Lessons on Isaiah 1-39

Teaching the Book of Isaiah  Unrelentingly complex Dead Sea Scroll scholar Eugene Ulrich calls the book of Isaiah “unrelentingly complex.”  The complexity includes its length (66 chapters), its age (perhaps over 2800 years old) and its setting (in the midst of the Old Testament).  Most of Isaiah unfolds in poetry with obscure metaphors, constantly changing […]

Images in Isaiah

      One page summary of Isaiah with Memory Guide Harold Shank   This page contains a way to keep the whole book of Isaiah in mind at one time and a device for committing it to memory.   Numbers 39+27=66 The Bible has 66 books; Isaiah has 66 chapters There is a break […]

Isaiah 1 is considered the introduction to the themes of the book of Isaiah.  Thus the central theme is the nature of God and his relationship to his people and how they respond to him.

Isa 2-4 continues to explore the relationship between God and Jerusalem.  These three chapters alternate between a description of the current relationship between God and a vision of what might be.

  Isaiah 5 completes the opening section of Isaiah in which the prophet explores the relationship between God and his people.  He presents the reality and the potential of that relationship.

In Isaiah 6, the prophet encounters the holy God and becomes part of God’s mission.

In Isaiah 7-8,  faithful Isaiah confronts unfaithful Ahaz during a time of fear and offers hope. EBS5 Isa 7lesson

In Isaiah 9-10,  the prophet helps the people process the crisis they have just experienced.

The song Joy to the World, written in 1719 by Isaac Watts, captures the positive theme in Isaiah 11-12 that looks beyond Judah and beyond the 8th century to a better world.  Indeed God “comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found.”

The oracles against the nations in Isa 13-23 describe a God who is more powerful than the most powerful nations of the ancient world and yet who hears the voices of their victims.

In Isa 24-27 the God who will in the end time destroy all evil, death, and wicked people can be depended on to deliver those who trust him.

Isa 28-33 describes a time of crisis.   In the midst of that problem, the prophet Isaiah calls for the people to rest their security and future on the firm foundation of God’s plans.     .

Isa 34-35 describe a coming day when the clouds will be rolled back as a scroll.  For some it will be a day of destruction and others a day of delight.

Isa 36-37 reveal that the biblical God is the supreme God.

In Isa 38-39 faith in God is challenged by illness and pride..