The Call of Isaiah

In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah son of Amoz saw the Lord seated on a high throne, the hem of his robe filling the temple. Six-winged seraphim called to one another, “Holy, holy, holy, is Yahweh of Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!” The thresholds shook and the house filled with smoke (Isaiah 6:1–4). Isaiah cried out that he was undone, a man of unclean lips who had seen the King. A seraph touched his mouth with a coal from the altar and told him that his sin was forgiven. Then he heard the Lord ask whom he should send, and answered, “Here I am. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:5–8). He was sent to a people who would hear and not understand, until the land lay waste and only a stump was left (Isaiah 6:9–13).

Some years later, in the reign of Uzziah’s grandson Ahaz, Rezin of Damascus and Pekah of Israel marched on Jerusalem to put a king of their own on its throne (Isaiah 7:1–6) (2 Kings 16:5). Isaiah met Ahaz by the upper pool and told him to keep calm, because the plan would fail: “If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established” (Isaiah 7:3–9). Ahaz declined to ask for a sign. Isaiah gave one. A woman would conceive and bear a son and name him Immanuel, and before the child could tell good from evil the lands of the two kings would be deserted (Isaiah 7:10–16). The Hebrew word for her is almah. The ancient Greek translation renders it “a virgin” (Septuagint Isaiah 7:14). Irenaeus, about AD 180, reports that the Jewish translators Theodotion and Aquila wrote “a young woman”, and argues against them (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.21.1). Translations still differ.

Ahaz turned to Assyria. He sent the silver and gold of the temple and the palace to Tiglath-pileser and called himself his servant and son, and the Assyrian king took Damascus and killed Rezin (2 Kings 16:7–9). Tiglath-pileser’s own list of tributaries includes Jehoahaz of Judah (Tiglath-pileser III, Summary Inscription 7 rev. 11′). Isaiah warned that the Assyrian flood would sweep on into Judah itself (Isaiah 8:5–8).

The same chapters speak of a child born to sit on David’s throne, named “Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6–7), and of a shoot from the stock of Jesse on whom the Spirit of the Lord rests, who judges the poor with righteousness and in whose reign the wolf lives with the lamb (Isaiah 11:1–9).

In Isaiah the Immanuel sign is tied to the crisis of Ahaz’s own day (Isaiah 7:16). Matthew, quoting it in the Greek form, says it was fulfilled in the birth of Jesus, and applies the light dawning on Galilee to the start of his ministry (Matthew 1:22–23) (Matthew 4:13–16). John says that Isaiah “saw his glory, and spoke of him” (John 12:39–41), Paul cites the root of Jesse (Romans 15:12), and the seraphim’s cry returns in the worship of heaven in Revelation (Revelation 4:8).