Lesson #01

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RETURN TO SYLLABUS

ISAIAH
Lesson #01
INTRODUCTION

• SPECIAL NOTE:
• BEFORE WE CAN STUDY THIS BOOK, WE MUST FIRST UNDERSTAND PROPHECY AND THE PROPHET. THE BOOK OF ISAIAH IS IN THE SECTION OF THE BIBLE CALLED PROPHETIC LITERATURE. POPULARLY THE PROPHETIC BOOKS ARE DIVIDED INTO TWO GROUPS, THE MAJOR PROPHETS AND THE MINOR PROPHETS. THE MAJOR PROPHETS ARE ISAIAH, JEREMIAH, EZEKIEL, AND DANIEL. THE MINOR PROPHETS ARE ALL THE REST OF THEM FROM HOSEA TO MALACHI. THEY ARE CALLED MINOR PROPHETS BECAUSE THEIR MESSAGES ARE SHORT. THIS POPULAR DIVISION IS NOT AN ADEQUATE DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPHETIC BOOKS. IT WOULD BE BETTER TO DIVIDE THEM ACCORDING TO TIME:
  • PRE-EXILIC BOOKS (BEFORE THE 70 YEAR BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY):
    • ISAIAH, JEREMIAH, HOSEA, JOEL, AMOS, JONAH, MICAH, NAHUM, HABAKKUK, AND ZEPHANIAH.
  • EXILIC BOOKS (DURING THE 70 YEAR BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY)
    • EZEKIEL, DANIEL, OBADIAH
  • POST EXILIC BOOKS: (AFTER THE 70 YEAR BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY)
    • HAGGAI, ZECHARIAH, MALACHI

 

• THE OLD TESTAMENT PROPHET

 

