No matter how much one tries with historical imagination to think of a figure in the world of captive Judah as the primary referent for the prophetic vision (where I am inclined to envisage the prophet himself as taking on Isaiah’s role as servant, and suffering on Israel’s behalf), the resonance of the language with the New Testament’s portrayal of the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus is inescapable for the Christian imagination.”86
Finally, why would Isaiah, writing hundreds of years before Jesus the human being was born, tell us that a man of sorrows, who is despised and rejected by men and punished for our iniquities, can bring us peace and heal our wounds? Indeed, why would a Jewish sage writing in 700 BC say that God puts that burden on another mere mortal so that everyone else’s sins can be propitiated? It’s not hard to believe that men could be falsely accused and punished for the wrongs of others—that has surely occurred throughout human history. And it’s not inconceivable that such men, through their sacrifices, have brought a measure of peace to others, for a time. But the language of Isaiah—and, of course, the New Testament—tells us that this Man brings peace to an unlimited number of people and actually heals their wounds.
There’s another relevant twist. This particular Man not only volunteers to take on the punishment rightly due others; the very God of the universe “laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). Jesus volunteered to die for us; of that, there can be no question. But He was joined in that decision by the Father, Who was the active agent in carrying out the judgment against Him, directing His full wrath at Him for all of our past, present, and future sins. “It was the will of the Lord to crush him” (Isaiah 53:10). As the great British pastor Charles Spurgeon explains, “The text does not say that our sins were laid on Christ Jesus by accident, but ‘the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.’ We sing sometimes, ‘I lay my sins on Jesus’; that is a very sweet act of faith, but at the bottom of it there is another laying, namely, that act in which it pleased the Lord to lay our sins on Jesus, for apart from the Lord’s doing it our sins could never have been transferred to the Redeemer.”87
Furthermore, this passage doesn’t just say that this Man brings peace alone to other human beings through His sacrifice, but that through His substitutionary death, this Suffering Servant shall “make many to be accounted righteous” (Isaiah 53:11). I’m sorry, but no matter how selflessly a human being may sacrifice himself for the benefit of another, he cannot impute to that other person his own righteousness. And besides, no mere human being has righteousness sufficient to save himself spiritually, much less others. He can spare him pain, he can even save his physical life, but he cannot make him righteous.
Jesus Christ, however, is no mere man; He is God incarnate, and by His stripes we are healed. By His death on our behalf, we are made righteous and as spotless as Christ Himself in God’s eyes on the Day of Judgment, if we place our faith in Him. This prophecy is utterly nonsensical unless inspired by God Himself, and it points to Christ’s substitutionary work on behalf of believers. But the prophecy was made under His inspiration and demonstrates that the Bible is, was from the beginning, and forever will be a record of God’s gracious plan from before the beginning of the world, to redeem those who by faith appropriate the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.