54...A SECOND ('DEUTERO') 'ISAIAH'

Based on Isaiah CH. 40-55...Read more there 

 You will find background to DT-IS in Ep.52 if you haven't already visited there. It is now after 586BC when Jerusalem has been destroyed & many of its leading people deported to Babylon. DT-IS knows about Cyrus [CH.41] the Persian ruler who will defeat the Babylonians & set the Hebrews free to return to Palestine if they so wish (beginning in 538) so he's probably writing not long before that, maybe in the 540s.  It's not the original Isaiah continuing the story because of this dating; nor does his name appear as it has in earlier chapters. Like '1st' IS, DT-IS is a fine poet, & bequeaths us some of the finest poetry in the Scriptures. (Try reading it aloud.) The early  part of this new Prophet's work is known as the 'Book of Consolation' because of the hope he holds out for the captive Hebrews & their future. 40 tells of God's compassion for His displaced & long-suffering people. There are better things to come though this involves the people getting back on track in their understanding of God's greatness & their recognizing this in their behaviour towards God & each other. Though Cyrus remains unnamed till the end of 44, people surely come to know who is being referred to.

THE SERVANT SONGS 

Central to DT-IS' work are four 'Servant Songs' which we will look at more closely. 42:1-4 (some think to as far as v.9) brings us to the 1st of the Servant Songs.Who is this Servant? We don't know! Even DT-IS himself has been suggested, but it seems more likely the Hebrew people are to consider themselves a corporate servant of YHWH God & each other. These songs remain meaningful to our Hebrew friends in the light of their troubled journeyings down the years. Later, the Christian Church comes to see this Servant as pre-figuring Jesus because of the way so much of the prophecy is fulfilled in Him & by Him, not least in His Passion, Death, & Resurrection. To get the whole picture it helps to understand Jesus' 'portrayal' of this kind of Servant-Messiah is precisely what caused many not to believe in Him. They seem to have come to expect not a Messiah who is a Suffering Servant, but an all-conquering One on a charger rather than a miserable donkey! We find the 2nd Servant Song in 49:1-6 (or later), the 3rd in 50: 4-9 (maybe to v.11), & the 4th from 52:13 - 53:12. This last spells out in great detail the appearance & fate of the Servant, corporate or Personal. 53 ends on a note of Good News the Servant will not experience till he has fully undertaken & seen through to its end his role as chosen Servant of YHWH God.

In between & after these Songs & after they conclude we find a mixed bag of prophecies relating to the Hebrew people, their place in God's plan, their responsibilities as a result of that, & the place & fate of other nations too. During this period monotheism comes into sharper focus. YHWH is not, & is not to be just one among other gods on offer [see 43, 44, & 45:20+]. The Hebrews have faced & often faced-down the gods of neighbouring peoples over many years - yet YHWH hasn't always won out. Now in their experience of defeat & captivity, YHWH is their only hope. Not just in Egypt hundreds of years before, followed by the Exodus, but now, too, in their more recent predicaments of being at the mercy of & under the control of successive Assyrian, Babylonian, & Persian empires & their gods. There burns deep within them their being removed from & deprived of the Temple at the heart of Yahwism, & the very destruction of that Temple (by the Babylonians) 50 or so years earlier. 48:20-22, & 49 hold out the promise of another Exodus, with the blessings that will bring spelled out in what follows, climaxing in 55 with a magnificent outburst of invitation, praise, & the promise of renewal. DT-IS is both a realist & an optimist & through him God seeks to console, re-assure, re-shape & re-channel the Hebrew people during what's happening to them so that when they are freed by Cyrus they will become a more faithful servant nation than they have been before. And that's another story...55:THE THIRD MAN...'TRITO'-ISAIAHQ: Is servant-hood more a despised subservience or chore than a godly calling nowadays?  



             





 40:3 cf MK1:2-3   41:8-9 cf LK1:54   42:1-4 or 9?    42:1 cf MK 1:11 & 9:7   42:7 cf LK4:18-19    44:2 cf MK1:11 & 9:7   44:3 cf JN7:38-9     49:1-6(9)   50:4-9(10-11)   52:10 cf LK2:31   52:13 -53:12   53:1 cf JN 12:38    53:4 cf MT 8:17   53:12 cf LK22:37    54:13 cf JN6:45