From Isaiah: This is what the LORD says…

This Sunday, we are fortunate to have the Rev Nathan Pedro join us to share a message from Isaiah. He has thankfully agreed to step in at short notice to share a message with us as I have commitments to the wider church that I must attend to. He will be sharing a message from Isaiah 45.

Because we haven’t discussed his message in depth, I thought I’d just present a few facts about Isaiah to set the scene here. Firstly, the name ‘Isaiah’ means “Salvation of the LORD” or “God Saves.” The prophet Isaiah lived and ministered in the 08th century BC, so approx 800 years before the birth of Jesus.

Now Isaiah is considered one of the major prophets like Jeremiah or Ezekiel, but they are deemed to be ‘major,’ not because they are more important than any of the other Old Testament prophets, but mainly because their books are significantly longer than the other prophets. You see Isaiah has 66 chapters with over 37,000 words, second in length only to the book of Psalms.

You’ll be pleased to know that you won’t be covering the full 37,000 words this week with Rev Nathan Pedro, but I hope this gives you an inkling of the sheer grandeur and majestic of this book, a book scholars and theologians have described as the centrepiece of prophetic literature. Isaiah himself has been referred to as the ‘Shakespeare of the Prophets,’ or the ‘Paul of the Old Testament,’ or even the ‘Messianic Prophet.’ The reason he’s known as the ‘Messianic Prophet’ is because of the numerous and detailed prophecies that foretell the coming of Jesus Christ (Christ meaning Messiah). Take time to read through Isaiah to see his prophecies concerning Jesus 800 years before, refer maybe to Chapters 7, 9 or 53 as a starting point of your journey through Isaiah.

With Isaiah 45 as the passage for Rev Pedro’s message this Sunday, the author writes four times, ‘This is what the LORD says…’ indicating that Isaiah is speaking on behalf of God and that God is really drawing our attention to what is about to be said. With this in mind, as we read and meditate on scripture, may we have the humility to truly bring our full attention to the Word of God.

Many Blessings

Josh