Anxious for Nothing by Max Lucado

In the early chapters of Anxious for Nothing, pastor and author Max Lucado describes the kind of harried, distracted anxiety that people suffer in modern life. Many are depressed by troubling things going on all around that repeat all day on newscasts.

Honestly, that is not the reason I picked up the book. I did not have a particularly gloomy outlook. Nor was I consciously worked up about much. I was driving by an amygdala-induced fear that I didn’t understand. Even so, I read the rest of the book.

Anxious for Nothing is an extended sermon, taking its main text as Philippians 4:4-8. The Main points for the acronym CALM:

-celebrate God’s goodness,

-ask God for help,

-leave your concerns with Him and

-meditate on good things.

“Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and mind ins Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:4-8 (NKJV)

For Christians, there is plenty of good to be found in God that can allay our fears. God is in control. He has demonstrated His love and mercy toward us in Christ. He has a good plan for us and He is able to carry it out.

God hears our prayers for help. He invites us to ask for what we want. His own love for us motivates Him to answer our prayers; though sometimes He has better things in mind for us than we might imagine. We can rely on His promises, which He encourages us to rehearse, though He never forgets them.

Because we can rely on God, we can stop worrying. We can let things go. We can remind ourselves of all the way God has already helped us an rest in peace.

Finally, we can choose what we think about. Instead of worrying, we can abide in Christ. We can dwell on what God has done for us and what He has promised, and we can take courage.

Max Lucado also wrote

It's Not About Me

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Philippians

Rewire Your Anxious Brain by Catherine M. Pittman & Elizabeth M. Karle

The Solution by Lucinda Bassett

Lucado, Max. Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2017.

Nearing Home by Billy Graham

In his 90s evangelist Billy Graham wrote about the challenges of aging in Nearing Home. The title is a reference to approaching death and to looking forward to being with God and loved ones who are already with Him in heaven.

That thread runs through the book, Graham’s focus is on living as an old person in this time and this world. Old age can and should be a time of purposeful living as much as any other stage of life. This is because of as much as in spite of the difficulties.

Graham did not shy away from the difficulties of aging. Our bodies lose strength. Our memories weaken. Ache, pains and illnesses beset us. More friends and family we have loved a long time pass away.

Graham encouraged his readers to prepare for aging and death some of this is practical advice for handling affairs in this world. Get your finances in order. Put documents together so your wishes will be know and followed if you are incapacitated. Wisely consider when to retire and what it will mean to leave the work world you are accustomed to for something new, though possibly even more meaningful.

Don’t let old age slip up on you. In addition to preparing for worldly concerns, it is especially important to lay a good foundation in Christ. As Graham put it, “God designs transitions and provides the grace to embrace what follows.”

Older people have important parts to play. Retirement can give you the time to be engaged in your family, church and community in a way you could not have pursued while working full time. You can encourage other because you remember many times when God has demonstrated His love, faithfulness and power in your life. You can set an example of aging with dignity and grace, even if it seems like no one is paying attention.

As I wrote this review of Nearing Home, I heard of the passing of Delores O’Riordan. In enjoyed the music of her band, The Cranberries, at the peak of their popularity about 20 years ago. I was young; I had little money and few responsibilities in those days. I should have enjoyed them more than I did. O’Riordan died at the age of 46; we were the same age. That is too young to die in my opinion.

At any age, we may be nearer to death than we know, for the Christian nearer home. Even if we are still young, or see ourselves as young, it is wise to consider that an in to this life is coming, and many years of aging may come before it. We should consider how to be ready for aging and death and how to leave a legacy, a good example, we will want to leave.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Don’t Grow Old—Grow Up! by Dorothy Carnegie

The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis

Graham, Billy. Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2011.

The Holy Bible

It is hard to do the Bible justice in a few pages. In this review, I’ll only attempt to provide an outline. In particular I’ll discuss

-the major themes of the book,

-its major division, and

-the types of literature you’ll find in it.

