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The Book of Prophet Isaiah 1 The book of prophet Isaiah – volume 1 (Explanation on the prophecies – 1 to 39) Tânia Cristina Giachetti Ministério Seara ágape https://www.searaagape.com.br/livrosevangelicosonline.html 1 The book of prophet Isaiah – volume 1 (Explanation on the prophecies – 1 to 39) Ministério Seara Ágape Ensino Bíblico Evangélico Tânia Cristina Giachetti São Paulo – SP – Brazil May 2018 2 This book is dedicated to those children of God who seek the knowledge of His will and believe in the immutability of His word, in His goodness to us, and in His power to liberate our lives. 3 I thank the Holy Spirit, a God always present and a faithful companion, who teaches me every day to overcome His challenges by faith and makes me know a little more about Jesus, the Lord and King of all things, whose faithful and unchanging word is capable to transform all situations in order to accomplish in full the project of the Father for our lives. 4 “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this” (Isa. 9: 6-7). 5 Introduction This is the first volume of ‘The Book of Prophet Isaiah’, addressing chapters from 1 to 39. We can divide the book of Isaiah into three parts: from chapter 1 to 39; from chapter 40 to 55, and from chapter 56 to 66. The first part of Isaiah’s prophecy conveys messages of punishment and judgment for the sins of Israel, Judah and the surrounding nations, and deals with some events that occurred during the reign of Ahaz and Hezekiah. From chapter 40 to chapter 55 the prophet speaks to the people who are in exile in Babylon, giving them the hope of liberation, as well as prophesying about the Messiah and His saving mission in the person of the ‘Servant’ of the Lord. From 56 th chapter the prophecy is not only addressed to the returning exiles, but seems to be addressed again to the people who are still in Israel practicing idolatry and sin of rebellion, at the same time speaking more intensely about the Messianic kingdom to come. This book initially arose as a curiosity on my part concerning the prophets of the Old Testament, with the thirst to know more deeply what they meant in each verse. I sought to know how to situate prophecy in History, what characters they were referring to, the location of the cities there, and the figures of speech used at the time to give me more insight about the writings of the prophets. As for the spiritual interpretation for us today, as a message from God for our day to day, we know that the bible is applicable to all ages and situations of mankind and the Holy Spirit gives us personal revelation every time we read His word. As for the fulfillment of all of them, I don’t have enough theological knowledge to compare them with the present worldwide events. The only thing I know is that, anyway, all the prophets were used by God to prophesy about the coming of Jesus, in whom the prophecies were fulfilled. Moses prophesied about Jesus and called Him ‘the great prophet.’ He brought a new dispensation to mankind, which was like an ‘Apocalypse’ to the people of that time (Isaiah is an example of this), as a new Creation. Apocalypse means ‘revelation.’ Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah, Joel, and others have undoubtedly left something about eschatological events, but it is Jesus who gives us the certainty of present and future events through His prophecy set forth in the Gospels. What happens today and will happen at His second coming is a result of what He prophesied about the end times. His prophecy is being fulfilled. Under this point of view, little of the prophecies of the OT remained to be fulfilled still as an apocalyptic (eschatological) event, especially for those who already have salvation in Christ. Most prophecies have already been fulfilled. Jesus left, so to speak, what is important for us to know about His second coming; and His apostles John and Paul left their complementation on the subject, using the words of the OT prophets to corroborate their writings and the revelations given by God to them. What I have come to realize from all the research I have done is a mistaken and confused view of many prophetic writings by some people, even ‘alarming’ texts about the Apocalypse, but actually resulting from a rational conclusion (and with little biblical basis), not necessarily of a particular divine revelation. Daniel wrote about it: “But you, Daniel, keep the words secret and the book sealed until the time of the end. Many shall be running back and forth, and evil shall increase” (Dan. 12: 4). Certain things only bring weight and darkness to the soul. Sorry for my opinion, dear reader, but I think it’s no use to watch television or read newspapers every day with an excessive concern to relate everything to the fulfillment of the OT prophecies and just think that Jesus is coming back tomorrow. In this way, one ceases to live life, one does not live the 6 present. It doesn’t matter to know when He comes, but to be inwardly prepared for His coming. He told us: “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet” (Matt. 24: 6). All evil that is occurring is due to lack of love and human selfishness. He also said: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. ‘Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly’” (Lk. 21: 33-34). I say, not only the worries of this life, of this world, but equally the worry with certain ‘things of God’ (quotation mark), which are traps for the unsuspecting and only lead to wrong ways. God’s Word tells us in the book of Daniel: “Many shall be purified, cleansed, and refined, but the wicked shall continue to act wickedly. None of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand” (Dan. 12: 10). God Himself will show His children, the wise, what they must know. Jesus gave a pertinent answer to the question of His disciples concerning some appointed times: “He replied, ‘It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority’” (Acts 1: 7). Going back to the writing of this book, as I wrote it, I experienced many things, and the main teaching was to know God more comprehensively, to see Him from another perspective, as a greater God than I imagined; a God who has an infinite, timeless consciousness, and is able to see a distant future as if it had already happened, and to turn thousands of years into few seconds before His eternal eyes. While we think of such small things close to us, He is ‘flying high’ and planning things that we will only come to understand a little later. I did a reading and a general study of the major and minor prophets and I could see that Isaiah writes differently from other prophets like Jeremiah, Ezekiel or Daniel, where we are able to temporarily locate the prophecy at the moment it was delivered, and therefore, to understand to whom it was addressed and what happened to them that time (for example: ‘in the fifth year of the reign of such a king, the word of the Lord came to the prophet’, etc.). The impression it gives is that Isaiah’s prophecies do not have a chronological sequence. It is as if the prophet addressed a king, then returned to his grandfather, and in the next verse or chapter passed to the great-grandson or to a distant future (Messianic); so it is a bit difficult to understand them from a historical point of view. Moreover, it is easy to see the change of anointing in the three parts of the book; it is as if three different people are writing; of course, under the anointing of the Spirit of God. It is interesting to notice the Jewish view of that time and the figures of speech that were used for a particular historical moment. It was all fitting into a larger plan already designed by God for mankind, timing precisely every second and moving each character into His service so that Jesus would come to us at the right time. The Gentiles were already in God’s plan. We can see Jesus in every verse and in every prophecy, using even the prophet as a mirror of His. There is also an interesting particularity in Isaiah when we compare him with the three other three Major Prophets quoted above. He does not begin his book describing his call by God. He only describes it in Chapter 6. The Book of Isaiah was written around 700-681 BC. It speaks of the double position of the people of Israel before God (especially Jerusalem, for he was prophet of the southern kingdom), their accommodation and lack of true love to the Lord.
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