The Man Who Saw the King: 10 Studies in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah

By Freda Hawkes

Isaiah the prophet wrote during a violent period in Middle Eastern history. Populations were on the move, cities were destroyed and leaders brutally executed by the superpower Assyria. But at the start of his work as God’s prophet, Isaiah saw who was truly the King, the Lord Almighty. Isaiah delivered God’s message to his nation and its kings for more than 40 troubled years. He gave urgent warnings, calls to depend on God when all seemed lost, comfort in disaster, encouragement and clear predictions of events fulfilled during and after Isaiah’s lifetime. Most significantly for Christian believers, Isaiah prophesied the coming, about 700 years later, of Jesus the Messiah, the servant King, who would suffer, save, judge and rule for ever.

You can use these studies individually or as a small group. Each study should take about an hour. In the 10 studies we will read right through Isaiah. Isaiah is a long book, much of it written in poetry. Poetry is more difficult to read than prose, but it involves our emotions and touches our hearts. These studies help you see Isaiah’s book as a whole, putting well-known passages in their context. There are notes on the historical background, on related passages in the Old Testament and on quotations from Isaiah in the New Testament. You may know that some academics cannot accept the specificity of Isaiah’s prophecy about king Cyrus and attribute the later part of Isaiah to other, later, authors. Reasons are given here for assuming that the whole book was written by Isaiah son of Amoz.

God promised Isaiah “my word ... will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it”. God’s word had a great effect on Isaiah’s family life, and on his nation’s life in a time of crisis. God’s word through Isaiah would give comfort to future generations of the people of Judah who read Isaiah’s book during their exile in Babylon or as they returned to rebuild Jerusalem. Isaiah’s writings came alive to people in New Testament times as they saw God’s word fulfilled in Jesus the Messiah. We will see how Jesus himself, his apostles and the gospel writers understood and used Isaiah’s writings. As we read Isaiah’s book, God’s word through Isaiah will still achieve the purpose for which he sent it. We can find words from God to challenge us personally, to give us warnings and also hope for the future of our world, to comfort us and to cause us to worship our unique and holy God. Isaiah was writing God’s message for us.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Freda Hawkes
• Release date: Jul 26, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370938872

Book preview

The Man Who Saw the King

10 Studies in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah

Published by Freda Hawkes at Smashwords

Copyright 2017 Freda Hawkes

ISBN: 9781370938872

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Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1 The Man Who Saw the King Isaiah 1 to 6

Chapter 2 To us a Son is Given: Isaiah the Family Man Isaiah 7 to 9

Chapter 3 Quick to the Plunder, Swift to the Spoil and A Remnant Will Return Part 1 Isaiah 10 to 13

Chapter 4 Quick to the Plunder, Swift to the Spoil and A Remnant Will Return Part 2 Isaiah 13 to 35

Chapter 5 On whom are you depending? Isaiah 36 to 39

Chapter 6 Here is your God; Here is my Servant Isaiah 40 to 45

Chapter 7 This is What the Lord Says - Listen Isaiah 46 to 52

Chapter 8 The Punishment that Brought Us Peace was on Him Isaiah 53 to 56

Chapter 9 Isaiah 57 to 61:3 I Live with Those who are Contrite; Your Sins have Separated You from God

Chapter 10

Appendix

About the Author

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Isaiah 55:10-11.

Preface

This study is written for people who already have some knowledge of the bible, both the part originally written mostly in Hebrew, which Christians call the Old Testament, and the New Testament. If you do not have some background knowledge you might like to start with another study in this series, The Bible from Start to Finish, downloadable free through http://www.bibleview.co.uk/. Christians believe that Jesus is the Christ or Messiah, God’s Anointed, God’s chosen king, promised in many parts of the Old Testament. In the New Testament we see how Jesus fulfilled what was written about him in the Hebrew Scriptures, in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.

