Isaiah, Part 1

Well, good morning again, brethren. Wonderful to be up here, and wonderful to have enough gas to get here. I usually do have to calculate that, and sometimes I have to get gas on the way, but not all that often. I can get here and back, usually without any trouble. Usually I should be able to go further than that. But glad to see all of you today. I want to do... I guess I made a statement a couple of weeks ago, whenever I started talking about prophecy, that I'd try to cover the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel here in the next few weeks. What an insane... Not a very bright move on my part.

As I thought about it, even as I've now looked into Isaiah a little bit, I'm not going to be able to do that in a few weeks. I guess I found out the same thing when I tried to work on Hebrews, a couple of years ago, last year or the year before. It takes longer than you think. Technically, I guess, probably I don't need to go over it near like perhaps I thought, and you might want, if you wish, to read these books of prophecy.

But I did want to start with Isaiah and cover some material today that I believe would be helpful. As I mentioned earlier, Isaiah is called the Messianic prophet because there is so much information in the book of Isaiah that is directly referring to references are made to Jesus the Messiah. But even more than that, he was not only going to come as our Redeemer, as our Savior, and he was coming as his suffering servant, which is what we know he did whenever he came the first time.

He's also going to come another time. He's going to come the second time, and he's going to truly deliver this whole world. And thankfully, in many ways, that is the message. Whenever we read the book of Isaiah—and I can tell you I've not read through the whole thing. I've looked through all the chapters. I've looked through how I could break it down and how I could get it in my head. And I thought I would try this week and next time to be able to cover a couple of different aspects of the book of Isaiah.

First of all, just some of the context of the message itself or what it was, the setting that Isaiah was dealing with. That's what I'll try to cover today. And then secondly, the next time, Isaiah is quoted more in the New Testament than any other prophet. Other prophets are mentioned at times, and you see that. You see different references. But Isaiah is far more than any of the others, and I think that would be good for us to focus on as well. So today, I just want to cover what information I can hear in the time that we have for the sermon.

I want to cover that regarding just understanding the setting. I mean, I know I often, and I think I told you, I tried to read some of the prophets at times. And without a whole lot of background, or without any background, in some cases, having to look up almost everything, I just get lost, and I don't know who's talking to whom, and it doesn't have the impact or the meaning that it ought to have.

But as you can see with Isaiah 1, verse 1, Isaiah was a prophet who lived in the nation of Judah. And it says in verse 1 of chapter 1, the vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos, which he saw, okay, this is a vision that he saw. He was given information from God. He was not the king of Israel.

He was a prophet. And we're going to go through in chapter 6 how he became a prophet, what it was that actually happened for him to ultimately serve in that role. But it says that he saw, and I would say that this is probably more than one vision, he probably saw several different things over the course of years, he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of, and then it mentions four kings of Judah. Uzziah, Jothamahaz, and Hezekiah. Now again, we have to have at least a basic understanding of the lines of the kings of Israel and Judah.

See David, Saul, David, Solomon, they were all kings of Israel. They were all together. The nation itself was all together. They were ruling over the entirety of the nation. But after Solomon, we can read here in the books of Kings and then Chronicles, Samuel and Kings, and then later somewhat repeated in Chronicles, you can read about the lines then, or after Solomon, the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah were separate.

And you read that throughout the former prophets here in Samuel and in Kings. And yet you do then have a line of the kings of Israel and a line of the kings of Judah that run for several hundred years and then ultimately both of them go into captivity. You know, that has to be in our understanding whenever we read what it is that Isaiah is saying.

Now I'll give you a few, although I'm not sure exactly how accurate. I think these are reasonably accurate dates. Uzziah reigned in Judah from 807 to 756. Again, I'm taking these out of something that I read, so how accurate that is, I'm not sure. I think it's pretty accurate. Uzziah was the longest ruling king of Judah. He ruled for 52 years. That was longer than David or Solomon. It was longer than Hezekiah or Josiah, both of which were good kings in Israel. And yet Uzziah was the longest ruling king, I believe. Jotham, the next one that is mentioned, ruled for 755 to 740. That was a relatively short reign, 15 years.

