A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 37: The Comfort in Judgement
A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 37: The Comfort in Judgement
As we had explained in our last presentation of Isaiah, which was titled Pride and Humility in reference to the character and experiences of king Hezekiah of Judah, this 40th chapter of Isaiah concludes the mainly historical portion of his prophesy, which is the portion that coincides with events that had occurred during Isaiah’s own lifetime. But only because at this time, Jerusalem still stands, and its inhabitants are destined to continue for another hundred and fifteen or so years, and therefore the prophecy of this chapter has an immediate or near-vision fulfillment as well as an over-arching far-vision fulfillment, would I even count the message of comfort in this chapter with that historical aspect of Isaiah which we have seen thus far.
In that manner, this chapter also serves as a bridge to the prophetic portion of Isaiah which we shall encounter in the final twenty-six chapters of the book. While there are many far-vision prophecies interspersed among the historic events of these first forty chapters of Isaiah, the last twenty-six chapters are entirely prophetic of from Isaiah’s future, addressing Israel and Judah in captivity as well as containing many promises of their preservation, and their future redemption and reconciliation to Yahweh their God. So while there are also references to things which had already occurred, there are no further descriptions of any other historical events subsequent to what we have already seen here at this point in Isaiah. There are no further mentions of Isaiah himself, or of Hezekiah, or any other historical figure of Judah who had lived in that time, which is now about 700 BC. So if Azariah, or Uzziah, the first king under whom Isaiah had prophesied, had lived until 743 BC, since Isaiah began prophesying while Uzziah was still king, as he attested in the opening verses of this book, then the prophet has already been prophesying for at least 43 years at this point, and he could easily be as old as seventy-five or eighty years.
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