What did Isaiah say about Jesus?

Of all the prophets Isaiah saw the most about Christ. Only the book of Psalms contains a larger number of messianic predictions. Every glory of our Lord and every phase of His life on earth were beheld by this great man of God. His incarnation, His growing up in Nazareth, His public ministry, His message to the people, His rejection by the nation, His sufferings, the shame and the cross, His death with its meaning, His resurrection, His ascension, His glorious exaltation and future manifestation as well as His work as Prophet, Priest and King, are all found in this book. We shall point out some of these great predictions and the connection in which we find them.

What a series of anticipations of Messiah we find in the Prophet Isaiah, each of them presenting Him to us in some special light and character, and each of them verified as belonging to Jesus as Messiah, by citation in some part of the New Testament. Isaiah 7. We get Messiah in this chapter, as "Immanuel," and this is cited and applied to Jesus in Matthew 1. Isaiah 9. We get Him here as the light from Zebulon, and this is cited in Matthew 4. Isaiah 40. We find Him here as ushered forth by His messenger, the Voice, and this is cited in Luke 3. Isaiah 42. Here we see Him in certain fine characteristics of His ministry. It is quoted in Matthew 12. Isaiah 49. This is a very full anticipation of Him, and a verse of this chapter is cited by Paul in Acts 13. Isaiah 53. In this well known chapter, as is well known we have the Lord in His sufferings, and quoted in Acts 8. Isaiah 61. Here we have the Lord in His ministry again, but a different view of that ministry from what we have in chapter 42. It is quoted in Luke 4.

The prophet Isaiah writes much of Christ, foretelling details of His life on earth as Jehovah's Servant, His rejection by His people Israel, His sufferings at the hands of men, His atoning suffering from God, and His coming glory as the Messiah. In Isaiah 9:6 he writes of the holy Child that would be born to bring blessing to His people, of the Son that God would give to rule in righteousness, One whose personal greatness and divine glories are revealed in His Name, "Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." In Isaiah 11 the prophet presents the same blessed Person as a scion of the royal line, come from Jesse, a Branch whose precious fruits would bring pleasure to the heart of Jehovah.

The prophecy of Isaiah is remarkable for the very direct prophecies it contains of the coming Messiah, of Hs virgin birth, of His Name, Immanuel (God with us), (Isa. 7:14). Again we are told of the Child born, the Son given, of His Names—Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, the Prince of peace (Isa. 9:6). These prophecies were made seven hundred years before our Lord was born in the stable at Bethlehem. Can we doubt divine inspiration here?

His incarnation. The first messianic prediction in Isaiah relates to the incarnation of the Son of God. We find it in chapter 7:14. As it is well known its messianic character is denied by Jews and by the higher critics. The virgin birth is clearly predicted in these familiar words by Isaiah and the Holy Spirit in the first chapter of the New Testament tells us of the fulfillment of the words spoken by the Lord through Isaiah. In the first chapter of Luke the full announcement of the birth of Immanuel by the virgin is made by Gabriel to Mary. The rejection of this first great prophecy of the incarnation means the rejection of the incarnation itself.

In Matt. 1:23 we have Isa. 7:14 cited, and applied to the birth of the Messiah. The facts stated prove its literal fulfilment. Now there are symbols and figures, as well as simple language, in Isa. 7 — Isa. 9:7; but this does not hinder the Holy Spirit stamping the prophecy of the Incarnation, not as an "idea" or general principle, but as an objective fact. There were other children for signs and for wonders in Israel — Shear-jashub already born, and Maher-shalal-hash-baz about to be, sons of the prophet; but they are as distinct from the virgin's Son Immanuel, as Hezekiah, already a dozen years old at least and born before Ahaz came to the throne. Neither he, nor Isaiah's children, were born of the virgin; nor could even Hezekiah, still less a future unknown son of Ahaz, call it his land, as Immanuel can, Whose name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, the Destroyer of the last Assyrian, and the Deliverer and King on David's throne for ever. Alas! there is the secret root of unbelief. He is the Great Unknown, not the writer of Isa. 40 — 66, though Isaiah's was indeed the pen that indited them, but Isaiah's theme, the virgin's Son, in the striking parenthesis of his introductory chapters. Had men but seen as God reveals Him at the beginning, they had not doubted the voice of God through Isaiah at the end.

