Isaiah (Part 1) - Introduction — Ron Bailey

Okay, shall we just have a word of prayer and we'll make a start. We just want consciously, Lord, to come before you again and lift our hearts to you and declare our dependence upon you. We do pray, Lord, for that special help of your spirit which will open this book and show us our Saviour.

Lord, we give ourselves to you and pray for your blessing upon this time. Amen. Someone said to me earlier that if nothing else, he said, we have a great sense of anticipation. I think that's because of all the things that have been said indirectly about me during these last couple of meetings.

I really don't know where I got this reputation for erudition from. It reminds me of a story told about a lady, a negro lady in the deep south of North America who had a reputation for being very wise and being able to give very good counsel to different people.

And on one occasion, someone asked her how it was she had this ability. And she said, well, she said, when you have no education, you just have to use your brains. And that's really the principle we shall have to work on.

I tell you, it was only the posh houses that had gutters where I came from, so you couldn't even play in the gutters where I came from. I want to center my thoughts really on some of the things that are said in the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah and the Enlarging Knowledge of God

Someone asked me earlier on what I was going to do, and I said, I thought I would be in Isaiah. And he said he'd just come back from Romania where there was a specialist on Isaiah who had spent many years doing all kinds of charts, trying to work out what a specialist on Isaiah would be called, a kind of an Isaiologist or something like that.

Well, I'm not one of those. But there are parts of the book of Isaiah which I really think can be very helpful in enlarging our concept of God. I reveled in what we were listening to last night and at other times.

There aren't many people who talk to us about God. There aren't many preachers who talk to us about God. Lots of ideas and truths and salvation and what should happen and where we should go and how we should be, but there aren't many people who talk to us about God.

And it's a delight just to be able to do that. And one of the purposes of people like Isaiah for us is the way in which God can continue by his Spirit to enlarge our understanding and enlarge our concepts of who God is.

Many others here will know the book of Isaiah well. And if I try to put it a little bit into its context, it's just because when you put a thing into its context, often it can help you. It can mean quite a bit more if you put it into its context.

For example, I will quote something to you. This is almost probably a direct quote. If I can remember it, it's something like this. Have you remembered that the car has to go in tomorrow? Now, there's only one person here who just looked up.

There's only one person here who will understand that quote. And it's because there's only one person here who understands the context, who knows who it was said by and when it was said and what car was being referred to.

It was something that Naomi said to Tom yesterday. And of course, the quotation makes no sense at all to us because we don't know what the context was, we don't know who said what. But when you do know the context, then you begin to understand some of the implications of those kind of statements.

The Spirit of Christ in Prophecy

Let me just begin in a very slow and gentle way to say something about prophecy and about the way that prophecy has come into being. If you turn to the writings of Peter, 1 Peter chapter 1. In verse 9 he makes reference to our salvation, the salvation of our souls.

And then in verse 10 he says this, Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come to you, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.

Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us, they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you, with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look into.

It's a fascinating little comment that the Spirit of God brings us at this time about the way in which prophecy worked. Peter also says in his other letter that no prophecy comes by private interpretation.

Prophecy is not the opinions of men. It's not the result of Isaiah's meditations, his contemplations, and then saying, well I think probably God is thinking like this. They're not private interpretations.

It was the Spirit of Christ who was speaking in them of sufferings and glories which would follow. And one of the things that Peter says here is that the prophets themselves were very aware that they did not understand the full implications of what they were saying.

The prophets themselves did not know the full implications of what they were saying. In fact, what it says here is that they searched and inquired diligently. Those are metaphors for mining. They dug and they delved.

The words that God had given to them, they sought to understand. They knew that God had said things, the implications of which were far greater than they could really see. They knew that there was truth beyond the horizons of their own situation.

They knew they were saying things that had a far greater relevance than just the context in which they spoke. And when they asked God what the relevance of these things were, one of the things that was told them was this.

Verse 12, it was revealed to them that not to themselves, but to us, they did minister the things which are now reported to you by them that have preached the gospel to you. And it goes on. Verse 12 tells us, if you have eyes to read it and a heart to receive it, that the prophecy of Isaiah was written to you.

According to verse 12, the prophecy of Isaiah was written to you. There are all kinds of parts of the Old Testament which have a far greater relevance to you than they do to the people who originally spoke them or wrote them and the people who originally heard them.

Hosea's Prophecy Fulfilled in Christ

Let's go back to an Old Testament prophet. Let's go back to Hosea. Hosea chapter 11. This perhaps will just illustrate a little bit something of the nature and the wonder of this book that God has given to us.

