The Lord Is Salvation:
And Introduction to the Prophecy of Isaiah
A Sermon by the
Rev. S. Randall Toms, Ph.D.
April 14, 2021
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. (Isaiah 1:1)
In the eighth century B. C., the word of the Lord came to a man named Isaiah. We do not know much about the man himself. We know that the name of his father was Amoz, another figure of whom we know very little other than his name. We know that Isaiah was married and that he had two sons, Shear-jashub and Maher-shalal-hash-baz. The Scriptures reveal to us that he prophesied during the reigns of four kings of Judah: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, reigns that lasted from roughly 790 B. C. to 687 B. C. We know about Isaiah’s call to be a prophet, one of most dramatic calls to service found in the Scriptures, when in chapter six he tells us that he saw the Lord high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Isaiah heard the voice of God say, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And Isaiah replied, “Here am I; send me.” We know that he had a personal interview with King Ahaz in which he told the king to trust in the Lord alone. It appears that he may have walked about naked for three years as a sign that the Egyptians and Ethiopians would be carried away naked by the Assyrians. When the Assyrians gathered to attack Jerusalem, Isaiah encouraged Hezekiah to trust in the Lord. Isaiah also delivered the word to Hezekiah that Hezekiah would soon die. When Hezekiah sought the mercy of the Lord, he told Isaiah to go and tell Hezekiah that the Lord would add 15 years to his life. Isaiah also rebuked Hezekiah for showing his treasures to the messengers from Babylon. Other than these facts, we have very little biographical information about the man himself.
The Jews have many legends about the prophet. It is said that his father was the brother of King Uzziah, which could explain why Isaiah seemed to have such easy access to the court which enabled him to speak quite easily with kings. Perhaps the most famous legend about him is that the wicked king Manasseh had Isaiah stretched between two trees where he was sawn in half, perhaps referred to in Hebrews 11 where some of the saints are referred to as having been “sawn asunder” (Heb. 11:37). But these are stories about Isaiah come from places other than Holy Scripture.
Though we know little information about the prophet himself, we know a great deal about the times in which he lived. Isaiah prophesied in a turbulent period in the history of Israel. During the reigns of David and Solomon, the kingdom of Israel reached its zenith, its territory expanding to its greatest extent. Under Solomon especially, Israel enjoyed a time of wonderful peace and prosperity. It must have appeared to many of the people in Israel that all the covenant promises made to Abraham were going to be realized immediately. But after Solomon came the time of civil war when the nation was divided, and as a result, much weakened. Judah and Benjamin occupied the southern territory, and the other tribes were to the north. The nation was further weakened by constant internal strife and troubles with surrounding nations and tribes.
But the world was about to change in a dramatic way. There was a new power on the horizon—Assyria. Egypt had been a great empire, but they were not as aggressive in their pursuit of worldwide dominion as the Assyrians would prove to be. The Assyrians had existed long before the eighth century, but during the reigns Tiglath-pileser (744-727 B. C.), Sargon II (721-705 B. C.), and Sennacherib (704-681 B. C.), the expansion of the Assyrian empire was rapid. The world had never seen a power quite like that of Assyria. They were a vicious people and boasted of their cruelty. They slaughtered people, carried away many people into captivity and repopulated some of their conquered lands with these captives. That region of the world lived in mortal terror of the Assyrians as they heard tales of what they did to people who tried to resist their advance. Soon Israel and Judah would begin to experience the fear that their kingdoms may be the next to fall.
