Book By Book 3: Proverbs To LukeSample

Isaiah is the first of what are called the prophetic books of the Bible. Often when we think of prophecy, we think of predicting the future. Prophecy can involve that but not always. A prophet is a person who serves as God’s spokesperson, so a prophecy can be any message God wants to communicate. To understand the timing of the writing of Isaiah, we must reference 2 Kings. Isaiah lives during a time when Assyria is invading Israel and Judah. Israel will eventually be defeated, and Judah will almost be defeated. Isaiah is delivering messages to the people of Judah during a terrible time when it looks like they will be losing everything to a very strong enemy.

Our chapters today summarize a major theme throughout the Bible: humanity’s disobedience to God and God’s ultimate victory over evil. Isaiah points out that the people of Judah are not living as God wants them to live. He mentions Sodom and Gomorrah, which were evil cities God destroyed back in Genesis 19, which we didn’t read. God is letting them know they deserve to be destroyed. He also lets them know their empty worship is not acceptable. He calls them to truly recognize their wrong behavior and turn to God so he can forgive them. But in chapter 2, God tells the people what Jesus’ Kingdom will be like. It is referred to as “the mountain.” One day Jesus is going to return and make everything right. Everything that is bad will be destroyed.

It is the same for us today. We all make mistakes, and we can’t make up for it by pretending to be interested in God. Receiving God’s forgiveness requires that we recognize our wrongdoing and depend on God’s mercy. We can look forward to Christ’s Kingdom when the world will be made right and our own hearts will be as well.