THEMES

The primary theme of the Bible is the relationship between God and man. It’s a broken relationship. The authors of the various books address this in many ways. A couple of metaphors they use that I find particularly compelling are that of a marriage or a parent-child relationship. In these analogies, mankind is depicted as a cheating wife or a child who has run away to a destructive life. God is depicted as the faithful, loving husband or father who is reaching out to redeem, rescue and reconcile the one he loves.

God’s character is on display throughout the Bible. He is just and righteous, and his character is the foundation of morality. He also has great love and mercy. Fortunately, all of these traits are perfectly harmonized in God and shown to man in Jesus Christ. For those who have faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit works from within to recreate this character in them.

DIVISIONS

The major divisions of the Bible are the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament was written before the coming of Christ. It describes the fall of mankind into sin and God’s work to reconcile mankind to Himself with a focus on how this occurs in the formation (and eventual fall) of ancient Israel. The New Testament describes the coming of Christ and the establishment of the church, which is a fulfillment of the promises of God described in the Old Testament.

The major division of the Old Testament are

-history,

-writings, and

-prophets.

The historical books describe the history of man as a moral being, beginning with the fall into sin, and the God’s plan to save man worked out over time. As this plan unfolds, the history increasingly focuses on the Israelite kingdom. The writing are a set of poetic books. The prophets focus on a period of time leading to the ultimate decline of ancient Israel and predict the coming for Christ.

The New Testament can be roughly divided into

-the gospels, and

-the epistles.

The gospels describe the life of Christ and (in the related book of Acts) the establishment of the church. The epistles are message to the church that often deal with the practicalities of living the life Christ called his believers to live.

TYPES OF LITERATURE

The Bible is an assembly of many books, and there are many types of literature in each book. While the highly symbolic language of parts of the Bible get a lot of attention in some circles, most of it is written in a straightforward style. For instance, a lot of the Old Testament is historical narrative and a lot of the New Testament is letters from the apostles to the churches. Poetry is also commonly used. When reading the Bible, it’s important to know if the part your reading is a narration of events, a parable, a poem, or some other literary form.

The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Zechariah

Zechariah was a contemporary of Haggai and preached during the rebuilding of the temple. His message is one of encouragement. The nations that once oppressed Israel were broken, and though they were still under foreign rule, the king, Darius, was favorably disposed towards the Jewish people and supported the reconstruction of Jerusalem and the temple. Though they had the protection of Darius, God asserted that He was their true protector and He would overcome their enemies.

His visions predicted the coming of Christ. The Branch of David would remove the sins of the people (though Zechariah also warns of judgment for the unrepentant). The governor, and grandson of the Israelite king Jehoiachin who was carried off in the captivity, Zerubabbel was rebuilding the temple, but his descendant would rebuild a more excellent temple (the church). In addition to taking the role of a king, this descendant would become the high priest. Some of his visions of Christ were very specific: he would be killed, his hands would be pierced and he would be betrayed.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Haggai

Isaiah

Jeremiah

John

Mark

Matthew

Nehemiah

Revelation

Malachi. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Malachi

Malachi appears last in the Old Testament and is chronologically toward the end of the period, the prophet possibly being a contemporary of Ezra and Nehemiah. By this time, the Jewish people had been back in Israel for some time and they were losing their zeal for God.

Malachi called out the people on many of the ways they neglected God and their calling to be His people. They offered substandard sacrifices. They married foreigners who worshipped false gods. They refused to tithe. They were envious of other nations. Even the priests were complicit in the sins of the people.

He warned of a judgment coming. There was hope for the faithful; their always is for those who trust God.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Ezra

Luke

Matthew

Nehemiah

Romans

Malachi. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Obadiah

While many of the Old Testament prophets address nations other than Israel and Judah to some extent, Obadiah is somewhat unique in that his recorded prophecies are all directed at a foreign power: Edom. The Edomites were descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob. The tension between the brothers continued and worsened through the generations.

Obadiah delivers an indictment against Edom because of its haughtiness and the way it gloated over the fall and hardship of Israel. Rather than seeking peace with their neighbors, ostensibly their long distant cousins, they were belligerent and delighted in Israel’s subjugation to foreigners.

The judgment of Edom would come in the form of its own fall and eventual obliteration as a nation. The territory of Edom would be possessed by Israelites returning from captivity.

