Character Study: Isaiah

Good evening. Thanks for joining us tonight.

It is a little uncommon for me to begin with the message, but tonight is a bit different than normal.

Last month I started doing a character study of someone in the Bible and I did what some might consider and easy one. And I did. Elijah was pretty easy. He had a narrative that is easy to follow and very streamline message.

Then for this month I was directed to someone who has less of a narrative even though he has his own book of the Bible and one of the bigger ones at that.

For quite some time I’ve felt a desire to understand the Book of Isaiah more. And long story short, I’m a little over a month in and have a long way to go.

But I wanted to talk about him a little bit, so we can learn what it looks like to love God so much that you can’t help but pour Jesus out.

And the reason we are just jumping right into the message today instead of singing is all because of a guy named Xander Stok.

Xander is a musician in the Netherlands and he was for years in such a deep depression that he had to be on suicide watch. People would watch him 24/7 so he wouldn’t kill himself.

Then he met someone who changed his life. That someone was Jesus.

But Xander still loved being a singer and songwriter, but as he was reading through the Book of Isaiah himself he heard the word’s “grab your guitar and sing what you're reading." 

And that is what he has done, and not just with Isaiah, with many other books of the Bible as well.

So as we learn a little bit about the character of Isaiah, we are going to worship with Xander and sing some of the scripture of Isaiah.

I’m going to start with a little biography of Isaiah. Basically everything we know about the guy from scripture. Not his ministry, that’s a separate part. But his stats.

Like a baseball card will tell about how they play, but it might also give the birthdate, where they grew up and some interesting facts.

Isaiah was the son of Amoz, he had a wife who was a prophetess and two sons named Sear-jashub and Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

That’s it. Of course he did much more. We could lump in things we know he witnessed, but that was part of his ministry. His personal life is whittled down to Dad’s name, had a wife, and two sons.

And I’ll be honest. If 500 years from now, my name is in a history book for some reason and it has my name, and 5 kids, that’s more than enough for me.

But the thing about Isaiah is his ministry. If you look up every mention of Isaiah outside of the book of Isaiah, you will find, for the most part something to the effect “And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah,”

Inside the book of Isaiah we see his ministry, how God talked to him and how he related it to us.

What better way to introduce Isaiah that to sing some verses from Isaiah 1?

ISAIAH 1 VIDeo

The context of these verses and this song was a rebuke to Judah for their sins. Isaiah was, like God, not content with people living away from God. So when God gives him a message of love and salvation. He gives it. And it’s way better than any sermon you’ve ever heard. Because Isaiah is scripture and is almost 3,000 years old. In 3,000 years, I’m sure, my sermons won’t be in a book that millions read. And I’m okay with that.

But if the Lord gives us 3,000 more years, I can guarantee Isaiah’s words will still be around. His is constantly a message of repentance and salvation through the Lord. This is why many people call Isaiah the Gospel of Isaiah, because he spends so much time spreading the good news.

Another thing we can learn from about his character is his humbleness. Isaiah 5 and 6 illustrate this well and the song. While the longest of the ones I’m showing tonight is essential to knowing the character of Isaiah

ISAIAH5/6

Isaiah had this idea that even though he loved God and trusted him for salvation that he wasn’t good enough to be in his presence. And of course on our own, we are not good enough, we need him to make us clean.

In Isaiah 6 he is afraid of being in the presence of the LORD, but the Seraphim touched his lips with the coals. This verse begs the question who made Isaiah clean, the stone, or God.

I don’t know Hebrew, but I read people who do. And the text here communicates much more that when the seraphim touches Isaiah’s lips with the burning coal it was showing him that the holy fire that would destroy sinners, did not destroy him. God had taken his guilt away and his sin had been atoned for.

But most importantly was Isaiah’s willingness to go. God asks the question, “Whom shall I send?”

If you’ve ever been in a room when someone asks for a volunteer. I’ll tell you what happens.

Silence, then looking around, more silence, then finally, “sure, I guess I’ll do it.”

Very rarely, though it’s nice when I see it, when a volunteer is asked for, no sooner is the ask out there and there are hands to the sky. I love that.

Isaiah had no idea what God wanted him to say, but Isaiah wanted to be the one say it.

So to say Isaiah loved his work in ministry would be an understatement. He loved it, lived it, thrived in it. But one other passage in Isaiah 28 tells me something else was important to Isaiah and that was rest.

Isaiah 28

The context of Isaiah 28 tells that even though people were told to take a break they wouldn’t listen.

Rest is so important. It keeps you healthy and sane. And the best is the 7 day model. So many studies have been done. Countries have tried 10 day weeks and noticed severe depression and lower quality work. Having a day off every 6 days is extremely important.

A little disclaimer here. This is a character study on Isaiah. So, I’m about to skip over probably the 3rd or 4th super important passage in Isaiah regarding the Messiah. I’m doing that on purpose.

The Bible is a character study on Jesus and I’m pretty much already doing that Sunday mornings, so when I skip over messianic passages now, know I’ll tackle them when I visit Isaiah some Sunday morning, at the rate I’m going sometime in 2027.

Another character trait I see in Isaiah comes from chapter 54, right after the significant passages on the messiah.

Here Isaiah shares God’s desire for the whole world to know salvation.

Isaiah had a passion for sharing God’s message of salvation.

Listen to the Song and see

Isaiah 54

Isaiah desires that heaven be so full it will be busting at the seams. Which is exaggeration to be sure. But the heart is there. Isaiah’s heart is for people to know God, to love God, and he wasn’t afraid to say so.

I imagine if Isaiah were around today he would be walking around public spaces with a microphone causing all kinds of trouble. But for the glory of God.

Finally, a character trait of Isaiah was that he was future minded. He didn’t think the here and now was as important as future with God. The important thing to him was to take as many people with him as possible.

2 Peter 3:9 ESV

9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

The Lord desires all to repent, but knows not all will. Isaiah is the same, he wants all to know God’s salvation and the end of Isaiah reflects this perfectly.

Isaiah 66

As we close today, I want you to take this to heart. Not every prophet in the Bible was like Isaiah, some were, some were like Jonah.

You are not Isaiah, but you are, I hope a follower of Jesus. Listen to what he has for you. I can promise it will push you out of your comfort zone, but it will also be glorious.

Let’s Pray