Who else could paint the detailed portrait of someone centuries before His appearance?
The book of Isaiah overflows with proof of the deity of Christ. Let us consider ten such evidences.
1. The first and the last
Three times over (Isaiah 41:4; 44:6; and 48:12) the Lord (Yahweh/Jehovah) declared Himself to be “the first and the last.” These are awesome and provoking words used by God to describe His own sovereign existence as ruler of time and space. He places His hands on either end of history. He surrounds all of time. He controls all events. He is the fist cause; the prime mover. From Him, through Him, and to Him are all things. Yet when we turn to the book of the Revelation, our Lord Jesus is referred to as “the first and the last” three times as well (Rev. 1:17; 2:8; 22:12-13). As Jesus claimed the “I AM” title of God as His own, so here He mixes it again with Alpha and Omega (the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet). “I AM the first and last, I AM the beginning and the end.” (Follow this with Col. 1:16-17; Heb. 1:10-12; Jn. 1:3.)
2. The glory Isaiah saw
Isaiah 6:1-5 brings before us a vivid eyewitness account. Scripture clearly affirms that no man has seen, or can see, God in His unveiled glory and live. Yet, in exciting and condescending grace, God repeatedly revealed Himself in the second person of the Trinity throughout history: as the Angel of the Lord, to Moses on Sinai, to Jacob’s and to Samson’s parents, and ultimately in incarnation. Here Isaiah saw Him in a perceivable glory which men down through time have barely been able to handle (Ezk. 1:28; Dan. 10:7-9; Rev. 1:17). The sight is terrifying and beautiful. Isaiah called Him the King, the Lord of Hosts. But John applies the very words of God, those concerning the rejection of Isaiah’s ministry, to Christ. What was true of God was true of Christ. John then says, “Isaiah saw His glory, and spake of Him” (Jn. 12:41). Isaiah saw Christ, spoke of Him, and prophesied of Israel’s blindness towards Him.
3. The titled Son
In Isaiah 9:6-7, the Son of God, the One who would sit on David’s throne, is announced and described with titles. He is “the mighty God” (v. 6). In the next chapter, that same name is given to the Jehovah (10:21). Therefore, the Son of God is the mighty God. Compare the words “Wonderful counselor” (possibly a single title) to Judges 13:18.
4. The only Saviour of humanity
Repeatedly, the Lord God unequivocally stated that He alone is Saviour (Isa. 43:3, 10f; 45:21). Yet the New Testament constantly affirms that Christ is the only Saviour (2 Pet. 1:1; Titus 2:13; Lk 2:11; Mt. 1:21).
5. Ye shall be My witnesses
In Isaiah 43:10-11, Jehovah powerfully declared Himself as the only Saviour and commissioned Israel to be His witnesses to that fact. After the Lord had forced Israel into and out of captivity by His own hand, Israel would be qualified to witness to the fact that the God alone saves. When we turn to Acts 1:8, we see that Christ sent out His disciples with the same words God used in Isaiah, “Ye shall be My witnesses.” What did the disciples witness to? “There is salvation in no other [except in Jesus Christ] for there is no other name…by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Thus, two phrases attesting to the Lord as humanity’s only Saviour and His sending out witnesses to this fact, are mirrored in connection with Jesus Christ: He alone is the Saviour of humanity, and He has appointed witnesses to proclaim this fact.
6. One who shares glory with God
In Isaiah 42:8, we read that the Lord does not share or give His glory to another. “I am the LORD, that is My name, and My glory I will not give to another.” It is an absolute. But turning over to John 17:1-5, we listen in as Christ, kneeling in the garden, asked His Father to glorify Him with Himself! And He spoke of sharing this glory with the Father before the world was created. In 1 Corinthians 2:8, the Lord Jesus Christ is called “the Lord of Glory.” (How could one be the Lord of glory, or the Lord of the heavenly glories, without being God?) Furthermore, in Philippians 2:9-11, we discover the beautiful mystery that God the Father is glorified when men worship and bow the knee to Christ as Lord. The Father who shares His glory with no one has given the Son a name above every name!
7. A stumbling block
In Isaiah 8:14, we hear Isaiah being warned by God to not succumb to the anxiety attack Judah experienced over surrounding conspiracies by powers like Ephraim and Syria. Isaiah was not to go about wringing his hands in concern. Instead, he was to set apart God in his heart as his source of security. “…let Him be your fear and let Him be your dread.” God was to be a sanctuary for Isaiah. Reading on, we come to the famous verse that the Lord of hosts would be “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense” to those who rejected His salvation. “Many among them shall stumble…fall and be broken.” When we turn to the New Testament, Peter quotes this very passage along with another about a “rejected stone” (Ps. 118:22) and applies them to Christ (1 Pet. 2:7f). In Isaiah, the Lord as Saviour is the stumbling stone and rock of offense. In the New Testament it is Jesus Christ. He is the stumbling stone because He is God the Saviour.
8. The God who would visit His people
In Isaiah 40, the Lord gave a beautiful promise of comfort to His people that their punishment for sin would come to an end. Soon she will see the glory of the Lord approach. God will walk on a prepared highway and visit his people (40:3)! He will comfort them (40:1). (Note that “Behold your God” is applied to Jesus by John.) Get up to the towers and spread the news! This sounds too good to be true. How could Israel be sure? Isaiah 40:8b answers, “…the Word of our God stands forever.” When we turn to Matthew 24, we hear our Lord also describing His coming to visit His people and take account of them. How could the disciples be sure of this? Just as the Lord said in Isaiah that His words would not pass away, so Jesus says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” The deity and coming of Christ is made certain by the fact that, like the Lord in Isaiah, He is the author of the eternal words of God.
9. He bears the name of the virgin’s son
The very naming of Jesus Christ is a fulfillment of Isaiah. Matthew 1:21-23 states that by giving Jesus His name, Joseph was fulfilling the prophecy that the son of the virgin would be called Immanuel. Matthew translates this name as meaning, “God with us.” How much clearer could Scripture be? Jesus is actually named, “God with us!” If we return to Isaiah 7 and read about the historical events which gave rise to the prophecy of the virgin birth, we discover that God desired to convince king Ahaz that He would be with him and protect him. Sadly, rather than receive salvation by faith in God’s revealed Word (2 Samuel 7 promised God would preserve David’s line on the throne), Ahaz attempted to create his own salvation by works. He took the gold from the house of the Lord and tried to buy his salvation from Assyria (2 Ki. 16:8-9). In the long run, this proved to be a brush with death for Judah (Isa. 7:17-25). If man desires God to save Him from destruction, He must let God save him; he must have Immanuel.
10. Now it is your turn!
Study Isaiah 45:23 carefully. Start by reading verses 20-22 for context. Next read verse 23 and compare it with the following two passages: Philippians 2:10f and Romans 14:11. What two truths can you discover about Jesus Christ that were first spoken by God in Isaiah? Are these proofs of deity? If so, how?