Isaiah~ A prophet during hard times

We see the picture of Isaiah on the wall before you. Let us look at his life to see why he is in the great hall of faith.

Isaiah was the son of Amoz. Was called in a time when Judah had fallen away from God and were living spiritually evil lives. We see this in Isaiah 6, when he says, "Woe is me! I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips and dwell in the mist of a people with unclean lips." He was called to try to help God's people to see sin as God saw it & to repent & turn away from it. Then live lives that would be pleasing to God. It was not an easy task since the people had grown use to a sinful life. So Isaiah had a rough task to fulfill.

Isaiah also was called at a time when God's people were living through the curses that Moses had warn them that they would endure if they did not obey God's commandments (Ex. 20:1-17; Duet. 11:26-28).  Isaiah's job was to remind them of God's promise of the curses if they disobeyed, while reassuring them of God love & blessings that they would receive if they were to repent & turn back to God. This is not an easy task to do when people who run on emotion are hurting so badly. In fact, these people had been known to kill prophets for saying such things and was still doing so in Isaiah's time. Especially during the reign of Ahab when his wife, Jezebel was having many of God's prophets killed so that they would worship her god, Baal. . So Isaiah had to have had a lot of faith in God to stand his ground and proclaim such harsh things to these people. Because of Isaiah's faithfulness and obedience, God had him serve as a prophet for forty years under Kings Jotham, Ahab, and Hezekiah.

Because of Isaiah's close relationship with God, God shared many thing with him such as, a look at their sad spiritual state at that point, God's great love for His people, & the wonderful future that God had planned for them. We see this in the many times God spoke to him & showed him visions.

Isaiah was such a great prophet that he is in many places in the Bible. If you wish to further study this man you can read more about him in the following places...2 Kings 19:2; 20:1; 2 Chron. 26:22; Mat.3:3; 4:14; book of Isaiah.