Obadiah. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Nahum

Nahum, like Jonah, was a messenger of God to Nineveh. More than a century before Nahum’s mission, the people of Nineveh repented of wickedness and received mercy from God after the warning of Jonah. Nahum came to the powerful Assyrian capital with a similar message, but this time God’s wrath would not be turned away.

Nahum graphically describes the fall of Nineveh. About two decades later, the Babylonians and Medes took the city in a siege and destroyed it. It eventually fell into complete ruin.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Jonah

Nahum. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Micah

Micah was a prophet during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. He witnessed the fall of the king and nation into apostasy during the reign of Ahaz and a return to godliness under Hezekiah. During his life the northern kingdom, Israel, was overtaken by the Assyrians.

The majority of Micah’s prophecies can be divided into two categories. Some are indictments of the rulers and people of Israel and Judah. The rulers were selfish and cruel. They oppressed the people. They weren’t alone in evildoing. Idolatry, ingratitude, lying and violence were widespread. He predicts that this will lead to the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of Babylon.

In contrast to these visions, Micah foresaw a time when God would reign over His faithful people. Peace, prosperity and joy will be the state of all peoples as God pours his blessings on mankind.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Hosea

Isaiah

Second Chronicles

Second Kings

Micah. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Jonah

Jonah is possibly the most known prophets of the Bible, aside from Moses, because of the oft-retold story a huge sea creature swallowing him. Like Obadiah, the message God delivered through Jonah was not for Israel, but for a foreign place. In Jonah’s case, it was Nineveh, the capital of the rising Assyrian Empire.

Assyria was a rival of Israel—eventually its empire would include the northern kingdom—so Jonah was reluctant to go when God told him to head to Nineveh. Jonah headed the opposite direction, took to see, his ship was nearly lost in a storm, he was tossed overboard and swallowed. He finally gave up and the sea creature spit him out on the shore.

Jonah was a whiner. He whined about God calling to him to a place he didn’t want to go and a people he didn’t like. When the hearts of the citizens of Nineveh were changed and God showed mercy to them, he complained that this was the reason he didn’t want to go—he knew God would show mercy to a repentant people and Jonah would have preferred that they perish.

Jonah is a lot like us: disobedient, petty, vindictive, whiney, selfish. God used him anyway, triumphantly in spite of Jonah’s bad attitude. God has mercy on the repentant sinners and rebukes the haughty prophet who is supposed to be a holy man.

I recommend reading Jonah if you haven’t gotten to it. It says a lot about the character of God and men. It is an interesting short story, too. The “whale” isn’t even the most interesting part of it.

Jonah. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Habakkuk

Habakkuk was a prophet before the fall of Israel to Babylon (Chaldea). He foresees that the Babylonians will one day overtake his nation.

The first part book is structured somewhat like a Q&A. Habakkuk questions how God can allow wicked people to do so much evil in the world. Where is justice and righteousness? God answers that He will bring justice in His own time and ways. In the case of Israel, it will come at the hands of the Chaldeans. In the case of the even more wicked Chaldeans, they would fall to powerful enemies.

The latter part of the book is a long prayer of mourning over what Habakkuk sees will happen. In the end, the prophet expresses his faith in God and trusts the Lord to strengthen him and carry him through the days to come.

Habakkuk. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Ezekiel

Ezekiel was a prophet to the Israelites who were captives to Babylon. He was a contemporary of Jeremiah, who was a prophet to the people left behind in Jerusalem.

When Ezekiel was taken into captivity, the Babylonians had not yet destroyed Jerusalem. His early prophesies related to the imminent fall of Jerusalem and the horrors of the sieges that would lead to it. His visions made clear that the destruction of Jerusalem was a judgment on the immorality of the people, especially the variety of idol worship they practiced even in the temple.

Nebachudnezzar, the Babylonian emperor, extend his reach far beyond Israel and Judah. Ezekiel warned that other nations would fall to Babylon. Some of these were comparatively weak such as Ammon, Moab, Edom and Philistia. Others were powerful: Tyre and Egypt.

