Bible Story: Isaiah

1. Isaiah 53: History Written Before It Happened

Let’s turn now to Isaiah through Malachi and notice some outstanding things about these seventeen books. Isaiah is called the Messianic prophet because of the beauty and power and splendor of Isaiah 53, history written before it happened. And I suppose you’ll never find a more beautiful chapter than this in the Old Testament, Isaiah 53. Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground, he hath no form nor comliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from him.

He was despised, and we esteemed him not. You remember in Matthew 16, our Lord was told by his apostles that the people of his own day said, You are one of the prophets. So he was like the prophets. And notice a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. That’s another reason the prophet wasn’t very popular. He wasn’t a hail fellow well met. He was a servant of God. It was serious business. Now verse 4 of Isaiah 53. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we’re healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before shears is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression of my people was he stricken. Now notice this strange prediction of history before it happened. Verse 9, Isaiah 53. And he made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

How could that verse be true? That he made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich in his death. He was hanged between thieves, but he was buried in Joseph Arimathea’s new tomb. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death, he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

There is a compilation of what happened in the death of our Lord, and how that though he died and was buried up from the grave he arose, the bars of death, the gates of Hades could not hold him, Matthew 16, 18. And as a result, much seed was born to him by those who obeyed him through the gospel, which he commissioned his servants to preach, which covenant was sealed in his blood, Matthew 26, 28. So even in death he conquered. Hebrews 2:14 to 17. By death, he destroyed the power of the devil over death. He had entered the strong man’s house and spoiled his goods, Mark 3 27. He could say concerning his death, now is the prince of this world cast out. John 12 31.

2. Isaiah 2: The Prediction of Pentecost

Isaiah 53, a messianic promise, history written before it happened. And that’s one of the great chapters in all the books of the prophets. In Isaiah 1.18, we have the famous statement, Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. In Isaiah 2:1 to 4, we have the prediction of Pentecost, the kingdom of God’s dear son, the house of God, the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth, to quote 1 Timothy 3:15. The law of the Lord went forth from Jerusalem, all nations flowed into it. Read Acts 2 for a minute fulfillment of Isaiah 2 1 to 4. Eight centuries before Pentecost, the happenings on that grand and glorious occasion recorded in Acts 2 were stated.

3. A Virgin Shall Conceive and Bear a Son

In Isaiah 6, the prophet says, Here am I, Lord, send me. In Isaiah 7:14, Jehovah Himself shall give you a sign, behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and thou shalt call his name Emmanuel. Don’t tell me the virgin birth is not predicted in the old testament. There are modernists today who would like to say that a young woman would conceive and bear a son. Well, there’s nothing marvelous about that. There are a lot of young women, some of them very impure that bear children. But this was a prediction of the virgin birth of our Lord, the one who had been from everlasting, Micah 5, would nevertheless come in the form of a baby, born of a virgin, in Bethlehem of Judea. And Micah 5 is fulfilled in Matthew 1, and God sent forth his son, born of a woman, Galatians 4:4.

In Isaiah 9:6, for unto us a son is born, unto us a child is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders. He shall be called wonderful, Prince of Peace. And so the bringer of peace, Shiloh, would come, born of a virgin, the son that God would give, the child that would be born. In many passages of Isaiah, such as 26, 3 and 58, 11, we read that God will guide us continually.

4. Isaiah 35: The Highway of Holiness

Isaiah 35 is one of my favorite chapters. It speaks of the highway of holiness, which uh men will not haphazardly stumble onto. You’ll enter the kingdom on purpose. But he says, In this highway of holiness, the lame will leap as a deer. In Acts chapter 3, Peter and John said, In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And the man who had been lame from birth began to leap and spring about as a deer. That prophecy was fulfilled. New testament Christianity was the result of that prediction of Isaiah 35. In Isaiah 38, God says, I have seen your tears, I have heard your prayers. He speaks to Hezekiah, but that principle obtains to all of his people.

5. Strong Statements We Need to Remember

Wrote Peter in 1 Peter 3:10 to 12, inspired by the Holy Spirit. Isaiah has many marvelous passages, but it also has some strong statements we need to remember. The wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God to the wicked. Isaiah 57, verses 20 and 21. And Isaiah 55, he said, Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near, and he will abundantly pardon. But then God said, Your thoughts are not my thoughts, your ways are not my ways. And yet my word shall not return to me void. It shall accomplish that for which I’ve sent it. So whether we think God’s thoughts and follow his ways, whether we seek him while he may be found or not, his word will not return void.

6. The Scripture Fulfilled and the New Name

We cannot cause God to abdicate just because we’re unfaithful. Isaiah 59 1 and 2 says that sin separates a man from God. Our iniquities hide his face from us, shorten his hand toward us, that he cannot save, that he will not hear. In Isaiah 61, we have the passage our Lord read in the synagogue of Nazareth, Luke chapter 4, concerning the one who would come to heal the broken in heart and bind up their wounds. Jesus finished reading that, gave the book back to the man in charge in the synagogue of Nazareth, and said, This day hath that scripture been fulfilled in your ears. In other words, he said, I am the promised Messiah, I am the Son of God, predicted by the great Isaiah. In Isaiah 62, verses 1 and 2, God Almighty promised that once the Gentiles received his righteousness, then he would give to his people a new name.

Conclusion

This was fulfilled in Acts 11 26. After the Gentiles at the household of Cornelius obeyed the gospel of Christ, became New Testament Christians. God kept his promise when he said he would, when the Gentiles received his righteousness, and the disciples were called, and that means divinely given by the mouth of God. They were called Christians. First Antioch. That was the new name God promised to give. Isaiah has so many powerful and wonderful passages, but let us never forget the messianic risk refrain of Isaiah 53. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. He bore our sins in his own body upon the tree. 1 Peter 2, 24. God made him to be sin for us, even though he knew no sin. 2 Corinthians 5.21.

The book of Isaiah is a fit beginning to the prophets who say Christ is coming.