Who Was Isaiah the Prophet? The Gospel Before the Gospel

He is called the "evangelical prophet" — the prophet of the gospel — because no Old Testament writer anticipates Jesus Christ with greater clarity or depth.

Eight hundred years before the birth of Jesus, Isaiah wrote about a servant who would be "pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities" (53:5). He described a virgin conceiving and bearing a son called Immanuel — "God with us" (7:14). He announced that the Spirit of the LORD would rest on One who would bring good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, and proclaim freedom for the captives (61:1-2) — the very passage Jesus read in the synagogue in Nazareth to announce His own ministry (Luke 4:18-19).

Isaiah is not just a prophet. He is the prophet who most completely saw what God was going to do — and described it in language so vivid that generations of readers have marveled at its precision.

Isaiah's Background and Calling

Isaiah son of Amoz was active in Jerusalem during the reigns of four Judean kings: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (Isaiah 1:1) — spanning approximately 740-700 BC. He was likely of aristocratic background, with apparent access to the royal court. He was a prophet deeply embedded in Jerusalem's political life, advising kings and speaking into international crises.

His call is recorded in Isaiah 6 — one of the most extraordinary theophanies (divine appearances) in Scripture. In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah saw the LORD seated on His throne, high and exalted, with the hem of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim flew above Him, calling to one another:

"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."

The doorposts shook. The house filled with smoke. Isaiah's response: "Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."

A seraph flew to him with a live coal from the altar and touched his mouth: your guilt is taken away, your sin atoned for.

And then the voice of the LORD: "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"

"Here am I. Send me!"

This sequence — vision of holiness, consciousness of unworthiness, cleansing, commissioning — is the pattern of all genuine prophetic calling.

The Difficult Commission

What God immediately told Isaiah about his ministry was not encouraging: "Go and tell this people: 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.'" (Isaiah 6:9)

He would preach to people who would not hear. His words would harden as much as they would soften. He would minister through disasters he could see coming but could not prevent.

Isaiah asked: How long?

Until the cities are ruined and the houses deserted. Until the LORD has sent everyone far away.

And then a note of hope: "But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump." (6:13) Even through judgment, a remnant would survive. The holy seed would remain.

The Messianic Prophecies

Isaiah's messianic prophecies are so remarkable that the book of Isaiah is sometimes called "the Fifth Gospel." Key passages:

Isaiah 7:14 — "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." (Cited in Matthew 1:23 at Jesus' birth.)

Isaiah 9:6-7 — "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Isaiah 11:1-2 — "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him — the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding..."

Isaiah 40:3 — "A voice of one calling: 'In the wilderness prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.'" (Applied to John the Baptist in all four Gospels.)

Isaiah 53 — The Suffering Servant — one of the most striking Old Testament passages: "He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed."

Isaiah 61:1-2 — The Spirit of the Lord is on me to bring good news, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom — the passage Jesus read in Nazareth.

No other Old Testament book quotes Jesus as directly in its own prophetic content.

Isaiah and the Historical Events of His Day

Isaiah wasn't only a prophet of the distant future. He was deeply engaged with the immediate political crises of his day:

• He counseled King Ahaz during the Syro-Ephraimite crisis (Isaiah 7-8)
• He urged Hezekiah not to capitulate to Assyrian pressure when Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem (Isaiah 36-37)
• He predicted the miraculous deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib — and it happened (2 Kings 19)
• He comforted Hezekiah during his near-fatal illness (Isaiah 38)
• He warned against alliances with Egypt that would be spiritually corrosive

What Isaiah Teaches Us

The holiness of God is the beginning of all true religion.

Isaiah's call began with a vision of God's holiness that devastated him. He didn't encounter a manageable deity or a domesticated God. He saw the LORD — high, exalted, unapproachable. This shattering encounter with genuine holiness is what the prophetic voice needs to have experienced before it can speak.

Gospel hope is prophetic obedience.

Isaiah's "good news" passages (chapters 40-66) are not escapism — they are the most faithful response to judgment: there is a future, God is not done, the holy seed remains. Hope is not naivete; it's the most rigorous form of faithfulness.

The servant who suffers is the one who saves.

Isaiah 53 is the theological center of the entire Old Testament sacrificial system. The one on whom our punishment falls, whose stripes bring healing — this is not a random victim but a willing servant. The theology of substitutionary atonement begins here.

A Prayer Inspired by Isaiah

Lord, like Isaiah, let me see You high and lifted up — above my circumstances, above my politics, above my comfort. In that vision, let me see myself clearly: I am unclean, and I live among an unclean people. Send the coal. Touch my lips. And when You ask 'Who will go?' — let my answer be: Here am I. Send me. Amen.

FAQ About Isaiah

Did one person write the whole book of Isaiah? This is the central debate in Isaiah scholarship. Many critical scholars propose two or three "Isaiahs" based on linguistic and thematic differences between chapters 1-39 and 40-66. Conservative scholars defend single authorship. The New Testament authors treat the book as a unity, quoting from both sections as "Isaiah."

What is the Dead Sea Scrolls connection to Isaiah? The Great Isaiah Scroll, found among the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, contains the entire book of Isaiah and dates to approximately 125 BC — over a thousand years earlier than previously known manuscripts. It demonstrated remarkable textual consistency with the Masoretic text we use today.

How many times is Isaiah quoted in the New Testament? Isaiah is the most-quoted Old Testament book in the New Testament — over 400 allusions and direct quotes, by various counts. It is particularly prominent in Matthew, Luke, John, Romans, and Revelation.

Was Isaiah really sawn in two? Jewish tradition (and Hebrews 11:37's reference to those who "were sawn in two") holds that Isaiah was martyred this way during the reign of the wicked king Manasseh. This cannot be verified from Scripture alone.

What is the "Isaiah 53" problem for Jewish interpretation? Isaiah 53 has been one of the most debated passages in Jewish-Christian dialogue. Jewish interpreters have variously identified the Suffering Servant as the people of Israel, a righteous individual, or the nation itself. Christians read it as prophetic of Jesus. The Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 asked Philip, "Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about?" — and Philip told him about Jesus.