The name ISAIAH means "The Lord is salvation"
Isaiah is often called "The Gospel Prophet".

Who was Isaiah?

Isaiah lived in Jerusalem and was closely connected with the royal court.
He was married and had two sons to whom he gave symbolic names --
Shearjashub "a remnant shall return" (7:3)
and Mahershalalbashbaz "Hastening to the spoil" (8:2,3)
He lived roughly 700 years before Christ.

Isaiah prophesied during the reigns of four kings -- though it was when Uzziah died, that Isaiah received the vision noted in 6:1.
Uzziah also known as Azariah (a godly king, but who tried to sacrifice in the temple and was smitten with leprosy )
Jotham {also a good king, reigned for awhile with his father after Uzziah was smitten with leprosy, but he did not aggressively take away people's idols)
Ahaz (Did evil, according to the abominations of the heathen)
Hezekiah (Tried to rid the land of idol worship, and turn the people back to God, He trusted God)

Tradition says Isaiah was martyred when Manasseh became king, ( Manasseh was the son of Hezekiah but bent on rebellion against God) He killed God's prophets. Tradition says Isaiah hid in a tree and when he was found they sawed down the tree with him inside. (based on Heb. 11:37

What were things like during Isaiah's lifetime?

Spiritually --
The people were still going through the forms of worship as outlined in the books of Moses. However, idol worship, especially Baal worship was also being practiced with it's rituals and sacrifices, etc. even to sacrificing children. Many were basically viewing the worship to God in the same light as the heathen who worshipped many gods and thought as long as they kept the god's appeased and happy with gifts and sacrifices all would be well. Though revivals were attempted, the people were "bent on backsliding".

Politically --
The Assyrian power was reaching great heights. They had brought the Chaldeans (Babylon) in the east under their control and were now moving toward Syria and Palestine.
Locally Israel and Syria had joined forces and were causing trouble for the southern kingdom of Judah. (See 2Kings 16 and Isaiah 7) At this point King Ahaz made a serious mistake. Isaiah urged King Ahaz to trust in God, and God would deliver him and not make any alliances with other nations , but Ahaz but his trust in other nations, and actually appealed to the Assyrians and made an alliance with them to help him against Syria and Israel.
This Assyrians were happy to do this as they were eager to conquer both Israel and Syria. But their alliance with Judah was soon broken.
During Hezekiah's reign the Assyrians conquered Syria and Israel. The northern kingdom was gone. But they also conquered all the cities of Judah in the southern kingdom, EXCEPT Jerusalem.
King Hezekiah turned to God, and God wrought a miracle. (2 kings 19) for in one night an angel smote 185,000 Assyrian soldiers, braking the strength of the Assyrians and liberating Jerusalem.

Lesson for January 2,2021

CRISIS OF IDENTITY

Read all of chapter 1.

Isaiah 1:3 The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master's manger: but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.

God is speaking through Isaiah
You are my people, I brought you up, I gave you freedom, land, health, and hope for a glorious future, but you don't know me, you are looking in all the wrong places for help and meaning and sinking deeper and deeper into sin. As a result you are suffering terrible consequences.
The life of evil has no happy endings, only destruction and ruin.

1:18 Come now, and 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.

Come back, God says, I will make you clean,
and further in the book we read wonderful promises of the coming Messiah, Who would bear the sins, to be bruised for our iniquities and through His stripes we are healed. And MORE -- there is a resurrection and an eternal future.

God's love is unconditional, broader, deeper, higher, wider than anything we know. The longing in His heart to save people from the ruin of sin comes through so strongly in the book of Isaiah. He wants everyone to come to repentance and enjoy LIFE everlasting, but salvation is not unconditional --- people need to TURN to the Savior, to get to KNOW Him as master, Friend, and Redeemer and follow Him in trust and obedience. He supplies all that is needed, but we must choose HIM


Choose ye this day whom you will serve.....

Repentance
brings forgiveness.

These people are on "death row" they have violated the covenant, brought disgrace upon God, and injured a lot of people. How can a just God forgive == the wages of sin is death.

Yet after pointing out the horrible mess sin has done Isaiah writes:

1:18 Come now, and 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.

That is the story of Redemption -- The Holy Creator of all, takes the sins of all upon Himself, and dies the death the law demands, and by His blood we are healed, cleansed, forgiven when we turn to Him.

And so God calls sin laden people to turn from their sin and turn to HIM!

Isaiah 44:22 I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.

Isaiah 43:25
I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins.

Isaiah 55:7
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.