:
• THE PROPHET WAS A PERSON CALLED BY GOD TO DELIVER A MESSAGE FROM GOD TO THE PEOPLE. THE MESSAGE OFTEN INCLUDED A PREDICTION OF THE FUTURE BUT NOT EVERY MESSAGE FROM A PROPHET WOULD HAVE A PREDICTION. THEREFORE, PROPHECY CONSISTS OF TWO PARTS:
  • FORETELLING = PREDICTION OF A FUTURE EVENT
  • FORTHTELLING = A MESSAGE OF TRUTH
• HOW WOULD A PERSON KNOW IF SOMEONE WHO SAID HE WAS BRINGING A MESSAGE FROM GOD WAS A TRUE PROPHET OR A FALSE ONE?
  • READ: DEU 18:20-22 THE CODE OF THE PROPHET
  • FROM THIS PASSAGE WE CAN SEE THAT THE JOB OF A PROPHET WAS NOT AN EASY ONE. IF HE WAS A FALSE PROPHET, HE COULD BE STONED TO DEATH.
  • JUST THAT WARNING WOULD MAKE YOU THINK TWICE BEFORE YOU SPOKE! HOWEVER, DESPITE THIS WARNING, THERE WERE LOTS OF FALSE PROPHETS.
  • ALSO, ACCORDING TO THIS PASSAGE, TO BE A TRUE PROPHET YOUR PREDICTIONS WOULD HAVE TO COME TRUE 100% OF THE TIME.
    • THAT PRESENTS A PROBLEM. IF YOUR PREDICTIVE PROPHECY DEALT WITH EVENTS VERY FAR IN THE FUTURE, SAY HUNDREDS OF YEARS IN THE FUTURE. ALL THE HEARERS AND THE PROPHET WOULD BE DEAD BY THEN ANYWAY.
    • THEREFORE, THE PROPHET WOULD PREDICT LOCAL, SHORT TERM EVENTS. THESE ARE THE ONES THE LOCAL PEOPLE COULD SEE AND JUDGE AS TO WHETHER THEY CAME TO PASS OR NOT. IF THE SHORT-TERM PROPHECIES CAME TRUE 100% OF THE TIME, HE WAS A TRUE PROPHET, AND YOU COULD THEN TRUST THAT HIS LONG-TERM PROPHECIES WOULD EVENTUALLY ALSO COME TO PASS EVEN THOUGH EVERYONE PRESENT AT THE TIME WOULD NOT BE ALIVE TO SEE IT.
• WHY IS PREDICTION OF FUTURE EVENTS AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE PROPHET’S MESSAGE?
  • PREDICTION VALIDATES THE WORD OF GOD.
    • THE MOST SURE WAY WE CAN KNOW THAT THE BIBLE IS THE INSPIRED WORD OF GOD IS BECAUSE WE CAN LOOK AT THE PREDICTIONS AND SEE WHERE IN HISTORY THEY CAME TO PASS.
    • IF WE DID NOT HAVE PREDICTIVE PROPHECY ON WHICH TO RELY, WE WOULD KNOW NOTHING ABOUT WHAT IS AHEAD FOR THE BELIEVER NOT ONLY ON THIS EARTH BUT IN HEAVEN AND IN ETERNAL LIFE.
  • PREDICTIVE PROPHECY WAS THE WAY GOD CHOSE TO MARK THE MESSIAH SO EVERYONE WOULD BE ABLE TO RECOGNIZE HIM WHEN HE CAME.
  • THEREFORE, THE ONLY WAY WE CAN BE SURE THAT JESUS IS THE MESSIAH, THE SON OF GOD, IS BY PREDICTIVE PROPHECY. BECAUSE HE FULFILLED 333 PROPHETIC DETAILS IN HIS FIRST COMING, WE CAN KNOW HE WAS WHO HE SAID HE WAS AND THAT HE WILL COME AGAIN.
• GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF A TRUE PROPHET:
  • HE MUST BE WILLING TO SPEAK OUT BOLDLY FOR THE LORD.
  • HE MUST BE WILLING TO BE RIDICULED, REJECTED, AND EVEN STONED BY HIS HEARERS.
  • HE MUST BE SO COMMITTED TO GOD THAT HE WOULD BE WILLING TO DO FOOLISH, UNCOMFORTABLE THINGS IN ORDER TO ACT OUT HIS MESSAGE.
    • FOR EXAMPLE: EZEKIEL HAD TO SPEND OVER A YEAR LYING ON HIS SIDE (430 DAYS) . (EZE 4:4-8)
    • ISAIAH HAD TO GO ABOUT FOR THREE YEARS WITHOUT WEARING CLOTHES. (ISA 20:3)
  • HE MUST BE WILLING TO LOOK AND ACT DIFFERENTLY FROM AVERAGE PEOPLE IN ORDER TO CALL ATTENTION TO HIS MESSAGE.

 

• THE NATURE OF PROPHETIC MESSAGES:

 

