A month or so ago, I came to Isaiah in the normal course of reading through my Bible. Confession: in the past when I have read Isaiah, I mostly zoned out because I had this idea that since it was prophecy, I wouldn’t be able to understand most of it, anyway.
But this time through, I wanted the experience to be different. I wanted to actually pay attention to what I was reading.
So I sat down with my Bible, a pen, and a journal and started in. I took notes as I went so that I would have to pay attention, and what I quickly discovered was that Isaiah is an amazing book—amazingly beautiful because it’s mostly God sharing His heart through poetry.
As a lover of poetry, I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to discover this treasury by the Creator of poetry Himself. The whole book is rich in literary devices—imagery, parallelism, metaphors, similes, etc. But what is even more striking to me is the message of the poetry. Here in Isaiah, we find our God using poetry to express His feelings and thoughts, plans and desires. Knowing His heart is the greatest treasure.
For anyone who has ever longed to obey the greatest commandment–to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5, Mark 12:30), Isaiah is a must-study. Why? Because in order to love God well, we have to know who He is, and Isaiah is like an open window straight into the heart of God. Being able to see who He is will first mesmerize us with His beauty and secondly motivate us to action. A great example of this is Isaiah himself who in chapter 6 sees the Lord in His glory and immediately realizes his own sinfulness and, upon forgiveness, offers himself to the Lord’s service. As we see God’s character in the book of Isaiah, we too can be moved to repentance, awe, and loving surrender.
Gratefully His 