The Book of Isaiah from 35,000 Feet

Apart from the book of Psalms, Isaiah is the longest book in the Bible. Its 66 chapters cover a time frame that stretches from the reign of King Uzziah in the middle 700s BC through to the post-exile period in the middle 500s BC. Scholars debate whether all that material reflects the prophetic words of just one man or if there are at least two prophets involved: the titular Isaiah who prophesied to the kings of Judah in the 700s BC and a second prophet who prophesied in the post-exilic period of the 500s BC. Either way, the complete corpus of the book is huge by comparison to other books in the canon of scripture. Complicating it further is the fact that the book seems to go in circles at times, repeating itself with near identical wording yet weaving together its major themes in different ways each time. The goal of this lesson is to give you a feel for the books as a whole. It will summarize the prophetic words and briefly describe the contents of the narrative portions. The bulk of time is spent letting you hear Isaiah in his own words as he touches on the four main themes in various ways throughout the book. Outline 00:00 - Introduction 01:14 - Overview of the four major themes in Isaiah 02:40 - Notes on the author and audience 06:41 - Overview of the entire book, section by section 14:19 - Division between Chapters 1-39 and 40-66 15:36 - Overlaying the chronology of the kings of Judah and the Babylonian exile onto Isaiah's contents 18:33 - The major themes traced through Chapters 1 to 5 (Uzziah) 21:42 - The major themes traced through Chapter 6 (Jotham) 26:34 - The major themes traced through Chapters 7 to 12 (Ahaz) 30:41 - The major themes traced through Chapters 13 to 23 (The Oracles to the Nations) 36:19 - The major themes traced through Chapters 24 to 39 (Hezekiah) 40:13 - The major themes traced through Chapters 40 to 52a (Babylon 1.0) 44:33 - The major themes traced through Chapters 52b to 66 (Babylon 2.0) 48:00 - Distinctive Feature: Vegetative Imagery 49:36 - Distinctive Feature: Prophecy and Narrative woven together 54:17 - Distinctive Feature: Mocking Idols and their Makers 55:35 - New Testament Echoes: Isaiah in the Gospels 58:23 - New Testament Echoes: Isaiah in the Letters of Paul and Others 59:52 - New Testament Echoes: Isaiah in Revelation 62:04 - The Bottom Line, all the major themes in one passage 65:38 - Conclusion