Lesson 4 – Here
I Am, Lord; Send Me
o
We are
skipping to the Major prophet Isaiah who is actually three different
prophets.
The prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz, proclaimed
his message to Judah and Jerusalem between 742 and 687 b.c.,
that critical period in which the Northern Kingdom was annexed to the Assyrian
empire (2 Kg. ch. 17) while Judah lived uneasily in
its shadow as a tributary (2 Chr.28.21). Nothing is known about the early life
of the prophet, although it has been conjectured from certain aspects of his
message and from Is.6.1-8 that he may have been a priest.
o Only chs. 1-39 can be assigned to Isaiah's time; it is generally accepted that chs. 40-66 come from the time of Cyrus of Persia (539 b.c.e.) and later, as shown by the difference in historical background, literary style, and theological emphases. Isaiah I (chs. 1—39 begins with Isaiah's memoirs (1.1-12.6); it continues with oracles against foreign and domestic enemies (13.1-23.18), followed by the "Isaiah Apocalypse" (24.1-27.13) Oracles generally concerned with Judah's intrigue with Egypt, its implications and consequences (28.1-32.20), are followed by a short collection of post-exilic eschatological oracles (33.1-35.10). An historical appendix (36.1-39.8) completes the pre-exilic section in which there are other additions and some rearranging of oracles by post-exilic editor-In the tradition of Amos, Hosea, and Micah, contemporaries whose work he seems to know, Isaiah attacks social injustice as that which is most indicative of Judah's tenuous relationship with God. He exhorts his hearers to place their confidence in their omnipotent God and to lead public and private lives which manifest this. Thus justice and righteousness, teaching and word, and assurance of divine blessing upon the faithful and punishment upon the faithless are recurrent themes in his message from the Holy One of Israel to a proud and stubborn people.
o
Chapters 40-66, commonly called Second Isaiah
(or Second and Third Isaiah), originated immediately before the fall of
Read
paragraphs 1-5 of the "Bible Background.”
Then, use the time line on pages 4-5
to locate Isaiah (not Second Isaiah, a later
•writer) in his historical period.
What
key events occur during his time?
Ø Read the song of the unfruitful
vineyard in Isaiah 5:1-8.
On a piece of paper list the symbols or metaphors in this song. What does
each represent?
What fruit did God expect from God's vineyard?
Ø Read Isaiah 6:1-13. Review paragraph
6 of the "Bible Background."
Use
the passage to answer some or all of the following questions:
•
Uzziah was king for over forty years.
What might his death have meant in
What significance does the opening "in the year that King Uzziah died" have for Isaiah's vision?
•
What are the purposes of the seraphs ?
•
What lies behind Isaiah's fear in verse 5? (See Exodus 20:18-19 and
33:18-20.)
•
Explore the meaning of the "live coal" or "burning coal."
What is its meaning in the story?
What is its source?
How does it relate to Isaiah's confession?
As you review this reflect on the fact that the altar was the place where
animals were burned as a substitute for the death of a sinner.
•
What does God commission Isaiah to do (verses 9-13)? What is the meaning of
this commission? Do you agree with the interpretation in paragraph 9 of the
"Bible Background"? why or why not?
•
Verse 13 offers a sign of hope. What is that hope?
Isaiah criticized his people
who "were living as an "unfruitful vineyard." Isaiah's words
also carry meaning for us today.
How do we live as an "unfruitful
vineyard"?
Consider examples such as your inability as a faith community to make a difference
in the large number of homeless persons or the discrimination against AIDS,
victims.
Think about:
What are examples specific to
our community?
What are ways we live with "unclean lips" in our church
and in our culture?
Consider examples such as participation in the support of degrading media
or the cutting and unsupportive remarks to others in the church family and
workplace.
Think of specific examples that apply to your situation.
“Whom shall I send,
and who will go for us”
Bible
Background (taken from Journey
through the Bible Book 2, Christian Board of Publications, 1995, p. 18)
'God's
promise to David through the prophet Nathan gave special stability to the
monarchy of
2While
Hosea was prophesying in North Israel, the prophet Isaiah appeared on the scene
in
3Early
sermons of Isaiah are found in chapters 1—5, along with some later material.
