The Prophecy of Isaiah

An Introduction Commentary

J. Alec Motyer

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780830895243
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

- Recipient of a Christianity Today 1994 Critics Choice AwardAmong Old Testament prophetic books no other equals Isaiah's brilliance of style and metaphor, its arresting vision of the Holy One of Israel and its kaleidoscopic vision of God's future restoration of Israel and the world. Now, after over three decades of studying and teaching Isaiah, Alec Motyer presents a wealth of commentary and perspective on this book. His emphasis is on the grammatical, historical, structural, literary and theological dimensions of the text. Though based on the Hebrew text, his exposition easily accomodates readers without a working knowledge of biblical Hebrew. And he writes with an interest in Isaiah's meaning for Christians today. Along the historical timeline on which the Isaianic prophecies are strung, Motyer finds three central and recurring themes: the messianic hope, the motif of the city and the theology of the Holy One of Israel. Moreover, he argues, the Isaianic literature is organized around three messianic portraits: the King (Isaiah 1-37), the Servant (Isaiah 38-55) and the Anointed Conqueror (Isaiah 56-66). Preachers, teachers and serious Bible students of all types will find this commentary a wise, winsome and welcome guide to the prophecy of Isaiah. It may easily be the best one-volume evangelical commentary on Isaiah available today.

Isaiah 1–37
The book of the King

A. The preface.
Judah: diagnosis and prognosis (1:1–5:30)

The fact that the call of Isaiah to be a prophet is not recorded until chapter 6 requires explanation. Are we to understand that chapters 1–5 report a pre-call ministry or that chapter 6 is a renewal of the call? The answer lies in the careful editing of the book. Chapter 6 is indeed Isaiah’s call, but in order to depict the situation into which he was called he makes use of oracles originally preached after his call, constructing them here into an author’s preface. His purpose is to present an ‘anatomy’ of Judah at the commencement of his prophetic ministry.

Chapters 1–5 differ from chapters 6–12 in the absence of any historical markers. With 6:1 we enter upon stated historical situations in which dates (6:1; 7:1) and world powers (7:1, 17; 8:4) are mentioned but, apart from the title (1:1), the first five chapters have no dates and no names except those of Israel and Judah. This detachment of these oracles from the situations which first called them forth is deliberate. We have here a balanced presentation of truths about Judah whereby we enter with Isaiah into the initial circumstances of his ministry and share his fears and hopes. Like every author’s preface these chapters are the ‘backdrop’ to the whole book.

Within chapters 1–5, chapters 2–4 make a subsection bracketed off by the two Zion poems of 2:2–4 and 4:2–6. On each side of this, chapters 1 and 5 both have coherent structures, giving a threefold division of the whole. The three divisions have the common theme of God’s people in rebellion against him, but each section sets this rebellion in a different context. Chapter 1 reviews three facets of the contemporary scene: national calamity (verses 6–8), religious declension (verses 10–15) and social collapse (verses 21–23) arising from rebellion (verse 2), misdemeanour (verse 15) and infidelity (verse 21). Chapters 2–4 offer another view of Zion: the coming day when the city will be a place of international pilgrimage (2:2), the locus of the Lord’s law (2:3) and the source of world-wide righting of wrongs and of peace (2:4). Against this the actuality of contemporary Jerusalem makes a frightful contrast, with its national (2:5–16), religious (2:17–22) and social (3:1–4:1)) disintegration. Chapter 5 has another way of presenting the theme: the Lord’s choice vine has become a degenerate plant (verses 1–7) bearing a foul crop, depicted in six ‘woes’ (verses 8, 11, 18, 20–22). The following analysis thus arises:

1:1–31	Sin and experience Defection from the Lord nationally, religiously and socially resulted in devastation
2:1–4:6	Sin and election As inheritors of the Abrahamic promise, the Lord’s people were called to be a blessing to the whole earth but they chose rather the way of rebellion
5:1–30	Sin and grace The Lord lavished his care on his people to the point where he could ask ‘What more?’ (5:4). They, however, degenerated into sin and produced a harvest of unrighteousness