And then Ahaz from 739 to 724. That again was another 15-year reign, but he was an evil king. He did a lot of bad things. Of course, most of them did a lot of bad things. Most of them did not lead the people of Israel to obey God and to reap the benefits of that. And then finally, Hezekiah 723 to 695.

That was almost 30 years that Hezekiah was reigning as a king of Judah, and he was actually one of the better kings. And so again, some of you have knowledge of the history that is revealed here in the Old Testament. This may sound very elemental to you, but it helps me to kind of get it in my mind to understand what Isaiah was actually talking about. And of course, as he was directing most of his statements to Judah or to Jerusalem, sometimes he was also referring to Israel. And you see Hosea around this same time frame also giving other prophetic messages from God to the people of God, the people of Israel and Judah at that time.

And during this time that Isaiah was preaching, or he was a preacher, and then he would sometimes be called upon to give, what does God say? What does God want us to do? Very rarely. They didn't ask very often. He actually had a message that they didn't want to hear, a message that they neglected. And of course, they ultimately paid the penalty for that. But during the time when he was preaching here mostly in Judah, the nation of Israel, and again we want to understand this, the nation of Israel, the northern grouping of Israelite-ish peoples whose capital was Samaria, is that right, Tom?

Samaria in the north? Yeah, they were even at times at war with the house of Judah, the people that lived closer to Jerusalem, or the southern part of what we see as the nation of Israel today. So there was a north and a south, the north being the house of Israel, the south being around Jerusalem and Judah. So, you know, during the time that Isaiah was giving these prophetic statements to the kings and to the people of Judah, the house of Israel went into captivity.

They went into captivity in 721, 718, I believe, or the normal dates. But there were excursions by people from the north, mostly the Assyrians. Later, for the house of Judah, the Babylonians would come in and they would even take some of the people away. There were numerous times when that would happen until they finally then were overthrown. But during the time Isaiah was speaking, the nation of Israel would fall and go into captivity to Assyria.

And of course, that became somewhat of a crisis in Judah. I'm sure they were immensely concerned, and you can see how, and even whenever we read some of the things that they were doing, the alliances that Judah would make either with Egypt or with others of the nations around them, they would try to think, well, what kind of foreign policy can we have with these nations close to us to create an alliance?

If we get overrun, then maybe we could get some help. Of course, that wasn't the right place to look for help. The right place to look for help was what we've already had mentioned. They needed to be looking to God. And of course, that's a big part of what Isaiah was saying. And, as I said, the nation of Israel did fall to Assyria, but Judah at that time was spared, partly because Hezekiah, who was again the last of these four kings that Isaiah was prophesying during that time, Hezekiah listened. You see him consulting with Isaiah. It appears more than probably all of the others. So Isaiah foretold to the king, even Hezekiah, that ultimately even Judah would be taken into captivity.

He made that statement to Hezekiah, and yet that was going to happen 100 or 125 years later, than Israel actually would fall. And it's interesting to see, whenever you see the things that are written about the prophet Isaiah, and of course there's a lot of dispute about the dating, and a lot of dispute about, did he even write the whole book?

And I'm not going to go into all of those discussions, because I'm going to say that you see in the New Testament, which I trust more than any of the other opinions, that Isaiah and each of the disputed sections of Isaiah, they're all quoted as from Isaiah in the New Testament. So I believe God surely had a hand in that, and a hand even in putting down what Isaiah put down in the book that goes by his name.

One of the things that stands out as a central theme in what Isaiah wrote was the topic of deliverance, not just captivity, because they were, yes, going to go into captivity, but there was far more that Isaiah had to say than just, you were going to go into captivity.

