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The prophet Isaiah’s description of a future king who will obey God and give glory to his name has been seen by Christians to be fulfilled in Jesus, who was perfectly obedient to his Father’s will, assuming a human nature at the Incarnation and enduring death upon the cross. Indeed, it is because so many of Isaiah’s oracles fit so beautifully with the picture we have of Jesus in the gospels that Isaiah has come to be considered the prophet of the Messiah par excellence.

But this development should not lead us to ignore or forget the prophet’s own historical context and the role which he played in the events of his own day. Isaiah began his ministry in the Southern Kingdom of Judah sometime after 740 B.C., and this ministry continued down to at least the year 700. Isaiah was passionately involved in the political life of his day. He seems to have had direct access to the king, and may well have come from a noble family himself.

Isaiah lived through several major crises, including the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Samaria in 722 B.C. His most famous oracle, for Christians, at least, is the one which Matthew renders: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel" (Matt 1:23; cf. Is 7:14). The Christian interpretation of this passage, in terms of the virginal conception of Jesus, has all be eclipsed the fact that, in the context of Isaiah’s ministry, it is the prophet’s response to the faithless conduct of King Ahaz, who called upon Assyria to come to his aid against the Northern Kingdom, thus allying himself with the pagan faith of Assyria.

Isaiah is often considered the greatest of the Old Testament prophets because of the sheer range and vision of his prophecy. He denounces the oppression of the poor and the people’s abandonment of God. He hates vain worship, and, in his famous parable of the vineyard (Is 5:1-7), he captures God’s intense love for his people and his sorrow over their infidelity.

Isaiah’s hopeful message, which dominates the Advent season, comes out of a dark background of frustration and disappointment. Truly, Isaiah can be said to have "hoped against hope" (Rom 4:18). This teaches us something important about our own hope. When Paul says that "hope does not disappoint us" (Rom 5:5), he does not mean that we will always get just what we hope for.

The hope of the first Christians was for the Lord’s speedy return, and when this did not materialize, they had to reshape and rekindle their hope in the God who does not disappoint. So, too, in our personal lives, disappointment should not cause us to lose hope, but rather to deepen and purify our hope, so that, in the words of today’s collect, "we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which God has given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ."

December 9, 2001

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