When the birth of John the Baptist is celebrated in the Christian calendar, one of the set readings is from Luke 1 about his birth, and another from a passage in Isaiah 40. Verses, of course, associated with John the Baptist and the coming of Jesus.

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.

A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

Isaiah was one of the great prophets of the Old Testament. His message centres on encouraging the covenant people of God to focus on the only true and living God, the one who never lets his people down, even when times are difficult.

The preaching of Isaiah represents a theological highpoint of the Old Testament: Not one of the other prophets approaches Isaiah in intellectual vigour, or, more particularly, in the magnificent sweep of his ideas. Gerhard Von Rad.

I have soared into the heavens and seen the glory of God, and with new eyes I have seen this world and my own place in it. The view has been breath-taking. Barry Webb.

The writings in this book cover three important periods in the lives of God’s people: before, during and after the Exile. As a result, many scholars feel that the author cannot be the same person throughout. This is nothing to worry about, God’s inspiration is very real and the book shows a remarkable unity.

You can think of Isaiah as the Bible in miniature, it gives us a complete picture of God and points to his love in sending Jesus. Here was hope, not just for the people at the time, but for all humankind in the future.

This is one of a series of posts outlining all the books of the Bible. Previous Next