He talks a great deal about being delivered. He talks a great deal about how not only these nations were going to be delivered, but how that even nations today, as we apply this to our understanding today, because there is a dual connection. People don't take the warnings from God, from his prophets, seriously today. They don't read the Bible for that information. And yet, if they did, it would be to their benefit. It would be to their benefit because there is information there that is helpful. And yet Isaiah was talking about deliverance. I'd like to kind of break down Isaiah's message here, at least a few of the verses that we can easily cover here today.

Isaiah's message can be seen. You can even see it in the first few chapters. Actually, the first five chapters are somewhat of an introduction, because when you come to chapter 6, which we'll go through a little bit, you see that's where it seems to be God interacting with Isaiah and bringing him into an awareness of his job. And yet, the first few chapters here, chapters 1 through 5, they show, and we can easily read here, verse 4, he says, O sinful nation, this is in chapter 1, people laden with iniquity, offspring who do evil, children who deal corruptly, who have forsaken the Lord, who have despised the Holy One of Israel, who are utterly estranged.

Now, this was his message. You're not obeying God. You are really cutting yourself off from God because of your sins. Why do you seek further beating? Why do you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint. And the sole of the foot to the, even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and bleeding wounds.

And they've not been drained or bound up or softened with oil. See, he was giving a description of how that their rebellion, their resistance to God, was simply going to bring calamity and pain and suffering and ultimately captivity. That's what he was certainly going to tell them. Now, you can again read more in this one chapter.

Actually, I guess if we drop down, he points out in verse 16 what they really needed to do. And in some ways, whenever you read through this, whenever you read through and study the book of Isaiah, you have to see that, well, he's giving a warning, but he's also saying what they should do in verse 16.

He says, wash yourselves and make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your doing from before your eyes. Seize to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Rescue the oppressed. Defend the orphan. Plead for the widow. Come now, let us reason or argue it out, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow. Though they're like red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

He was extending to them an offering of, you know, God is a merciful God. God is a forgiving God. And what you need to do is repent. And of course, when we read later, again, I'm looking at the whole book here. When we read later, that there's going to be a deliverer. And that's what we actually find when we go on over to, say, the middle or the later part of the book of Isaiah here in chapter 52 and chapter 53.

These are chapters that we are familiar with because we often read these around the time of the Passover. Because they are clearly predicting the coming of the deliverer. They are predicting 600 years, 600 or 700 years prior to the time when Jesus would be sent from the Father as the suffering servant. It was written here in chapter 52 starting in about verse, let's see, chapter 52, verse 13. This is beginning to talk about the suffering servant, and certainly all the way through chapter 53, you see an expression of what Jesus would do when he was sent to the earth.

And so this is what Isaiah was not only saying back then that you need to obey God and receive his benefits. He says even a greater benefit is coming. That greater benefit is the deliverer who will deliver mankind from his sins. And of course we understand this to be dealing with Jesus and his first coming in the time when he would set up or he would not set up a kingdom.

He would only announce a kingdom. When Pilate asked him, are you a king and do you have a kingdom? He said, yeah, I've got a kingdom. He's just not being set up right now. I am a king, and I'm going to return to set up that kingdom. That was when he announced the kingdom of God. But we also see in Isaiah numerous chapters, again, that we are often very familiar with, chapter 2, chapter 11, chapter 35.

And then there are others that talk about the transformation that will take place on this earth whenever Jesus truly comes to establish the kingdom of God on earth. And so that's why Isaiah was writing about that they would go into captivity, and actually he says they would come out of captivity physically. But there's going to come a great deliverer.

And ultimately this whole world, not just the people of God, the people of Israel and Judah, but even the other nations, are going to be brought into the kingdom of God. And so we want to have that in mind whenever we are reading this. Often you read phrases in Isaiah that clearly show he's talking about a time not just when he was dealing with the people of Judah, or directly even when Jesus would later come a few hundred years later, but millennia later.

