Introduction to Isaiah

Today, we begin our journey into the Book of Isaiah. This is going to be a long and arduous journey. Difficult no doubt but will certainly be enriching. We begin by looking at some background information that will help us to understand this prophetical book. Prophets were God’s spokesmen and their main ministry was to communicate God’s message to His people. Generally, most of them were counselors to the kings of Israel providing the direction of God to deal with the kings themselves or to guide them in dealing with the nation of Israel. Generally, the prophets would bring a word of judgment and then a message of hope.  

There were two kinds of prophets in the Bible, the non-writing prophets such as Elijah, Elisha, Nathan, Gad, and etc and the writing prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zachariah, and Malachi. The book of Lamentation was written by Jeremiah, hence was also placed among the prophetical writings.  

There are two categories to the writing prophets, commonly referred to as the major and the minor prophets. There are five books categorized as the major prophets namely, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentation, Ezekiel, and Daniel. The rest of the twelve prophetical books are termed the minor prophets. The two words, major and minor do not refer to their importance but the length of their books. The major prophetical books are longer whereas the minor ones are shorter. It must be said that every prophetical book, major or minor, carries an important message for the people of God.

The non-writing prophets ministered during the time of united Israel while most of the writing prophets ministered when Israel became divided into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Bear in mind that they ministered under different kings, some of them ministered in the north and some in the south. They also ministered during different time periods in the history of Israel. Some before the nation went into exile, some during the exile and others after the return from the exile.   

The prophet Isaiah was the son of Amoz who was the brother of King Amaziah. That would make Isaiah a cousin to King Uzziah. His relationship with royalty made the kings he ministered to more readily accessible. He ministered over the reign of four kings, namely, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. This would mean that Isaiah ministered from 740 BC to 700 BC. In short, the message of Isaiah is about the impending disaster to the kingdom of Judah and the coming salvation of the Lord. In the book of Isaiah, we are pointed to the coming of the ultimate Messiah. Let’s get ready for a rigorous spiritual journey.