Isaiah

The whole of Isaiah 53 reads almost like an eyewitness report of the crucifixion of Christ. One of the most staggering prophecies in all of the Word of God is this prophecy of the coming one who will bear the sins of His people. Fulfilled prophecy gives us confidence in the Word of God. His Word is true and His promises cannot be broken. You're listening to the Saturday edition of Renewing Your Mind.

I'm Nathan W. Bingham. I'm glad you're joining us today as we continue a short series looking at several Old Testament prophets. Today's study focuses on Isaiah, and as Dr. Sproul just said, one of the Old Testament's most astonishingly accurate prophecies was given through this faithful servant. This message is from a much larger overview of the entire Bible, a series we call Dust to Glory. We have a special DVD set that also contains a bonus disc with the audio of the 57 messages along with a printable study guide.

You can request this special resource offer when you give a donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org before midnight tonight. And I'll tell you more about it after today's message. Well, here's Dr. Sproul on the prophet Isaiah. We're going to turn our attention now to the works of the canonical prophets. And the canonical prophets are called canonical because they are the prophets who have written books that are contained within the canon of the Old Testament. And when we look at these prophets, we usually distinguish between the major prophets and the minor prophets.

Now, it's important that we understand what that distinction does not mean. It does not mean that the major prophets were important and the minor prophets were unimportant. The only significance of that distinction between major and minor has to do with the size of the books that they wrote. So, when we look at the work of Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, they can be called the major prophets because their books are quite lengthy, whereas the books of Hosea and Micah and Nahum, Joel, and so on are much smaller. But all of these prophets had a very important role to play in the history of the Jewish nation. Most of the prophets that we'll be concerned with ministered during the eighth and seventh centuries B.C.

Some of them, of course, came later than that. But the reason for the eighth and seventh century being so important to the era of prophecy is that this was the time where the judgment of God on His people was imminent. And so, God sent His prophets to warn the people of the impending judgment first upon the northern kingdom.

As we recall, the capital of Samaria fell in 722, and then later on the warnings came to Judah, Judah to the southern kingdom. Now, of the prophets of the Old Testament that are called major prophets, certainly one of the most important if not the most important was the prophet Isaiah. We know very little about Isaiah's life in direct contrast to Jeremiah.

We know more about Jeremiah from the Scriptures than we do of any of the prophets. But Isaiah is distinguished because of all of the prophets of antiquity. Isaiah was the man most cultured. He was a sophisticated man, probably from a well-to-do family, which was unusual because most of the prophets came from the desert or from the agricultural community of the time. But Isaiah had a role in Judah that would be similar to that of an ambassador.

He had access to the royal palace and was an advisor to at least four major kings in the southern kingdom. And he received his call to be a prophet right around the year 740 B.C., which ironically was perhaps the exact same year that the city of Rome was founded. And I'm always amazed by the intersection of these events in history at the same moment that God is calling His prophet to announce the coming judgment on the Jewish nation.

Something else is beginning there in that part of the world across the Mediterranean with this tiny village that is being established that in a few centuries is going to have a major encounter with the descendants of the people of Israel. But in any case, we read of Isaiah's call in chapter 6 where he has the vision of the holiness of God, and he himself is overwhelmed by the splendor of God's magic. And so, at the end of this experience, God sends him and commissions him to be a prophet. And God said, Go and tell this people, Keep on hearing, but do not understand.

Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return and be healed. What a dreadful mission God gives to Isaiah at the very beginning. He said, I'm going to send you to this people.

I'm going to put my words in your mouth, but I'm going to make sure that nobody listens, that I'm going to make the heart of this people fat. I'm going to shut their ears and close their eyes so that they will be blinded and deaf to my truth, because I'm preparing them for judgment. And when Isaiah hears this, he cries out, Lord, how long? And then God answered, Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, the houses are without a man, and the land is utterly desolate. For the Lord has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. Now with this summary of the message that God gives to Isaiah, which is a message of gloom and doom, of judgment and of destruction, you would think that there is nothing positive left. And yet, when we consider the treasure that is found in the book of Isaiah for the life of the people of God, we almost forget that the central motif of his prophecy was one of judgment.

