Author: © Christian National Church of Christ

Question:
How is God’s Lordship over history demonstrated in the ease of Assyria?
Answer:
He is not the King of kings and the Lord of lords merely in name. He really rules the nations. Therefore, “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. It reads in Isaiah 10:6 NIV> I send him against a godless nation, I dispatch him against a people who anger me, to seize loot and snatch plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets. It reads in Isaiah 14:25 NIV> God says:I will crush the Assyrian in my land; on my mountains I will trample him down. His yoke will be taken from my people, and his burden removed from their shoulders.” It reads in Isaiah 10:12 NIV> When the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes.

Question:
What is Isaiahs’s idea of God’s lordship over history?
Answer:
Isaiah’s theology included the sometimes-comforting view that God shapes history, traditionally entering the human scene to rescue his people from national peril. Isaiah prophesied from 739–681 BC to a nation that had turned a deaf ear to the Lord. Instead of serving Him with humility and offering love to their neighbors, the nation of Judah offered meaningless sacrifices in God’s temple at Jerusalem and committed injustices throughout the nation. It reads in Isaiah 14:26-27 NIV> This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations. For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back? It reads in Isaiah 17:13 NIV>Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters, when he rebukes them they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweed before a gale. It reads in Isaiah 33:5-6 NIV> The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with his justice and righteousness. He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.

Question:
How does God manifest himself in human life?
Answer:
When we are reading the scriptures, listening to one of His servants, or praying. Through the Holy Spirit, we hear His voice, speaking to us and telling us what we need to do. We will come to know Jesus Christ and see His hand in our lives if we will hearken unto Him. Hearken means not only to listen, but to also obey. Not just read the scriptures but seek to live what we’re reading. When we are doing this, then we can look for ways that He makes himself known in our lives. It reads in Isaiah 6:3 NIV> And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” It reads in Isaiah 5:16 NIV> But the Lord Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts. It reads in Isaiah 5:19 NIV> to those who say, “Let God hurry; let him hasten his work so we may see it. The plan of the Holy One of Israel, let it approach, let it come into view, so we may know it.”It reads in Isaiah 24:1-23 NIV> See, the Lord is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it, he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants, it will be the same for priest as for people, for the master as for his servant, for the mistress as for her servant, for seller as for buyer, for borrower as for lender, for debtor as for creditor. The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The Lord has spoken this word. The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the heavens languish with the earth. The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore, earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left. The new wine dries up and the vine withers, all the merrymaker’s groans. The joyful timbrels are stilled, the noise of the revelers has stopped, the joyful harp is silent. No longer do they drink wine with a song; the beer is bitter to its drinkers. The ruined city lies desolate; the entrance to every house is barred. In the streets they cry out for wine; all joy turns to gloom; all joyful sounds are banished from the earth. The city is left in ruins, its gate is battered to pieces. So will it be on the earth and among the nations, as when an olive tree is beaten, or as when gleanings are left after the grape harvest. They raise their voices; they shout for joy; from the west they acclaim the Lord’s majesty. Therefore, in the east give glory to the Lord; exalt the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea. From the ends of the earth, we hear singing: “Glory to the Righteous One.” But I said, “I waste away, I waste away! Woe to me! The treacherous betray! With treachery the treacherous betray!” Terror and pit and snare await you, people of the earth. Whoever flees at the sound of terror will fall into a pit; whoever climbs out of the pit will be caught in a snare. The floodgates of the heavens are opened, the foundations of the earth shake. The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is violently shaken. The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the winds, so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls, never to rise again. In that day the Lord will punish the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the earth below. They will be herded together like prisoners bound in a dungeon; they will be shut up in prison and be punished after many days. The moon will be dismayed, the sun ashamed; for the Lord Almighty will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before its elders, with great glory. ” It reads in Isaiah 30:11 NIV> Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!”

Question:
What analogies from human life does Isaiah use to illustrate the power and skill of God?

Answer:
It reads in Isaiah 10:15 NIV> Does the ax raise itself above the person who swings it, or the saw boast against the one who uses it? As if a rod were to wield the person who lifts it up, or a club brandish the one who is not wood!
It reads in Isaiah 10:33 NIV> See, the Lord, the Lord Almighty, will lop off the boughs with great power. The lofty trees will be felled, the tall ones will be brought low.
It reads in Isaiah 29:16 NIV> You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “You did not make me”? Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing”?

Question:
How does Isaiah ‘s God manifest himself in nature?
Answer:
It reads in Isaiah 30:30 NIV, The Lord will cause people to hear his majestic voice and will make them see his arm coming down with raging anger and consuming fire, with cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail. It reads in Isaiah 13:13 NIV, Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the Lord Almighty, in the day of his burning anger. It reads in Isaiah 19:5 NIV, The waters of the river will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and dry.
It also reads in Romans 1:19-20 NIV< Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

“Question”
How does the prophet spell out his nation’s sins?
Answer”
It reads in Isaiah 3:8 NIV, Jerusalem staggers, Judah is falling; their words and deeds are against the Lord, defying his glorious presence. It reads in Isaiah 1:4 NIV, Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption. They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him. It reads in Isaiah 1:2 NIV, Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth! For the Lord has spoken: “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. It reads in Isaiah 30:10 NIV, They say to the seers, “See no more visions!” and to the prophets, “Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. It reads in Isaiah 29:13 NIV, The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.

Question:
How does Isaiah describe Israels relationship with God?
Answer:
The Israelis are daring in sin and walk after their own lusts; it is in scorn that they call God the Holy One of Israel. They confound and overthrow distinctions between good and evil. They prefer their own reasonings to Divine revelations, their own devices to the counsels and commands of God. It reads in Isaiah 8:13 NIV, The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread.

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Question:
What prescription had the prophet for the nation’s security?
Answer:
This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.
Isaiah 30:15 NIV,

Question:
What was Isaiahs’s attitude toward this alliance?
Answer:
Look, I know you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces the hand of anyone who leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him. But if you say to me, “We are depending on the Lord our God “isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, “You must worship before this altar”? “‘Come now, make a bargain with my master, the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you can put riders on them!
Isaiah 36:6-8 NIV

Question:
How did the people of Israel propose to avoid becoming the victims of Assyria?
Answer:
The Assyrian captivity (or the Assyrian exile) is the period in the history of ancient Israel and Judah during which several thousand Israelites from the Kingdom of Israel were forcibly relocated by the Neo-Assyrian Empire by military alliance with Egypt.