Ezekiel also saw that the captivity had a limit. The Israelite would return to their homeland. In particular, God was preserving and protecting those who were faithful to Him.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested it

Daniel

Jeremiah

Second Chronicles

Second Kings

Ezekiel. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Joel

Joel, like many prophets of the Old Testament, called the people of Israel to repentance. He warned his people of the possibility of judgment for their unfaithfulness, and some see in his words a prediction of the ultimate day of judgment.

He draws on recent events to provide an image to underscore his message. The analogy is to locusts, and outbreak of which had stripped the land of anything green and caused a famine. God’s judgment would be similar: sudden, swift, devastating and unstoppable.

A judgment of this type will eventually be applied to all people. Unfortunately, a lot of people will be taken by surprise. In the time of Joel, God preserved a remnant of the people to survive, and they turned their hearts to Him. In a similar manner, God has called out to people throughout history, and in our age the Gospel is a message of His salvation to all who will accept Christ.

Joel. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Hosea

Hosea was a prophet in Israel during the reign of the second Jeroboam. Hosea was an unusual prophet. He spoke the words God gave him, but that was just the start. His life, particularly his marriage, became a model and symbol of the relationship between God and Israel at the time.

Hosea married a woman named Gomer. She committed adultery. The prophet was heartbroken. I’m convinced that Hosea genuinely and deeply loved Gomer, and that her unfaithfulness hurt him badly.

This is the poignancy of the book. We can see how Hosea loves his wife, even when she is cheating on him. This is compared with God and the people of Israel. They worshipped idols and made alliances with foreign nations. They engaged in all manner of immoral behavior. Even the priests who were called to live set apart and serve God and the people committed all the same immoral acts as the rest of the populace.

Hosea had children with Gomer. He gave them names forecasting God’s judgment on the nation. Jezreel was named for a battlefield, and his name indicated God’s impending retribution. Lo-ruhamah means “no mercy” and Lo-ammi means “no longer my people.” Israel experienced the fulfillment of this judgement when it fell to the Babylonian empire.

After a time, Hosea reconciled Gomer to himself. This foreshadowed the time when God would restore Israel. The Babylonian occupation would create an Israelite diaspora that would last 70 years, after which the people were permitted to return to their homeland.

Hosea would have been a contemporary of Amos, Isaiah and Micah.

Hosea. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Daniel

Daniel was a prophet during the Babylonian captivity. He was carried to Babylon as a youth and eventually rose to high office in the courts of Nebachudnezzar and other rulers.

When the Babylonians occupied Israel and Judah, they carried forcibly resettled the aristocratic, wealthy and others they deemed valuable. Daniel was among these. He was brought to Babylon and trained to serve in the court of the king.

Daniel rose to prominence early on. He had a passion to serve God. He showed this by asking to be fed a diet of vegetables rather that the food from the kings table. This was probably food from sacrifices to Babylonian gods (though it may have just not been kosher). He must have been persuasive, for he prevailed. Because he and his friends were very healthy on this diet, he gained a reputation for wisdom.

His reputation grew when God began to show him interpretations of Nebachudnezzar’s dreams. In one of these dreams, Daniel saw the rise and fall of empires from the Babylonians to the time of Christ (the Roman Empire with the Persian and Greek empires in between). Much of his prophecies deal with the kingdoms to come from his own time to the first coming of Christ and the fate of Israel in that time.

The most famous story of Daniel is his survival of a night in the lion’s den. He was cast into it as a form of capital punishment for his devotion to God. This book also contains the story of Daniel’s friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego who were cast into the fire of a hot furnace for refusing to worship and idol, a statue in the image of Nebachunezzar. God brought them through unharmed.

Daniel is also mentioned in the book of Ezekiel.

Daniel. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Amos

Amos was a shepherd in Judah who God called to deliver a message to his nation, its sister nation Israel and the surrounding countries. His tenure as a prophet occurred during the reigns of Uzziah in Judah and Jeroboam in Israel. His message had three components: an indictment of the nations for their sins, a warning of the oppression to come from occupying nations and a hopeful vision of the kingdom to come.

