Thursday
Evening Bible Study
December
12, 2019
Introduction
The book of Isaiah is the first book in the section of the Old Testament
that we call the “prophets”.
It is the Old Testament book that has the clearest picture of the coming
Messiah.
The New Testament quotes from Isaiah more than from any other prophet.
John, the forerunner of Christ, began his ministry with a quote from Isaiah
(Mat. 3:3).
Jesus preached His first sermon in Nazareth from Isaiah (Luke 4:17-21).
Old Bible critics will say that the book of Isaiah is actually two books
written by different authors, with chapters 1-39 as the first book, and
chapters 40-66 as the second.
The two sections are indeed distinct, but they serve different purposes. The
first half is a book of judgment, the second half is one of comfort.
Better, recent scholarship, including the contribution of the Dead Sea
Scrolls affirms that it is a single book written by a single author.
This is not a book that was written all at once, in a single sitting. There
are various sections of the book, and it is the compiling of the writings of a
man over sixty years.
There will be times that the prophetic message is aimed close to Isaiah’s
time.
There will be times when the prophetic message is aimed far in the future.
There will be times when the message has a double effect with both a near and
far prophecy.
Isaiah has contemporaries.
His ministry overlaps the prophets Hosea and Micah.
His ministry lies roughly between 740-700 BC.
He prophesies during the reigns of the Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah –
all kings of the southern kingdom of Judah.
Keep in mind that in Isaiah’s lifetime, Israel has been split into two
different nations.
The northern ten tribes were called “Israel”, or “Ephraim”.
The southern two tribes were called “Judah”
Isaiah lived in the southern nation, and they are the main focus of his
prophecies.
Two concepts to keep in mind as we study prophecy:
We have seen that some prophecies have “double fulfillments” – they may be
fulfilled inside Isaiah’s day, and then again far in the future (like Is. 7:14
– the virgin). When you say “what does that mean?” you may need to think of
more than one thing.
We are also seeing that when it comes to prophecy, sometimes the prophecy
can skip hundreds or thousands of years between one phrase and the next. This
is called “prophetic telescoping”.
Isaiah 51
read v.1-3
:2 For I called him alone
It’s not that God ONLY called Abraham, but that when God called him, he
wasn’t an entire nation, he was just ONE guy.
(Isaiah 51:2 CSB) …When I called him, he was only one; I blessed him and made him
many.
God called Abraham when it was just he and Sarah. God promised that He would multiply Abraham’s
descendants to be more numerous than the stars or the sand of the
seashore. Yet at first it was just Abe
and Sarah. God blessed Him when it was
just the two of them. And eventually a
great nation came from them.
God may be encouraging the remnant that was left in Babylon, saying that
even though they were few, He would still use them.
Lesson
It just takes one
The prophet Zechariah lived after the Babylonian captivity, during the time
when the temple was being rebuilt by a governor named Zerubbabel.
Zechariah saw a strange vision of a lamp in the temple. It was a strange
oil lamp hat wouldn’t need to be refilled each day because it was being fed oil
directly from two olive trees.
All of this was to encourage Zerubbabel that God would provide the work of
the Holy Spirit to power the work.
The Temple wouldn’t be built because of Zerubbabel’s “might or power”, but
by God’s Spirit (Zec 4:6)
And then came this word –
(Zechariah 4:10
NKJV) For who has despised the day of small things?
There were folks who were around during this time of rebuilding the temple
who were not happy with what seemed to be a small, insignificant work being
done by Zerubbabel. Yet those people
would be blessed to see Zerubbabel finish the work.
Don’t despise the day of “small things”.
In 1855, a lowly Sunday School teacher named Edward Kimball felt great
concern for one of his students who worked at a shoe store. He went to visit this student at work one day
and his student opened his heart to Jesus.
That student was named Dwight Moody – one of the greatest evangelists of
all time.
What you think may be a small, insignificant work may one day be something
tremendous.
That’s a good word for our church.
read v.4-8
:6 My salvation will be forever
Lesson
Good investments
If we were to look up at the sky or down at the earth, we might tend to
think that those are things that last forever.
That’s part of the fallacy of evolution – making it sound as if things
progress ever so slowly over billions and billions of years.
In reality, the heavens will one day vanish, and the earth will be gone.
(2 Peter 3:10 NKJV)
But
the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will
pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat;
both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
Yet God’s salvation is forever… and ever…
If we’re not careful we can put our priorities in the wrong things.
We invest our whole lives in things that will one day
perish.