Because in the next breath, God says, even though the cities are going to be laid bare and desolate and without inhabitant, nevertheless He is going to keep for Himself a tithe, a tenth of people, or what becomes famous in Jewish literature as it's being referred to as the remnant. God is going to preserve for Himself a holy seed out of which, even though all of this doom is forecast beyond the clouds and beyond the storm of judgment that is about to befall those people, there is the future promise of redemption. That's why it is that Isaiah is remembered to this day chiefly as the prophet of the Redeemer. There is no prophet in the Old Testament who is quoted more often than Isaiah. And also, our Lord Himself frequently quoted from Isaiah because it's in Isaiah that we get the most complete picture of the coming Messiah, the Lamb of God who will bear the sins of the people, who is called the servant of the Lord. And this servant will bear the sins of the people and will be the instrument of their redemption. And these future prophecies of the coming Messiah can be found spread throughout the book of Isaiah, but let's look at a couple of them that are more well known to us. We come to chapter 7 of Isaiah, beginning at verse 10, and we read this, Moreover, the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord.

Ask it either in the depth or in the height above. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord. Then he said, Hear now, O house of David, is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Curds and honey he shall eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. Here is one of the most controversial prophecies in all of the Old Testament, for Isaiah records the promise of God that He will send one born of a virgin whose name will be called Immanuel, which is to say, God with us. We hear more of this kind of prophecy in chapter 9. In verse 2 of chapter 9, we read these words, The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, and those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined. And you have multiplied the nation and increased its joy, and they rejoice before you according to the joy of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For you have broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.

For every warrior's sandal from the noisy battle and garments rolled in blood will be used for burning and the fuel of fire. Now before I read the next passage, I wanted to read that prefatory section of it because we're not as familiar with it as we are with what follows. But you see already this glimmer of hope that is being forecast by the prophet Isaiah, just as we hear elsewhere, comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith the Lord. And he goes on to say, for the day of the Lord's visitation is over, that there will be a restructured nation after this period of purging and judgment takes place. And in verse 6 we read these words, For unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

And of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. Upon the throne of David and over his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The last line of this prophecy reads as follows, The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. So in the midst of the forecast of war and captivity comes the promise of a prince who is the Prince of Peace, whose government will be upon his shoulder. He will be the very presence of the Mighty God in the midst of the people. He will restore the throne of David, and that throne will last to all generations. And the thing that excites me about this is that even though there's no immediate reason to expect that such a prophecy could ever be fulfilled in these bitter days, the prophecy is ended with this statement, The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. That God is zealous to keep His word and will ensure that the prophecy comes to pass.

Again in chapter 11 we read at the beginning of chapter 11 this prophecy, There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. And his delight is in the fear of the Lord, and he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes, nor decide by the hearing of his ears, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.

Righteousness shall be the belt of his loins, and faithfulness the belt of his waist. So now the idea of the coming Messiah, this child that will become king, will be one who rules and reigns with righteousness, with justice, and with equity. And then we are told, The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

Now this is written in a poetic style. It would be easy for us to simply dismiss the imagery and miss the significance of these particular forms of graphic description, because what Isaiah is prophesying here is the coming Redeemer who will not only redeem Israel, but that the redemption that He brings will be cosmic in scope, that God is promising not only to renew this people, but to renew the whole earth. As Paul tells us in the New Testament, the whole creation groans together in travail, awaiting the manifestation of the sons of God. And all of this redemption will be affected by this righteous one who will come. Now to learn more about the agenda or the mission of the coming Messiah, we turn to chapter 61, because in chapter 61 we find the text that figures heavily in Jesus' own consciousness about His role and His mission.

You recall that when Jesus was baptized by the Jordan River by John, that immediately following His baptism the Holy Spirit drove Jesus in the wilderness to be tempted. And there the Son of God is being prepared for His vocation, for His public ministry, for His mission as the Messiah. And after He endures the temptation of Satan and comes back out of the wilderness, He begins His public ministry. And when He begins His public ministry, He comes into the synagogue.

