Lessons from Isaiah

Evangelical Bible teachers (like me) are keen to remind their hearers that the Bible is living and active. That, the God breathed Word has as much to say to us, as it did to Isaiah  thousands of years ago. I've been reading Isaiah in the morning for the past few months, here's are some of the things i'm learning.

Isaiah's course was set by encounters with God. The well known vision of Isaiah 6, and the perhaps less well known comfort song in chapter 40. Both phases of Isaiah's ministry were set by God. The encounter with the LORD in chapter six gave him the energy, the bravery, to oppose evil and to encourage good. To stand in the street when no listened and to be faithful as Sennacherib's men stood at the gate. His encounter with the LORD in chapter 40 gave him the strength to continue when his public ministry was over. When we see God in His holiness we are fired up to fight sin wherever we see it, when we see God as the God of comfort and condescension, we are given the vision and the energy to comfort God's people in their depths. I need to meet with God every morning. Every morning in the wilderness God gave His people fresh manna, and every day, i need something new. I can't give the people i'm supposed to teach yesterday's meal, they need a man in the pulpit, in teen church, in parent meetings, teaching Sunday School and Children's Church, who has been ruined by God. I need to get my heart and my mind before God daily, and ask that He would do a fraction for me that He did for Isaiah.

Jesus stands and knocks. In Sunday School yesterday we looked at the letter to Laodicea together. Jesus' grace is remarkable in this letter. He tells them that they make Him sick, and then says that if only they'll have Him He'll come and eat with them. That dovetails well with a lot of how the LORD speaks through Isaiah. His covenant people have forgotten Him, but He has not forgotten them. They have turned to idols, but He has not turned to another people. He disciplines them, but as a Father disciplines the one He loves. Through judgement in Isaiah, there is always grace. Sins are always red as scarlet before they are made white like snow. The King is always betraying His God, before God sends the true King. God's grace in Isaiah is extraordinary. Super-abundant. He stands and knocks, He waits at the end of the road for a glimpse of His prodigal, He makes the mountains valley to bring rebels home. Rebels who are now truly sons. Jesus is sovereign, showing His power not just over Uzziah, Ahaz and Hezekiah, but also over Sennacherib, Babylon and Cyrus. But it is Jesus who is sovereign, not some generic, brutal wooden idol. Isaiah leads us to rejoice in both those truths.

Ministry isn't always what you expect. Isaiah's public ministry probably ended in chapter 39, or shortly thereafter. When Hezekiah died and evil King Manasseh took the throne, the days of public preaching for God's man where probably done. Biblical 'legend' has it that it is Isaiah the writer of the Hebrews talks about, who was killed by being sawn in two. I don't think they do that to popular people! But Isaiah wasn't finished when they took his church away from him. He kept going, loving God, His Word and His people. Teaching His disciples and making sure that the exiles knew that the LORD had neither been overpowered, nor forgotten about them. Isaiah loved the work more than the position. I'm sure there were hard days, days when he missed the freedom, days when he thought about preaching in the kings court. But i'm sure they were few and far between. I'm sure that the God He knew, and the plans He knew kept Him going. It was this that kept Isaiah steadfastly abounding in the work of the Lord. And so it must be for us.