We need to be investing our time, treasures, and
priorities in the things of God.
Jesus said,
(Matthew 6:19–21
NKJV) —19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and
rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up
for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and
where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where
your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Illustration
There is a story about a sailor shipwrecked on one of the
South Sea islands. He was seized by the natives, hoisted to their shoulders,
carried to the village, and set on a rude throne. Little by little, he learned
that it was their custom once each year to make some man a king, king for a
year. He liked it until he began to wonder what happened to all the former
kings. Soon he discovered that every year when his kingship was ended, the king
was banished to an island, where he starved to death. The sailor did not like
that, but he was smart and he was king, king for a year. So he put his
carpenters to work making boats, his farmers to work transplanting fruit trees
to the island, farmers growing crops, masons building houses. So when his
kingship was over, he was banished, not to a barren island, but to an island of
abundance.
Make sure you are investing with a view of the future,
with a view of forever.
read v.9-11
:9 Awake, awake …
As if Isaiah (or the future Babylonian captives) are asking God to wake up
and help them.
:9 that cut Rahab apart … the serpent…
Rahab is a name used symbolically of Egypt (Is. 30:7; Ps. 87:4; 89:10).
dragon – tanniyn – dragon, serpent, crocodile.
This is probably a reference to the
Pharaoh –
He is called a “dragon” or “monster” (tanniyn)
in Eze. 29:3.
(Ezekiel
29:3 AV) …Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great
dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers…
Isaiah is recalling God’s great displays of power when he brought Israel
out of Egypt.
read v. 12-16
:13 you forget the Lord your Maker
Lesson
Trust of fear
This is why I become anxious and afraid.
I forget about my Maker.
I forget about all that God has done in the past.
I forget about how mighty and powerful He is.
I forget that He calls me to trust Him in difficult times and when I don’t
see what’s ahead in the future.
My fear causes me to do all sorts of things.
I am filled with anxiety.
I don’t sleep.
I try hard to control every aspect of my life.
I get angry with people who seem to be contributing to the problems of my
life.
God’s remedy is learning to trust Him.
(Isaiah 12:2 NKJV) Behold, God is
my salvation, I will trust
and not be afraid.
(Psalm 56:3 NKJV) Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You.
Summarize v.17-23
God tells Israel that they have been “drunk” with the “cup of His fury”
(v.17)
This is what happened when they were taken captive to Babylon, they had
tasted God’s judgment because of their sin.
God tells His people that He is now taking this “cup” of judgment out of
their hands and putting it into the hands of those who have afflicted them.
The Babylonians will be judged.
Isaiah 52
read v.1-2
:1 Awake, awake!
This is the third time this phrase has been used (51:9; 51:17).
God is speaking as if the Jews would be “asleep” in their captivity in
Babylon.
It is time to wake up.
I had to chuckle earlier today when I was reading this in the Christian
Standard Version which says, “Wake up! wake up!”
Our granddaughter Ruthie has this strange thing she does, and we don’t know
where it came from.
She takes a little bell, points it at us while ringing it, and says, “Go to
sweep!” (sleep), then waits a few seconds, rings the bell, and says “Wake up! Wake
up!”
Video: Ruthie – Wake up!
It is funny how you look at Scripture as you get older and have more life
experiences behind you…
Oh that we would “wake up” when God is calling us!
For the Jews, God would be waking them from the sleep of bondage in
Babylon. It would be time to go back to
Jerusalem…
read v.3
:3 You have sold yourselves for nothing
Lesson
Sold for how much?
The picture is being sold into slavery.
The Jews sold themselves into slavery, but not for money.
We can find ourselves slaves as well, when we give ourselves over to sin.
(John 8:34 NKJV) Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits
sin is a slave of sin.
We don’t realize what we’re doing when we jump into sin, but we’re “selling
ourselves”.
Yet instead of getting a high price for our enslavement, we get nothing.
Sometimes we don’t realize just how short we are selling ourselves.
In 2010, a British businessman bought 5 paintings at a Las Vegas garage
sale for $5. One of the paintings turned
out to be an early Andy Warhol painting worth $2million.
Esau could have had the blessing of the “birthright” in his family, but he
“sold” it to Jacob for a bowl of stew. (Gen. 25)
He traded the blessing of the future for a bite to eat.
Illustration
A book entitled The Day America Told
the Truth reported on a survey asking adults what they would be willing to
do for ten million dollars. One out of four respondents said they would abandon
their entire family, and almost that many (23%) said they would become
prostitutes for a week for that kind of pay off. About 16% said they would be
willing to leave their husband or wife and 3% would put their children up for
adoption.
