Who was Isaiah? What was his life like as a prophet of God?
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
QUESTION:
[/vc_column_text][TS_VCSC_Advanced_Textblock styling_color=”#000000″ styling_size=”18″ styling_padding=”padding-top:15px;padding-right:20px;padding-bottom:10px;padding-left:20px;” styling_margin=”margin-top:-40px;margin-right:0px;margin-right:auto;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;margin-left:auto;” restrictions=”Visibility: Everybody / Tag Conditions: No” styling_border=”border-style:solid;border-top-style:solid;border-right-style:solid;border-bottom-style:solid;border-left-style:solid;|border-width:2px;border-radius:20px;border-top-width:2px;border-top-left-radius:20px;border-right-width:2px;border-top-right-radius:20px;border-bottom-width:2px;border-bottom-right-radius:20px;border-left-width:2px;border-bottom-left-radius:20px;|border-color:#cccccc;border-top-color:#cccccc;border-right-color:#cccccc;border-bottom-color:#cccccc;border-left-color:#cccccc;” conditionals=”eyJ2aWV3ZXJzdGF0dXMiOiJldmVyeWJvZHkiLCJyZXN0cmljdGlvbiI6Im5vbmUiLCJ1c2Vycm9sZXMiOiIiLCJ1c2Vyc2NvcGUiOiJhbnkiLCJ1c2VyY2FwcyI6IiIsIm90aGVyc2NvcGUiOiJhbnkiLCJvdGhlcnRhZ3MiOiIiLCJkZXZpY2V0eXBlcyI6IiJ9″]Who was Isaiah? What was his life like as a prophet of God?[/TS_VCSC_Advanced_Textblock][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1593020051457{margin-top: 40px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]
ANSWER:
[/vc_column_text][TS_VCSC_Advanced_Textblock styling_color=”#000000″ styling_size=”18″ styling_padding=”padding-top:15px;padding-right:20px;padding-bottom:10px;padding-left:20px;” styling_margin=”margin-top:-40px;margin-right:0px;margin-right:auto;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;margin-left:auto;” restrictions=”Visibility: Everybody / Tag Conditions: No” styling_border=”border-style:solid;border-top-style:solid;border-right-style:solid;border-bottom-style:solid;border-left-style:solid;|border-width:2px;border-radius:20px;border-top-width:2px;border-top-left-radius:20px;border-right-width:2px;border-top-right-radius:20px;border-bottom-width:2px;border-bottom-right-radius:20px;border-left-width:2px;border-bottom-left-radius:20px;|border-color:#cccccc;border-top-color:#cccccc;border-right-color:#cccccc;border-bottom-color:#cccccc;border-left-color:#cccccc;” conditionals=”eyJ2aWV3ZXJzdGF0dXMiOiJldmVyeWJvZHkiLCJyZXN0cmljdGlvbiI6Im5vbmUiLCJ1c2Vycm9sZXMiOiIiLCJ1c2Vyc2NvcGUiOiJhbnkiLCJ1c2VyY2FwcyI6IiIsIm90aGVyc2NvcGUiOiJhbnkiLCJvdGhlcnRhZ3MiOiIiLCJkZXZpY2V0eXBlcyI6IiJ9″]Isaiah was the son of Amoz, brother of King Amaziah of Judah. He prophesied in Jerusalem during a pivotal period of Israel’s history (742–701 B.C.), when many things transpired that would typify events in the “last days” or endtime. Isaiah’s name, Yeshayahu, means “Jehovah is Salvation,” foreshadowing a message of hope to those who would understand his words. As both a prophet and a poet, Isaiah encoded many layers of meaning into his words, making it essential to search them in order to determine their meaning.
At a young age, Isaiah saw Israel’s God Jehovah in the temple at Jerusalem. On that occasion, God called him as a prophet to his people: “Then I heard the voice of my Lord saying, Who shall I send? Who will go for us? And I replied, Here am I; send me! And he said, Go, and say to these people, Go on hearing, but not understanding; Go on seeing, but not perceiving. Make the heart of these people grow fat; dull their ears and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears, understand in their heart, and repent, and be healed” (Isaiah 6:8–10).
So far had his people drifted away from their God that he sent Isaiah to warn them of calamities that lay just ahead. Isaiah’s prophecies, however, divided people into those who would see, hear, understand, repent and be healed of their behavioral dysfunctions and those who wouldn’t. The Book of Isaiah spells out the evil consequences of people’s not giving heed to Isaiah’s words but also the glories God promises those who will take them to heart.
When Isaiah was prevented by the ruling king from prophesying to the people, he called his children by symbolic names that portended Assyria’s imminent invasion of Israel and God’s
deliverance of a remnant of his people. Isaiah’s wife, “the prophetess” (Isaiah 8:3), gave birth to
two sons—Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, “Hasten the Plunder, Hurry the Spoil,” and Shear-Jashub, “A Remnant Shall Repent/Return” (Isaiah 7:3; 8:3).
Later, after more than forty years of ministering as a prophet of God during the reigns of five kings—Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, and Manasseh—Isaiah was sawn in half by the evil King Manasseh (Ascension of Isaiah 5:1, 11). Toward the latter part of his life Isaiah had lived mostly in Israel’s desert regions with a small entourage of prophets in order to escape the wrath of Manasseh. Eventually, however, the king’s false-prophet cohorts tracked him down.
Isaiah describes his book as having been written in “parables” (Ascension of Isaiah 4:20). From that perspective, those parts of Israel’s ancient history that Isaiah selected and chose to write about function as an allegory of the “last days” or endtime. Having seen “the end from the beginning” in a great vision of eternity (Isaiah 46:10), Isaiah patterned his prophecies in such a way that “the end” of the world was typified by events in “the beginning.”
Isaiah thus knew that his prophecies would be most relevant to the end of the world, not in his own day. At that time, Israel’s history would repeat itself on a world scale and Isaiah’s prophecies would at last bear good fruit among the people of God. (Taken from the book, Isaiah Made Simple.)
Ask a question at www.IsaiahInstitute.com.[/TS_VCSC_Advanced_Textblock][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1593020673709{margin-top: 80px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Got Questions about Isaiah?
Dr. Avraham Gileadi will answer your most searching questions on the prophecy and theology of Isaiah once a week, opening your view to new vistas of understanding the words of Isaiah.
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Send us your questions and we will post responses as time permits.