Whenever the kingdom of God is set up, he would use the phrase, in days to come, in that day, on that day, the day of the Lord is near. Those are the phrases that he's using whenever you read through. I'm not giving you obviously the references for these. But if you read through that and you see those somewhat as identifying signs of something that's really yet to happen. And I find, as you look at toward the end of the book, chapter 40 through 66, which is the end of the last chapter of the book of Isaiah, this is mentioning the type of comfort, the type of care that Jesus is going to bring to this earth.

Not only that he brought initially by announcing the kingdom of God and being the Lamb of God and sacrificing for the sins of the world, but he also is going to bring deliverance when he comes in power and in glory. Let's look at chapter 45. You can again look at this chapter 40 through 66. If you have in mind that this is talking about what Jesus is ultimately, in most cases, it's talking about something he's yet to do or he's going to do in the future.

And I think it's important to realize that there are many chapters here, chapter 40 and through chapter 50, where you see a description of God. You see, God being described as that I'm ruling over this earth. I am in charge of what's taking place. People need to respond to my instructions, but I allow them to choose to disobey. And yet, of course, he says it's much better to obey. Let's look at chapter 45.

I think some of these chapters here are just, whenever it talks about how that God is going to bless Israel, and that the idolatry, actually what we find as far as sins that are so easily defined for Israel and for the people of Judah, is the sin of idolatry, turning away from God, seeking something else, the sin of Sabbath breaking, ignoring the Sabbath, not even keeping track or being aware that that's something that should be honored.

But then you also see a great deal of arrogance, a great deal of pride that is condemned. And yet, I think it's exciting to see how that, here in chapter 45, you see that it says in verse 1, This sayeth the Lord, who is anointed to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him, and strip kings of their robes.

Here Isaiah was predicting somebody by the name of Cyrus who's going to come and rescue the people. Of course, this was referring to several hundred years before it would happen to Cyrus, who was a king in Persia, who would actually be inspired by God. He can do anything. He can deal with people who need healing. He can deal with Israel. He can deal with the Gentile world. And actually, that's really what we find when we study the New Testament references. A great deal of information, not just about Israel, but also about the Gentile world, and how God is going to provide comfort and deliverance and relief to this whole world.

But it's impressive, here in chapter 45, verse 11, Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker, Will you question me about my children, or will you command me concerning the work of my hands? I made the earth. I created mankind upon it. It was my hands that stretched out the heavens and commanded all of their hope. And down in verse 18, Thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, He is God. He formed the earth, and He made it and established it.

He did not create it in chaos, but He formed it to be inhabited. He says, I'm the Lord, and there is no other. This was a part of the proclamation of what Isaiah was pointing out, that, look, you're ignoring the great God who created everything, and who actually allows you, as the people of Judah, as they might hear what He had to say, or even the kings of Judah, you need to be responsive to the One who created you.

And of course, that's the same thing to all of us today. We need to be responsive to the One who created us. Let's turn over to chapter 51. Chapter 51, verse 1, says, Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness, you that seek the Lord. Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.

Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah, who bore you, again, very familiar people, to the people of Judah. Look to Abraham, look to Sarah, for he was but one when I called him, but I blessed him, and I made him many. For the Lord will comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste places, and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her thanksgiving in the voice of the song. See, even though he preached, you need to obey God, or you're going to go into captivity, and of course they did, he also preached comfort.

He preached that, well, there will be a time when God will be rescuing not only the house of Israel, but he'll rescue even the Gentile nations that he uses at times to punish his people. Let's also look in chapter 61. Again, this is all in the latter part of what we read in the book of Isaiah. Here in chapter 61, the Spirit of the Lord, in verse 1, is upon me because the Lord has anointed me. Clearly, this is a reference to Jesus, and he even stated, I believe it's in Luke 4, he was reading this part of Isaiah in the synagogue.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God.

