Interpreting Isaiah

Chapter 1THE WORLD OF ISAIAHThe era in which Isaiah lived witnessed the rise and fall of kingdoms, as major military powers vied for control of Palestine. During his ministry, which spanned most of the second half of the eighth century B.C., Assyria emerged as the dominant world power. In 722 B.C. the mighty Assyrians captured the capital city of Samaria and brought about the full collapse of the northern kingdom of Israel. Thousands of Isaiah''s countrymen were taken into exile, never to return to their beloved homeland.The southern kingdom of Judah also staggered before the Assyrian juggernaut, and in 701 B.C. Judah nearly suffered the same fate as Israel. Judah had sided first with Assyria and then with Egypt during the stormy years between 734 and 701 B.C. By the close of the century, Hezekiah joined the coalition against Assyria, and the armies of Sennacherib advanced to punish the Judean king. But God miraculously intervened and crushed the invader''s forces, granting Judah and Jerusalem a century-long reprieve. Yet before disaster struck his army, Sennacherib had devastated most of the cities of Judah and deported thousands of its citizens. In those traumatic times, Isaiah alternated between condemning and encouraging, as the moral and spiritual condition of the rulers and the people of Israel dictated.But the historical scope of Isaiah''s prophecies is far broader. He looked beyond the flowering of the Assyrian Empire to the rise of the Chaldean kingdom of Babylon, and he portrayed the demise of Babylon before the onslaught of Cyrus''s Median and Persian armies (chs. 41-48). Assyria fell in 612 B.C., and their Babylonian conquerors were defeated by Cyrus in 539 B.C. Thus Isaiah interacted prophetically with the three major empires between 750 and 539 B.C., outlining their impact on Israel and Judah and showing how they fit into the sovereign purposes of God.A BRIEF PERIOD OF PROSPERITY IN ISRAELAbout 800 B.C., King Adadnirari III of Assyria weakened the power of Damascus, relieving the pressure the Syrians had exerted on Israel. This fact, combined with the decline of Assyria shortly after that, allowed Jeroboam II of Israel and Uzziah of Judah to enjoy a period of great prosperity from 790-750 B.C. Neighboring lands, such as Moab and Edom, once more came under Israelite or Judean control, and the combined territories of the two kings approximated the area ruled by King Solomon. The economic gains of both regions were considerable (2 Chron. 26:7; 27:3), but that did not prepare them for the ghastly invasions and sieges of the last half of the century. In Israel, more than in Judah, this prosperity was accompanied by an increase in idol worship, materialism, and oppression of the poor (Amos 4:1-4; 6:1.), though Isaiah 2:6-8 reveals that Judah was rapidly becoming like her northern relatives in these respects. Additionally, the rich were "buying out" the small farmers, creating a wider gulf between the wealthy and the poor (5:8-10).THE GROWTH OF ASSYRIA''S POWER UNDER TIGLATH-PILESER IIIDuring the reign of Tiglath-Pileser III (745-727 B.C.), Assyria began to reassert its authority over Syria and Palestine. In 740 B.C. this powerful monarch, also called Pul (1 Chron. 5:26), attacked the states of northern Syria, and by 738 B.C. he was receiving tribute payments from Damascus and Israel. A coalition against Assyria was formed by Hanun of Gaza, Rezin of Damascus, and Pekah of Israel. They hoped that Egypt would join them. But in 735 B.C. Tiglath-Pileser made a surprise attack in the west, winning the submission of these rulers. The Assyrians penetrated as far as the border of Egypt, where Hanun had fled for refuge. Later, after promising to be a dutiful vassal, this Philistine ruler was allowed to return to Gaza.A year later Damascus attempted to organize another revolt against Assyria. Rezin and Pekah wanted the support of Judah in this venture, so they pressured Jotham (and later his son Ahaz) to help them (2 Kings 15:37). TheHerbert M. Wolf is the author of 'Interpreting Isaiah', published 1985 under ISBN 9780310390619 and ISBN 0310390613.