The Path Home Can Be Trusted
Here’s a question for you. Can you state what the early believers in Jesus were called? Believe it or not, they were not called Christians! We don’t know if they chose this name for themselves or if it was given to them by those who observed their life, but those who belonged to the early church were called followers of or those who belonged to the Way (Acts 9:2). It more than likely comes from the reference in John 14:6 when Jesus called Himself, “The Way, The Truth and the Life.”
I want you to notice in that statement the definite article “the”. Jesus is saying that He is the only path to take in order to have a relationship with the living God. He is the One who could pave the path for us. We couldn’t trail blaze our own path or choose among many paths to God. No, He was, is and always will be the way or path one can take to the Father, to eternal life.
Ever wonder why the Bible tells us to never turn to the left or to the right when it comes to His commandments? God wants us to stay on the path, the way to Him. He knew that we couldn’t get on that path by ourselves so before He ever had Moses write down one law, God tells us it is about faith. In Genesis 15:6, Moses writes that God credited or gave to Abraham righteousness simply because Abraham believed, not because he ever obeyed any rules.
Yet God knew we would stray from this path, so He put in forgiveness or the way to get back on the path, the sacrificial system. The Law and Sacrificial system pointed to the one path to take, Jesus (Gal. 3:24). Once you get on this path by trusting in Jesus and what He did for you, you’re on your way home.
But this begs the question, can I trust the hand that is guiding me home? Can I trust the path laid out in the Bible to get me home? Can I act upon the words in the Book to never lead off the path? The following article by Chuck Missler, “Isaiah and Cyrus the Great”, will give you evidence that the hand you are holding on this journey home, the path that it lays out, the steps you walk in as you follow Jesus home are definitely trustworthy.
Isaiah and Cyrus the Great
In 539 BC, Cyrus son of Cambyses took Babylon without a struggle. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Cyrus diverted the course of the Euphrates River, making the river level drop and giving the invading forces the ability to enter into the city that night through the river bed. Nobody noticed them coming in, and the city gates that opened up onto the river were not closed; the Persians were able to just walk into town. Within a year, Cyrus declared that all the Jews captive in Babylon were free to return home to Jerusalem, as described in Ezra 1.
These two events – the taking of Babylon the Great without a battle and the magnanimous freeing of the Jews soon after – are both remarkable historical events in themselves. What makes them even more notable is the fact that God told about them in Isaiah 44:26-45:1,13, appointing Cyrus by name 100 years before this son of Cambyses was born!
The Book of Isaiah is one of the most greatly admired and beloved books of the Bible. The New Testament writers quote Isaiah more than all the other Old Testament prophets combined. Isaiah’s book is filled with prophecies about the Messiah (7:14-16; 9:1-7; 11:1-16; 32:1ff; 42:1-7; 50:5-8; 52:13-15; 61:1-3; 65:17), even describing in detail Jesus’ crucifixion 700 years before it happened.
In Isaiah 44 and 45, remember over a 100 years before it happened, God not only describes the ease with which Cyrus would enter the city with the “two leaved gates” (gates that were not even shut against the invaders!) but also notes that He would “loose the loins of kings” before Cyrus – a euphemism regarding the fear these kings would feel and the mess in their pants they’d make as a result. As a matter of fact, about the time Cyrus’ men were entering the city, King Belshazzar was being interrupted in his feast. A hand began to write on the wall to tell Belshazzar that his time was up. Daniel 5:6 puts in not-so-delicate terms how greatly the fear of this sight affected Belshazzar, saying, “his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.” Who says God isn’t detailed!
In circles of modern liberal criticism, though, it has become popular to dismiss the idea, held for some 2,500 years that Isaiah son of Amoz wrote the entire book credited to his name. Old Testament scholars have found it fashionable to argue that there were at least two “Isaiahs”, perhaps even three or more. These critics argue that it makes no sense for God to have foretold events that would not have taken place during the life of the prophet. They attempt to argue that the character of God in Isaiah 1-39 is far fiercer than the gentle God of Isaiah 40-66, that the language is different in the two sections, and that there are two different views of the Messiah between the first part of Isaiah and that written by the alleged Deutero-Isaiah. Ultimately, they do not believe that Isaiah could have written about Cyrus the Great in 700 BC. They cannot believe that the precise information in that prophecy could have been penned 150 years before it came to pass.
