Coachlight Bible Study – What Is Prophecy – Isaiah Chapters
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I. What Is Prophecy? – God Sharing Himself With Us
A. The Other Three Divisions of the Old Testament
1. First five books set out for us the plan of God Revealed
a. God unfolded His story through types, shadows, contrasts, and unconditional covenants
b. We even see Christ Himself in theophanies, burning bushes and revelations of the coming
Redeemer
2. Second, the historical books - Joshua through Esther.
a. Again we can see Christ in
types, visions, and true life experiences.
b. We can learn to put our trust in
God’s Word from His dealing with
3. Third are the poetry books - Job through Song of Solomon
a. We see Christ promised as the Coming Messiah and King
b. Demonstrates that He is worthy of worship – why?
1. He created all things
2. He is the coming Messiah – Why the present tense?
3. He is the coming King
B. The Prophets
Teach the Promises Of God to
1. What is a promise? - a sharing of self.
a. When two young people stand at a wedding - what are they really doing?
b. They are committing themselves to give of themselves to each other.
2. A promise basically is a commitment to share yourself.
a. With a promise you commit something of your time
b. With a promise you commit something of your energy
c. With a promise you commit something of your resources to another person.
C. The Bible’s Promises Are God's Commitments to Share Himself With Us.
1. Understanding His promises show us more of God’s nature and
character
2. We understand more about His plan, and what
our job is
3. Study of the prophets is a very important part of studying the Bible
a. We learn what God says He will do.
b. It is impossible to exercise true faith without a promise to base our faith
c. Sometimes we talk about faith and have no foundation without a promise.
1. If God said He will do it, He
will do it
2. What He has not said is
worthless – it is probably religion
D. Contrast Of Priests And Prophets
1. Prophet – Presents
God to men
a. Men who walked closely with God
b. Saw into the heart of things, both present and future.
2. Priests of
II. Isaiah – A Miniature Bible
A. Isaiah is the fullest revelation of Christ found in the Old
Testament
1. Often called "the gospel according to Isaiah."
2. Often called a miniature Bible - Structure parallels the entire Bible
a. The Bible has 66 books - Isaiah has 66 chapters.
b. Two major divisions, the Old Testament and the New Testament - and Isaiah can divide into two major divisions.
c. There are 39 books in the Old Testament - 39 chapters in the first section of Isaiah.
d. There are 27 books in the New Testament - 27 chapters in the last half of Isaiah.
e. The New Testament begins with the history of John the Baptist - The second half of Isaiah (chapter 40) begins with the prophecy of the coming of the forerunner.
f. The book of Revelation ends with its vision of the new heaven and the new earth - Isaiah closes with a chapter that speaks of the new heavens and the new earth
III. Background
History – Captivity Of
A. Isaiah lived during the
reigns of four kings of
a. Uzziah --- b. Jotham
c. Ahaz ----- d. Hezekiah
B. Isaiah’s Ministry – 740 Years
a. The 10 tribes (northern kingdom)
were attacked by
b. At the
close of Isaiah's ministry
1. Was in terrible idolatry
2. This would end with
C. Tradition - Isaiah was martyred in the reign of the wicked king
Manasseh.
a. The story is that he was fleeing from the soldiers of the king
1. He hid in a hollow tree, hoping to escape.
2. The soldiers, knowing that he was in the tree, sawed the tree down
3. So Isaiah was sawn in half.
b. Hebrews
D. Isaiah Means The Salvation Of God.
1. The fundamental promise of the Bible is that God is able to redeem.
2. It is very clear in verse 18
Isaiah 1:18 Come
now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD:
though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be
red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
IV. Isaiah’s Search
for Salvation
A. Isaiah
lived in a time of national rebellion and evil
a. The nation had deliberately forsaken God’s ways
b. Isaiah does not understand their stupid obstinate ways towards God
B. He Begins with a
prophecy about God’s people - Judah
Isaiah 11:2 ¶ Hear,
O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished
and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
Isaiah 11:3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the
ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
Isaiah 11:4 Ah
sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that
are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of
Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
Isaiah 11:5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye
will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
Isaiah 11:6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no
soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying
sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with
ointment.
Isaiah 11:7 Your
country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers
devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
Isaiah 11:8 And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard,
as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
Isaiah 11:9 Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small
remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto
C. They are
religious, but
a. Their hearts were given over to idolatry – had forgotten God
b. The nation had forgotten their first love – were full of sin
D. When There Is
Judgment There Is Mercy – A Great Promise The
Millennial Reign Of Christ
Isaiah 2:2 And it shall come to pass in the last days,
that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the
mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow
unto it.
Isaiah 2:3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye,
and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob;
and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of
Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
Isaiah 2:4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many
people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into
pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against
nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
Isaiah 2:5 O house
of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the
LORD.
But Before That
Beautiful Promise Is Fulfilled
E. The Terrible
Times of the End of the Age Must Happen, the Times of the Gentiles Must End,
and the Day of the Lord Happen
1. The First Fulfillment - the Babylonian destruction of
2. The ultimate fulfillment in the last days of the age.
F. Why Must Those
Events First ?
Isaiah 2:6 ¶
Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be
replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they
please themselves in the children of strangers.
Isaiah 2:7 Their
land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their
treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their
chariots:
Isaiah 2:8 Their
land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that
which their own fingers have made:
Isaiah 2:9 And the mean man boweth down, and
the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive
them not.
1. The Nation Is
Looked Upon As The Vineyard Of The Lord.
