Isaiah (2)

The second half of the book of Isaiah has some amazing prophecies about the promised Messiah. Isaiah 53 records a detailed prophecy of how his death would occur. The various Servant Prophecies are an amazing description of what Jesus would be like and what he would do. As I read these prophecies, I was amazed at how accurate Isaiah was in hearing God’s voice and prophesying events that were way beyond what anyone living at the time expected. More amazing, this was way before the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Given the difficulties a person like Isaiah would face in receiving God’s word, I am amazed that he could prophesy so clearly about events that were so far in the future. I assume that he did not have this capacity when he was first called to be a prophet. I presume that it gradually developed over many years, as he received and declared God’s word, as he dealt with pushback and hostility, and as he suffered for his loyalty to God. I presume that it was God working in his life by the moving of the Spirit and suffering for the truth that produced the ability to hear God clearly.

I assume that when Isaiah was an old man, he was far more skilled in hearing God speak than he was when he was first called (this is a challenge for everyone with a prophetic calling). It was only toward the end of his life, following intensive work by the Holy Spirit, that he was able to receive word about what the Messiah would do when he came. It was only when he was old that he was able to receive a revelation about the Messiah that was totally different from what everyone else expected.

Isaiah’s prophetic ministry reached great heights as he grew older. Therefore, I am not surprised that he began speaking in a different style and used different words. This would be a natural response to the major work that God had to do in his life. So a change in writing style is not evidence that a different person wrote the latter chapters of the book.

Isaiah is a massive challenge for anyone with a prophetic calling. I cannot think of many modern prophetic voices who have the insight and accuracy that Isaiah demonstrated. Yet, in the confusion of the modern life in our troubled world, a clear direction like Isaiah brought is urgently needed.

Isaiah (1)

I have been re-reading the book of Isaiah. Many commentators suggest that only the first half of the book (chapter 1-39) was written by Isaiah, and that the second half (chapters 40-66) were written by a different author, a century later, when Israel was in exile in Babylon and looking forward to their return to the Promised Land. They suggest that the second half is written in a different style from the second half.

I see several problems with this view.

1. A change in style does not mean much. Isaiah prophesied over more than forty years. He began prophesying as a young man during the final years of the reign of King Uzziah (Is 6:1). He was probably still prophesying when King Hezekiah’s son called Manasseh became king. Isaiah was just a young man in his early twenties when he was called to his ministry. Towards the end of his life, he would have been prophesying for more than forty years, and perhaps nearly fifty.

During this ministry, his understanding of God’s purposes would have increased. Because he was open to listening, he would have developed a clearer insight into God’s will. As he grew in his gifting, he would speak in a different way and use better words to describe what God was showing him.

None of us remains static. When I look back on what I wrote thirty years ago, the tone is different, the message is not as clear, and I use a different set of words. I used to refer to Jesus as “Christ” all the time, whereas now I rarely use the word, because I think it gives a false understanding of who Jesus is and what he has done.

In the same way, Isaiah’s way of speaking would have changed and developed throughout his ministry. So it is not surprising that his later prophecies have a different style, tone and message from his earlier ones.

2. Prophecies about the end of the exile are relatively rare, even in the last half of the book of Isaiah. As I read through the book, I was surprised at how few they were. Isaiah 44:21-28 is one example. That does not make sense if the second half of the book was written at the time when Israel was about to return from exile. There would have been a much greater focus on that event.

Islamic State (5) Isaiah’s Prophecy

Isaiah 10 records a prophecy against Assyria. This was not Isaiah’s prophecy against Sennacherib when he led the Assyrian army to besiege Jerusalem. That prophecy was different and is recorded in 2 Kings 19:20-34 and Is 37:21-35. Isaiah’s prophecy in chapter 10 seems to be directed more generally against the Assyrian Spirit, wherever it works. I think it relates just as well to our time. Isaiah describes how the Assyrian Spirit operates. It sounds just like the Islamic State.

1. The Assyrian Spirit arises at a time when God’s people are passing unjust laws that deprive the poor of their rights and rob oppressed people of justice.
   

   Woe to those who make unjust laws,
   to those who issue oppressive decrees,
   to deprive the poor of their rights
   and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,
   making widows their prey
   and robbing the fatherless.
   What will you do on the day of reckoning,
   when disaster comes from afar? (Is 10:1-2).

   God’s justice requires that aliens in the land get the same justice as other citizens. His justice forbids the shifting of boundary markers. Those who pass unjust laws will get their day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar. There will be no place to hide.

2. The Assyrian Spirit will seize loot and snatch plunder (Is 10:6). Wealth will be destroyed, as if it were mud being trampled in the streets.

3. Their intention was not to seize wealth. Their plan is to put an end to nations. Nations have no place in a caliphate. Their plans are to bring some existing nations to an end.
   

