The Uniqueness of Isaiah

LAST WEEK WE TALKED ABOUT THE BIBLE AND A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ITS UNIQUENESS

WHO CAN TELL ME SOME THINGS THAT REALLY SPOKE TO YOU LAST WEEK?

Isaiah Uniqueness

ISAIAHS NAME MEANS SALVATION IS OF THE LORD/ It

Was written around 725 BC- so 725 years before The Lord. That is important later

ISAIAH THE MINIATURE BIBLE

The Bible is made up of 66 books

39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament

Now We are going to be looking at the book of Isaiah this morning and it really is quite a remarkable book

In fact the Book of Isaiah is like one little Bible within the Bible

has 66 chapters- The First 39 chapters are more like the old Testament

More Law based

More talk of judgement because of Israels breaking the covenant

Prophecies of a child that would be given

New Testament- last 27

More Grace based

God promises a Saviour

Isaiah 39- Ends with the Judgment of King Hezekiah by the hands of those from Babylon

NEW TESTAMENT COMPARISON

Isaiah 40:1–3 ESV

1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. 3 A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

A voice cries out in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord!!

John the Baptist: this is how the first book of the New Testament starts

Matthew 3:1–3 ESV

1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’ ”

NOT ONLY DO YOU HAVE A COMPARISON IN 39 AND 40 OF Isaiah WITH THE DIVISION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW TESTAMENT

Adifference between Law and Grace

But in Isaiah 39 It ends with a prophecy of the Judgment of King Hezekiah by men that come from Babylon, but Matthew Starts out with the Wise men from the East who more than likely came from? You know where? Babylon- except they are bringing gifts and coming to worship the new Born King

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

back in 1948 in the Desert south of Israel there was a little Boudoin Shepherd boy named mohaamed the Wolf. And he was out tending his sheep and some of them got away from him. and In this particular region it is pretty mountainous.

There were some caves nearby and Mohammed took a rock and chunked it ito a cave to try and scare any sheep that may have went into the cave. What he heard instead was a crash. When he went to explore he found that he broke some pottery and there he found what would come to be known as the Dead Sea Scrolls

— In 1948 in the caves of Qumran

Came at a time when the Bible was under heavy assault from German Universities and liberal theology. Many were questioning the trustworthiness of the scriptures

The Dead Sea Scrolls contain parts of every book in the Hebrew Bible except for the book of Esther

The King of all the finds in this collection though is the Copper Scroll

The Copper Scroll is a complete copy of the Book of isaiah

You see what is important about that up until this point the earliest copy of the Book of isaiah wasonly about a thousand years old

-CRITICS USED TO CHOMP AT THE BIT TO TAKE A SWIPE OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH, BECAUSE OUR EARLIEST COPY WAS THE MASORETIC TEXT, AND IT ONLY DATED ABOUT A THOUSAND YEARS AGO.

NOW KEEP IN MIND WE ARE TALKING ABOUT A BOOK WRITTEN 3000 YEARS AGO

Well in 1952 they found the only complete book in all the Dead Sea Scrolls

It was the Isaiah scroll, completely reserved, Dated too around 200 BC.

And when they dated the isaiah scroll do you not how many variances they found? 3%

97% the same and the three only accounted for different words being used in different ways- above-over

The entire book is about salvation- the word salvation appears

Isaiah 6:1–5 ESV

1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for 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- A vision of the throne - The most holy man see a vision of God and he says oh no, oh no! we have not idea how holy, how righteous, and how powerful this God is. Immedietly he falls down as though dead

TRINITY

“3” Holies - HOLY HOLY HOLY

Isaiah 6:3 ESV

3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

Isaiah 6:8 ESV

8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

Isaiah 9:6 ESV

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 7:14 ESV

14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Isaiah 53 ESV

1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 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. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.