Amos warned the people, and particularly called out the leaders of the nations, that God saw their sins and He would not tolerate them forever. In particular, greed was rampant. People used dishonesty and force to gain wealth, especially to exploit those who were already poor. The leaders of the nations were complicit and expanded their own wealth by these means.

The luxurious lifestyles of these aristocrats was not to last. Amos warned them of the judgment to come in the form of subjugation to a foreign empire. That empire would be Babylon.

Like many of his contemporaries, Amos had a vision of a future restoration. Israel would be restored to nationhood for a while after the end of its occupation by Babylon (and later Persia), but these prophetic visions also extended the unending kingdom of Christ.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Isaiah

Second Chronicles

Amos. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Jeremiah

Jeremiah was a prophet in Judah in the last days of the kingdom leading up to its fall to Babylon. While many were carried into captivity, Jeremiah continued as a prophet to those who remained. He lived from the reigns of Josiah through Zedekiah.

Like other prophets, Jeremiah called the people to return to God during a time of apostasy and moral decay. He predicted the rise of Nebuchadnezzer and his expansion of the Babylonian empire into Israel and the destruction of Jerusalem. The Babylonian occupation was presented as a judgment against Israel for their wickedness and unfaithfulness. Jeremiah predicted that Babylon would conquer many nations, and he lived to see it.

This did not make Jeremiah popular. False prophets preached that Judah would thrive and that Jerusalem would survive the Babylonian siege. Jeremiah repeatedly refuted them and preached the words of warning God had given to him. He was repeatedly imprisoned and threatened for his trouble.

Even in the midst of judgment, Jeremiah had a message of hope. God’s plan was for the captivity to be limited to 70 years, after which He would restore Jerusalem. He predicted the fall of Babylon, which would succumb to judgment for its own wicked ways.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Hebrews

Second Chronicles

Second Kings

Jeremiah. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Song of Solomon

What is an erotic poem doing in the middle of the Bible? The Song of Solomon, or Song of Songs, is a beautiful poem, but some find it hard to reconcile with the more solemn books on either side of it (in most editions, it is between Ecclesiastes and Isaiah).

The poem celebrates the courtship, marriage and continuing union of a couple.  This couple is the King, referred to as the Beloved (Solomon), and the Shulamite, one of his favorite wives. In much of the poem, the Beloved and the Shulamite express their love for each other and the delight they experience in being loved by each other.

Though it is masked in metaphor, there is clearly physical attraction and pleasure in the relationship. The Shulamite compares her husband to a feast, and she is deeply satisfied (maybe pleasantly drunk) from enjoying him. The Beloved compares his wife to a beautiful garden, and he wants to smell every flower and taste every fruit.

Some have taken the entire book to be a metaphor for something else. It has been read at Passover by Jews, who see it as a reference to the God (the King) initiation relationship (marriage) to Israel (the humble and lowly Shulamite). Christian scholars have often taken it as a metaphor of the relationship between Christ and the church, which is often referred to as the bride of Christ in the New Testament.

These ideas no doubt have merit, but I would not want to lose the more straightforward story of the song. Marriage can be full of passion and pleasure. A committed couple can find ways to make that passion last and continue to enjoy each other. God created marriage, and I think He wants husbands and wives to enjoy each other in many way, including sex.

The poem has multiple narrators and take place in multiple settings. In addition to the Beloved and the Shulamite, we here from the ladies of the court, the Shulamites’ brothers, and other possible guests of a wedding feast or similar event. The original text does not readily identify shifts in speaker or setting except through internal clues, such as changes in pronouns. Many editions of the Bible including notes or headers to make understanding the poem easier, but these are the addition of editors.

Song of Solomon. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Ecclesiastes

Solomon’s reflections on his life, Ecclesiastes, are surprisingly dark.  We might be surprised that such an accomplished, wealthy, and famous man might experience such emptiness and disappointment.

After all, his list of achievements is long. He built the temple to God his father, David, had longed to build. He had incredible wisdom that brought him widespread fame. His reign was a time of unusual peace when foreign nations paid tribute to Israel. He had the opportunity and means to indulge every pleasure, curiosity and whim.

