Intorduction to Isaiah Pt-2

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/3/2013 8:43 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Introduction to Isaiah PT-2

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Isaiah

            Message of the verses:  Today we continue looking at the introduction by looking at the different monarchs that Isaiah was involved with during his lifetime.

            The Monarchs:  Here is a list of the kings that Isaiah prophesied under during his life time:  Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.  Just a word of review that will help us understand more about the book of Isaiah.  After the death of King Solomon the nation of Israel was divided into two countries, the North which consisted of ten of the tribes of Israel and the South which consisted of two of the tribes of Israel, Judah and Benjamin.  The nation of Judah still had the city of Jerusalem as their capital, and also had the line of kings that came from David was the kingdom in which Isaiah prophesied from.  In chapter 28 of Isaiah he prophesied that the northern kingdom would fall to Assyria, but his major focus was with Judah. 

            Dr. Wiersbe writes of Uzziah “is also called Azariah.  At the age of sixteen, he became co-regent with his father Amaziah, and was on the throne for fifty-two years (792-740).  When his father was assassinated in 767, Uzziah became the sole ruler and brought the nation to its greatest days since David and Solomon (2Kings 14:17-22; 15:1-7; 2Chonicles 26:1-15).  ‘But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction’ (v. 16).  He tried to intrude into the priest’s ministry in the temple, and God judged him by smiting him with leprosy.  It was in the year that King Uzziah died that Isaiah was called to minister (Isa. 6:1).”

            We see that the son of Uzziah was Jotham, and he also was a co-regent with his father after he became a leper and he had a good reign as seen in 2Kings 15:32-38 and 2Chronicles 27.  It was during his reign that the Assyrians started to become a great power in the region.  His son Ahaz again served as a co-regent however he was not one of Judah’s good kings.  One of the mistakes is that he formed a political alliances that eventually brought Judah into bondage to Assyria.  It was Isaiah who warned him about this being the wrong thing to do, but he did not listen.  Judah was to be protected by God,  and not political alliances. 

            Next Hezekiah reigned for forty-two years and was also one of Judah’s greatest kings.  His history is found not only in the book of Isaiah, but also in 2 Kings 18-20, and 2 Chronicles 29-32.  Hezekiah did many things to improve the defenses of Jerusalem.

            Isaiah’s ministry spans a period of over fifty years from 739 B. C. to 686 B. C. which is the year that Hezekiah died, and probably lasted into the early days of the wicked king, the son of Hezekiah Manasseh who reigned for over fifty years.  We mentioned in yesterday’s SD that he probably had Isaiah sawed into, he was a very wicked man who very late in life came to personally know the Lord.

            Dr. Wiersbe writes the following as a quote from G. Campbell Morgan: “The whole story of the prophet Isaiah, as it is revealed to us in this one book, is that of a man who spoke to an inattentive age or to an age which, if attentive, mocked him and refused to oby his message, until, as the prophetic period drew to a close, he inquired in anguish, ‘Who hath believed our report?  And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?’”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have been praying for God to raise up a spiritual giant in our country, and now I pray that God would raise up a man like Isaiah, a man who feared only God and told the rulers and the people what God told him to tell them without fear.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Proverbs 3:5-6.

Memory verses for the week:  Psalm 46:1-4

            1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah. 

            4 There is a river whose streams make glade the city of God, the holy dwelling place of the most high.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible Question:  “Samuel” (1 Samuel 3:2-10).

Today’s Bible Question:  “How many commandants were given by God to Moses?”

Answer in tomorrow’s SD.

7/3/2013 9:20 AM