-- Discipleship Journal
Ten million dollars is nothing compared to eternity. Abandoning your family for pleasure leaves
you with nothing.
:3 you shall be redeemed without money
We may sell ourselves into slavery, but all is not lost.
We have a “redeemer”, someone who has come to buy us out of slavery. And He didn’t pay for us with money.
(1 Peter 1:18–19
NKJV) —18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like
silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from
your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of
Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
read v.4-6
God reminds the people of their times of captivity in Egypt and Assyria,
and now that they would be in Babylon, he hadn’t forgotten them. They would one day know Him again.
read v.7
:7 feet … of him who brings good news
In ancient days, important messages were sent by a messenger on foot.
Here the idea is that of a messenger running to the Jews, perhaps still in
Babylon, to say “God has won!”
Paul will quote this in Romans 10.
(Romans 10:12–15
NKJV) —12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same
Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 13 For “whoever
calls on the name of the Lord
shall be saved.”
14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed?
If “calling on the Lord” brings salvation, how could a person do that if
they don’t believe in the Lord?
And
how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?
How can they believe in a God they haven’t heard about?
And
how shall they hear without a preacher?
How can they hear about God if someone doesn’t tell them? (preacher =
announcer)
15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent?
How could someone tell others about Jesus if they’re never sent out to do
it?
As
it is written: “How
beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring
glad tidings of good things!”
Our message is that “God has won!”
God won despite our sin.
Jesus died on the cross, paid for us, and has risen from the dead.
By the way … consider yourselves “sent”…
read v.8-12
:11 Depart! Depart!
God has won a victory for His people, and now they must leave Babylon.
If you remember from Is. 48:20, 70,000 Jews were taken captive to Babylon,
but when the call went out to go home, only 42,000 went back. The rest had become too comfortable in
Babylon.
read v.13-15
It’s too bad this paragraph doesn’t start chapter 53.
:13 Behold, My Servant
As we’ve seen before, the term “servant” has been used for different people
including the Jews, Cyrus, and as here … Jesus.
:14 His visage was marred
This is talking about the beating that Jesus took before He was crucified.
Luke records,
(Luke 22:64 NKJV) And having blindfolded Him, they struck Him on the face and asked
Him, saying, “Prophesy! Who is the one who struck You?”
If you can see a person’s fist coming at your head, you
can at least brace yourself and go with the punch. But if you’re blindfolded,
you have no idea when the next blow is coming. Jesus’ face would have looked worse
than Rocky’s at the end of a fight.
This doesn’t even account for the “scourging” Jesus endured.
(Matthew
27:26 NKJV) Then he released Barabbas to them; and when he
had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified.
Roman scourging involved the use of a “cat-o-nine-tails”.
It was made of leather straps with pieces of metal or sharp objects
embedded in it for the purpose of tearing your flesh. While the Jews had a
limit of 40 stripes for their beatings, the Romans had no such limit. Jesus was
scourged by Roman soldiers. The practice of the Roman scourge was to make each
successive lash harder, with the object being to make the prisoner confess.
Each time the prisoner was whipped and he didn’t confess, the next lash would
be harder. Yet Jesus was silent. It has been suggested that Jesus’ back was
like raw hamburger after the scourging.
:15 sprinkle many nations
The sacrifice of His blood would cover sin not just for the Jews, but for
the whole world.
Isaiah 53
I’ve heard of instances where people on the street are asked to read this chapter
and are asked where it is in the Bible – Old Testament or New Testament – and
they almost always assume it’s in the New Testament.
Yet it was written 700 years before Jesus.
read v.1-3
:2 no form or comeliness
For some reason the movie studios always pick a handsome actor to play the
role of Jesus.
Isaiah said that He didn’t have beauty by human standards.
For those of you who struggle with a sense of self-worth because you don’t
think you’re “beautiful” – you need to rethink some of those thoughts.
God didn’t seem to think that Jesus needed to have a “beautiful” form.
His beauty is based on who He was and what He did.
We should also learn a lesson about what we think of people whom the world
considers “ugly”.
:3 despised and rejected…
If you too feel despised by others, or you seem to lack “popularity”.
If you are not one of the “cool kids”…
You’re in good company.
Jesus understands you.
read v.4-6
:4 born our griefs and carried our sorrows
The word “griefs” speaks of sickness and bodily pains.
The word “sorrows” speaks of pains in the mind.
Physical and mental.
