Week 27 Isaiah
Even though my reading schedule is in pretty good shape I hurried through Isaiah 1-6 today. The sixth chapter is Isaiah’s vision-experience of the Lord.
I think if I was editing Isaiah I’d put that vision story in chapter one right at the beginning. The book opens: the vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah.
If it was me I’d go directly from that verse into Isaiah’s vision and the commission he got from the Lord: in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted…
I did a quick scan through the rest of the prophets to see what happened with them…
Jeremiah’s commission comes in chapter one.
Ezekiel has a spectacular and mind-boggling vision in chapter one and he’s commissioned in chapter two.
Hosea Joel Jonah Micah Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah & Malachi all open with the phrase ‘the word of the Lord came to…’ They all move straight into their assignments.
And oracles or visions open the books of Obadiah Nahum Habakkuk & Malachi.
All of those things happened right away. So I wonder why Isaiah waits ‘til chapter six.
But I realize it’s not something to get jammed-up about so I don’t over-think it. There’s more than 100 other verses between 1:1 & 6:1 and reading through them today I thought quite a few were pretty instructive.
Note: quotes from Isaiah 1:1 6:1 (NIV)