The Divine Lamp

Text: Isaiah 1:2-31 

The Prophet Isaiah, son of Amoz, was born in the Kingdom of Judah during the profitable but immoral reign of King Uzziah, who appears to have reigned from about 783 to 742 BC.  At about the time of Isaiah’s call to prophecy he contracted leprosy as punishment for an attempted usurpation of the priestly office and became one of “the lving dead,” and this forced him to step down from his throne and install his son as regent, Uzziah would die in 733 BC.

A statesman saint, Isaiah is the Thomas More of the Old Testament.  Like More he is a family man, a counselor of kings, a skilled writer, and in the end a martyr for his faith at the hands of his king.  His response to his call, (probably narrated in chapter 6) shows a generous, spontaneous, and naturally courageous nature in contrast to Moses and Jeremiah.  His poetry and preaching reflect a soul sensitive and refined and endowed with extraordinary power of expression.

Isaiah was born during the prosperous but immoral reign of King Uzziah.  He was a contemporary of Amos and Hosea, prophets in the northern kingdom, and of Micah in Judah.  He preached during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.  His position as a counselor to Ahaz and Hezekiah, his knowledge of political affairs, his poetic language and exquisite Hebrew style, all indicate a cultured nobleman of high rank in the royal court.  Married and the father of two sons with prophetic names, Shear-yashub and Maher-shallal-hash-baz, he appears to have done most of his preaching in Jerusalem.  According to Hebrew tradition he died a martyr for the faith around 687, when, by order of the infamous King Manasseh, he was placed in a hollow tree and sawn in half. Excerpted from THE MEN AND MESSAGE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT by Peter Ellis. 

Today’s text is taken from the opening prophecy of the book which bears Isaiah’s name.  The sermons and events narrated in this book do not appear to always be in chronological order; rather, they were compiled according to a theological/thematic ordering.  Some scholars believe that the prophecy of chapter 1, verses 2-31, describe the situation facing Judah at the end of Jotham reign, or perhaps at the beginning of his successor, Ahaz’s reign.  Thus they date the text to about 735 and the beginning of the Syro-Ephramite war.  This war began when Syria, also called Damascus, formed and alliance with the northern kingdom of Israel, sometimes called “Ephraim” because that was the name of the largest northern tribe.  The purpose of this alliance was to oppose the rising power and expansion of the Assyrian Empire.  The two nations sought an alliance with Judah but, when that kingdom refused, they foolishly attacked it, hoping to set up a puppet king on the throne.  Judah, in spite of Isaiah’s warnings to the contrary, appealed to Assyria for help instead of to God.  Assyria moved quickly, destroying the Kingdom of Syria/Damascus and devastating Israel, taking land and captives.  They then proceeded to invade Judah, forcing that kingdom into vassalage and the payment of heavy tribute.

More scholars, and I believe they are correct, attribute this sermon to the period of King Sennacherib of Assyria and his invasion of Judah in 701 BC.  The circumstances are as follows:

In 705 BC King Sargon of Assyria was murdered and a civil war ensued which required Sargon’s son, Sennacherib to gain his inheritance by force of arms.  At this time, and as a result of this situation, King Merodach-baladan of Babylon, long a trouble-maker to Assyria, sought to free his kingdom from Assyrian domination by beginning a rebellion.  Toward this end he sought the aid of other subjected peoples and kingdoms, including the tiny Kingdom of Judah.  King Hezekiah of Judah resisted for a while, giving heed to the Prophet Isaiah, but then, in 702 BC, he joined the anti-Assyrian alliance after receiving assurance of help from Egypt.  By this time, however, Sennacherib had consolidated his power at home and was ready to move against his enemies; this he did with a brutal efficiency and methodology seldom seen in the annals of ancient warfare.  He first occupied Babylon and then moved against the western kingdoms.  As Isaiah had predicted, Egypt turned out to be an untrustworthy and worthless ally, Sennacherib invaded the kingdom of Judah in 702 BC.      He began to systematically lay siege to the fortified towns and cities surrounding Jerusalem and demanded that the city of Jerusalem itself surrender or suffer the consequences.  However, in accord with the prophecy of Isaiah given in 2 Kings 19, a plague struck the Assyrian army, forcing its withdrawal.