Again, there's a transition there in that verse. In verse 2, the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance seem to be two different events, and he didn't even mention the day of vengeance whenever Jesus was quoting this in Luke.

But he says, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to provide for those who mourn in Zion, to give them a garland instead of ashes, an oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called the Oaks of Righteousness, the Planning of the Lord, to display His glory, and they shall build up the ancient ruins and shall raise up the former devastations.

They shall repair the ruined cities. And it says in verse 6, You shall be called the priest of the Lord and shall be named ministers of our God. Down in verse 9, he says, All who see them shall acknowledge that they are a people from whom the Lord has blessed, and I will greatly rejoice in verse 10, and the Lord, my whole being, shall exult in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation.

This appears to be talking of a great restoration, a great deliverance, a time that we know of as the world tomorrow, a time that is to come when the kingdom of God will be set up. And of course, many of these statements we apply to how it is that God is going to even use us, what He's preparing us for, to provide comfort, to provide service, to provide love to the nations.

And actually, it's, I think, also noted here in the first part of chapter 66.

What are the type of people that God is really looking for? Well, here in verse 1, thus says the Lord, chapter 66, verse 1, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What is the house that you would build for me, and what is my resting place? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things are mine, says the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look to the humble and contrite in spirit who tremble at my word. See, many of these verses are ones that we're familiar with. We would be aware of if we didn't even read the whole book. And yet these are greatly significant statements regarding Christianity, regarding what he wants us to be like, how it is. That, yes, we want to move away from the pride and the arrogance that Satan injects into this world and seek the humility and the contrition that comes from truly understanding the Word of God. And so the overview of the book seems to me to be about being delivered, and God providing comfort and ultimately providing for us to have eternal life in the kingdom of God. That's what he is primarily focused on. So I wanted to cover that in general, and then I want to go back. You actually see here in chapter 6 that Isaiah, and we'll read through a good part of this.

It says in verse 1, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lofty, and the hem of his robe filled the temple, and seraphim were in attendance above him, each with six wings, and with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. So here again, this was a vision that seems very similar to what John wrote about in the book of Revelation.

The whole book of Revelation is a vision from Jesus about what would be in the end time. But in chapter 1 and in chapter 4 and even in parts of chapter 5, you see John envisioning, writing down what the throne of God is like. And that's what this appears, that Isaiah was given a vision of the throne of God.

And so he was recognizing, as he saw this, and of course you see a greater description in Revelation. You see the angelic hosts, you see the 24 elders, you see the living beings, you see everything that is surrounding the throne of God that is described in Revelation. I would assume John saw that.

He wrote down at least part of that, or excuse me, Isaiah saw that. But then it says in verse 3, One of these angels, one of the seraphim came to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory. And again pointing out who it was that they were dealing with. And it says, the pivots of the threshold shook at the voices of those who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

And of course, what was Isaiah's reaction? Whenever he was seeing this vision of the throne of God and recognizing, well, this is certainly out of the ordinary, and if this is envisioning the great God and the one that I worship and the one that I want to give a message from to the people and to the kings, primarily in Judah, he said about himself, Whoa is me in verse 5.

I am lost. I am simply a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, yet my eyes now see the King, the Lord of hosts. What he was recognizing was, you know, this is unbelievable. This vision is way beyond anything that I have ever imagined. And of course, he acknowledges that I don't deserve to see this.

I am simply a man of unclean lips. And of course, in verse 6 and 7, it talks about him being cleaned up. In verse 6, one of the seraphim flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs, and he touched my mouth with it and said, Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin has blotted out. And does God have the capacity to do that?

Does he have the capacity to forgive our sins? Well, we see some of the conditions regarding that, regarding our repentance and turning from sin. But yes, he has the same ability to forgive us and to relieve us of that burden. And clearly, that was a burden to Isaiah. He realized I don't have any business envisioning the throne of God. And yet, God says, well, I can clean you up. And then interestingly, he makes an offer that it looks like he probably isn't going to be able to refuse.