Colossians 1:13-14
He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

2 Chron 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Memory Text: "Come now, and let us reason together," says the LORD, "though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isaiah 1:18, NKJV).[/b]

I really like this lesson, much less opinions of 'learned men" and more direct scripture.

The second lesson in our study of Isaiah
Crisis of Leadership

Uzziah was a relatively GOOD king
2 Cor. 26:4 And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD vs 5... as long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper. ,,,26:16 But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the LORD his God, and went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense upon the altar of incense...and, behold, leprosy arose in his forehead, and they thrust him out from thence; and he himself rushed out, because the LORD had smitten him.
26:21 And Uzziah the king was a leper unto the day of his death, and lived in a separate house, being a leper; for he was cut off from the house of the LORD: and Jotham his son was reigning over the king's house.

An interesting note: Some link Amos 1:1 and Zachariah 14:5 with Josephus (IX.10.4) account that a serious earthquake took place when Uzziah was in the temple smitten with leprosy.

However, I'm not sure why the lesson seems to think there was a "no king" leadership crises when Uzziah died?

Jotham was the acting king both before and after Uzziah's death, so there was no major leadership CRISIS at Uzziah's death as to who was king.
We don't know for sure how many of Jotham's 16 years as king were as a co-ruler with his father, (some figure it was about 11 years) and how many of those 16 years were after Uzziah's death. (4-5 years?) We do know "he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Uzziah did... So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the LORD his God. (2 Chron 27) BUT "the people did yet corruptly. "

It seems much more likely that after Uzziah's presumptuous act and banishment due to leprosy, that Jotham, though himself "upright in the sight of the Lord", didn't feel he could stop the corruption of the people, as his father was obviously suffering under the displeasure of God. He didn't do anything against the idol worship that was going on.

The real leadership CRISIS came when Jotham's son Ahaz became king, about four years after Uzziah's death. Ahaz was an idolatrous 20 year old young man who seized power from his father Jotham, and followed all the abominations of the surrounding nations. At that time the Israelite king Pekah, and the Syrian king, Resin, were invading Judah. Ahaz, against divine counsel, made an alliance with the Assyrians to gain protection from Syria and Israel. He was told by Isaiah that God would take care of those kings, and to trust God. But Ahaz won't listen and allied himself with the chief enemy, Assyria, against the northern kingdom. (Even though Ahaz had taken over the kingship of the southern kingdom, Jotham was still alive for at least four years after his own16 years as king, for in his "twentieth year" see 2 Kings 15:30, he was alive when the invading Israelite king Pekah, was killed by one of his own country men who wanted to be king) Ahaz's fool-headed alliance of joining with Assyria was utterly disastrous, not only for the northern kingdom (which totally fell a few years later) but also for the southern kingdom which was nearly wiped out as well. (Only Jerusalem was spared because the next king, Hezekiah, turned to God)

Thus Uzziah's leprosy was a type of what happens when sinful desires replace God's ways.
When Isaiah told the people their sins were like open wounds he may well have pointed to Uzziah slowly dying of leprosy in isolation and telling them that's what their spiritual lives looked like to God- they were dying, heading to sure destruction.

Isaiah 6:1-4
In the year that King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.
Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
And one cried to another and said:
"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;

The whole earth is full of His glory!?
And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out,
and the house was filled with smoke.

God is CONTROL

"The reign of Uzziah was drawing to a close, and Jotham was already bearing many of the burdens of state, when Isaiah, of the royal line, was called, while yet a young man, to the prophetic mission." PK 303

The northern and southern kingdoms of Israel were standing on a crossroads.
During Isaiah's lifetime he would see many invasions. He would see the northern kingdom fall to the Assyrians, He would see the southern kingdom invaded till it too seemed about to fall to the Assyrians with all Jerusalem's surrounding towns and villages in ruins, only Jerusalem left and it too would have fallen except for God's divine intervention.

But the dangers from without, overwhelming though they seemed, were not so serious as the dangers from within. It was the perversity of his people that brought to the Lord's servant the greatest perplexity and the deepest depression. By their apostasy and rebellion those who should have been standing as light bearers among the nations were inviting the judgments of God. Many of the evils which were hastening the swift destruction of the northern kingdom, and which had recently been denounced in unmistakable terms by Hosea and Amos, were fast corrupting the kingdom of Judah. The outlook was particularly discouraging as regards the social conditions of the people. In their desire for gain..Justice was perverted... PK 305-6

