2013_0925 Church in
the home Wednesday evenings: “Isaiah, some background” 2013_0925
Isaiah 1:1, says ….The vision of Isaiah the son
of Amoz, which he say concerning Judah…
Introduction to the Prophecies of Isaiah
Isaiah Chapter One
1. The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which
he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and
Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Verse 1: Isaiah makes Judah and Jerusalem that
which will be central in his visions. The first chapters are an indictment of
the Judeans for their abandonment of worship of God and their obsession with
idolatry. But the main event in the lifetime of Isaiah is the loss of the
"ten tribes" of Israel as a result of the rise of the Assyrian Empire
which plays a principal part in the prophecies of the first portion of the
book.
Let us go back once again (Vivienne & I
have been studying this section of scripture for some time now, going back to 1988
to start with and then again in 2005) to 1Kings 1:11
1Kings
1:1-3
Lexham
English Bible (LEB)
Solomon’s
Foreign Wives
11:1 King Solomon loved many foreign women: the
daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, Hittite;
2 from the
nations which Yahweh had said to the Israelites,[a] “You shall not marry
them,[b] and they shall not marry you.[c] They will certainly turn your heart
after other gods.” But Solomon clung to them to love.
3 He had
seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his
heart.
Solomon’s
Apostasy
4 It
happened at the time of Solomon’s old age that his wives guided his heart after
other gods, and his heart was not fully with Yahweh his God as the heart of
David his father had been.
5 Solomon
went after Ashtoreth the god of the Sidonians and after Molech the abhorrence
of the Ammonites.
6 So
Solomon did evil in the eyes of Yahweh and did not fully follow after Yahweh as
David his father.
Yahweh’s
Judgment on Solomon
9 Yahweh
was angry with Solomon, for he had turned his heart from Yahweh, the God of
Israel who had appeared to him twice.
10 And he
had commanded him concerning this matter not to go after other gods, but he did
not keep that which Yahweh commanded.
11 So
Yahweh said to Solomon, “Because this was with you, and you did not keep my
covenant and my ordinances which I have commanded you, I will certainly tear the
kingdom from you, and I will give it to your servant.
12 However,
I will not do it in your days, for the sake of David your father; from the hand
of your son I will tear it away.
13 Yet all of the kingdom I
will not tear away. I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of my
servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.”
Yahweh
Raises Up Jeroboam
1 Kings
11:26
[ Yahweh
Raises Up Jeroboam ] Now Jeroboam
the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite from Zeredah (now the name of his mother was
Zeruah, a widow woman), a servant of Solomon rebelled against the king.
1 Kings
11:28
Now the man
Jeroboam was a man of ability, and Solomon
saw that the young man was a diligent worker, so he appointed him over all of
the forced labor for the house of Joseph.
1 Kings
11:29
It happened
at that time that Jeroboam went out from Jerusalem, and he accidentally met
Ahijah the Shilonite the prophet on the way. Now he had clothed himself with
new clothing. While the two of them were alone in the field,
1 Kings
11:31
Then
he said to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says Yahweh, the
God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am about to tear the kingdom from the hand of
Solomon, and I will give to you ten tribes,
1 Kings
11:40
Then
Solomon sought to kill Jeroboam,
but Jeroboam got up and fled to Egypt, to Shishak the king of Egypt, and he
remained in Egypt until the death of Solomon.
1 Kings
11:43
Then
Solomon slept with his ancestors, and they buried him in the city of David his
father, and Rehoboam his son became king in his place.
1 Kings 12 Lexham English Bible (LEB)
Rehoboam Responds Unwisely with Disastrous
Results
1 Kings 12:12 Jeroboam and all of the people
came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had spoken: “Return to me on the
third day.”
13 Then the king answered all the people
harshly, as he had rejected the advice of the old men that they had offered.
14 He spoke to them according to the advice of
the youngsters, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but
I will add onto your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will
discipline you with scorpions.”
15 So the king did not listen to the people,
for it was a turning of events from Yahweh in order to fulfill his word which
Yahweh had spoken through the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son
of Nebat.
16 When all of Israel saw that the king would
not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, “What share do we
have in David? There is no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents,
Israel! Now look to your house, David!” Then Israel went to their tents.
17 The Israelites were living in the cities of Judah, and Rehoboam was reigning over
them.
18 King Rehoboam sent Adoram who was over the
forced labor, and all of Israel cast stones at him and he died, but King
Rehoboam managed to get up on the chariot to flee to Jerusalem.
19 So Israel rebelled against the house of David
until this day.
Civil War Averted
Lexham
English Bible (LEB)
1Kings 12:20 It happened that just when all of
Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him
king over all of Israel. Not one followed after the house of
David except the tribe of Judah alone.
21 When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled all of the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, a
hundred and eighty thousand choice troops to fight with the house of Israel, to
restore the kingship to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.
22 Then the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying,
23 “Say to Rehoboam the son of Solomon the king
of Judah and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin and the remainder of the
people, saying,
24 ‘Thus says Yahweh: “You shall not go up and you shall not fight with your brothers the Israelites. Return each of you to his house, for this thing was from me.” So they
heeded the word of Yahweh, and they returned to go home according to the word
of Yahweh.