What Peter says as to the contents of the writings of the prophets of God is more true of Isaiah than of any of the other prophetic books except the Psalms. "The Suffering of Christ and the glory that should follow." Isaiah's message reveals the Redeemer and King of Israel. He is the "Holy One of Israel " mentioned by this title twenty-five times. The Redeemer of Israel is Jehovah the Creator. He announced His virgin birth, the child to be born of the virgin, the Son given, and reveals the titles of that Son (9:6). He describes Him in His lowliness, His tenderness, His miracles, as the servant of Jehovah, and above all as the sin-bearer in that wonderful fifty-third chapter. But how much more Isaiah was permitted to reveal of His glory. He pictures in prophetic vision that kingdom which is yet to come, and which will come with the return of our Saviour-Lord. The details of His coming, His glory and His kingdom are unfolded in the special lecture on this subject which the reader finds with the other lectures at the close of the annotations.

Does not Isaiah, the royal Prophet, the evangelical prophet, come instantly to our mind? Take chapter 7:14; “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and thou shalt call His name Immanuel.” How Matthew, the royal Evangelist, strikes the corresponding note in Matthew 1:22, when he says: “Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” And who but Christ could answer the majestic names to be given to the child born, the son given—“Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father (lit. the Father of Eternity), the Prince of Peace.” What but prophetic inspiration could dare to ascribe such names to a child. Yet when we bow before the inscrutable mystery of the person of Him, who is God and man, yet one Person, as brought before us in the Gospels, we can understand the absolute fitness of the names. Then chapter 53. What need to dilate upon that loved and well-known chapter, which portrays so touchingly the way in which Christ would be treated by man, who hated God, for He revealed God; and by God who loved man, and sought his blessing, even through the atoning death of His well-beloved Son? No wonder when the Ethiopian eunuch read that passage, and asked Philip, “I pray thee, of whom speaks the prophet thus? of himself, or of some other man?” that “Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached to him JESUS” (Acts 8:35). No wonder!

The birth of Jesus was an event as full of love as it was deep in wisdom and humiliation; but it was what Jehovah had ages before promised, and patriarchs had long looked for. When man disobeyed his Maker, and fell under Satan's power, God, in boundless grace, lighted up the dark and hopeless scene with the most merciful declaration, that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head; thus announcing a Redeemer for fallen man, and that He should be born of a woman. Afterward, the Lord taught Abraham that the promised Seed should be through him and his much-loved son Isaac. "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." After this, it was revealed to David that the promised Seed should be of the fruit of his loins, and also that after His death and resurrection He should sit upon Israel's throne. At a later period, the prophet Isaiah was moved by the Holy Ghost to predict that the Saviour would be a virgin's son: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel." And more than this, for he also spake of the Godhead of Christ, as well as His reigning in power, as the King of the Jews, on the throne of His father David, saying, "Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth, even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this." (Isa. 9.) Still later, the prophet Micah was instructed to inform God's people of the locality where Jesus should be born: "But thou, Bethlehem-Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." (Micah 5.)

Who, then, is Immanuel? His birth is predicted in Isaiah 7:14, and, after detailing the circumstances of His rejection in the following chapter, the prophet foretells the establishment of His kingdom in chapter 9. Together with this he takes occasion, in a passage already quoted, to present a series of titles, or names, which are expressive of the infinite and divine character of Immanuel's person. Let us pass them briefly under review. The first is "Wonderful," a word used oftentimes for that which excites astonishment, or admiration. Sometimes it is employed to denote a miracle, and nothing so awakens the attention as a miraculous display of power. And what miracle is so great as that of the Incarnation? What could produce such wonder as the fact that Immanuel could be born of a virgin? Then He is called "Counsellor." Divine wisdom is indicated by this word, as, for example, where it says, "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord." (Isaiah 11:2) The appellation "The mighty God" proclaims its own significance, for there could not be a more distinct declaration of His Deity; nor does the following term, "The everlasting Father," or "The Father of eternity," speak less plainly, inasmuch as it sets forth the eternity of His being. Finally, He is "The Prince of Peace," a title which indicates the Solomon character of His reign, so admirably described in Psalm 72.