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Isaiah, The Glory of YHWH

Isaiah is one of the most well known prophets in the Bible. The passage in chapter 53 is probably one of the most often quoted passages of all time. The story of Isaiah's call by God to minister to Israel in chapter 6 is a favorite of many. Still the book of Isaiah is far more than just these two chapters. 

Background

The prophet Isaiah prophesied in Judah roughly from 740 BC to 681 BC. In Isaiah 1:1 it states that Isaiah lived in the days of kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Isaiah worked almost exclusively in the southern nation of Judah, but he did prophecy concerning the northern nation of Israel at times.

The book of Isaiah was written by the prophet Isaiah. Some scholars think that the book was written by multiple people instead of just one. The problem with this is the assumptions those scholars make. First they assume a person's style of writing cannot change over time. Isaiah had about sixty years to minister and write. My own writing style has changed drastically over the last five years. The easiest explanation is that Isaiah wrote the whole book at throughout his long ministry to Judah.

Themes

Isaiah is one of the longest books in the Bible, so naturally there are multiple themes that run throughout the book. Today we are going to focus on one primary theme that ties the other ones together; the glory of YHWH. 

The glory of YHWH is a concept that is not first introduced in Isaiah, but it is extremely important to the prophet. We first see God's glory on full display at Mt. Sinai in Exodus 19. Here the very mountain shakes from the presence of God. The glory of YHWH is not simply the radiance of his being, but the weight of his imminence. 

We often like to view God as a being who is far away. Sure he has great influence over this world, but the essence of his being is distant and aloof. Something Isaiah shows us is that God is very imminent. He is close by and involved in our lives.

The people of Israel and Judah treated God as a distant being who didn't really care about their actions. They would sacrifice at the temple in the morning and go worship at the pagan shrines at night. God sends Isaiah to remind the people that he was very near and still very much involved.

We see this in chapter 6 when Isaiah is called by God to minister to Israel and Judah. The angels circling the throne declare that "The whole earth is full of his glory!" God's presence fills the entire earth. This theme of God's glory repeatedly emerges in the book of Isaiah. A common accusation is that the nations have "offended the glory of YHWH." They have ignored the very presence of God in their midst.

Theological Point

 God is in our midst. His glory permeates all of creation. One of the greatest sins we commit is pretending that he isn't near. We go to church and praise God, then go out into the world and act like he isn't there. The book of Isaiah shows us that ignoring God's glory is dangerous.

Conclusion

We need to be intentional about seeking out the presence of God in our lives. The book of Isaiah revolves around this idea of God's presence. Isaiah 53 is a great passage where Isaiah tells the people Judah what that presence looks like; Jesus. We need to seek out Christ in everything we do. His glory surrounds us, and it would be a great crime for us to ignore it.

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