‘The
preaching of Isaiah’, it has been said, ‘represents the theological high water
mark of the whole Old Testament’. The Prophet or Prophets Isaiah (there
may have been as many as three of them) has or have always been viewed as
especially important by Christians. The book of Isaiah is quoted or alluded to in
the NT more frequently than any other OT text, even the Psalms.
The early church fathers rated Isaiah not only as the
greatest prophet but also more as the first evangelist. Some of the early
church fathers even called Isaiah the fifth evangelist, and the term the ‘Fifth
Gospel’ has been used to describe this book of the Hebrew Scriptures,
underpinning the argument that what is presented is Christian theology, albeit
written in the period before Christianity.
It is well known that in the
synagogue of Nazareth Jesus read a version of Isaiah ch 61; but Jesus’ reading
of Isaiah 61:1-2 in the synagogue of Nazareth is not a verbatim quotation. He
deliberately quotes the first clause, ‘to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord’, but significantly omits the second clause, ‘and the day of vengeance of our God’.
This
striking omission of any reference to the day of vengeance at this point was
not arbitrary but intentional. It is not that Luke wants to foreground grace
and that any reference to judgment has been discarded because it conflicts with
his emphasis on universal salvation. On the contrary, as is evident from Luke 18:7 and especially from Jesus’ assertion in Luke 21:22 (‘for this is the time
of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written’), the days of
vengeance have only been postponed. The ‘today’ of Luke 4:21 marks the
beginning of the time of God’s gracious visitation (Luke 19:44) to Israel
through Jesus’ preaching of the gospel of the kingdom (Luke 4:43).
The vision
of the Prophet Isaiah is encountered early on in chapter 2. Isaiah 2:2-3
pictures nations going up to the mountain of the house of the LORD to be taught
the law, the Torah. According to Matthew 4:25-5:2, ‘large crowds from Galilee,
the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed’
Jesus as he went up to the mountain (Matt. 5:1). In Isaiah 2:3, the nations
express the expectation to be taught by the God of Jacob. According to Matthew 5:2, Jesus, the Spirit-empowered servant (Isa. 42:1-4), taught them Torah.
Significantly, in the seventh beatitude he taught them, ‘Happy are the
peacemakers because they shall be called sons of God’ (Matt. 5:9). In Isaiah
2:5, the house of Jacob is exhorted to walk in the light. In Matthew 5:14-15,
Jesus informs the international crowd of disciples that they are the ‘city on a
hill’ (5:14) and exhorts them that they ought to let their light shine (5:15)
to win others for the kingdom.
Intimately
connected to this mountain scene, is the final mountain scene in the
gospel of Matthew in which the risen Lord commands the disciples to go and
start making disciples of all the nations (the ‘great commission’). When these
two mountain scenes are read together, it becomes clear that the mission of the
disciples to make disciples of the nations and to teach everything that Jesus
commanded (Matt. 28:19-20) represents the ongoing fulfillment of the vital role
of Jerusalem among the nations. As the disciples had been taught the Torah by
the Servant (Isaiah 42:1-4), so they must now go out and teach Torah
righteousness to the nations for the establishment of true peace.
The task at
hand is to strive for peace and righteousness. But we must also remember that
the vivid description of the Day of the Lord in Isaiah 2:10-22 was repeated in
Revelation 6:12-17.
The early Christians
used Isaiah extensively in their evangelizing efforts, even informally creating
a ‘Gospel narrative’ – something very much akin to what we now know as the Four
Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. John Sawyer in his book The Fifth Gospel: Isaiah in the History of
Christianity proposes such a Gospel narrative in a collection of verses of Isaiah woven together. This bears out the verdict of Jerome (c. 342-420), who writes in
the prologue to his translation of Isaiah: ‘he should be called an evangelist
rather than a prophet because he describes all the mysteries of Christ and the
Church so clearly that you would think he is composing a history of what has
already happened rather than prophesying about what is to come.’
