"Only Life Changes"

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.

Question:
What was the international situation in the time of Isaiah?
Answer:
Assyrian preoccupation, coupled with the weakness of Egypt and Babylon, left David and Solomon free to extend their own boundaries and maintain their kingdoms independent of foreign domination. The Assyrian conquerors were drawing nearer, taking successfully Damascus, Samaria, Carchemish, Gaza and Ashdod.

Question:
What attitude did Isaiah assume toward the fall of the northern kingdom?
Answer:
Isaiah prophesied that the northern kingdom of Israel would come to an end before the King of Assyria, and that its inhabitants would become broken as a people. {For before the boy knows how to say ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.” Isaiah 8:4} {Isaiah 10:10-11 NIV: As my hand seized the kingdoms of the idols, kingdoms whose images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria, shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?’”}

Question:
What assurance did Isaiah give to Ahaz that deliverance was near?
Answer:
Isaiah and his sons were used by God to encourage Ahaz and his nation to trust in the Lord, not political alliances. Isaiah’s prophetic utterances not only looked to the more immediate deliverance from God, but also to the time in which God would provide ultimate deliverance for Judah.
It reads in Isaiah 7:14-16 NIV-UK
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.

Question:
What role did Isaiah assume at the time of the syro-ephraimitish invasion (When the house of David was told, Syria is in league with Ephraim, his heart and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. Isaiah 7:2?)
Answer:
Say to him, ‘Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood—because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. Isaiah 7:4 NIV. Yet this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “‘It will not take place, it will not happen. Isaiah 7:7 NIV.

Question:
What judgement does Isaiah envision here?
Answer:
Instead of perfume, there will be rottenness.
Instead of well-set hair, there will be rottenness.
Instead of a rich robe, there will be a girding of sackcloth.
Instead of beauty, there will be shame.
Isaiah 3:18-24 and Isaiah 32:9-13 NIV

Question:
How does Isaiah describe the city women of his time?
Answer:
Here, even before the woman symbol appears, the city is identified as female by feminine pronouns. It is more specifically designated as a widow, another female figure. Before the verse ends, it reflects back on an earlier time when she was a princess, another female figure, but now she is a slave to sin.
It reads in Isaiah 3:16-24 NIV: The Lord says, “The women of Zion are haughty, walking along with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes, strutting along with swaying hips, with ornaments jingling on their ankles. Therefore, the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the women of Zion; the Lord will make their scalps bald.” In that day the Lord will snatch away their finery: the bangles and headbands and crescent necklaces, the earrings and bracelets and veils, the headdresses and anklets and sashes, the perfume bottles and charms, the signet rings and nose rings, the fine robes and the capes and cloaks, the purses and mirrors, and the linen garments and tiaras and shawls. Instead of fragrance there will be a stench; instead of a sash, a rope; instead of well-dressed hair, baldness; instead of fine clothing, sackcloth; instead of beauty, branding.

Question:
What judgement awaits an evil situation?
Answer:
If we deliberately go on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins remains, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume all adversaries. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Hebrews 10:26-28
The Lord takes his place in court; he rises to judge the people.

Isaiah 3:13 NIV:
By the wrath of the Lord Almighty the land will be scorched, and the people will be fuel for the fire; they will not spare one another.

Isaiah 9:19 NIV:

Question:
What is Isaiahs’s opinion of the religious practices of his time?
Answer:
Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.

Isaiah 1:14 NIV

Question:

What is Isaiahs’s demand for social justice?

Answer:

Isaiah was a prophet who demanded that the kings not just pay lip service to justice, but implement it in practice. He insisted that people should “seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow” (Isaiah 1:17 NIV: Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.). Isaiah is just as insistent in his demand for justice as other prophets such as Amos or Jeremiah. The prophetic word exposes collective, societal sins, such as denying justice to orphans, widows and the poor can’t say it enough. After announcing God’s judgment on nations and rulers, Isaiah reveals God’s vision of a just future as nonviolence (Isaiah 2:4 NIV: He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.), equity for the poor (Isaiah11:4 NIV: but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. ) and a renewed creation (Isaiah 65:17-25 NIV: “See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. “Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child; the one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed. They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands. They will not labor in vain, nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them. Before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,” says the Lord.)