Hosea chapter 11. When Israel was a child, then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt. As they called them, so they went from them. They sacrificed to Balaam and burnt incense to graven images. It's not perhaps a very edifying two verses.

But the reason I read it is because if you look at the first verse and then say to yourself, what did this mean to Hosea? What did this first verse mean to the man who originally uttered it or wrote it?

When Israel was a child, then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt. And if you think about it, it's not complicated. You'll come to the conclusion, I'm sure, that Hosea is thinking about the Exodus.

He's thinking about the time when God called Israel to be his nation and God spoke of Israel as his son. God said, Israel is my son, my firstborn son. Israel must be set free so that he can serve me. And here he says, when Israel was a child, then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt.

And if you had said to Hosea at the end of the meeting or whenever it was he uttered this prophecy, if you had said to him, what did you mean by that sentence when you said, when Israel was a child, then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt?

I have no doubt at all in my mind that Hosea would have said, well, I was referring to the Exodus. I was referring to the time of God's choice of the nation when he brought the people out to become his people.

Well, let's turn to Matthew in that case. Matthew, who constantly goes back to the Old Testament. Here in Matthew chapter 2. I'll read from verse 12 because that will be enough for us to catch the sense of it.

Verse 12. And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, this is the wise ones, they departed into their own country another way. And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise and take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt and be thou there until I bring thee word.

For Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt and was there until the death of Herod, in order that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.

Now, how about that? That means that we have the opportunity of understanding the prophecy of Hosea better than Hosea did. That might sound staggering, but it's true. You and I have the opportunity of understanding the prophecy of Hosea better than Hosea did.

I don't suppose, I know it's speculation, but I don't suppose for a minute that Hosea, if you had said to him, do you really think you were speaking about the Messiah, I'm sure he would have said, no, I was just referring to the Exodus when they came out.

But Hosea was saying more than he knew. You see, it was God speaking by Hosea. It wasn't the private interpretation of Hosea. He was speaking things, and it's when we come into the New Testament that we begin to get a definitive exposition of some of these wonderful passages of Scripture.

Not just what they meant in their time and their context, but what they meant in an eternal context. It speaks, we just read in Peter, of the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ is the eternal Spirit.

The Eternal Significance of Christ's Cross

He's spoken of like this in Hebrews. I'll try not to get too close to Hebrews. I was thinking when we were driving down in the car and just sharing a little bit about the things that were on our hearts that we might share.

But really, it's counterproductive, you know, to say to people, I'm thinking of doing this, so please don't you think about it, because it just has the opposite effect. It's like the story that maybe some of you recall that Edgar Parkins used to tell.

Now, Edgar was a master at storytelling, so I can't compete with that. But he told a story that had something to do with some African country in which there was a kind of a witch doctor who had a special brew or medicine that was guaranteed to cure anything.

It didn't matter what you had, this concoction would cure it. But there was just one proviso, and the witch doctor said when you use it, it will cure anything as long as when you use it, you don't think about red monkeys.

Now, you can work out exactly what would happen, of course, couldn't you? As soon as you reach for it, the first thing you think is, so it's not going to work. So, once you begin to say, I'm going to think along these lines, please don't do anything along that line, immediately most of your thoughts go along that line.

But in Hebrews, it speaks of the Lord Jesus, and it uses this phrase, it says that it was through the eternal spirit that he offered himself for that spot unto God. What happened on the cross, we've already touched on it this morning, what happened on the cross, although it was at a point in time and at a geographical location, you can put it in its context in those senses, in another sense, it was outside time.

It was an eternal event, an event which doesn't grow old, it never becomes jaded. Things that are just purely historical become tired, they grow weary, and the memories of them slowly begin to fade away.

I remember hearing a historian who once said that if you want a sense of history, or in order to have a sense of history, you have to have a sense of loss. That's a bit profound, early in the morning, but it really means that it's when you begin to realize that something is beyond you, and you can't get it back, and there's a sense of loss, that people usually begin to get interested in their history.

When their parents are getting old, or their grandparents have died, they begin to think, oh, I wonder what Granny used to do when she was little, or this kind of thing. You see, if you have a sense of loss, it often creates a kind of a sense and an interest in history.

The marvellous thing is that I have no sense of history at all about the cross. I have no sense at all of loss. It's not growing tired. I have to constantly remind myself that it was two thousand years ago, because in my spirit it seems as though it's now.

Like Wesley's hymns, even now we see him die, even now. There's something that happens in the spirit that doesn't grow old. It doesn't get weary. It doesn't get jaded. It doesn't become stagnant. It is alive.