Matthew records Jesus healing lepers, the servant of a centurion, and
Peter’s mother-in-law. Then he writes,
(Matthew 8:16–17
NKJV) —16 When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were
demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who
were sick, 17 that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “He Himself took our infirmities And bore our sicknesses.”
Matthew is quoting our passage.
:4 Yet we esteemed Him stricken
Despite healing so many people, there would be some who thought that when
Jesus died, He was being punished for being a bad person.
(Matthew 26:66
NKJV) What do you think?” They answered and said, “He is deserving of death.”
:5 wounded for our transgressions
This is the basis for the gospel.
This is what our salvation is all about.
We are sinners.
Jesus paid for our sins by dying in our place.
wounded – chalal – to wound (fatally), bore through, pierce.
David wrote prophetically:
(Psalm 22:16 NKJV) …They pierced
My hands and My feet;
David wrote 200 years before crucifixion was invented.
Zechariah wrote,
(Zechariah 12:10
NKJV) …they will look on Me whom they pierced.
:5 chastisement for our peace
Our sins have put us in a state of “war” with God.
When He was put to death, Jesus paid the price required for peace.
A great swap took place. God took
our sins and put them on Jesus, and God took Jesus’ righteousness and gave it
to us.
(2 Corinthians 5:21
NLT) For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our
sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
:5 by His stripes we are healed
The “stripes” refer to the marks on the back of someone who has been
whipped or scourged.
We saw this referred to in 1Pet. 2:24
(1 Peter
2:24 NKJV) who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the
tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose
stripes you were healed.
Some would limit this “healing” to spiritual healing or salvation, I think
it also includes physical healing.
:6 laid on Him the iniquity
You see this same picture being painted in the Levitical sacrifices.
(Leviticus
4:15 NKJV) And the elders of the congregation shall lay
their hands on the head of the bull before the Lord. Then the bull shall be killed before the Lord.
God laid upon Jesus all of our sins.
The innocent was punished as if guilty, that the guilty might be
rewarded as if innocent.
read v.7
:7 He opened not His mouth
This happened all through the evening after Jesus was arrested and put on
trial before various leaders.
(Matthew
26:62 NKJV) And the high priest arose and said to Him, “Do
You answer nothing? What is it these men testify against You?”
Lesson
The Footsteps
Peter said this was part of the “footsteps” that Jesus left us as an
example to follow when we too are suffering.
(1 Peter 2:21–23
NKJV) —21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us,
leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: 22 “Who committed
no sin, Nor was
deceit found in His mouth”; 23 who, when He was reviled, did not
revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself
to Him who judges righteously;
Vs. 23 is a quote from our passage.
When I’m suffering, I tend to open my mouth and complain a
lot.
The example that Jesus gave was to put His life into God’s
hands and for the most part keep His mouth shut.
read v.8-9
:8 He was cut off from the land of the living
Philip the evangelist found himself in the desert near Gaza when he ran
into the entourage of the Ethiopian Eunuch.
The man was riding in his chariot and reading from this portion of
Isaiah. The eunuch stopped at this
phrase…
(Acts 8:34–37 NKJV)
—34 So the eunuch answered Philip and said, “I ask you, of whom does
the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?” 35 Then Philip
opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. 36 Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the
eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?” 37 Then Philip
said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he
answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
:9 with the rich at His death
There is an odd pairing of things in this verse.
He was buried as a criminal (“His grave with the wicked”) yet buried in a
rich man’s tomb.
Jesus was condemned to the cross as a criminal.
Yet after His death, wealthy Joseph of Arimathea claimed Jesus’ body and
buried Jesus in his own tomb.
read v.10-12
:11 see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied
When God saw what Jesus did on the cross, He was satisfied.
Lesson
Paid in full
On the cross, Jesus cried “It is finished” (John 19:30).
The phrase could be translated to say, “the debt has been paid”.
Illustration
Some people grow up feeling like they were never able to please their
parents. Even as adults, there’s
something going on in the back of their minds saying, “If Mom could see you now,
she wouldn’t be happy” … or, “Dad wouldn’t like this!”
Sometimes this mentality can carry over into our relationship with God.
There is only ONE THING that can satisfy God. Only our faith in the death of Jesus.
That doesn’t mean that we don’t want to live our lives in
a manner that pleases God. But now it is
only out of gratitude that we try to live pleasing to God. We don’t need to be worried about whether God
is happy with us. He is. Because of Jesus.
:11 By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many
This is why we are to tell others about Jesus.
It’s when people hear about Jesus and believe that they are made right with
God.