Isaiah: introducing the good news

The New Testament quotes one Old Testament prophet more than all the others put together. Can you guess which one?

It’s the prophet who introduces the word gospel into our vocabulary. It’s the prophet who promised God-with-us (Immanuel), a branch sprouting from David’s fallen family tree. It’s the prophet who declared the Lord’s sovereignty over the nations. It’s the prophet who saw Israel fall to Assyria, while helping King Hezekiah survive in Judah.

It’s the prophet who announced the exile, and then announced the good news of the Lord returning to reign over his people. It’s the prophet who saw a Persian king as the Lord’s anointed, acting on God’s behalf to send his people back to their land. It’s the prophet who promised that the arm of the Lord would reach out as a servant to his fallen servant, suffering for his people, and rising to lead them again. It’s the prophet who saw that nations would recognize the Lord’s anointed reigning over his people.

We’re exploring this prophet with two sessions each Wednesday evening 22 October – 26 November 2025. There’ll be notes to download here ahead of each session, with podcasts added after each one. If you’re in Perth (Western Australia) and would like to attend in person, please register (no charge).

Schedule:

• Week 1: God is sovereign over his people (Isaiah 1–12). Read Isaiah 6, 11. Notes and podcasts to follow here.
• Week 2: God is sovereign over the nations (Isaiah 13–24). Read Isaiah 19, 24. Notes and podcasts to follow here.
• Week 3: Trust earth’s true sovereign only (Isaiah 25–39). Read Isaiah 31, 37. Notes and podcasts to follow here.
• Week 4: God restores his fallen servant (Isaiah 40–47). Read Isaiah 40, 43. Notes and podcasts to follow here.
• Week 5: God restores everyone through his servant (Isaiah 48–55). Read Isaiah 49, 52. Notes and podcasts to follow here.
• Week 6: Be faithful to the God who restores creation (Isaiah 56–66). Read Isaiah 60, 65. Notes and podcasts to follow here.

The New Testament claims Jesus is the Messiah who fulfils Isaiah’s messages. To understand why, we need to be aware of what those messages meant in Isaiah’s time. To get you started, here’s a sample from the notes where we discuss the contexts the Book of Isaiah addresses.

A sample

Isaiah provides the setting in which he heard from God. This really helps us understand what God was saying to them, so we can understand what God is saying to us:

Isaiah 1:1 (NIV) The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Isaiah lived in the eight century BC, in the time of the divided kingdom:

• Judah: southern nation. Jerusalem was capital. David’s sons were kings.
• Israel: northern nation. Samaria was capital. They appointed their own kings.

Isaiah worked during the reign of four kings of Judah:

1. Uzziah was mostly good (2 Chronicles 26), 790-739 BC. (Since he contracted leprosy, his reign overlaps with Jotham’s.)
2. Jotham was a good king (2 Chronicles 27), 751-736 BC
3. Ahaz was one of the worst (2 Chronicles 28), 736-728 BC
4. Hezekiah was one of the best (2 Chronicles 29–32), 728-695 BC

Isaiah probably had an official government job in record keeping: The events of Uzziah’s reign, from beginning to end, are recorded by the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz (2 Chronicles 26:22).

Hezekiah plays a key role in Isaiah, but his role ends in Isaiah 39. Isaiah tells him the kingdom will fall. Babylon will conquer Jerusalem and take the people into exile:

Isaiah 39 (NIV) ⁵ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord Almighty: ⁶ The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord.”

This is the low point of the whole book. It feels like everything Isaiah has said has failed. It would be a tragedy if the book ended here.

Chapter 40 then delivers God’s promise to bring his people back from exile. It’s a new voice. Isaiah is never mentioned again. We’re in the Persian period. After conquering Babylon, King Cyrus told the people to return to their cities and rebuild (Isaiah 44:29–45:13). This is more than 150 years after Hezekiah’s death.

So, the original heading in Isaiah 1:1 applies to the first thirty-nine chapters, not the whole book. It’s a little like the situation in Proverbs where the book opens by saying we’re listening to the proverbs of Solomon. Later, as we progress through the book, we discover content from others too: the sayings of the wise (22:17), the sayings of Agur (30:1), and the sayings of King Lemeul (31:1).

The oracles of the eighth century prophet Isaiah end with Isaiah 35. Then we have a historical interlude that explains how Isaiah’s words worked out (Isaiah 36–39). These chapters are almost identical to the text of 2 Kings 18–20.

Then we hear a new voice declaring comfort for the exiles. A voice crying in the wilderness says the exile is over. It proclaims the good news that “Your God reigns!” (Isaiah 40:1-9).

This new voice affirms the oracles of the eighth century prophet Isaiah, declaring that the Lord reigns over the nations that had conquered them, promising the restoration of God’s fallen servant, announcing that the Lord’s reign would extend to all the peoples of the earth, restoring everything as a new creation.

The New Testament understands the promises of Isaiah 40–66 as finding fulfilment in the Christ who came to restore the fallen kingdom of God (e.g. Mark 1:1-14).

That’s the context. Have we whet your appetite to hear the word of the Lord through Isaiah?

Related posts

The Formed in God’s Story series has previously covered:

• Genesis – Esther (six sessions)
• Genesis 1–12 (six sessions)
• Psalms (six sessions)
• Old Testament Prophets (six sessions)
• Matthew 1–14 and 15–28 (twelve sessions)
• Acts (seven sessions)
• Romans 1–8 and 9–16 (twelve sessions)
• Revelation (six sessions)