So it was, that during these unsettled and tumultuous times, Isaiah was called to exercise his prophetic ministry. We do not know much about the man himself, but we know a great deal about his message, and what a message it was! The name “Isaiah” means, “the Lord is salvation.” Isaiah’s message was the same as his name— “The Lord Is Salvation.” Throughout the history of Israel, the Lord had been demonstrating to his people that he was their salvation. When they were enslaved in Egypt, God came to his powerless people and delivered them from one of the most powerful empires in the world through Moses. They were delivered, not because they had a large army or mighty weapons, but because the God of heaven and earth was their salvation—their deliverer. But Israel, time and again would forget this great truth—”the Lord is salvation.” When they got to the edge of Canaan, they had no faith in their Deliverer, and, consequently, had to roam in the desert for forty years because of their lack of trust in a God who had shown them so many miracles. Then, once they had entered the land of promise, they again forgot all that the Lord had done for them. They fell into the sins of idolatry, and again and again, God would deliver them. Only because the Lord was their God had they been preserved as a nation.
But now, Assyria was the greatest threat they had ever seen. Everything else seemed to be tribal skirmishes compared to what they faced in this empire. So, Israel and Judah began to look for ways to defend themselves against this great menace. Their solution was to put their trust in other nations–ungodly idolatrous nations–rather than in the Lord. Judah would even desire to make a deal with Assyria itself rather than put its trust in God. Then, Isaiah, the great prophet of God would rise up with his central message: “Trust in the Lord alone! The Lord is salvation!”
Yes, these were exceedingly difficult times in Israel and Judah. But Israel had a bigger problem than Assyria or the threat of any other nations on the rise, like Babylon. Israel and Judah had a problem with God Himself! Israel and Judah would have had nothing to fear from Assyria or any other nation if they had been right with God, but they were living in rebellion against their God, their Salvation, their Deliverer. So, Isaiah comes with the message, “Your problem is your sinfulness. Your problem is that you have provoked the Lord to anger. You need a Savior—not a Savior from Assyrians, but a savior from your sin.” So, Isaiah becomes known as “the evangelical prophet,” evangelical in the sense that Isaiah became the prophet of the good news that a Savior would come into the world to save us from our sins. Isaiah called people to repentance and to trust that God would deliver them from their enemies. But he pointed to a time when God would send the Savior they needed most—someone who would save them from their sins.
The prophecy of Isaiah has been called “the gospel before the gospel.” Before the good news was told by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Isaiah had seen so much of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah foretold his birth: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14). It was Isaiah who said, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this” (Isaiah 9:6-7). Isaiah saw the gentleness of our Lord Jesus Christ when he said, “A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench” (Isaiah 42:3). Jesus said that Isaiah was speaking of him when Isaiah saw the hope that he would give to all the miserable, neglected, and marginalized people of the world: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified” (Isaiah 62:1-3). And, of course, it was Isaiah who saw our Lord Jesus Christ as the suffering servant, the crucified Savior who would take away our sins. Isaiah saw him as the one stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. It was Isaiah who saw so clearly that the wrath of God which we deserved would be poured out upon his own Son, taking the penalty we deserved: “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5-6). And even though the prophet sees the death of Jesus, he also sees his resurrection, for after Isaiah describes his death, he says, “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities” (Isa. 53:10-11). After our Lord had made himself a sin offering for us by dying on the cross, he raised from the dead to see how his death would justify many—the many who would put their faith and trust in him. Isaiah even saw the results of the second coming of Christ for he heard the Lord say, “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind,” a verse that John quotes in Revelation 21:1, “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.” Isaiah saw all of this and, as we shall see, so much more.
Isaiah saw all these great events 700 years before Christ came into the world. Isaiah describes his prophecy as something he saw: “The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw…” (Isa. 1:1). Again, “The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem” (Isa. 2:1). How did Isaiah see these things? We do not know. We will never know how God inspired his servants to write the Holy Scriptures—the infallible, inerrant word of God. The apostle Peter tells us, “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (II Peter 1:21). This explanation of inspiration is all we need to know. The Holy Spirit moved these men, they saw historical events in the centuries to come, and they wrote the very words of God Himself. Isaiah saw that “the Lord is salvation” in a way that perhaps no other prophet before the coming of Christ ever did, and he proclaimed that message in the eighth century B. C., and that message is still being proclaimed today— “the Lord is salvation.”