And it just so happens that on that day that Jesus visits the synagogue that the scheduled reading for that day is Isaiah chapter 61. And Jesus, after the Scripture is read, is treated as a visiting rabbi, and the visiting rabbi is to give the exposition of the text. And this is probably the shortest sermon on record, because Jesus sits down, which is to assume the posture of teaching.

And when we speak or when we teach, we stand up, but in antiquity the speaker would sit like in a chair, and everybody would then sit on the ground and sit at His feet. And so when Jesus sat down, He was assuming the posture of the rabbi who would expound the text, and His sermon was simply this. This day are these words fulfilled in your midst, which is to say, I am the one that Isaiah is describing.

I am the one who has been given this mission. Now let's read the text of Isaiah 61 to gather its significance. It begins with these words, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me. Remember that the word Messiah means anointed one.

And the Old Testament word for Messiah is translated by the Greek word Christos, and that the title Christ means the Messiah, or more specifically the anointed one. And so here Isaiah is talking about one who will say, the Spirit of the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings or to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes and the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the Spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that He may be glorified, and they shall rebuild the old ruins. See, God is not finished with His people with the destruction of Jerusalem in 586. The promise of the future redemption is here, and it focuses upon the one God will send who will be anointed by His Spirit to preach the gospel to the poor.

And it's this description that Jesus says, this day these words are fulfilled in your midst. And then later on, you remember when John the Baptist was in prison, and he's worried. He's wondering, what's going on? Why hasn't Jesus proclaimed His power? Why hasn't He taken control of the situation while John is languishing in prison? And John sends a message to Jesus from His cell, and the message is a terse question, are you the one who was to come, or should we look for another? And what a crisis of faith, the same man who had announced the arrival of the Messiah, who was the herald of the King, who sang the Agnus Dei, who said, behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Now he's going through a crisis of faith, and he said, Jesus, are you really the one, or should we look for another one? And Jesus sends a message back, go tell John, the blind see the deaf hear, and the poor are having the gospel preached to them.

What's Jesus doing here? He's saying, go tell John to read Isaiah 61, that he may understand the vocation that I have. But of course, the most poignant dimension of that vocation is that which is recorded in Isaiah chapter 53, which is the servant song of the servant of the Lord that is so central to the New Testament understanding of the work of Christ upon the cross. Verse 4, for surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, but He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities, and the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. This passage, the whole of Isaiah 53, reads almost like an eyewitness report of the crucifixion of Christ. One of the most staggering prophecies in all of the Word of God is this prophecy of the coming one who will bear the sins of His people. And this message of redemption is fulfilled in every detail by the coming Christ who was forecast by Isaiah.

That was R.C. Sproul on this Saturday edition of Renewing Your Mind. No other book but the Bible can claim to have so many fulfilled prophecies. Take, for example, just these prophecies about Christ.

He would be born of a virgin, would be called Immanuel, would be born in Bethlehem, would be sold for 30 pieces of silver, and that price would be given for a potter's field. And all of this recorded hundreds of years before Jesus entered the world. Today's message on the prophet Isaiah is just one of 57 in our Dust to Glory series. Dr. Sproul said he believed that Dust to Glory is the most important teaching series that Ligonier ever recorded.

It's an overview of the entire Bible designed to give you encouragement as you learn to rightly handle scripture. Until midnight tonight, we're offering the series on eight DVDs that includes a bonus disc that features all 57 audio messages and a printable study guide. For your donation of any amount, we'll send you Dust to Glory. Simply give your gift at renewingyourmind.org. And if you'd prefer digital access to the messages and study guide, or you live outside the US or Canada, you can give your donation at renewingyourmind.org slash global, and they'll be unlocked for you in the free Ligonier app.

Thank you. Have you subscribed to Renewing Your Mind's YouTube channel yet? It's an easy way to be alerted about each day's episode and to interact with other listeners in the comments. And when you like, comment, subscribe, and turn on notifications, you're also encouraging the YouTube algorithm to push this trusted teaching to more people. So thanks for listening and for engaging on the YouTube channel. Jeremiah, often referred to as the weeping prophet. He'll be our focus next Saturday here on Renewing Your Mind. Transcribed by https://otter.ai