Isaiah 5:1 ¶ Now will
I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved
touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard
in a very fruitful hill:
Isaiah 5:2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and
planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and
also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes,
and it brought forth wild grapes.
Isaiah 5:3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah,
judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.
Isaiah 5:4 What
could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have
not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it
should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?
Isaiah 5:5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my
vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and
break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
Isaiah 5:6 And I
will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will
also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
Isaiah 5:7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of
Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment,
but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.
Isaiah 5:8 ¶ Woe
unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no
place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!
Isaiah 5:9 In mine ears said the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses
shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant.
Isaiah 5:10 Yea,
ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an
homer shall yield an ephah.
2. Jesus Also Made
Mention of This Part of Isaiah
John 15:1 ¶ I am
the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
John 15:2 Every
branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth
fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more
fruit.
John 15:3 Now ye are clean
through the word which I have spoken unto you.
John 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
John 15:5 I am the
vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and
I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for
without me ye can do nothing.
John 15:6 If a man
abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather
them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
John 15:7 If ye
abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall
be done unto you.
G. How Can both condemnation and reconciliation Happen?
Isaiah 6:1 ¶ In the year that king Uzziah died
I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train
filled the temple.
Isaiah 6:2 Above it stood the seraphims: each
one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered
his feet, and with twain he did fly.
Isaiah 6:3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is
the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
Isaiah 6:4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that
cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
1. God gives Isaiah
a vision of overwhelming Majesty
2. The Holy and
Pure God
3. The Throne That had Never nor Will Never Be Vacant
a. It was the time when the throne was empty – king Uzziah died
b. He saw One sitting on a throne – Lifted Up and His Train Filled The Temple
c. Above the throne Isaiah saw seraphims
1. Each had six wings
2. Each with two covered his face
3. Each with two covered its feet
4. Each with two wings he flew
d. One cried out holy, holy, holy is the Lord and His glory fills the earth.
1. The posts of the door was shaken
2. The place was full of smoke
Isaiah Saw
The God Of Both Wrath And Power - The God With Power To Shake The Earth To Its
Foundation - An Immense God, Infinite And Mighty, Speaking In Thunder And
Moving In Strength.
Isaiah 5:1 ¶ Then
said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man
of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine
eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
Isaiah 5:6 Then
flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal
in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
Isaiah 5:7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath
touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away,
and thy sin purged.
H. Isaiah’s
Reaction - Conviction
1. He cried out because he felt the conviction of God
2. The vision of God’s Throne convicted him of sin
a. His own sinfulness
1. He realized he had unclean lips
2. He realized his people had unclean lips
b. The sinfulness of his people
I. His sin was
purged by burning coal
1. A coal from the altar
2. Brought by one of the seriphims
3. The coal was laid in his mouth
J. Isaiah Is Taught
The Secret of Salvation By His Own Experience
1. It is God alone Who does the saving
2. Isaiah has no part in it except realization
K. Isaiah’s Commission
Isaiah 6:9 ¶ And he
said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye
indeed, but perceive not.
Isaiah 6:10 Make
the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with
their heart, and convert, and be healed.
Isaiah 6:8a Also I
heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I
send, and who will go for us?
L. Isaiah’s Answer
– What God Is Looking For
Isaiah 6:8b Then said I, Here am I; send me.
M. Isaiah’s
Question
Isaiah 6:11a Then said I, Lord, how long?
N. The Lord’s Answer – houses without people, Land desolate
Isaiah 6:11b Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant,
and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,
V. God's Plan of
Salvation
A. The First Step
Revealed
1. King Ahaz , king of
2. Isaiah is sent to Ahaz with a
message that God Himself will deliver the nation
Isaiah 7:4
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall
conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Isaiah 7:15 Butter
and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the
good.
Isaiah 7:16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and
choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall
be forsaken of both her kings.
B. This, like many other prophecies, has more
than one fulfillment.
1. An Immediate
Fulfillment – God uses the names of Isaiah’s two sons to show His Word
Isaiah 8:3 And I
went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare
a son. Then said the LORD to me, Call his name Mahershalalhashbaz.
Isaiah 8:4 For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father,
and my mother, the riches of
a. Isaiah’s older
son
1. His name - Sheari-jasheb – meaning “a remnant shall return”
2. Had already signaled the promise that
b. Isaiah’s son now
1. Maher-shalal-hashbaz – “swift the booty; speedy the prey”
2. A sign to King Ahaz
a. The two kings he feared would become booty and prey
b. They would flee from the Assyrian’s who would overcome them
3. And so it proved to be true.
a. The baby, a type of Immanuel, was not yet 12 years old
before
b.
4. The Assyrian hordes so ravished the land
a. The cultivated fields reverted to pasture
b. The diet of Maher-shalal-hashbaz consisted of curdled milk and honey rather than the more normal food.
2. A Secondary
Fulfillment – The First Advent of Christ - Isaiah’s vision spans the centuries
and comes down on the great blessing to come in
Isaiah 9:1 ¶
Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the
first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and
the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more
grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the
nations.
Isaiah 9:2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light:
they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light
shined.
a. In earlier times He treated the
b. The people who walk in darkness will see a great light
c. This region
3. The Final – (I think) - Fulfillment – The Second Advent of Christ – Demonstrates the Dual Fulfillment Principle
Isaiah 9:6 For unto
us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon
his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor,
The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:7 Of the
increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of
David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and
with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will
perform this.
VI. I Ask Again –
What Is Prophecy? - Immanuel
Revelation