This week in the Come Follow Me curriculum we start on the book of Isaiah and we will continue in Isaiah for a total of 5 weeks. In the Book of Mormon, Jesus tells the people of Bountiful that they are commanded to search the words of Isaiah (3 Nephi 23:1). Whole chapters of Isaiah are quoted in several different places in the Book of Mormon. I must admit, however, that up to this point of my life I have not been a fan. As I considered studying Isaiah again, I tried to analyze why I don't like it. I think it is because it has always seemed rather schizophrenic to me. At one point he is talking about the political situation in his day, and then in the next verse, he is prophesying about Jesus, or the end of the world. People have said, "Oh, that's just the "manner of prophesying among the Jews" (2 Nephi 25:1) and if you have the spirit of prophesy it will make sense to you." This is not encouraging, but discouraging.
So this time through, I decided to pretend that it is not schizophrenic. I have decided to look at Isaiah the way that people in his time would have seen it. I will assume that what he said was intended for his contemporaries and concerned their specific situation. I realize this is a very narrow interpretation, and not the only valid one, but I am hoping this will help me understand Isaiah better, and dislike it less.
The challenge is that as I was reading along, I came to passages that have been used as a reference to later events so many times it is hard for me to try to see them in their original context. So for the next few weeks I am going to try to wrench those kinds of passages from the cultural biases with which I have always seen them and try to see how they applied to Isaiah's time. One of the podcasts, Follow Him with special guest Dr. Jason Combs was helpful this week in that he takes a similar approach.
To start I want to go over a super basic overview of what was happening in Isaiah's time. He was a court priest or advisor for four different kings of Judah. During his life the Assyrians threatened the land and Israel (northern tribes) and Syria wanted to form an alliance with Judah to fight against Assyria. Isaiah recommended to Hezekiah that Judah not join the alliance. Israel and Syria attempted to invade Jerusalem to force the alliance, but Jerusalem withstood the invasion. Ephraim and Syria ended up making alliances with other surrounding nations, but when the Assyrian King, Sennacherib, invaded, the alliance fell and the northern kingdoms were taking into captivity and eventually lost their cultural identity. Even though Jerusalem survived these two invasions, Isaiah prophecies that they will eventually be conquered by Babylon and be carried into captivity. He also prophesies that after a time a remnant of the faithful will return to Jerusalem, set up a temple, and live in peace.
This is starting to be a long post, so lets just look at two really well known passages, and see how they fit into this historical setting.
Isaiah 7:14-16 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
This passage is quoted every Christmas as a prophecy of the birth of Jesus, but in context, it is just a way for Isaiah to prophecy how long it is until both Syria and Ephraim will fall. The word "virgin" just means a young woman, perhaps a hypothetical one. The name "Immanuel" means "God is with us" so by giving this hypothetical son the name of "Immanuel" Isaiah is emphasizing that Jerusalem will be saved because God is with them. What Isaiah is saying is that "if a child were born today, he wouldn't have grown old enough to know good from evil before both Israel and Syria were defeated." This prophecy turned out be be true. From the time this prophecy was given it was only a couple of years before Israel and Syria were defeated by Assyria.
Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, The everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
This is another passage that is always read at Christmas time. It is hard not to see a prophecy of the birth of Jesus in this passage. How would the Jews of Isaiah's time see this passage? Even now Jews see this as a prophecy of the one righteous king to reign during Isaiah's life, King Hezekiah. The name Hezekiah means "The Lord Strengthens". That is Isaiah's message for the Jews, and for Hezekiah specifically, that they should not rely on alliances, but on the Lord as their strength. It makes sense that Isaiah would speak very highly of him, calling him the all those great epithets.
In conclusion, I am not saying that these were not prophecies of Jesus. I am only saying they were not only prophecies of Jesus. They related to Isaiah's time and situation, and we can understand them better if we look at them in context.
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