04/23/2022 – Day 055 – Isaiah 40 – 44 – “Magnificent Rhapsodies of the Future”
It has been awhile since I went to Henry Halley’s BIble Handbook to commentary . So, I am covering much of his summary, verbatim, with gaps appropriately noted:
“Chapters 40 – 66 – Magmificent Rhapsodies of the Future
Isaiah spent his life under menace of the dread Assyrian Empire. THe Assyrians had destroyed North Israel (734 B.C.); the rest of the Northern Kingdom (721 B.C.); had invaded Judah (713 B.C.) and by 701 B.C. had taken all Judah except Jerusalem. Through these years Isaiah had steadfastly predicted that Jerusalem would stand. It did stand. This was the grand achievement of Isaiah’s life. He had saved his city when doom seemed certain. But now, the Assrian crisis past, Isaiah, having prophesied that Jerusalem would later fall to Babylon (19: 6-7), assumes the Babylon Captivity as an accomplished fact , and in his mind’s eye, takes his stand with the captives. So clear were some of his visions that in them he speaks of the future as already past.”
“Chapter 40. Voices of Comfort
… Verses 3 – 5 are quoted in all four Gospels as referring to His arrival in the earth (Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3: 4-6: John 1:23…” And I concur with Henry, Chapter 40 is a grand chapter!
“Chapter 43. God’s Care of Israel
God had formed the nation for Himself. The nation had been unceasingly disobediant. Still they were God’s nation, and through all their sins and sufferings God would work to demonstrate to all the world that He, and He alone, is God.”
“Chapters 44, 45. Cyrus.
These two chapters are a forecast of Israel’s Return from the Captivity under Cyrus, with special emphasis on God’s unique power to PREDICT the future. Cyrus, king of Persia, reigned 538 – 529 B.C. He permitted the Jews to return to Jerusalem, and issued a decree authorizing the rebuilding of the Temple (II Chronicles 36: 22 – 23; Ezra 1: 1-4). Isaiah prophesied 745-695 B.C., over 150 years before the days of Cyrus. Yet he calls him by name, and predicts that he would rebuild the Temple, which in Isaiah’s day had not yet fallen….
Is there, anywhere , in the literature of the whole wide world, predictions from of old of the whole unfolding story of man’s religious history – anywhere exept in the BIBLE?” As I have noted on numerous posts, “I don’t have nearly enough faith to be an atheist ! “
Soli Deo Gloria Indeed!