Few books in Scripture match Isaiah for the breadth and grandeur of its vision of the Lord’s work of redemption. Beginning with the dismal situation of Israel’s failure, Isaiah gradually unfolds God’s response, which stretches the limits of our comprehension, both in its multi-faceted complexity and its long-haul execution, ending in the final judgment and new creation.
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand. (Isa. 1:2–3)
Here are three themes to look for when reading through Isaiah’s prophecy: God’s plan, his character in executing it, and his faithfulness in bringing it to completion.
Promised Redemption
Although glimpses of redemption are frequent throughout the book, the vision intensifies in the middle of the book (chs. 40–55), revealing the divine wisdom of God’s plan and the many facets of what he will accomplish:
- He reveals himself as the only true God, the Creator, Ruler, and Savior
- He humbles the pride of man
- He puts to shame those who trust in idols
- He reveals his glory to all the nations
- He shows his compassion for the needy and comforts the afflicted
- He brings justice, letting no evil go unjudged
- He bears iniquity to free the redeemed
- He opens an offer of salvation and joy to all
Divine Power, Tender Love
The glorious wisdom of God’s redemption is most apparent in how divine power climaxes in the humility of the final servant song and resulting good news in chapters 52–55.
Isaiah first emphasizes this incomparable divine power, unique to the God of Israel, beside which human strength is nothing.
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. (Isa. 40:22–25)
By contrast, he says that those who trust in the useless idols they have made “are put to shame and confounded” (Isa. 45:16–17).
Yet the Lord’s uniqueness amid the pagan idols is not just about his authority over all earthly powers. His is a power that saves, and his divinity is seen just as much in the compassion and tenderness that characterize that salvation.
Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me. (Isa. 49:15)
When the Lord finally bares his arm and takes action, witnesses are stunned into silence. It’s not what they expected. His servant, “high and lifted up” as God is on his throne, comes as a marred man (Isa. 52:13–14). God’s glory is paradoxically most visible in the deepest shame, as he comes to bear the sins of his people and heal them:
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. (Isa. 53:4–5)
The servant’s work blossoms into overwhelming promises of God’s unchanging love and free offer of life to anyone who hungers and thirsts (Isa. 54:10; 55:1). It’s not surprising to find this section of Isaiah bookended by reflections on the unparalleled wisdom and justice of God. Who else would have come up with such a plan? Who else can bring life out of death? As Isaiah writes:
Who has measured the Spirit of the LORD, or what man shows him his counsel? Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isa. 40:1–14; 55:8–9)
The In-Between
The third part of Isaiah, chapters 56–66, was addressed to post-exilic Israel, to the remnant the Lord would bring back to rebuild and live in the land. For these survivors, sin and suffering were present as ever, even in the midst of the joy of their deliverance and return home.
Those of us living in the church age can relate. We have seen an even greater deliverance. They were delivered from Babylon, but we have seen the suffering servant himself, crucified, raised, and exalted to heaven. Yet still we wrestle with wayward hearts and a broken world. In our individual lives, too, we can see this pattern. After experiencing the Lord’s work in a time of growth and transformation, it’s discouraging to find that not everything is fixed yet. It’s easy to grow weary. But Isaiah’s words, rooted in the same divine power and compassion we’ve already seen, bring encouragement to those in the in-between:
For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the heart of the contrite.” (Isa. 57:15)
A dialogue develops in this section as the people cry out to God, confessing the sin that still plagues them, and pleading for him to save (Isa. 59:11–12; 63:15; 64:1; 64:5). They complain that God is far off and deaf to their plight, while he charges them with ignoring and rebelling against him:
Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. (Isa. 59:1–2; see also Isa. 64:12; 65:2; 65:12)
Yet as God’s divine character has not changed, neither has his redemptive plan, which he invites the people to wait on him to complete (Isa. 62:6–7). In that day, all distance will be gone forever: “Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear” (Isa. 64:24). Look at what awaits us: “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness” (Isa. 65:17–18).