From the time of Abraham, about 2000 BC, God had been gradually revealing more of his plan to bless the world through sending the Christ. Moses and king David (who wrote many of the psalms) were prophets. Nathan (who told king David that his throne would be established for ever), Elijah and Elisha were important prophets in Israel’s history. The final 17 books listed in the contents page of our Old Testament were written by prophets. God gave his message to prophets to pass to the people – to challenge people to obey God in their daily lives, to encourage them to trust God and to warn of God’s judgement if their lives did not change. The prophets explained to the people more about who God is and how he is active in world history. God also revealed to his prophets his future plans. We can be especially encouraged to read that the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus the Christ were predicted by God through his prophets many hundreds of years before the events of the New Testament. Isaiah was one of those prophets.

Isaiah and History

The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. That’s how Isaiah the prophet started his long book. From before 740 BC to after 701 BC Isaiah saw truths about the future of his nation and his home city that he passed on to the people, the leaders and the king. He claimed from the start that he was reporting what God said: Hear O heavens! Listen, O earth! For the Lord has spoken… (Isaiah 1:2). God’s words recorded in Isaiah’s book were not just to Judah and Jerusalem but also to Judah’s neighbours and enemies Israel, Aram (modern southern Syria), Philistia, Moab, Edom and Egypt, to the threatening world super-power Assyria, to the distant land Babylon and the even more remote nation of the Medes. Through Isaiah, God spoke to all nations, to the end of time.

Isaiah lived in frightening and unstable times. About 200 years earlier, the nation of Israel had been divided by a revolt against the king of Judah, king David’s grandson. The southern kingdom, called Judah, retained the capital city of Jerusalem with the temple of God, the priests and a stable line of kings descended from David. The state was named after Jacob’s son, Judah, from whom David was descended. The northern kingdom kept the name Israel, though it was sometimes called Ephraim after Joseph’s son, Jacob’s grandson. Israel developed a new capital city, Samaria, introduced state-sponsored idol worship, since the state no longer included the temple of God in Jerusalem, and routinely assassinated its kings. Both Judah and Israel were in a corridor of land between the Mediterranean Sea and the desert. At the time of Uzziah, Judah’s land stretched as far south as the Red Sea. The two kingdoms were sandwiched between the weakening political power Egypt to the south-west and the rising super-power Assyria to the north-east (see Figure 1) and were very vulnerable militarily.

Figure 1. The two kingdoms of Israel and Judah and the surrounding nations about 740 BC

The stories of the four kings of Judah that Isaiah knew – Uzziah (also called Azariah), Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah – are given in the bible in 2 Kings chapters 15 to 20. Isaiah chapters 36, 37 and 39 are the same as 2 Kings chapters 18:17 to 20:21; chapter 38 of Isaiah is very similar to 2 Kings 20:1-11. The story of the four kings is also given in 2 Chronicles chapters 26 to 32. The length of time each king reigned, his age when he became king and his age at death are given in these accounts, but dating is complicated, partly by the use of different calendars in different nations but also by the fact that Jotham shared power with his father, Uzziah, for some years as a co-regent (a joint kingship), and probably later with his son Ahaz. Ahaz probably shared power with his son Hezekiah and Hezekiah with his son Manasseh. When in each reign these sharing arrangements started is not stated. The dates each king of Judah held power may be:

Uzziah792-740BC

Jotham751-735BC

Ahaz736-716BC

Hezekiah729-687BC

Manasseh696-643BC

In the time of Uzziah king of Judah the northern kingdom Israel was in trouble (2 Kings 15:23-31). Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, invaded the northern kingdom in about 740 BC. The king of the northern kingdom Israel collected 34 tons of silver in tax from his citizens and paid Tiglath-Pileser to withdraw. Within a few years the king of Israel died, his son was assassinated and an army chief, Pekah son of Remaliah, took over as king of Israel in the capital city Samaria (2 Kings 15:23-27). The threat from Assyria was still there - large areas of northern Israel were captured by Tiglath-Pileser and the people deported to Assyria (2 Kings 15:29).

In the introduction to his book, Isaiah said about Judah Your country is desolate, your cities burned with fire, your fields are being stripped by foreigners (1:7). By chapter 7 we read a conversation that took place in Jerusalem between Isaiah and king Ahaz of Judah in about 734 BC, when Judah’s enemies, the northern kingdom Israel and Aram (Syria), had armies at the walls of Jerusalem and everyone was desperately afraid. God shared with king