I heard the voice of the Lord saying, well, who should I send? And who will go for me? And of course, he asked to answer, well, I'm here. You know, send me. This was, in a sense, Isaiah's introduction into the whole message that he is going to give that will be for the people of Judah, but will also be for all of us today. And that is looking into the kingdom of God in so many ways, because that's clearly what the book of Isaiah is about.

But in verse 9, he starts telling him what he wants him to preach, what he wants him to tell the people of Judah. He says in verse 9, I want you to go and say to the people, keep listening, but do not comprehend. Keep looking, but do not understand. Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears and shut their eyes so that they may not look with their eyes and listen with their ears and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed. Now this, in a sense, seems like an unusual message that he was to give to the people of Judah.

I'm going to preach, and I'm going to preach, and I'm going to preach, and you're not going to listen, and you're not going to hear, and you're not going to see, and you're not going to comprehend. But see, what was this setting up? Well, this was setting up something far more important whenever Jesus came and gave a message about the kingdom of God, about some that he would give understanding to, and some who would hear but who would not understand. See, it was far more critical, you know, whether Israel or Judah, either one, primarily Judah, whether they responded right then was not God's direct intent.

But he did want, and this actually, this statement here in verse 9 and 10 is most, I guess the most times quoted in the New Testament, because it has to do with God drawing people to truly understand his message and his power and his plan of salvation. And he says here in verse 11, and I said, how long, O Lord?

And so he said, well, how long do I have to do my job? And he said, well, until cities lie waste without habitation, and houses without people, and land is utterly desolate. And so again, it was clear that he was going to do his job until they went into captivity. Until the Lord sends everyone far away, and vast is the emptiness of the land, even if a tenth part remain in it, it will be burned again like a terebin, or an oak whose stump remains standing when it is felled.

The Holy Seed is its stunk. He had information that he was to say that they were not going to hear or see or respond to as this nation would be sent into captivity, but that it would not die. It would revive. And of course, I think that was an important part of what it was that Isaiah needed to understand, because again, he had a kind of a message of doom in one sense, but in great deliverance in another sense.

And so this gives us here in Isaiah 6 kind of the setting for what Isaiah, what he received this information, and I'm sure at times throughout the length of time that he was a prophet, he would receive different information. You see here in chapter 7, it has him interacting with King Ahaz. Now Ahaz was not a good king. He was a disobedient. Actually, you see down in verse 10, the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign of the Lord your God, let it be deep as sheol or high as heaven, but Ahaz said, I'm not going to do it.

I will not ask, I will not put the Lord to the test. And Isaiah said, Here then, O house of David, is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. And so he points out, and then here in this case he actually starts talking more so, what is it, verse 14, and in verse 18, and 20, and 21, and 22, talking about Emmanuel, talking about someone who would come and actually be a resurrector or a redeemer for the house of Judah.

And of course, I'm not wanting to go through all these other statements here, but you can see they all appear to be looking toward the future.

And so here you see a little bit of an interaction between Ahaz and Isaiah. And whenever you go back and you look at the history in 2 Kings primarily, I think where most of this happens, you see it recorded or repeated in 2 Chronicles, in some of the chapters there. You see that some of this information seems to be recorded two different times in Isaiah, but also, say, in 2 Kings. I want to go on to chapter 36 now, because we started there in chapter 40, and I'm sorry to be jumping around here, but this is kind of how I wrote this down, so I'm going to be able to at least point out to you, because here in chapter 36, chapter 35 is very familiar to us, in that it's one that we often read about the real restoration that will take place in the world tomorrow. But in chapter 36, and 37, and 38, and 39, you actually see several chapters here that are almost verbatim with 2 Kings. Let's see, did I write down? Yes, 2 Kings, I believe, about 2 Kings 18.