Iniquitous practices had become so prevalent among all classes that the few who remained true to God were often tempted to lose heart and to give way to discouragement and despair. It seemed as if God's purpose for Israel were about to fail and that the rebellious nation was to suffer a fate similar to that of Sodom and Gomorrah.
In the face of such conditions it is not surprising that when, during the last year of Uzziah's reign, Isaiah was called to bear to Judah God's messages of warning and reproof, he shrank from the responsibility. He well knew that he would encounter obstinate resistance. As he realized his own inability to meet the situation and thought of the stubbornness and unbelief of the people for whom he was to labor, his task seemed hopeless.
Should he in despair relinquish his mission and leave Judah undisturbed to their idolatry?
Were the gods of Nineveh to rule the earth in defiance of the God of heaven?
Such thoughts as these were crowding through Isaiah's mind as he stood under the portico of the temple.
Suddenly the gate and the inner veil of the temple seemed to be uplifted or withdrawn, and he was permitted to gaze within, upon the holy of holies, where even the prophet's feet might not enter. There rose up before him a vision of Jehovah sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, while the train of His glory filled the temple..... PK 307

Isaiah had a wonderful view of God's glory. He saw the manifestation of God's power, and after beholding His majesty, a message came to him to go and do a certain work. He felt wholly unworthy for the work.
What made him esteem himself unworthy? Did he think himself unworthy before he had a view of God's glory?--No; he imagined himself in a righteous state before God; but when the glory of the Lord of hosts was revealed to him, when he beheld the inexpressible majesty of God, he said, "I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; (RH June 4, 1889).

Holy, Holy, Holy

Isaiah 6:5-7
5 So I said: ?Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.? 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth with it, and said: ?Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.

Isaiah......was not burning incense..... yet he saw God.

Incense is symbolic of prayer
It is very probably that Isaiah had been offering the incense of prayer.

Psalms 141:2 Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense
Revelation 8:3 And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
8:4 And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God



A live, or burning, coal from the altar to cleanse Isaiah?s lips? Isaiah 6.6-7.
And he touched my mouth with it, and said:
Behold, this has touched your lips;
Your iniquity is taken away,
And your sin purged.

Fire is an agent of purification, because it burns away impurity. This is much more than a washing of the lips, this is symbolic cleansing of all sin.
Simply honoring Christ with our lips does not signify purification. It's the "heart" and "mind" that needs purification; a transformation in our thoughts, desires and feelings. Then we are prepared by the Holy Spirit to share the things of God.

Isaiah's commission

Isaiah 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

The vision of seeing the glory and righteousness of God was the great decisive event in Isaiah's life. He had seen the God! His lips had been touched with fire from God's altar. God had consecrated him for holy service. From now on those lips would speak for God, his life fully dedicated to serve HIM.

Notice something else -- it's not just "who will go" but "who will go for us".
Some might "go" for the adventure, or for recognition, or for pay, for for any selfish reason, but the commission here is to go "for us" -- for the LORD.


6:9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
6:10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

Strange words -- or maybe not so strange. Isaiah knew this mission would not be received with popular applause. Why bother, for most would not listen.
But God does not give up people easily. Go -- and tell them......

The truth of the matter is that when people are shown the truth, they either turn to God and surrender to Him, or they harden themselves and pull away more fully.
Did God harden Pharaoh's heart? The scriptures say God hardened Pharaoh's heart. How?
By confronting Pharaoh with the truth of His existence. Pharoah had a choice. He could respond and acknowledge God as the only true God, and obey His will, or he could harden himself against God and persist in doing his own evil ways.
And so, God tells Isaiah, "go and tell this people". They need to know. Bring them to a decision. Many were "fence sitting" going through the formal national worship of the God of heaven, and also serving idols and corruption, as if worship was a matter of appeasing "all the gods" and was the pragmatic thing to do as they went about living their own sin laden life.
They were in bad condition spiritually, and it is sad but true, that conscious rejection of God's saving power, leaves the people in even worse condition than before. BUT those who do accept God's saving power receive a joy and peace that world can not understand.

6:11 Then said I, Lord, how long?
And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,
6:12 And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.

The Lord tells him to keep on till no one is left to tell!
Too often we think telling someone once is good enough. But God doesn't stop at telling us "once". He keeps on working with people till a point of decision is reached where there is no return.


6:13 But yet in it shall be a tenth, and shall return...the holy seed

All through the book of Isaiah is the concept of the "remnant" who will respond, who will survive. "A tenth" Symbolic of the tithe that is holy to the Lord. A "holy seed" that will continue the growth of truth in the world.
Don't give up --
Just like Elijah, when thinking his work was a complete failure and no one was responding, the LORD showed him there was yet 7000 that had not bowed to Baal.