These three sections have in common a contrast between the ideal and the actual. The Lord intended his people to live as his children (1:2), to be the city-community of world-wide blessing (2:2–4) and to produce the fruit of righteousness (5:1–7). The actuality proved to be very different, and we have to ask how will the Lord react as his ideal is corrupted? In 1:24–31 and 3:13 – 4:6 the divine reaction of wrath and punishment fills the foreground, but the background is full of the light of hope (cf. 1:24 with verses 25–26 and 3:13 – 4:1 with 4:2). Chapter 5, however, is very different. We must be careful here to enter into what Isaiah thus sensed about his nation as he launched on his ministry. Certainly, rebellion brings disaster as its reward but yet it does not exhaust the Lord’s capacity to redeem and restore (1:26–27). Likewise, Israel’s failure to magnetize the nations into Zion (2:2ff.) is lamentable and culpable but is, nevertheless, nothing that cannot be cleansed away (4:4). The Lord will create a new city and a new people fit for him to dwell among (4:3–6). But when the Lord has to say, ‘What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it?’ (5:4) the situation is different indeed! The absence of the note of hope in chapter 5 compels the question whether sin has nullified grace. In this way chapters 5 is climactic. The sword (1:20) can yet be averted by returning to obedience. In 3:25–26 the situation is more desperate: enemy assault is inescapable, bringing dreadful casualties (4:1); but now the enemy is at the gates and darkness and distress are closing in on the land (5:24–30).

Is darkness, then, to have the last word? Is sin finally to issue in death? And if it does, what has become of all the promises of God? It is with these questions that Isaiah sets the scene for the ministry to which he was called.

1. The title (1:1)

For the histories of the four kings under whom Isaiah prophesied, see pp. 18ff. All thirty-five occurrences of vision (ḥāzôn) and thirty-six out of forty-eight of saw (√ḥāzâ) refer to truth disclosed by God; not necessarily in visual experience (e.g. Dn. 8:2) but by supernatural revelation (cf. 1 Sa. 3:1; Ps. 89:19; Is. 30:10). The title suitably covers all sixty-six chapters of Isaiah. Throughout the book the people of God and their city constitute Isaiah’s ‘story-line’ and it is consonant with his mind that he should have devised this initial description of his work.1 Arguments advanced against this view are not persuasive. It is urged, for example, that Isaiah always speaks of ‘Jerusalem and Judah’ (e.g. 3:1) whereas the title reverses the order. But it is natural that ministering in Jerusalem as he was he would first address the immediate audience before widening his reference, whereas in naming kings their country naturally takes precedence over their city (cf. 36:7).

2. Sin and experience (1:2–31)

Having introduced himself as a man whose message (ḥāzôn) and whose ability to perceive its truth (√ḥāzâ) are both from God, Isaiah turns to expose the inner quality of the period whose outward shape he summarized in the names of its kings.

The oracles recorded here are undated and no advantage arises from devising hypotheses regarding their point of origin in Isaiah’s ministry. Their significance does not arise from their historical setting but from their searching exposure of sin and its consequences in the people of God. They touch in turn the national, religious and social facets of contemporary life.

a. The national situation (1:2–9)

Isaiah begins his ‘anatomy’ of Judah with what is plain for all to see – the broken state of the nation (5–8). He does so by means of a courtroom drama:

A¹Summons (2a)

The court convened. The dignity of the Lord whose voice commands all creation

BArraignment (2b–8)

B¹The charge levelled: rebellion against the Lord. Sin contrary to nature (2b–3)

B²Guilt exposed. Abandonment of the Lord. Sin contrary to privilege (4)

B³Experience ignored. Rebellion against divine discipline. Sin contrary to reason, productive of disaster (5–8)

A²Comment

The situation reviewed. The faithfulness of the Lord, preserving a remnant (9)

Isaiah teaches a theological and covenant view of national history: the relation between spirituality (obedience to God as the governing factor in the nation’s life) and national prosperity and security. This is classically expounded in Deuteronomy 28 – 29 as the foundation of life under the covenant. This view of life must not be understood as limiting God to our notion of what constitutes a suitable quid pro quo. Frequently life looks as if no link existed between morality and prosperity (cf. Ps. 44:13–17). Here a simplistic view of retribution is countered in a different direction, where divine mercy has inhibited due reward. Yet all such seeming ‘deviations’ belong on the divine side (9). On the human side the position of faith is paramount, that righteousness is the clue to a secure and prospering life (cf. Ps. 1).

2 In the Old Testament the heavens and earth are frequently summoned (i) as witness to an oath (e.g. Dt. 4:26); (ii) as witness for the prosecution when the Lord charges his people (e.g. Ps. 50:4ff.); (iii) to rejoice when the Lord’s greatness is declared (e.g. as king, 1 Ch. 16:31; as Saviour, Ps. 69:34–35); (iv) to express abhorrence of Israel’s sin (e.g. Je. 2:12). Thus the created universe is always on the side of the Creator (e.g. 45:8; Je. 4:23ff.), reflecting the relationship which exists between God and man – whether the thorn...