1 and 2 Samuel, and 2 Kings. So this is in the latter part of the rule. This is starting in verse 18, 2 Kings 18. This is starting to talk about Hezekiah's brain. I believe that this is 2 Kings 18 through chapter 20. This is very similar, 2 Kings 18 to 20, and what we'll read here in Isaiah 36, 37, and 38. Here we have in Isaiah 36 an interaction between Hezekiah, who was the last of the kings that he was going to prophesy to, and how it was that Hezekiah, being a good king, being one who had turned himself to God and tried to encourage others, you also see in chapter 37 that Hezekiah consults with Isaiah, verse 1, when King Hezekiah heard it. This is about a huge, developing army that is going to be coming against the people of Judah. If you read chapter 36, Enacharib is threatening Jerusalem, and he is going to be bringing a huge Assyrian army down to threaten the people of Judah. In chapter 37, you see Hezekiah taking this to Isaiah, verse 1, when he heard it, he tore his clothes, he covered himself with sackcloth, he went into the house of the Lord, he sent for Eliakim. He also said to the prophet Isaiah, they say to him, this day is a day of distress, a day of rebuke, a day of disgrace. Children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. It may be that the Lord your God heard the words. Actually, the messengers from the king of Assyria had bragged about how they are going to demolish Jerusalem, and how they are going to overtake the whole country. And of course that put a great deal of fear, not only in the leaders, but also most of the people.

And yet, whenever Hezekiah brought this, verse 5, it says, when the servants of Hezekiah came to Isaiah, Isaiah said to them, say to your master, Thus says the Lord, do not be afraid, do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me, because I myself will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land. I will cause him to fail, or to fall by the sword in his own land. So that's quite a prediction. Hezekiah turns to Isaiah, ask him, what should we do?

And of course he says, well, we just need to trust God. We need to look to God to help us. And of course, this is, I guess, what Hezekiah certainly was wanting to do. And whenever you see in verse 14, again, this is a instruction about how we can bring things to God. Of course, Hezekiah received the letter that came from the king of Assyria.

He went up to the house of the Lord, he spread it before the Lord, and he prayed to the Lord, and said, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, you are enthroned among the carobim. You are God, you alone, in all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven known, heaven and earth. Incline your ear, and here open your eyes, O Lord, and see. Here are the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. And truly, O God, the kings of Assyria have laid waste to all the nations in the lands, and they've hurled their gods into the fire.

For they are no gods but the work of human hands. And so now, in verse 20, O Lord, our gods save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the Lord. So clearly Hezekiah was following what we would say would be a right instruction to obey God, to turn to God, to ask God for help.

And of course, there's far more information here than we can read here during this sermon. But what you find is that Sennacherib and his army of 185,000 just are demolished. Let's see. If it says in verse 36, the angel of the Lord set out, this is chapter 37, verse 36, the angel of the Lord set out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians.

When morning dawn, they were all dead. Quite an impressive victory that the house of Judah and Hezekiah were able to have, but the reason for that was simply that they were turning to God. They were following what Isaiah said. You need to look to God. You need to ask Him for help. And of course, what God had told Isaiah was, I can take care of it.

I can handle it. I'm going to allow you to go into captivity, but not right now. That's what he was saying. He says, I'm in charge of this. I'm the one who is ruling over the people of God, and actually I rule over all the earth. And even though He's going to later send another nation that will punish the house of Judah, it's interesting to see, and this is a pretty easy section to follow, verse 36 through 39, because it's kind of an interaction between Isaiah and Hezekiah and what's going to happen.

In chapter 38, you have a discussion of Hezekiah's illness. And it says in verse 1, In those days Hezekiah became sick, and he was at the point of death, and the prophet Isaiah came to him and said, Thus says the Lord, you need to put your house in order, for you're going to die.