   But this is not what he intends, this is not what he has in mind;
   his purpose is to destroy, to put an end to many nations (Is 10:7).

   Shia Islam has generally been a persecuted minority, so they have historically avoided political power. The development of the Islamic state by Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran was a significant innovation in Shia theology.

   Sunni Moslems have a more positive view of political power, but there is no equivalent of the separation of “church and state”. Sunni Islam is a state religion in which the supreme authority is a political/religious leader. This leaves no room for nationalism, and no place for a modern nation state. More radical Sunni Moslems see the Sunni nation states like Saudi Arabia as a blasphemous idol.

4. The Islamic State is destroying those century old boundaries.
   

   I removed the boundaries of nations (Is 10:13).

   At the end of the First World War, Britain and France divided up the remnant of the Ottoman Empire according to the Sykes-Picot plan. They believed that local winners of the war had the right to do this. They ignored geography and tribal groupings. Promises of independence that had been made to the local people who fought with them were broken. They divided the land to increase their economic power. Iraq was put together from three religiously mixed provinces, so Britain could keep control of the oilfields that had just been discovered. France cut Lebanon out of Syria to create a Christian enclave. Kuwait was peeled off to safeguard its oil for Britain.

   The artificial nations established by squabbling British and French bureaucrats will disappear, and new ones will emerge. Boundaries drawn on maps that had no connection to people or geography will be wiped away.

5. The Assyrian Spirit says that there will be local leaders, but no kings.
   

   My princes are kings together (Is 10:8).

   This points to the caliphate, where kings and nations disappear and all Moslem people come under a single political/military leader.

6. The Assyrian Spirit conquers nations and smashes their idols (Is 10:10). When the Islamic State gained control of cities in Iraq, it destroyed Christian Churches and Shia shrines, because it considered them idols.

7. The Assyrian Spirit is described as a sharp razor (Is 8:20). It will cut quickly through opposition with terrible destruction.

8. All opposition will fall away before the Assyrian Spirit without offering resistance.
   

   As one reaches into a nest,
   so my hand reached for the wealth of the nations;
   as people gather abandoned eggs,
   so I gathered all the countries;
   not one flapped a wing,
   or opened its mouth to chirp (Acts 10:14).

   This is what happened in Mosul. A few Islamic State soldiers reached into this nest, and the military commanders fled. Many Iraqi soldiers swapped over to the other side and joined the invaders.

9. The Spirit of Assyria uses an axe as a weapon.
   

   Does the axe raise itself above the person who swings it,
   or the saw boast against the one who uses it (Is 10:15)?

   This is an interesting sign. The Islamic State has been beheading Western journalist to boast of its power and create fear.

10. This power will not be defeated by war. It will be weakened when God sends wasting disease against it.
    

    Therefore, the Lord, the Lord Almighty,
    will send a wasting disease upon his sturdy warriors (Is 10:16).

    The Islamic State destroys economies. It does not create productive economic activity. When its plunder runs out it will collapse into poverty. Sickness and disease will spread. However, this event is well into the future.

11. Pestilence and disease will not end the Islamic State. The gospel of Jesus will become a fire that burns through the land.
    

    The Lord, the Lord Almighty,
    will kindle a fire under his pomp,
    like a blazing flame.
    The Light of Israel will become a fire,
    their Holy One a flame;
    in a single day it will burn and consume
    his thorns and his briers (Is 10:16-17).

    The gospel of Jesus will spread through the Islamic State in the power of the Spirit. Christians will go through the land healing the sick and proclaiming the good news. Some of those who carry the gospel will come out of the land of Israel. The gospel will destroy the power of the Assyrian Spirit forever. His power (thorns and briars) will be destroyed forever.

Kingdom of God (13) - Isaiah's Promise

Isaiah gave a wonderful promise.

Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not live out his years;
the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child;
the one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.
They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat.
For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people;
my chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands.
They will not labor in vain, nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune;
for they will be a people blessed by the LORD, they and their descendants with them.
Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,” says the LORD (Is 65:20-25).

This prophecy is so splendid that most Christians assume it describes eternal life. This is not true. People still die, so it applies to life on this earth. The prophecy is a revelation of the wonderful world that the Holy Spirit will create on earth. This is characterised by:

• Sickness defeated.
• Long and full lifes.
• Prosperous economy
• Poverty gone
• Productive capital for everyone
• Secure and safe homes
• No war
• No crime
• Blessed by God
• Animal world transformed
• Carnivorous animals become vegetarian.
• Aggression replace by peace.

Sin is the only obstacle to this vision. Jesus dealt to sin on the cross, so it is natural that the Holy Spirit would roll back the effects of sin, and restore blessing on earth.