Our nation needs to hear that message in our own day. We also live in turbulent times. We fear the threat of other nations. But just as Judah needed to hear this message, we need to hear it now. Our greatest threat is not China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, or any other nation. Our greatest threat is the judgment of God, for as a nation we have turned our backs on him. We are seeing our nation, our very civilization crumbling before us. Our nation futilely looks for answers in government, education, business, and a thousand other places. But every single problem that we have in this nation is caused by our sin, and people are looking everywhere for someone or something to save us. Unfortunately, when they look everywhere except to God, the situation only becomes much worse. None of the problems of this nation will be solved until every person bows before Jesus Christ and accepts him as sovereign Lord and Savior. This nation needs to hear the message of Isaiah— “the Lord is Salvation.”
The church needs to hear Isaiah’s message. Sadly, the church that calls herself by the name of Jesus Christ has forsaken him. Isaiah called the people to repentance, but the modern church no longer does so. The church no longer preaches on sin. The people in our pews are so ignorant that they do not even know what sin is, so how can they repent? The church no longer preaches that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation. The church has joined with the rest of the world in proclaiming that there are many paths to God, believing that just as long as people live according to the light they have received, they will be saved. It is that kind of message that has resulted in the total chaos that this nation and the entire world is experiencing now. Christ and Christ alone is salvation. He alone can deliver us. The church is no longer characterized by holiness of life because ministers no longer teach the people the necessity of living a godly, righteous, and sober life. The church is so filled with sin, no one can tell the difference between the church and the world. Ministers wonder why our churches are empty and why we are not seeing great numbers of conversions. It is because we have sinned against God. The message of Isaiah to the church is ““Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear” (Isaiah 59:1-2). God is still as powerful as he ever was. God is still as powerful as he was on the day of Pentecost when he converted 3,000 people in a day. God can still hear prayer. But he is not hearing the prayers of his church, because his church is so filled with sin that he will not listen to us. What has the church done instead of obeying the command to repent? The church has turned to games and entertainment to get the people in. And when we get them in, we make them twice the children of hell, giving them assurance that their hearts are right with God while they continue to live in sin and rebellion against God. The church must turn back to God, back to the power of the Holy Spirit, and realize that the only thing that can save the church from ruin and irrelevance is the presence of God among his people. We need to hear the message of Isaiah—the Lord is salvation.
And then, every individual needs to hear the message of Isaiah. It is still an amazing thing to me, that after 400 years of gospel preaching on these shores, people still do not have even an intellectual understanding of the gospel message. People still do not know why Jesus came into the world. They still think that he was just a great teacher who taught us how to live a better life. I read someone recently who said that “the most essential message of Christianity is respect and kindness for others.” Can you believe that after 400 years of preaching on this continent, someone could still believe that the most essential message of Christianity is respect and kindness for others? While it is true that the Gospel does teach respect and kindness for others, that is not the essential message of the Christian faith. Other religions and philosophies teach respect and kindness for others. The essential message of the Christian faith is that God is holy, we are sinners deserving the eternal wrath of God, and Jesus Christ came into the world to die on a cross so that we could be saved from that eternal wrath. It is incredible that we still believe that we can save ourselves by showing respect and kindness to others or by some other kind of morality and ethical teaching like, “Be ye kind one to another,” or “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” or “love your enemies.” All those commandments should be obeyed, but even if we tried to obey them, we would fail miserably. None of those teachings can save us. They were never designed to save us. There is nothing that you and I can do to save ourselves from eternal misery and ruin—the Lord alone is salvation! Seven hundred years before Christ came into the world, Isaiah foresaw that the Lord Jesus Christ is salvation. Isaiah foresaw that only putting our trust in his life, his death, his burial, his resurrection, and his ascension can save us. Put your trust in him. Come to him admitting that you have no good works, that you have no righteous deeds. Admit that all you have ever done is sin against Him, and throw yourself on his mercy. Ask him to forgive you and make you a new creation, knowing that only he can do so. May this study of Isaiah help us to see that the Lord, and the Lord alone is salvation. Amen.
