Psalms 90:12 - Meaning and Application

An Exposition, With Practical Observations, of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah

A prophet is a title that sounds very great to those who understand it, even if the world often saw such men as very lowly. A prophet is someone who has close fellowship with heaven and a strong standing there, and so he has real authority on earth. In Scripture, prophecy stands for all divine revelation (2 Peter 1:20-21), because God usually gave it through dreams, voices, or visions, first to prophets and then through them to other people, as in Numbers 12:6.

At Mount Sinai, God did speak directly to all Israel. But the experience was so overwhelming that the people asked God to speak to them in the future through men like themselves, so his terror would not frighten them and his hand would not be heavy on them (Job 33:7). God approved their request, saying they had spoken well (Deuteronomy 5:27-28). From then on, it was settled that we should not expect God to speak that way again, but through prophets who received their message directly from him and were charged to pass it on to the church.

Before the Old Testament Scriptures were written down, prophets were, in a sense, the Bible for the church. Jesus seems to count Abel among the prophets (Matthew 23:31, 35). Enoch was a prophet, and through him came one of the earliest predictions of what will be last in fulfillment, the judgment of the great day (Jude 14). Noah was a preacher of righteousness. God said of Abraham, “He is a prophet” (Genesis 20:7), and Jacob foretold future things (Genesis 49:1). In fact, all the patriarchs are called prophets (Psalm 105:15).

Moses was beyond comparison the most glorious of all the Old Testament prophets, because the Lord spoke with him face to face (Deuteronomy 34:10). He was the first writing prophet, and through him the first foundations of Scripture were laid. Even the men who helped him govern had the spirit of prophecy, because God poured out that gift so generously at that time (Numbers 11:25).

After Moses died, for several generations the Spirit of the Lord seemed to work in Israel more like a spirit for battle than a spirit for prophecy. That was especially true in the time of the judges. The Spirit came upon Othniel, Gideon, Samson, and others for their nation’s defense, with swords rather than pens. Messages from heaven were then sent by angels, as to Gideon and Manoah, and to the people (Judges 2:1). In the whole book of Judges, no prophet is mentioned except Deborah, who is called a prophetess. Then the word of the Lord was rare, and there was no open vision (1 Samuel 3:1). They already had Moses’ law, recently written, so they were meant to study that.

Prophecy revived in Samuel, and with him began a great new era in the church, a time of much light and an unbroken line of prophets until some time after the exile. The Old Testament canon was completed in Malachi, and then prophecy stopped for nearly 400 years, until the coming of the great Prophet and his forerunner, John the Baptist. Some prophets were inspired to write the history of the church, but they did not sign their names to those writings. Instead, they pointed to reliable records of those times, known to have been written by prophets such as Gad and Iddo.

David and others were prophets in order to write sacred songs for the church’s use. After them, we often read of prophets sent on special errands and raised up for particular public service. The most famous were Elijah and Elisha in the northern kingdom of Israel. None of these put their prophecies into writing, so we have only fragments of them in the histories of their times. As far as I remember, the only thing written directly by Elijah was one letter (2 Chronicles 21:12).

Toward the end of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, God was pleased to have his servants the prophets write and publish some of their sermons, or summaries of them. The dates of many of their prophecies are uncertain, but the earliest seem to come from the days of Uzziah king of Judah and Jeroboam II, his contemporary king of Israel, about 200 years before the exile, and not long after Joash had killed Zechariah son of Jehoiada in the temple courts. If people begin killing the prophets, they cannot kill their prophecies. Those words will remain as witnesses against them.

Hosea was the first of the writing prophets. Joel, Amos, and Obadiah published their prophecies around the same time. Isaiah began a little later. His prophecy comes first because it is the longest of them all, and because it contains more about Christ than any of the others. For that reason, he is rightly called the Evangelical Prophet, and by some of the early church fathers, a fifth Evangelist. We will have the general title of this book (Isaiah 1:1), so here we only note a few things.

1. About the prophet himself. If the Jewish tradition is true, Isaiah came from the royal family, and his father was, they say, the brother of King Uzziah. He was certainly much at court, especially in Hezekiah’s time, as his history shows. Many think this is why his style is more polished than that of some other prophets, and in some places very high and lofty.

2. The Spirit of God sometimes used the prophet’s own gifts to serve his purpose. Prophets were not like speaking trumpets with no voice of their own. They were speaking men through whom the Spirit spoke. God made use of their natural abilities, both in insight and in zeal, and raised them above what they were by nature.

2. This prophecy is of very great worth and use. It helped the church of God in Isaiah’s day by exposing sin, guiding duty, and comforting people in trouble. It also speaks to two major crises in the church’s history, the Assyrian attack under Sennacherib, which happened in Isaiah’s own time, and the Babylonian captivity, which came much later. In the promises and support given for both times of need, we see much of the grace of the gospel.

This book is quoted more often in the Gospels than almost any other Old Testament prophecy, perhaps more than all the rest combined. It gives clear testimonies about Christ, such as his birth from a virgin (chapter 7) and his sufferings (Isaiah 53:1-12). The first part of the book is filled mostly with rebukes for sin and warnings of judgment, while the later part is full of gracious and comforting words. The Holy Spirit, through the prophets, used this same pattern before and still does now, first convicting and then comforting. Those who want the comfort must first accept the conviction.

Isaiah likely preached many sermons and delivered many messages that are not recorded here, just as Christ did. The sermons may have been spoken more fully than the book reports them, but God has preserved exactly what his wise purpose wanted us to have. We live near the close of history, and these prophecies, like the accounts of Christ, were written so we might believe in the Son of God and, by believing, have life through his name. The gospel is preached here to us as truly as it was to those who first heard it, and even more clearly. May it be joined with faith!