• THERE ARE SOME GENERAL RULES THAT MUST APPLY TO A PROPHETIC MESSAGE. WE CALL THEM LAWS OF PREDICTIVE PROPHECY:
• =1= MAN IS T HE AGENT OF FULFILLMENT
  • PROPHECY IS SOMETIMES CONDITIONAL AND SOMETIMES UNCONDITIONAL. HOWEVER, ALL PROPHECIES OF JUDGMENT ARE INHERENTLY CONDITIONAL WHETHER SPECIFIED OR NOT.
    • IN OTHER WORDS, IF MAN REPENTS, THE PROPHECY DOES NOT COME TRUE. IF MAN DOES NOT REPENT, THE PROPHECY WILL COME TRUE. (JON 3:4 NAH 2)
• =2= PREDICTIONS MUST BE 100% ACCURATE.
• =3=PREDICTIONS MUST BE BEYOND THE POWER OF HUMAN FORESIGHT.
  • MESSAGES ARE SUPERNATURALLY GIVEN.
• =4= THERE MUST BE ENOUGH TIME TO PASS TO PREVENT THE PROPHET FROM BECOMING THE FULFILLING AGENT.
• =5= THERE MUST BE ENOUGH DETAIL IN THE PROPHECY TO PREVENT GUESSWORK.
  • THIS IS THE LAW OF COMPOUND PROBABILITY. THE MORE DETAILS THAT ARE ADDED TO A PROPHECY, THE LESS CHANCE THERE IS OF IT COMING TRUE.
    • ONE DETAIL MEANS YOU HAVE A 50/50 CHANCE OF FULFILLMENT. IF YOU ADD A SECOND DETAIL, YOU REDUCE THE CHANCE OF FULFILLMENT BY ANOTHER 50 PERCENT, ETC.
• PROPHECY IS WRITTEN IN THE PAST TENSE EVEN THOUGH IT PERTAINS TO EVENTS IN THE FUTURE.
  • THE REASON THE PAST TENSE IS USED IS TO EMPHASIZE THE SURETY OF THE OCCURRENCE OF THESE EVENTS. TO THE PROPHET HE SAW IT AS A COMPLETED EVENT. ALSO THE HEBREW LANGUAGE HAD NO FUTURE TENSE.
  • MUCH PROPHECY IS IN SYMBOLIC FORM THAT MUST BE DECIPHERED AND INTERPRETED.
  • PROPHECY IS USUALLY WRITTEN WITH DOUBLE REFERENCE.
    • THE MOST FASCINATING AND MOST MISUNDERSTOOD ASPECT OF PROPHECY IS THIS LAW OF DOUBLE REFERENCE.
      • DEFINITION: A PROPHECY PARTIALLY FULFILLED AT ONE POINT IN TIME TO BE COMPLETELY FULFILLED AT A LATER POINT IN TIME.
        • THERE ARE, THEREFORE, TWO FULFILLMENTS TO PROPHECY. SOMETIMES THE LOCAL, SHORT-TERM EVENT WILL BE THE FIRST FULFILLMENT, AND THE DISTANT, LONG-TERM EVENT WILL BE THE SECOND FULFILLMENT.
        • HOWEVER, SOME PROPHECIES WERE SO IMPORTANT TO GOD THAT AFTER THE FIRST FULFILLMENT, GOD SENT ANOTHER PROPHET TO PREDICT THE SAME THING IN SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT WORDS OR IN EVEN THE SAME WORDS.
          • WHEN THAT HAPPENED, THERE MUST THEN BE ANOTHER TWO SUBSIGUENT FULFILLMENTS, WHICH IN ITS FINALITY MEANS A PROPHECY HAD THREE FULFILLMENTS.
• WE ARE GOING TO SEE ALL OF THESE ASPECTS OF PROPHECY REPRESENTED IN THE BOOK OF ISAIAH.

 

HOMEWORK

ISAIAH–INTRODUCTION

• PREPARATION FOR ISAIAH–INTRODUCTION:
  • TO UNDERSTAND THE KINGS AND THEIR REIGNS UNDER WHICH ISAIAH LIVED, READ THE FOLLOWING SCRIPTURES AND MAKE A BRIEF NOTE AFTER EACH KING OF THAT WHICH HE DID RIGHT AND THAT WHICH HE DID WRONG:

• KING UZZIAH (AZARIAH)
  • 2 KINGS 14:17-22
  • 2 KINGS 15:1-7
  • 2 CHRONICLES 26:1-23

• JOTHAN
  • 2 KINGS 15:32-38
  • 2 CHRONICLES 27

• AHAZ
  • 2 KINGS 16
  • 2 CHRONICLES 28:1-5, 16-27

• HEZEKIAH
  • 2 KINGS 18-20
  • 2 CHRONICLES 29-32

• MANASSEH
  • 2 KINGS 21:1-18
  • 2 CHRONICLES 33:10-13

• WHAT CHARACTERISTICS OF ISAIAH’S TIME PERIOD PARALLEL OUR OWN TIME PERIOD?

MEMORY VERSE: PROVERBS 21:2-3