Chapter xxxix.—And so the Assyrians were smitten, Sennacherib slain, Jerusalem delivered, and Hezekiah raised up to praise God. What is the sequel ? If ever a man should have redeemed the time ’’ it was Hezekiah ; but here he failed. It is so written, and " written for our instruction.” We have a lease of life. How are we using it ? Glorying in the shadows of the present, or preparing for the substance of the future ? Hezekiah, in the last fifteen years of his life, manifestly to some considerable extent did the former. Merodach Baladan sent letters of congratulation on Hezekiah’s recovery, and a present. ‘‘And Hezekiah was glad of them, and showed them the house of his precious things,” and all his estate. It would appear that he ought to have known the mind of God with regard to Babylon from Isaiah’s ministrations.
At any rate, the comment in 2 Chron. xxxii. 25 is quite severe: “ But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him ; for his heart was lifted up ; therefore there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem. And again, verse 31 : “ Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart. Isaiah s last recorded message to Hezekiah was to say that all that he had showed the Babylonians should be carried away to Babylon; even his own sons also should be eunuchs in the palace of the King of Babylon, which was fulfilled as recorded in Dan. i.
So then, from this concluding episode in the reign of Hezekiah it is evident that if people do not wisely use the life they have, it would be no guarantee that they would do otherwise should God grant them another “ fifteen years.” It was a prayer of Moses which said, “ So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom ” (Ps. xc. 12). We may well appropriate it.
And here, at the end of ch. xxxix., modern criticism, or a certain school of it, would have us believe that we part company with Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, and enter upon a varied compilation of uncertain date and authorship. With the alleged reasons for this we do not propose to concern ourselves, but here set down a few facts from the scriptures that support the contrary and traditional view of the unity of the book.
They are in the form of references to the book by the name “ Isaiah ” in the New Testament writings.
First Jesus himself mentions “ Esaias ” when quoting from ch. xxix., in Matt. xv. 7-9. That, of course, is in what the critics themselves call “ Isaiah.” Next, we are told in Luke iv. 17, that in the synagogue at Nazareth there was delivered to Jesus “ the book of the prophet Esaias ” ; and that he read therefrom a portion of chapter lxi. This is from the portion which the critics call “ II. Isaiah,” without any good reason in the world. Then, again, we have the following quotations, made by Matthew, Luke, and John, all of whom name “ Isaiah,” the portion quoted being ch. xl. 3 : “ The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness ” (see Matt. iii. 3 ; Luke iii. 4 : Jno. i. 23). This, to an unsophisticated mind, appears fatal to the learned speculations current.
Chapter xlii. 1, “ Behold my servant," is expressly attributed to “ Esaias the prophet ” in Matt. xii. 17, 18.
Chapter liii., “ Himself took our infirmities,” is said to have been “spoken by Esaias the prophet” (Matt. viii. 17). And “ Who hath believed our report ? ” (liii. 1) is likewise, both by John and Paul (John xii. 38 ; Rom. x. 16), described as “ the saying of Esaias.” And Luke, in Acts viii. 32, records how the Ethiopian eunuch read this same ch. liii. in “ the prophet Esaias.”
Chapter lxv. 1, “ I am sought of them that asked not for me/’ is, by Paul, in Rom. x. 20, described as a “ very bold ” utterance of “ Esaias.”
Thus, the words of these inspired men of God convince us that the latter part of the prophet is as much “ Esaias ” as the former, all that the "higher critics” can say to the contrary notwithstanding.
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