These criticisms can sound scholarly on the surface, but they depend far less on evidence than on a bias against predictive prophecy. While these scholars may believe that a bias against the supernatural – and the power of God to speak through His prophets centuries in advance – is scientific in this modern world, the truth is, it’s still a bias. It’s still just their opinion based on a humanistic worldview.
Honest scholarship strongly supports the historical view that Isaiah ben Amoz wrote the entire book with his name on it. Historically, Isaiah has always been recognized as the author of all 66 chapters.
When the Septuagint (OT translated into Greek) was translated in the 3rd century BC, merely two centuries after Deutero-Isaiah was supposed to have been written, there was no indication that the book had more than one author.
The New Testament writers treat the entire book of Isaiah as one book belonging to one author. In fact, in John 12:37-41, John quotes from Isaiah chapter 53 and chapter 6 back to back, giving Isaiah credit for both sections.
An entire copy of the book of Isaiah was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. There is no separation between Chapters 1-39 and 40-66. In fact, chapter 40 starts on the last line of the same column that ends chapter 39. As Oswald Allis notes, “Obviously the scribe was not conscious of the alleged fact that an important change of situation, involving an entire change of authorship, begins with chapter 40.”
Internally, Isaiah offers extensive evidence of one author. Throughout all 66 chapters, Isaiah uses pure Hebrew. Unlike Ezra and Nehemiah, which use terminology adopted from Babylon because they lived there, Isaiah’s Hebrew is free from the vocabulary that the Jews gained during the exile.
The destruction and future healing of Jerusalem are described in chapters 1-39, and Jerusalem is described as still standing in chapters 40-66, demonstrating distant prophecy in the first part of Isaiah and an early date for the end of Isaiah. For instance, in 3:8, Isaiah speaks of Jerusalem as already fallen and destroyed in the context of a prophecy about the future. In 6:11-13, which all agree is a passage by Isaiah son of Amoz, God describes the future destruction of the land followed by the return of the remnant. On the other hand, passages like 40:9 and 62:6 treat Jerusalem and the cities of Judah as still standing, as they were before the Babylonian invasion.
Certain themes and terminology are repeated throughout the book. The “highway” theme comes up repeatedly (11:16; 19:23; 35:8; 40:3; 62:10). Isaiah refers to God as “Lord of hosts” repeatedly throughout the entire book. “The Holy One of Israel” is Isaiah’s distinctive name for God used 12 times in chapters 1-39 and 14 times in chapters 40-66. The phrase is only used six other times in the Bible outside of Isaiah. This can only be explained if one author wrote the book, not two.
Only Isaiah, son of Amoz, is named as the author throughout the book of Isaiah, at the beginnings of chapters 2, 7, 13, 20, 38, and 39. No other author is mentioned at all. Even when Ezra and Nehemiah were bound together, those two books did not get confused and lumped together under Ezra. Yet, “Deutero-Isaiah” was allegedly lost to history. Chapters 40-66 contain some of the highest quality literature in all of written history, yet we are expected to believe that this writer went mysteriously unrecognized until he was “discovered” by recent scholarship.
As Gleason Archer Jr. declared, “There is not a shred of internal evidence to support the theory of a Second Isaiah, apart from a philosophical prejudice against the possibility of predictive prophecy.”
Isaiah is an amazing book, filled with the power and passion of God. In it He declares, “I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:” (Isaiah 46:9-10).
Chuck Missler, March 02, 2010 eNews issue
End Note:
Isaiah reveals the future and it happened exactly as Isaiah wrote. Critics, those who don’t trust the Bible, believe prophecy can’t happen; therefore they must come up with a reason to disprove the book itself. Yet, you have been given many specific pieces of evidence that Isaiah wrote the book that God wanted him to write. And in that book, we see the fingerprints of God – events distant to Isaiah that took place exactly as Isaiah said they would happen.
God knows the future of the Way, the path that you are on. You can take His hand with full confidence that He will never lead you off the path that will eventually lead you home. So go ahead. Dive into the book. Discover what it says on how to “keep in step with the Spirit” and experience God for yourself as you walk with Him in a daily moment by moment way.
Pastor Chris
