Week 1: Introduction and Overview

Why give that much time to one prophet? Because the New Testament does. Outside the Psalms, no Old Testament book turns up in the New more often. From there, it sketches the man and his times. Four kings. We can put close to forty years of preaching on a calendar. A prophet with the run of the palace, a wife called the prophetess, and two sons whose names were sermons. Three dates that frame the whole book: 722, 701, 586. Next come five things that make a prophet readable. He preaches before he predicts. Hebrew poetry rhymes thoughts. The book isn't in chronological order. A prophecy can land twice. Apocalyptic language is language. Then a single page of one-line profiles: the four kings of Judah and every nation Isaiah names, which is what keeps a reader on his feet through chapters 13–23. Five threads to watch and mark in your Bible. One verse to carry, Isaiah 12:2, read at the start, again at chapter 12, and again at the end. And a plain word on how to work the study: read the chapters cold first, write out the questions, and come when you're behind.