Isaiah 8:16-10:4
Dear RTB’ers,
Our Bible today is divided into books, chapters, and verses. It wasn’t always that way. Ancient people had rolled papyrus scrolls, very likely with separations between books and even between particular sections. [For example, see Luke 4:17, And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written … ] Somehow, no doubt guided by the Holy Spirit our early church fathers divided these writings, agreed what should be kept and what should be left out, and gave us the Bible that we read today. [NOTE: I recall that Martin Luther wanted the book of James eliminated, but that did not happen.] And so with our reading today. The STS authors give us parts of three chapters. I don’t know about the beginning of today’s reading, but the ending is clear: For all this His anger has not turned away, and His hand is stretched out still. (vv. 9:12, 17, 21; 10:4) Three times written in chapter 9 and once repeated in chapter 10. A small, but interesting item…
Of much more interest to us is the beginning of chapter 9, especially as we move into Advent and the Christmas season:
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light …
For to us a child is born,
to us a Son is given;
and the government shall be upon His shoulder,
and His name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over His kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. (vv. 9:2a, 6-7)
I have often suggested that you read John’s “See also…” links that he posts almost every day. In one of those recent posts John talked about prophecy, about how a given message might apply to the prophet’s current readers and how it might be read by us. Today’s reading is one of those. Clearly we read the verses above as applied to Jesus. How did Isaiah’s readers see it? No doubt, as we read in the gospels, the Jewish people were looking forward to the coming of the Messiah, so to Isaiah’s current readers these are Messianic verses. But did they also see current events playing out? For me, these verses seem out of context for what we read before and after. But we will embrace them in the coming weeks!
Every day, read John’s “See also…” links!
Blessings!
Fred