And what happened on the cross was that the Lord Jesus offered himself through the eternal spirit to God, and the consequence of that is eternal. Now, eternal does not just mean it goes on forever, like some preachers.

It doesn't mean that. Eternal means really outside time, of a different nature altogether. From eternity to eternity thou art God. It's an entirely different dimension, but it's a dimension that touches time at certain places in God's orderings.

That's why it can speak of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ as being from the foundation of the world. That's why he can say those kind of things. And things that happen in eternity, you can see them any time.

You can see them before they happen, and you can see them after they happen, because they always are. Things that are eternal are always as they ever were. Let me go back a little bit to Psalms, Psalm 22.

Psalm 22 and the Testimony of Jesus

There are many Psalms like this. This is a Psalm of David, and again I hope it will just begin to help us to understand something that is happening in the Old Testament. And why we should not relegate the Old Testament just to an Old Testament way of looking at things.

If you do that, you end up locked in history. And all you end up with is a list of facts and information, and maybe one or two lessons. But you won't have the living life of God. You won't have the continuing revelation of his spirit making things real to you.

This is Psalm 22, a very well-known Psalm, in which David begins by saying, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Very familiar, of course, because they're the words that the Lord Jesus spoke on the cross.

And some people who perhaps haven't thought this right the way through would say that Jesus was quoting these words on the cross. He wasn't. No, David was quoting the words from the cross. Now, if you want a timeline, it's a useful one if you want it.

David is a thousand BC. He's a thousand years before Christ. And yet a thousand years before Christ, David heard something and repeated it. And what he heard was this word, this testimony of the spirit of Christ that was within him.

This is what Peter says, isn't it? He says that it was the spirit of Christ in them that was testifying of things that would be, concerning sufferings and glories. What David heard was the testimony of the spirit of Christ.

There's a verse in Revelation chapter 19 which says, The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Sounds kind of a vague, obscure, mystical verse. And it means many things. You can use the word testimony in the sense of bearing witness to someone, speaking the truth to someone.

And prophecy was certainly that. But you can also use the word witness or testimony in the sense of your recounting of your personal experience. And it is the testimony of Jesus, in this sense, which is the spirit of prophecy.

If we read a little bit farther on into Psalm 22, you'd have words like this. Verse 14. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels.

My strength is dried up like a pot shard, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws, and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs, that's what the Jews call Gentiles, for dogs have compassed me. The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me.

They pierced my hands and my feet. And you and I know that this is not David's testimony. This never happened to David. He never had his hands and his feet pierced. It goes on. I may count all my bones.

They look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. This isn't David's testimony. We know whose testimony this is. And this is the testimony of Jesus, which is the spirit of prophecy.

This is the spirit of Christ in David, speaking things which are eternally true. From that eternal moment, that sounds like a contradiction in terms, but from that eternal moment, David heard this chronologically a thousand years before the time, but he heard it in the spirit.

Things happened in David and in all these Old Testament prophets that were beyond their understanding. They weren't the result of their hard work. They weren't the result of their meditations. They were the result of something bubbling up inside them.

That's another way that David expresses it. I think it's Psalm 145, is it? Psalm 45. While we're here, we'll have a look. Psalm 45. This isn't called a song of David, and it wasn't, but whoever it was had exactly the same experience that David would have had.

The A .V. says, My heart is indicting a good matter, but probably in your margin it says bubbling up, or something like that. My heart is bubbling up with a good measure. I speak of the things which I have made touching the King.

My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. Alright, if his tongue is the pen, who is the writer? If his tongue is the pen, who is the writer? This isn't a result of his own brain work. This is something that's bubbling up.

This is the spirit of Christ that's within him, testifying of eternal realities. And you get that kind of thing happening all the way through the prophets, and that's why they are eternally relevant. It's an interesting thing, and I'm not advocating it, I'm not saying that it's the only way that God wants to speak to us, but probably the strongest words of comfort that God has brought to you in your Christian pilgrimage have been from the Psalms and from Isaiah.

Is that right? Well, I won't kind of test the meeting, as I used to call it, but probably the strongest words of encouragement have come from places like that. And it's not because you are reading some historical document that gives you some vague kind of consolation.

It's because the spirit of Christ is still testifying, still speaking. These words still have lasting power. They've not grown old. You must have had the experience, I have it constantly, where you read a passage of scripture and you think, I've never seen that before.

Sometimes you come to a verse, and you must have read it 20 times in your lifetime, but you come to it and you think, I've never seen this. I've never seen it. There's a life that comes into things. Not just the book, but the spirit using the book.

Scripture as God's Living Word

This is a very, very powerful instrument, and like all instruments, it can be used wrongly. The greatest blessing, the greatest heritage that the Jewish nation had was this book. That's what Paul says.

