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World English Institute |
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WORLD ENGLISH INSTITUTE After the death of David's son Solomon, the kingdom
of Israel split into two kingdoms: Israel in the north, and Judah in the
south. In the north, all the kings were evil. In the kingdom of Judah, some of the kings were good and some were bad. The good kings followed the example of their ancestor David. They obeyed the commandments of the Lord and followed God with their whole heart. God blessed these kings with success. But the evil kings did not obey the commands of the Lord, and the people of Judah became more and more evil. God sent prophets to warn the kings and to draw the people back to himself. (The Hebrew word for "prophet" means "one who is inspired by God," or "one who speaks for God.") GOD CALLS ISAIAH TO BE A PROPHET About 300 years after King David died, there lived in
Jerusalem a young man by the name of Isaiah. In the temple, Isaiah saw a
vision of God. He saw the Lord sitting on a very high and wonderful
throne. Angels were saying, "Holy, holy, holy, the Lord All-Powerful is
very holy. The Lord's glory fills the whole earth." Isaiah became very scared. He said, "Oh, no! I will be destroyed. I am not pure enough to speak to God. And I live among people that are not pure enough to speak to God. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord All-Powerful." There was a fire on the altar. One of the angels used a pair of tongs to
take a hot coal from the fire. The angel flew to Isaiah with the hot coal
in his hand and touched Isaiah's mouth with the coal. The angel said,
"Look! Because this hot coal has touched your lips, the wrong things you
have done are gone from you. Your sins are now erased." Then Isaiah heard the Lord's voice. The Lord said, "Whom can I send? Who
will go for us?" After this vision, Isaiah served as a prophet for fifty years. Isaiah warned the people about the dangers of sin, and called the people back to God. Isaiah said to the people of Judah, "Listen to the Lord. The Lord says, `I raised my children. I helped my children grow. But my children turned against me. A cow knows its master. And a donkey knows the place where its owner feeds it. But the people of Israel don't know me. My people don't understand.' "The Lord says, `Stop doing the bad things you do. Stop doing wrong! Learn to do good things. Be fair to other people. Punish the people that hurt others. Help the children that have no parents. Help the women whose husbands are dead.'" Again and again, Isaiah pointed out the sins of the people. He said, "You people rise early in the morning and go looking for beer to drink. You stay awake late at night, becoming drunk with wine. You party with your wine, harps, drums, flutes, and other musical instruments. And you don't see the things the Lord has done. The Lord's hands have made many, many things-- but you don't notice those things."
With grief in his heart, Isaiah said, "Look at those people! They pull
their sins behind them like people pull wagons with ropes. Those people
say that good things are bad, and bad things are good. They think light is
darkness, and darkness is light. Those people have refused to obey the
teachings of the Lord All-Powerful. They hated the message from the Holy
One of Israel. So the Lord has become very angry with his people. And the
Lord will raise his hand and punish them." The Spirit of God came into Isaiah, and Isaiah was able to look into the future. Isaiah looked ahead and saw a new kingdom. It was not like the kingdom of Judah. It was a spiritual kingdom with spiritual values and laws. It was God's kingdom. It stood above all the kingdoms of the earth. It was a kingdom that would attract people from all nations. People would come from far and near to worship God and to learn about God's way of living. They would follow God's rule and obey God's commands. The kingdom that Isaiah saw was to have its beginning in Jerusalem with
the preaching of God's special message on Mount Zion. From Jerusalem, the
word of God would go out to all the world, and people who accepted God's
rule would change their ways. Those who had been in the habit of arguing
and fighting would learn to love one another and live together in peace.
They would stop using weapons of war. They would make plows from their
swords and use their spears as tools for pruning trees and vines. They
would stop fighting against other people and never train for war again. These prophecies pointed ahead 700 years to the day when God would set up his kingdom, the church, in Jerusalem. This kingdom would never be destroyed.
As Isaiah looked ahead, he saw an awful thing. He saw
the King suffering and dying for all humanity. "He was hurt and punished, but he never protested. He said nothing--like a
sheep being carried to be killed. He was quiet like a lamb is quiet while
the wool is being cut from him. He never opened his mouth to defend
himself. Men used force and took him, and they did not judge him fairly.
He was punished to pay for the sins of my people. "He will suffer many things in his soul. But he will see the good things
that happen, and he will be satisfied. This is one of the most amazing prophecies in the Bible. Seven hundred years before the King was born, Isaiah explained what the King would accomplish by dying on a cross. He would have no sin, but God would put our sins on him. God would do this for us so we could become right with God. God's plan for saving humanity from evil has developed before our eyes as we have traced the events of Old Testament history. The relationship between God and humanity was ruined by sin. But God made a plan to restore that broken relationship:
The prophets of the Old Testament have painted a
picture of the coming King--like artists painting a picture on canvas.
Other prophets add a few final strokes to the picture. The prophet Micah
says that the King will be born in Bethlehem. Zechariah reveals that the
King will ride into Jerusalem triumphantly on the back of a donkey, but
will be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver. Daniel calls him "the Son of
Man," and says that he will return to God to rule over an everlasting
kingdom. Scripture References: I Kings 12-14; 2 Kings 17-19; Isaiah 2:2-4; 6:1-13;
7:14; 9:6-7; 11:1-2, 10; 40:3, 11; 53:3-12; 61:1-2; Daniel 7:12-14; Micah
5:2; Zechariah 9:9-12; 11:12 Acts 13:23; Romans 15:12; 2 Corinthians
5:17-21; Revelation 22:16. |
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