II Chronicles 26 tells us that Judah’s King Jotham “had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land” while his father King Uzziah was still alive, because Uzziah was quarantined due to his leprosy. It is circumstances like this that make the lengths of the kings’ reigns unreliable timekeepers for Old Testament history. Doubters of Scripture looking for a reason to doubt will cite such unreliability as proof that Scripture is not inerrant, but there is a reasonable explanation for it so that it doesn’t need to be a stumbling block to those exercising faith in God and His word.
Because the prophecies in Isaiah 9 and their fulfillment are so well-known to us, they provide a great example of the fluid nature of time in prophecy. Verses 9:2-4 obviously refer to Jesus’ birth, life on earth and death, but parts of them refer to all time going forward from then; even today the people walking in darkness have in a sense seen a great light. Those of us who treasure an intimate relationship with Jesus once walked in darkness. Verses 5-7 speak of a time yet to come, but some of them also refer to realities we enjoy right now because Jesus’ work has been accomplished and God has “raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given (Ephesians 1:20-21).” So the same passage can refer to more than one time period. Even if you overlook the reference to present time in verses 2 through 7, you see the prophet taking liberties with time, because there is no transition between his reference to the past in verses 2-4 and his reference to the future in verses 5-7. This looseness with regard to time makes prophecy difficult, because sometimes a single time period is not easy to discern in what is being said, let alone transitions in time. That challenge makes careful study of prophecy necessary for understanding it.
As I said earlier, prophecies about Messiah reveal much to us about God’s intended results for Messiah’s work. The well-known references to Messiah in today’s readings in Isaiah might be so familiar to us that we fail to contemplate what they reveal about Messiah. For example, verse 9:2 reveals that His advent is a drastic reversal of the darkness into which sin has plunged the world. Has knowing Him had that kind of effect on your life? He has brought joy into lives; does your life reveal joy? Has the yoke of sin been shattered from across your shoulders? If the answer to any of these questions is “No,” then you haven’t experienced the salvation that God has provided for us through Messiah at great cost, the great salvation He intends for us to take full advantage of. So if you aren’t fully enjoying it, seek how you can take full advantage of it! If you are fully enjoying it, praise God for it!
In Isaiah 10:6 God called His people a godless nation. Again, I don’t believe many of those people consciously chose godlessness, but likely had a form of godliness of which they denied its power, resulting in godlessness. Their lives need to be a warning to us to avoid the same experience.
Do you want to delight Jesus? Isaiah 11 says that He delights in the fear of the Lord. If that is true, then we know how we can delight Him. As seekers of Him, we should seek to understand more deeply what it means to fear the Lord. That is a subject worthy of study in Scripture and prayerful contemplation.
So in today’s reading God’s people were warned about God’s coming judgment by the hand of Assyria. Do you suppose, since He had relented from destroying Nineveh when the people of that city repented of their sin in Jonah’s day, that God would relent from judging Israel as well if they repented and humbled themselves? I encourage you to consider that question in light of the whole counsel of Scripture, and not in light of your own preference. What does the answer teach you about God and your relationship with Him? How does it inspire you to pray for people?
Notice that once again, today’s reading ends on a note of rejoicing. Do you understand why joy is appropriate? If you don’t, please search from verse 11:11 onward, to understand. This should become a familiar message to you as we continue through Isaiah. Is it really a book about God’s judgment, as prophecy is generally considered?