These sermons show the literary gifts of the prophet and his commitment to the
covenant traditions that had inspired and guided the prophet Amos.
4In the
early sermons, Isaiah gave details of the people's failure: corruption in the
courts and the market place and in family life, a grasping after wealth that
ignored the rights of the poor and the weak. He also warned against military
adventurism, calling on the nation to give its attention to God's demand for justice
and fairness and seeking peace and reconciliation with the neighboring nations.
5One of
those occasions occurred in 734-32, when North Israel and
6Isaiah reports one great scene that
seems to have taught him to place his own trust in this Holy One of Israel.
Chapter 6 of the book of Isaiah tells of a great vision Isaiah received, which
seems to have been his initial call to be God's prophet. Isaiah seems to have
been standing at the entrance to the temple built by Solomon, looking into the
main room of the temple. He finds the scene transfigured, for suddenly he is
in God's temple in the heavens, and a great gathering of God's servants is
discussing with God what to do about events in
7The
prophet is undone. He cries out, "Woe is me! I am a man of unclean lips,
and I live among a people of unclean lips." Having seen "the King,
the lord of Hosts," Isaiah recognizes the extent and depth of his and his
people's sin.
8A
ceremony of cleansing follows, unlike any actual ceremony used in
9The
commission that comes is hard for us to understand. It seems to be a command to
Isaiah to go and be a prophet of doom and perhaps even of deceit, making it harder
for the people to turn and be saved, so that God may proceed "with the
planned judgment upon a sinful people. More probably, the commission is
affirming that the effect of Isaiah's words will be to harden the hearts
of many and cause them to persist in their destructive ways. Clearly, Isaiah
pleads with the leaders of the people and with the people generally to turn to God
and find health and deliverance.
10Isaiah
is a prophet who spends much of his life, it seems, within the circle of the
king's advisers, helping kings to rule more justly than they otherwise might have
ruled. He can speak sharply against the kings when necessary, but he is clearly
a person actively involved in the political process, not standing at a distance
and attacking those who try to give leadership. No doubt, this approach of
Isaiah is partly responsible for his having been such an important prophetic
figure for so many years in
Scripture
Isaiah 5:1-7:9
Isaiah 5:1-30
1 Let me sing for my beloved my
love-song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile
hill.
2 He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with
choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine
vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
3 And now, inhabitants of
4 What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have
not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild
grapes?
5 And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.
6 I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed,
and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the
clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of
8 Ah, you who join house to house, who add field to
field, until there is room for no one but you, and you are left to live alone
in the midst of the land! (Return to lesson)
9 The LORD of hosts has
sworn in my hearing: Surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful
houses, without inhabitant.
10 For ten acres of
vineyard shall yield but one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield a mere ephah.
11 Ah, you who rise early
in the morning in pursuit of strong drink, who linger in the evening to be
inflamed by wine,
12 whose feasts consist of
lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine, but who do not regard the deeds
of the LORD, or see the work of his hands!
13 Therefore my people go
into exile without knowledge; their nobles are dying of hunger, and their
multitude is parched with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol has
enlarged its appetite and opened its mouth beyond measure; the nobility of
15 People are bowed down,
everyone is brought low, and the eyes of the haughty are humbled.
16 But the LORD of hosts
is exalted by justice, and the Holy God shows himself
holy by righteousness.
17 Then the lambs shall
graze as in their pasture, fatlings and kids shall feed among the ruins.
18 Ah, you who drag
iniquity along with cords of falsehood, who drag sin along as with cart ropes,
19 who say,
"Let him make haste, let him speed his work that we may see it; let the
plan of the Holy One of Israel hasten to fulfillment, that we may know
it!"
20 Ah, you who call evil
good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put
bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
21 Ah, you who are wise in
your own eyes, and shrewd in your own sight!
22 Ah, you who are heroes
in drinking wine and valiant at mixing drink, who acquit the guilty for a
bribe, and deprive the innocent of their rights!
24 Therefore, as the
tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so their root will become rotten, and their blossom go
up like dust; for they have rejected the instruction of the LORD of hosts, and
have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore the anger of
the LORD was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against
them and struck them; the mountains quaked, and their corpses were like refuse
in the streets. For all this his anger
has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.
