The Book of Isaiah
Arguably the greatest prophet of the bible, the Book of Isaiah is considered a predictive prophetic text in that many of the prophet’s predictions have actually been fulfilled. Isaiah’s description of Christ’s birth, suffering, death and resurrection read like an eyewitness account, but they were written nearly eight centuries before those events occurred. The book is also extremely cryptic and scholars have debated over the centuries what the words actually mean and who they refer to. You’d think God would make all of this easier for us, an easy-to-understand “Spirituality For Dummies.” That’s not the bible. And when the bible fails the “dummy” test, many of us simply give up on God. The way I see it, the bible should come with a disclaimer: Be Prepared To Work At It. The Holy Bible is not a book. It is a collection of many books. And the mysteries unfolding within its covers are what makes its truth both eternal and infallible.
The trouble with the majority of biblical scripture
is the writers likely did not conceive of such a thing as “the
bible” at the time they were writing it. What I mean is most of
us look at the bible as an organized text, published by Tyndale
or Zondervan or whomever, and bring with us an expectation that
the thing will be accessible and make sense. Well, yes, the
bible certainly makes sense, but it is hardly what I would call
an accessible text. It is unique in the sense that this book’s
many editors have not worked particularly toward a goal of
improving the narrative flow of the book so that it’s easier to
read and understand. These men (and now women) have worked
instead to improve the accuracy of the book’s passages, to make
it clearer and more truthful. But the seeker (that’s you and me)
has to be motivated to want to understand the book in its
entirety, to study and to pray for divine revelation.
The bible is a living document that speaks to different people
in different ways. No matter how simple or how contemporary the
language we put it into, the bible still requires a certain
level of investigative study on our part to truly understand how
all the parts fit. The main reason for this is, as I just said,
the people who wrote this book did not know they were, in fact,
writing a book. They were creating a record of events and
truths. The Apostle Paul, for example, was writing letters to
specific people dealing with specific issues under specific
conditions in specific places. I believe Paul would be upset and
likely furious that some dweeb put his first-century emails into
the same cannon as the Holy scriptures Paul so cherished. Paul
was not writing scripture, did not intend to write scripture.
Other people came along and gathered these things into a single
volume and called that volume “The Bible,” or, literally, “Many
Books.” We, in our contemporary thinking, hold that volume and
have expectations that it will read like a textbook or a novel.
The bible is neither. The bible is not a book but a collection
of “many books,” written over many centuries by many different
authors, none of whom had any clue the thing would be sitting on
your coffee table gathering dust. And this is why there are many
interpretations of scripture, many in conflict with one another
as we differ over what the authors actually intended to say.
No other place in the bible is this concept more true than in
the book of Isaiah. Considered the greatest prophet of the
bible, the Book of Isaiah is considered a predictive prophetic
text in that many of the prophet’s predictions have actually
been fulfilled. Isaiah’s description of Christ’s birth,
suffering, death and resurrection read like an eyewitness
account, but they were written nearly eight centuries before
those events occurred.
Chapters 49-55 speak of “The Suffering Servant,”
whom the larger school of scholarly thought consider to be
obviously Jesus. A minority view, however, regards The Suffering
Servant as Israel itself, and the narrative seems to switch back
and forth between referring to this Servant as an individual or
as a body of people. Later, in Luke Chapter 4, Jesus
definitively claims to be the Servant of whom Isaiah was
speaking:
16 When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he
went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to
read the Scriptures. 17 The scroll containing the messages of
Isaiah the prophet was handed to him, and he unrolled the scroll
to the place where it says: 18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, for he has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor. He
has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the
blind will see, that the downtrodden will be freed from their
oppressors, 19 and that the time of the Lord's favor has come. "
20 He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and
sat down. Everyone in the synagogue stared at him intently. 21
Then he said, "This Scripture has come true today before your
very eyes!" 22 All who were there spoke well of him and were
amazed by the gracious words that fell from his lips. "How can
this be?" they asked. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" 23 Then he
said, "Probably you will quote me that proverb, 'Physician, heal
yourself' — meaning, 'Why don't you do miracles here in your
hometown like those you did in Capernaum?' 24 But the truth is,
no prophet is accepted in his own hometown.”
“Who has believed our report?’ Isaiah asks at the top of
Chapter 53. His prophecy of the Suffering Servant seemed
outrageous, just as Jesus’ claims to actually be that servant
may have seemed preposterous, especially in his home town.
Familiarity, the saying goes, breeds contempt. This is never
truer than among Church Folk, most whom show enormous respect to
visiting pastors or evangelists—complete strangers—while
routinely overlooking and dismissing God’s man, God’s servant,
standing right in their midst. If Church Folk actually know you,
they usually have no respect for you. Church Folk spend tens of
thousands of dollars flying complete strangers in to audition
for the pastorate, while overlooking the faithful, the anointed,
right in their midst.
We typically consider the story of Calvary from the Gospels. But
we can learn a great deal more from the disorganized jumble of
rambling texts from the bible’s greatest prophetic voice.
This week, read Isaiah Chapters 6, 25, 40 and 49-53, and
acquaint yourself with one of the most powerful voices in the
bible and the Suffering Servant Whom God ordained to redeem us
all back to Himself.
Christopher J. Priest
3 April 2011
editor@praisenet.org
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