So the united kingdom of Israel (all twelve
tribes) which began under Saul, then David, then Solomon, split at the
beginning of the reign of Solomons son, Rheoboam. Rheoboam decided to be
harsher that Solomon when dealing with the whole kingdom of Israel, but there
was a revolt, and 10 (Northern) tribes did not follow the “tribe of Judah” a
term used for Rheoboam. Rheoboam assembled the house of Judah, and the tribe of
Benjamim together which together thereafter became known as “Judah” “the
Kingdom of Judah”, or “the tribe of Judah”. The ten other tribes are called
“Israel”, or the tribe of Israel, or the “Kingdom of Israel”or the “House of
Israel”. Other terms are used to describe the house of Israel, like in Isaiah
7:9
Isaiah 7:9
And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the
head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you do not believe then you will not
endure.
Ephraim is one of the ten (Northern) tribes,
and Samaria was the capital of those ten (Northern) tribes, the house or
Kingdom of Israel.
The split in the kingdom occurred approximately
931-926 BC.
Dr.
C.R. Ludwigson, ETTA.
Israel continued to exist within the reduced
territory as an independent kingdom until around 720 BC, when it was again invaded by Assyria and the rest of the population
deported. The Bible relates that the population of Israel was exiled, becoming
known as The Ten Lost Tribes, leaving only the Tribe of Judah, the Tribe of
Simeon (that was "absorbed" into Judah), the Tribe of Benjamin and
the people of the Tribe of Levi who lived among them of the original Israelites
nation in the southern Kingdom of Judah.
The Kingdom of Judah continued to exist as an
independent state until 586 BC when it was conquered by the Neo-Babylonian Empire.
Throughout their history in the Promised Land,
the children of Israel struggled with conflict among the tribes. The disunity
went back all the way to the patriarch Jacob, who presided over a house
divided. The sons of Leah and the sons of Rachel had their share of contention
even in Jacob’s lifetime (Genesis 37:1-11).
The enmity among the half-brothers continued in
the time of the judges. Benjamin (one of Rachel’s tribes) took up arms against
the other tribes (Judges 20). Israel’s first king, Saul, was of the tribe of
Benjamin. When David was crowned king—David was from the tribe of Judah (one of
Leah’s tribes)—the Benjamites rebelled (2 Samuel 2–3). After a long war (2
Samuel 3:1), David succeeded in uniting all twelve tribes (5:1-5).
The frailty of the union was exposed, however,
when David’s son Absalom promoted himself as the new king and drew many
Israelites away from their allegiance to David (2 Samuel 15). Significantly,
Absalom set up his throne in Hebron, the site of the former capital (v. 10). A
later revolt was led by a man named Sheba against David and the tribe of Judah
(20:1-2).
The prophet Isaiah can be dated to the middle of the 8th century
starting his ministry around 740 BC
which could have lasted up to 64 years.
The first verse of the Book of Isaiah states
that he prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah (or Azariah), Jotham, Ahaz, and
Hezekiah, the kings of Judah (Isaiah 1:1). Uzziah's reign was 52 years in the
middle of the 8th century BC, and Isaiah must have begun his ministry a few
years before Uzziah's death, probably in the 740s BC. Isaiah lived until the
fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign (who died 698 BC), and may have been
contemporary for some years with Manasseh. Thus Isaiah may have prophesied for
as long as 64 years.
Isaiah 1:1
The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, which he saw
concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and
Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Uzziah (sometimes called Azariah), Jotham,
Ahaz, and Hezekiah,were kings of Judah (Judah and Benjamin (and perhaps other
Israelites)and Isaiah got visions concerning these 4 kings, thus Isaiah was a
prophet to Judah.
Tradition has it that the king after Hezekiah,
Manassah, had Isaiah sawn in half.
There is a tradition (reported in both the
Martyrdom of Isaiah and the Lives of the Prophets) that he suffered martyrdom
by Manasseh due to pagan reaction.[
Why did king Manasseh have Prophet Isaiah
killed?
Answer:
There are two rabinnic traditions, both of which describe how
he was killed; in both cases he was ordered sawn in two by King (of Judah)
Manesseh while in a cedar tree. This act is also indirectly referenced in the
New Testament in Hebrews 11:27. But the bigger question, "Why?"
requires a study from the Chronicles and from Isaiah's writings. Chronicles
records that Manesseh tried to appease and worship the God of Israel, as well
as the Canannite gods. He attended all of the Jewish sacrifices and worship,
but also allowed some of his infant sons to be sacriced to the Cananite god
Molech. Manesseh was a consumate politician, who led the small nation of Judah
and walked a political tightrope between Assyria, Syria and Babylon for 55
years. Manesseh's actions were repeatedly condemned by God through the prophet
Isaiah. Isaiah's writings are filled with strong words against Manesseh, the
ruling classes and even the priesthood. Manesseh most likely ordered a public
execution of Isaiah in order to silence him.
Manessah with app. 55 years, was the longest
reigning of all of the kings either of Judah or of Israel.
After the split of the kingdom, God sent
prophets to both sides of the divide, i.e. to both the Kingdom and kings of
Judah and of Israel.
Isaiah was contemporary with Micah on the
“Kingdom of Judah” side, and with Hosea, Amos, and possible Nahum on the
Kingdom of Israel, side.
== I. Late Eighth Century Prophets ==
We now turn even more closely to focus on the
prophets that we began to talk about a little bit with this reference to Isaiah.
We are just looking tonight at some late eighth century prophets, Isaiah, Micah
and Nahum. There is some possibility that Nahum would not easily belong in this
group. Oftentimes you will have reference made to the eighth century prophets
as mainly four, Isaiah, Micah, preaching in the south and Hosea and Amos
preaching in the north. Jonah is actually an eighth century prophet too, though
not everybody would agree with that assessment, but the evidence for it is
good. Likewise, Nahum appears to be preaching right close to this time period
as well, so it is worthy of inclusion.