26 He will raise a signal
for a nation far away, and whistle for a people at the ends of the earth; Here they come, swiftly, speedily!
27 None of them is weary,
none stumbles, none slumbers or sleeps, not a loincloth is loose, not a sandal-thong broken; their arrows are sharp, all their
bows bent, their horses' hoofs seem like
flint, and their wheels like the whirlwind.
29 Their roaring is like a
lion, like young lions they roar; they growl and seize their prey, they carry
it off, and no one can rescue.
30 They will roar over it
on that day, like the roaring of the sea. And if one look to
the land-- only darkness and distress; and the light grows dark with clouds.
CHAPTER 6
(Isaiah 6:1-13)
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and
lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple.
2 Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six
wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet,
and with two they flew.
3 And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy,
holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory." (back to lesson)
4 The pivots on the
thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with
smoke.
5 And I said: "Woe is
me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of
unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"
6 Then one of the seraphs
flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair
of tongs.
7 The seraph touched my
mouth with it and said: "Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt
has departed and your sin is blotted out."
8 Then I heard the voice
of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And
I said, "Here am I; send me!"
9 And he said, "Go
and say to this people: 'Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking,
but do not understand.'
10 Make the mind of this
people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not
look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their
minds, and turn and be healed."
11 Then I said, "How
long, O Lord?" And he said: "Until cities lie
waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is utterly
desolate; until the LORD sends everyone far away, and vast is the emptiness in
the midst of the land.
13 Even
if a tenth part remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains standing when it is
felled." The holy seed is its stump.
CHAPTER 7
(Isaiah 7:1-25)
1 In the days of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah, king of Judah, King Rezin
of Aram and King Pekah son
of Remaliah of Israel went up to attack Jerusalem,
but could not mount an attack against it.
2 When the house of David
heard that
3 Then the LORD said to
Isaiah, Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the
highway to the Fuller's Field, and say to him, Take heed, be quiet, do not
fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps
of firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin
and
5 Because
6 Let us go up against
Judah and cut off Jerusalem and conquer it for ourselves and make the son of Tabeel king in it; therefore thus says the Lord GOD: It
shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass.
8 For the head of
9 The head of Ephraim is
B.C.E.
Pre -historic stories -
Creation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Able, Noah, the
2100 Sarah and Abraham leave Ur of Chaldea
(c. 2100)
-
--
-
2000 Stories of Sarah and Abraham in Canaan and Egyp and back in
-
--
-
1900 Isaac and Rebekah with sons Esau
and Jacob (1900-1750)
-
--
-
1800 Jacob and Rachel with sons Joseph and Benjamin (1800-1700)
-
--
-
1700
- The Joseph Stories (1750-1650)
--
-
1600 Hebrews in bondage in
-
--
-
1500
-
--
-
1400
-
--
-
1300
Exodus from
-
--
Conquest of
-
1200 Invasion of the Philistines - Entry into the promised land.
-
--
-
Deborah
1100
-
-- Samuel
- Saul founds monarchy
1000
David rules
-
Solomon rules
-- First temple built
- Division of Kingdom (
900 Asa king of
-
Ahab King of
-- Elijah --- Elisha
Jehu's
revolution
-
Jehoash
King of
800
- Jeroboam II king of
Asariah (Uzziah) king of
-- Amos
Hosea
- Assyrians take
Isaiah I
Return to Lesson
700 Micah
Hezekiah king of
-
Manasseh king of
--
Zephaniah
-
Josiah's reform -- Nahum
600 Jeremiah
600 Ezekiel
Babylonians sack
- Exile in
-- Isaiah II
Cyrus begins
- Haggai & Zechariah
500
-
--
Nehemiah rebuilds
-
400 The Pentateuch
accepted as Scripture
or 550?
-
--
Alexander conquers East
-
300
-
--
The Prophets accepted as Scripture
-
200
-
Maccabees
-- Hasmonean
rulers (the Herods)
-
100
-
Romans conquer
--
Herod the Great
-
C.E.
- Jesus' ministry
Jewish Christianity & beginnings
of
-- Paul's ministry, letters
- Romans destroy
Gospel of Mark (70) Luke (80) Matthew
(90)
100 The Writings close the Hebrew (CS) Canon
Last Christian books written