When he measure this against the scale of eternity, he found all these accomplishments, all the things he learned, built and experienced, to be worthless. “Vanity” is the word you’ll find repeated in most translations. The wealth amassed over a lifetime passes on to others. Great structures crumble; if they last centuries, their builders are forgotten. Pleasures are fleeting. We all die, and what we do isn’t worth much. Solomon is frank about his disappointment and frustration, “All is vanity.”

How can someone live in such a world? God made the world, and His creation is not devoid of good. In the later chapters of the book, Solomon encourages people to fear God, do their best, and enjoy the simple pleasures of life. He looks around and finds people who eat and drink, enjoy their families, and work hard at something productive. He sees that it is good. It may not last, but it is still good, and people should enjoy life.

Between the lamentations of the early chapters and the conclusion, there is a collection of proverbs. Wisdom is valuable. A wise person will do more good, enjoy more and better pleasure, and avoid a lot of pain.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

First Chronicles

Second Chronicles

First Kings

Proverbs

Psalms

Ecclesiastes. The Holy Bible. New King James Verson. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Psalms

Psalms is a collection of songs. Many of the songs are attributed to the poet and king David. Others are attributed to Asaph, the sons of Korah, Solomon and even Moses. Many are anonymous.

The songs were meant to be sung, and sometimes they contain annotations suggesting a certain style, tune or instruments. I find that sometimes the structure or words of a psalm suggest that it was probably intended for a soloist, a chorus, or a call and response.

Many of the psalms, especially those attributed to David, deal with the faithfulness of God and the blessed life of those who trust Him. Other psalms suggest that David encouraged, and probably enjoyed, corporate singing of praise to God. David is particularly honest in his prayer-like psalms, and is not afraid to express his anger, disappointment and fear. Even in these moments, he is grateful for God’s mercy.

Several psalms have a messianic message, foreseeing and describing Christ before His coming. Jesus even suggests that these psalms refer to Him, along with other Old Testament scripture (see Luke 24:44).

Other songs were written for, or have become associated with, certain ceremonies. The Hallel psalms (113-118) are sung as part of the Passover celebration. The Songs of Ascent (120-134) are associated with pilgrimages to Jerusalem.

You will find there is a psalm that resonates with almost any emotion, mood or experience. Though the music of these songs is lost to most of us, they still invite us to explore our thoughts and experience, reflect, pray, and connect to a God who cares, who’s mercy is at hand. Even the structure of much of this Hebrew poetry, in which ideas are repeated, compare and contrasted, invites one into meditation.

Psalms. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Isaiah

Isaiah was a prophet in Judah during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. He was active during the Assyrian occupation of Israel, sometime around 745 to 695 B.C. In particular, he advised Hezekiah, who is known for tearing down idols permitted by previous kings and for turning back the advances of Assyrian King Sennacherib.

Like many prophets, much of Isaiah’s message is a call to repentance and return to God. This call was heightened by the Assyrian takeover of Israel, the northern sister kingdom to Judah. Isaiah’s prophecies, and the interpretation of the writers of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, is that the fall of Israel was due to its abandonment of God and embrace of idolatry and other sins. If Judah wanted to avoid that fate, it would need to return to God.

Isaiah had a long career as a prophet, so his writings address many events of his day. These were generally threats of foreign aggression against Judah, particularly from Assyria and its allies. He also warned against alliances with Egypt because if its instability. He predicts the eventual fall of Jerusalem and it rebuilding under another empire.

He is also known for prophecies of the Messiah. These texts are often intermingled with texts referring at one moment the nation of Israel as God’s servant and next to the coming Messiah in the same terms.  It’s necessary to read these passages in the context of the surrounding text to sort out when Isaiah is referring to which entity. Both Matthew and John refer to Isaiah in their gospels.

Note that much of Isaiah is written in the form of poems or songs. Sometimes he is speaking very directly to a particular nation or person about specific issues or events that are present or predicted. At other times, nations or peoples may be stand-ins for concepts or other future peoples with similar roles or viewpoints. Much of this can be sorted out by careful reading of the text and by reference to the historical books of the Old Testament.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Ezra

Nehemiah

Second Chronicles

Second Kings

Isaiah. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.