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Isaiah, Paul of the Old Testament (8 of 10)

Focus Text: Isaiah 7.14

Isaiah was a prophet with sustaining hope. He had hope for himself, hope for Israel, hope for other nations, and most importantly, he had hope for the coming Messiah. Isaiah’s work contains faint images as well as explicit descriptions of the Coming One throughout his book. To state it succinctly, Isaiah was a prophet who had great Messianic hope and he expressed that hope to any and all who would listen to his words. Today and tomorrow’s message will briefly survey a couple of Isaiah’s expressions of Messianic hope.

Modernists (a bane of professed believers who deny most if not all the miraculous elements of the Scriptures) have a great problem with Isaiah; their problem: Isaiah explicitly predicted the coming Messiah hundreds of years before His birth! Their problem with Isaiah is simple; they cannot explain his clear references to Messiah and maintain their position relative to miraculous inspiration and revelation. They reason from their foregone conclusions and find that Isaiah “doesn’t fit the mold.”

A work of the latter half of the twentieth century by Homer Hailey entitled A Commentary on Isaiah: With Emphasis on the Messianic Hope was certainly not the work of a modernist. In fact, Hailey hit the nail on the head! Isaiah clearly saw the Savior centuries before His coming and predicted certain events surrounding His birth, attributes of His life, and critical details of His death. The Messianic hope of Isaiah is not the product of a later redactor nor is it a figment of an overactive and fertile imagination. The prophecies of Isaiah regarding Messiah provided hope to a nation that had no hope and to a people who were in dire need of forgiveness and redemption. The hope that Isaiah preached was a real and refreshing hope, one that gave new life to those who had faith and sustained those who were weary from the spiritual battles in which they were engaged.

Isaiah wrote, “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 7.14). Modernists have a real problem with this verse; their problem extends to the New Testament in as much as Matthew cites Isaiah 7.14 in this manner: “So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel…’” (Matthew 1.22-23). If one throws out Isaiah, he must also throw out Matthew! Unfortunately that is what many have done.

The truth of the matter is simple, that is, if one accepts what has been written! Isaiah had fond hopes of the coming Messiah and expressed many of the blessings that would come from such a time. Isaiah believed in and preached the reality of the coming of Immanuel, “God with us.” This hope, the hope of Israel, was Isaiah’s hope! With or without believers, Isaiah’s message was the same: Messiah is coming. Furthermore, his message proved true in spite of contemporary detractors! The truth is just as refreshing today as it was then; proclaim it!

Questions:

1. What is/was Isaiah’s Messianic hope?

2. What is a modernist? Why do they have problems with Isaiah?

3. How do we KNOW that Isaiah actually prophesied the virgin birth of Jesus?

4. Why would the message of Messiah be so refreshing to Isaiah and to the few that followed the LORD during the ministry of Isaiah?

"'Christ in You...'" from Dale Krebbs

Longing For God