You're not going to recover. That was not good news. I mean, that was clearly, and as Hezekiah had just seen, when Isaiah had predicted that the Assyrian armies will die somehow, I'm sure this was very discouraging, but again in verse 2, Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord. He said in verse 3, Remember, O Lord, I am for you, how I have walked before you in faithfulness with a whole heart, and I have done what is good in your sight, and Hezekiah wept bitterly. Now, he was requesting help. He was pleading with God. And so the word of the Lord came to Isaiah.

Again, Isaiah is this prophet that God seems to be passing information on through. He says, Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the Lord, the God of your ancestor David, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears, I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria and defend this city. This is a sign to you from the Lord that the Lord will do this, that he is promised.

And so he was working with Hezekiah, and again, I think again, a very good example for us. When Hezekiah saw that the odds are really against us, you know, we've got this huge army that is approaching, and then after that was solved, you know, I'm sick. He pleaded with God for help. He asked him for mercy, and God extended that mercy, extended his life for another fifteen years. Now it doesn't appear that Hezekiah was altogether as righteous as he said he was, because he also had some problems that are written about a little later. But nonetheless, you know, what we see there in verse 3 is exactly the type of approach that we want to have.

And sometimes you almost have to be backed into a corner before you have the approach that's described here in verse 3, where he says, I am for you, that I'm trying. I'm walking before you in faithfulness with my whole heart, and I have done what is good in your sight. See, that was, he was weeping bitterly about the distress that he now found himself in. And so, you know, the example for us, I think, is one that, you know, we certainly want to keep in mind.

But this, in a sense, covers, if I can say, covers at least somewhat of the background of what we can see out of the book of Isaiah and his setting in the Nation of Judah, his discussions with the kings. I don't see him discussing things with Jotham or the other, or well-used, I believe their interaction is a little bit there. That is how he was predicting that they should turn to God, that they should obey, but when they don't, then they're going to go into captivity, and God will then deliver them.

He will bring them out of that captivity. And that, in a sense, is, I think, an important part of having in mind, whenever we see how it is, that God is going to bring about a real solution to the problems.

So this is perhaps all I can try to cover here today. Like I said, next week I want to show how it is that the words of Isaiah are used in the New Testament, because there are many different references that you have throughout the Gospels and then throughout the Paul's writings, and even Peter mentions the book of Isaiah in the New Testament, and so that may be very, very, I think, revealing to all of us. But it's amazing to see, as God inspired, and this is what we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, God inspired the writing of an amazing book. He inspired that through many different people, through many different circumstances, some of which don't seem directly connected, but when you put them all together, there is a lot more fluency to it than we might initially see.

And again, if you read through the book of Isaiah, some of these sections will stand out, and some of the verses about the world to come certainly stand out. But that's all in conjunction with the message that Isaiah had, that God is in control and He will provide deliverance. So I think it's fascinating to see what we find in Isaiah, the fulfillment of so many of the verses that are stated here in Jesus as the Son of God, as the Messiah. And then secondly, the blindness that he wrote about there. This was a part of his statements. He was to say, people need eyes to see, they need ears to hear, they need to understand, they need to turn.

That's clearly written into the New Testament and something that we certainly understand today. But, as I've also said, God is going to remove that blindness. He's going to remove that from Israel. He's going to remove that from all of the Gentile nations, because right now people are blinded. They are in need, if we are able to see, which we need to be thankful for, if we're able to see the hand of God, even in the interactions, as this nation declines, as our influence around the world continues to be undermined, as we watch developing warfare take place, we have a need to be motivated in reading and then heeding the Word of God.

But ultimately, blindness and not being able to hear what God is saying plays a big part in that God is going to work things out according. He's going to call people at this time that he wishes to know and to prepare for a time in the future when he's going to reclaim all of Israel and the rest of the earth.

And so it's going to be according to his divine plan and his own timing whenever that occurs. And I think that we see that pointed out. If you have that in mind, you can see that pointed out whenever you read through the book of Isaiah. But next time we'll try to go through some of the verses that are connected to the book of Isaiah in the New Testament.