He asks a question, he says, What advantages then are there to circumcision? And he says, Much in every way, but chiefly, that to them were committed the oracles of God. This is their greatest treasure, and their greatest tragedy.

Jesus said, You search the scriptures. Because in them you think you'll find eternal life. And they testify of me, and you won't come to me, that you might have life. Their greatest treasure, and their greatest tragedy.

Interesting, isn't it? But in the hands of God's spirit, this book, and the words of this book, as God addresses them to our hearts, can bring life again and again, and transform situations of all kinds.

So Isaiah isn't just locked away in the Old Testament. I sometimes think that I would like to get a Bible which had kind of rings on the back of it, so that when you got to the Old Testament, you just kind of kept on turning around, and you went into the New Testament.

And when you got to the end of the New Testament, you just went automatically into the Old Testament, as though it was just kind of a circular thing. I think it was Augustine who used to say that in the Old Testament, the new is concealed.

And that in the New Testament, the old is revealed. They're not at one another's throats. They're not in contention. They are different ways that God has spoken. Supremely, of course, God has now spoken to us in His Son.

In divers plays, in divers times, in other ways, God had sought to express Himself through His prophets. But now, in these last days, He has spoken to us in His Son. Now, at last, God has a perfect means of expression, a way of making it clear to every heart just exactly who He is and what He's like.

Isaiah's Historical Setting

God used all kinds of different people. He used people who were simple herdsmen, like Amos. He used people like Isaiah, who many people say, and certainly Jewish tradition says very strongly, was a cousin of the king.

Cousin of king Uzziah. They reckon that Uzziah's father and Isaiah's father were actually brothers. It can't be proved, but it's a very old tradition, so there may be some kind of truth in it. There are one or two places in the book of Isaiah where you get the sense that the king would have known Isaiah's children by name.

So, maybe there was a close connection. Let's turn to Isaiah chapter 1. Perhaps you've noticed when you've read the Scriptures just how often the Bible is date-stamped. How often you get some reference to the date.

It was during this rain, or it was after this earthquake, or it was at this point in time. And that's because the context really often does give a tremendous relevance to things. It's not necessary. It doesn't have to be this way.

While you're looking to the first part of Isaiah, I'll just look for another verse so that I can quote it exactly. I recall many years ago now being at, when I was in Birmingham and I was at a college, and there was a Christian sister at this college who had only recently become a Christian.

And she had difficulties with her parents at home. She was a Liverpudlian girl. I can remember her very, very clearly. And she'd had difficulties with her parents, and particularly with her father. And she was always getting into arguments and contention with her father who thought that the decisions that she had made were nonsense.

So, there were constant rows in the family. And she was often very, very distressed by these rows that went on, these quarrels. And on one occasion, after a very strong quarrel, she went upstairs to her own room, very, very distressed, and just opened the Bible, and Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 22.

I'll read it for you. This is what she read. She read that you put off concerning the former conversation, the old men, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. And it was a source of great encouragement to her because she was sure it was telling her that she wasn't to worry about this conversation that she'd had with her dad.

Now, that is not good exposition, but God can use his book like that. God can use his book like that all the time. All the time, God has the right to take a verse out of context and use it in whatever way he wants to, but you don't have the right to do that.

You have a responsibility, really, to try to understand just what God is saying in a more plain way. This is Isaiah chapter 1. The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Isaiah began his time of prophecy at a sad time for the nation of Israel. God had made them his own people. He'd made them one. But after the reign of Solomon, some of the cracks that were already in the system began to open out, and in Solomon's son's reign, the time of Rehoboam, the nation divided into two parts.

And the northern part of ten tribes became known as Israel. God said, this is Israel. And the remaining part was given for David's sake to Rehoboam and became the nation of Judah in the south. So, you had a split nation.

And God sent some prophets to one nation and some prophets to another nation. And sometimes the prophets spoke in the way that God saw things in his heart, still regarding everything as one, but with an understanding that things were not as God had intended them to be.

Well, here, Isaiah was a prophet during the time of these kings of Judah. That's to say, the southern kingdom. If you want some dates, it's roughly, this is just very roughly, about 750 B .C. to about 700 B .C.

That's very rough and ready, but it's enough just to kind of get it into some kind of picture. This was when, during that whole period, of 50 years or something like that, God gave the prophetic word to Isaiah.

So, what we have as the book of Isaiah was not written at one sitting. It was written over a period of 50 years. And part was added to part. And the Spirit of God constantly building the revelation and increasing truth.

