Isaiah means "Salvation of Jehovah," and he has been called the "evangelical prophet." He wrote more about Christ and the Christian dispensation than did any other prophet. He prophesied in "the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah." (Isaiah 1:1)
If he began to prophesy in the last year of Uzziah, about 758 BC, and continued to the end of Hezekiah's reign, about 698 BC, this would give sixty years of service as a prophet. We do not certainly know that he lived throughout the reign of Hezekiah, but we know that he lived through the most of it, so that he prophesied, at the very least, nearly sixty years. It would thus appear that he was quite young when he was chosen of God to prophesy.
It would seem from Isaiah 6:7 that it was in the year that Uzziah died that he began to prophesy; for there he records a vision of "the Lord, sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up," (Isaiah 6:1) and he exclaims, "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." (Isaiah 6:5)
Then one of the seraphim flew unto him, "having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged. 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." (Isaiah 6:6-8)
This must have been Isaiah's first vision, and the time when he was chosen to the prophetic work; for it was at this time that his sins were forgiven. And when he first sees the Lord, he exclaims, as we have read, "Woe is me! for I am undone." (Isaiah 6:5)
But when the seraph has touched his lips with the hallowed fire, and told him his sin is cleansed, his iniquity taken away, then he is ready to be a messenger of the Lord; and as soon as he hears the voice asking who shall be sent, he cries, "Here am I; send me. And he said, Go." (Isaiah 6:8-9)
Thus the Lord would have no one go to speak for Him, nor in His name, till his iniquity has been taken away and his sin purged. Then, and not till then, can we bear the message of the Lord.
In this very first vision he spoke of Christ, and of the people in the day when Christ was upon the earth. John tells us so. In recording the words and works of the Saviour, he says, "But though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him." (John 12:37)
And these very ones who did not believe on Christ, in them was fulfilled the very saying of Isaiah as recorded in Isaiah 6:9-10. Compare John 12:38-41 and Isaiah 6:1-13. Then says John, "These things said Isaiah, when he saw His glory and spoke of Him." (John 12:41)
We see also by this that in the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah not only spoke of this people, but he also spoke of Christ, and he then saw Christ.
• That majestic one whom Isaiah saw sitting upon that throne high and lifted up;
• That one whose train filled the temple in Heaven;
• That one in the presence of whose glory the bright seraphim shaded their faces;
• That one of whom these seraphim said, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory," (Isaiah 6:3) that was Christ our Lord and Saviour. That was He who speaks in righteousness, He who is indeed "mighty to save." (Isaiah 63:1)
We have no prophecy which Isaiah refers definitely to the reign of Jotham, nor any message sent directly to Jotham as there is to Ahaz and Hezekiah. In chapters 7, 8, and 9 are prophecies in the reign of Ahaz. Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, king of Israel, had formed a confederacy to take Jerusalem and Judah, and kill Ahaz and make the son of Tabeal, a creature of their own, king in Jerusalem. But the Lord sent a word to Ahaz and his people, "Thus says the Lord God, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass." (Isaiah 7:7)
And in that message to Ahaz and his people Isaiah uttered his prophecy of Immanuel: "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel." (Isaiah 7:14) "which is, being interpreted, God with us." (Matthew 1:23,RV)
At the same time he prophesied of that child which should be called, "Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, the everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." (Isaiah 9:6-7) "He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: And He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end." (Luke 1:32-33)
And at the same time he prophesied of the second coming of the Saviour, the reform on the law of God, and the working of Spiritualism just before Christ comes in His glory. "Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. And I will wait upon the Lord, that hides His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, which dwells in mount Zion. And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward." (Isaiah 8:16-21) "Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders." (2 Thessalonians 2:9)
And in the lesson for today, his word is a prophecy which Paul applied to the people in his day. "Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah." (Isaiah 1:9) "And as Isaiah said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom, and been made like unto Gomorrah." (Romans 9:29) "Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace." (Romans 11:5)
These are but a few instances in illustration of Peter's word about the prophets: "Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into." (1 Peter 1:12)
In reading the prophets, we are always to bear in mind that they have written many things to us, as well as some things to those of their own day. And when, in today's lesson, we read, "Ah, sinful nation," (Isaiah 1:4) He means the people of today--not the people who make no profession of His name, but the people upon whom His name is called. To those of today, He says, "I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me." (Isaiah 1:2)
To what purpose are sacrifices, and offerings, and the calling of assemblies, when the law of God is despised and rejected? So in another place this same prophet says: "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God." (Isaiah 58:1-2)
To what purpose are fastings and prayers, when the ordinance of God is forsaken? "He that turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination." (Proverbs 28:9)
Therefore, today He says to the people of today: "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." (Isaiah 1:16-17) "Turn yourselves and live." (Ezekiel 18:32)
Hearken to the word of God and obey. Jesus said to His disciples, "Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." (John 15:3)
Paul says that, "Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it; That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That He might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." (Ephesians 5:25-27)
Peter says: "You have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit." (1 Peter 1:22)
The only way in which to "learn to do well," is by strict obedience to the word of God, through the Spirit. And the only way to obtain the Holy Spirit is by confession, and the forsaking of sin. "He that covers his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesses and forsakes them shall find mercy." (Proverbs 28:13) "Come now, and let us reason together, says 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." (Isaiah 1:18) "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God." (Romans 3:24-25) "If you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land: But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it." (Isaiah 1:19-20) "[Christ is] the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him." (Hebrews 5:9) "Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." (1 Samuel 15:22)--Signs of the Times, November 26, 1885--Notes on the International Lesson, December 6--Isaiah 1:1-18
A.T. Jones