I remember when I was young in God, I was forever reading a verse (completely out of context) and flying off the handle with God for being ‘judgemental’ or ‘unforgiving’ or ‘a mean, nasty God that doesn’t love us!’ I can imagine God patiently waiting for the day that I would grow up, read the whole story of the Bible, stop taking bits out of context and accusing Him of things that were simply untrue; all because I reacted without having all the facts.

How do we dive into the Book of Isaiah, one of the most theologically significant and complex books of the Bible? Well, before we become daunted about reading sixty-six chapters, we find a nice summary statement of the key messages of judgment and hope that run throughout the book in Isaiah 1.

As you read Isaiah, there is a beautiful thread of prophecy that runs throughout the whole book. The prophecy appears in both sections; the first section of judgement and the second section of comfort. The beautiful thread that Isaiah prophesies is the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Let it be said that it is truly a daunting task for any reader to embark on the long and harrowing journey that is reading the Book of Isaiah. It’s sixty-six chapters, at times, feel like a relentless onslaught of prophetic judgement and declaration and there are few clear markers left by Isaiah to aid in navigating his writings. Without the appropriate preparation, it is understandable that this book may turn many readers away and leave them feeling as if there is little to be gained by persevering.

If you are reading this post with the TYB schedule, you’ll be finishing the year with the Book of Isaiah and we have designed the schedule with that purpose. We want you to finish on a book that lifts your head –Isaiah will encourage you to arise, to think bigger about God and His plans, to stir yourself again that the future is great and is safely and securely in the hands of our awesome God.

Who wrote the book called Isaiah, and for whom was it written? The traditional ascription of the book to the eighth century prophet, Isaiah son of Amoz, has fallen out of fashion in the present scholarly atmosphere though there are still those who make cases for the unity of the book and its ascription to the historical Isaiah. More popular, however, is the view that multiple authors — how many is a debate — composed the book called Isaiah and that this book was written over a period of at least two hundred years, from the eighth century BC to the sixth.