And sometimes it's very local. Sometimes it's just referring to things that are happening there at that day. But there are other times when it lifts. When it really takes off. When you begin to describe something which is on the earthly level and almost imperceptibly you suddenly discover you've become airborne.

Isaiah 14 and the Spiritual Powers Behind Nations

Let me just show you an example of that if I can find it quickly. It's in Isaiah chapter 14, I think. Isaiah chapter 14. God had a lot to say about other nations as they touched His nation at this time.

And this begins like this in verse 4. That you shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon. Alright, now that seems very straightforward, isn't it? We're talking about the king of Babylon. I'll explain a little bit about these superpowers in a minute.

Thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon and say, How has the oppressor ceased? The golden city ceased. The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked and the scepter of the rulers. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke.

He that ruled the nations in anger is persecuted and none hinders. The whole earth is at rest and is quiet. They break forth into singing. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee and the cedars of Lebanon saying, Since thou art laid down, no axman has come up against us.

Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming. It stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth. It hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave and the noise of thy vials. The worm is spread under thee and the worms cover thee.

Well, what is all that about? It's a picture that Isaiah is giving of the end of the Babylonian Empire. There were different superpowers in those days as there are in our days. And this is a prophecy of the time when the superpower of Babylon would come to an end.

And it's personified in its king, the king of Babylon. And you've got this picture of hell itself, Hades, and all the other kings that the king of Babylon has conquered and put to death. They are in Hades.

And now as he is dispossessed of his authority, he comes down to Hades and they all stand up to watch him. And they say, now look, you're exactly the same as we are now. What happened to us is exactly the same as what's happened to you.

And then it says this in verse 12. Remember, this is a proverb against the king of Babylon. Verse 12. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning. Now, how did we get from Babylon to heaven?

This is one of the things that happens often in prophecy. You begin at a certain level and without warning, it suddenly takes off. And you're at an entirely different height. You're operating with different things.

You have begun to touch principles which are working out on the earth. You've begun to touch practical, down to earth, solid flesh and blood issues. But behind those flesh and blood issues there are spiritual powers.

And as you begin to address the earthly, you begin to identify the spiritual powers that's behind them and the word of God goes to the source of things and not just to the manifestation which is in flesh and blood.

Behind the king of Babylon there was another power. Behind the king of Babylon there was another power. And Isaiah, speaking in the spirit, begins to speak to the king of Babylon and then addresses the power that's behind him and says this, How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning?

How art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the nations? For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble that did shake the kingdoms?

We're back on the earthly level of things now. It's as well to keep this kind of thing in mind when you read the Scripture that at times when it begins at one point and without warning will suddenly move into another dimension of things, onto another level of things.

Isaiah Among the Nations

Well, Isaiah was living at a time of tremendous conflict amongst the nations. Last night, Rez just jokingly said that we'd left Mr. North the maps to preach on. I like to kind of preach on the maps. So, you'll have to preach on the preface to King James or something like that.

If you've got a map at the back of your Bible or if you haven't, just try to keep something in your mind. We've already spoken about the division of God's people into two parts. The northern, which was Israel, and the southern, which was Judah.

And around these times, if you had gone northeast from Israel, the land of Israel, you would have come to the heart of what was known as the Assyrian Empire. Its capital was Nineveh and at one time it was one of the great superpowers.

It was a very cruel superpower. It had a time of weakness and during that time of weakness there was an opportunity for some of the kings in the northern kingdom of Israel to be their own men a little bit more.

They could make different kinds of decisions and they could strengthen their borders against attack. But then, there was a kind of a revival, not the spiritual revival, but a kind of political revival in Assyria and there was an Assyrian general whose name was Paul, who took the throne, changed his name to Tiglath-Pileser III.

They liked catchy names in those old days. And he became a real pain for everyone who was around. And one of the things that happened was that he strengthened the land of Assyria and its empires and the people who had had a measure of freedom before now came again under the shadow of these superpowers.

They could only really do what the superpowers allowed them to do. And this was the state of things when Isaiah was beginning his prophecies. So, things were very uncertain. They were very uncertain for the northern kingdom of Israel.

They were pretty uncertain too for the southern kingdom of Judah. And as you go through the first part of Isaiah up to chapter 39, you've got a series of words that God brings concerning the nations. Let me just see if I can find a verse in Deuteronomy which will explain a little bit perhaps about the way that the Bible works.

The Bible as a Selective History of Redemption

Deuteronomy chapter 32. Les said last night, this is a very short book. It's not a big book at all. And it does not pretend to be a chronicle of world history. That's not its intention. It's really a highly selective view of key incidents in the world's history that have a spiritual relevance.