In Biblical Theology, the theologian Geerhardus Vos distinguishes between what he calls “act-revelation” and “word-revelation.” What he means by this is that God reveals Himself to His people in two ways. The first way is through the “facts of history” or certain events in which God performs actions in history that further His great plan of redemption, which He has been working out since the moment Adam and Eve sinned in the garden. The easiest way to understand these “act-revelations” is to consider the most significant one—the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. This is an actual event that occurred in history—at a particular moment, a man named Jesus was crucified on a cross and then, three days later, rose from the dead. This is one of the distinguishing features of the Christian religion—it is not merely a philosophy of life or a collection of stories about the gods, but it has to do with concrete, historical events. This is why, as we have been working our way through the book of Isaiah, I have always been careful to ensure that, although Isaiah’s writings are poetic and full of figurative language, his prophecies always refer to actual things that God is going to do in history.
Vos goes on to say that “such act-revelations are never entirely left to speak for themselves; they are always preceded and followed by word-revelation. The usual order is: first word, then the fact, then again the interpretive word.” In fact, Vos states that the whole of the Bible can be understood according to this pattern: “The Old Testament brings the predictive preparatory word, the Gospels record the redemptive-revelatory fact, [and] the Epistles supply the subsequent, final interpretation.” Vos is not an easy theologian to read, but the essence of what he is saying here is that whenever God acts in history, He always prepares His people by predicting what He is going to do, and then, after He acts, He explains what has just happened.
In Isaiah 46 and 47, we see an example of how this works. The plan of redemption is easy for us to trace through the Bible with the benefit of hindsight. It begins with the creation of a people, the descendants of Abraham, in the book of Genesis. Then, in Exodus–Joshua, God liberates His people from Egyptian slavery and makes them into a nation, securing for them an inheritance in the Promised Land. In 1 Samuel, He establishes that nation as a kingdom. He preserves that kingdom in the midst of hostile nations for generations until He disciplines them by removing the kingdom from them and sending them into exile. Finally, He restores them from exile in preparation for the bringing forth of the Messiah, whose death and resurrection bring the plan of redemption to its climax. The final act of redemption still lies before us as we await the return of Christ, the day of judgment, and the restoration of the earth as the eternal home for His people.
Of course, for the people of God who were in the midst of these great actions of redemption, this plan was not clear at all. This is because God revealed the plan to His people not all at once but gradually over the course of centuries. Events that seem clear in hindsight were not obvious to the people undergoing them. This is why God sent the prophets in the years leading up to and following the exile—to prepare His people for it, explain its purpose, and reveal its outcome.
The Exile that occurred in 586 BC demanded explanation. And in these chapters, that is what Isaiah is providing. Some of what he speaks of are the actual historical events that will occur, which he describes with a high degree of accuracy, though always in the figurative language of Hebrew poetry. He first predicts the Babylonian ascendancy that would follow the sudden dissolution of the Assyrian Empire in the last few decades of the 7th century BC (about 60 or so years after Isaiah was writing). In Isaiah 39, Babylonian envoys visit Hezekiah after his recovery from an illness. The envoys are friendly (at that time, Babylon and Judah were two centers of resistance against the Assyrians), but Isaiah tells Hezekiah that in the future, all the wealth of Jerusalem will be carried off to Babylon and some of his own descendants from the royal house of David will become eunuchs in the palace of the Babylonian king. This is indeed what happens.
But Isaiah does not only predict the coming Neo-Babylonian Empire (called that by historians to distinguish it from the older Babylonian Empire of around 1300 years earlier). He also predicts its demise at the hands of a new power that will arise from the East. In a rare instance of highly specific prophecy, he even reveals the name of the man who will overthrow Babylon: Cyrus. The prophecy is so astounding that secular biblical historians insist it must be a later addition to the text. However, there is no evidence for this. In fact, the accuracy and specificity of Isaiah’s prophecies in the second half of his book have led many historians to propose a theory of a “second” and even “third” Isaiah who wrote many years later, after the events had already occurred. Again, the only evidence for this theory is the presupposition that predictive prophecy of this sort is impossible.
Isaiah’s two great themes in the second half of his book are both designed to prepare the people for the trauma of their exile at the hands of the Babylonians. The first great theme is the insistence—unique in the history of religions to that point—that there is only one divine power who created the world and has a specific purpose for the people He has chosen, the Israelites. Isaiah mocks idolatry and proclaims that God’s actions in history will demonstrate that the gods of other nations are empty and powerless.
The second great theme is the absolute control that God has over all the events of history, including the rise and fall of the kingdoms and empires that surrounded His people and often threatened to overwhelm them. Isaiah proclaims that these things are not accidents. Assyria arose for a reason, Babylon will follow, and then Cyrus and Persia will come and put them both to shame. These things are not random but are all working in concert to advance the great plan of redemption that God has for His people.
The Exile challenges both of these themes, so it needed to be explained. In the first place, how can God be said to be in control of history if He allows His own people to be overwhelmed by empires whose power seems limitless? And what use is worshiping that God if He could not prevent their conquest? Hezekiah’s father, Ahaz, had concluded from the relative strength of his neighbors and of Assyria itself that their gods should be worshiped alongside Yahweh. However, Hezekiah’s decision to purge the nation of false religion and renew its allegiance to Yahweh led directly to their miraculous deliverance from the Assyrians.
The explanation that Isaiah provides is challenging and would have been difficult for his audience to hear. The Exile was a necessary event because of the accumulated sin of the nation over generations. But it could not be said to be a sign of God’s powerlessness, because Isaiah lays it out in advance. God’s power was not overwhelmed by Babylon—quite the opposite. Babylon was empowered by God so that He could accomplish His purposes through her. And though she was given this power for a season, God was not overlooking her wickedness, nor would He let the cruelty of her actions toward His people go unpunished.
In the end, Isaiah explains that the Exile was necessary for God to fulfill His purposes. The people of God needed to be prepared for the arrival of the Messiah. And in fact, the Exile did accomplish these purposes. The nation had been plagued by idolatry from the very beginning, but the Exile decisively broke this pattern. When the events of the Exile unfolded exactly as the prophets had predicted, and when the people were protected in captivity and later restored under Cyrus, God’s control over history and His faithfulness to His promises were decisively demonstrated. All of this was preparatory for the arrival of the Messiah.