p. 2 | Hosea and Isaiah

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 30, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 21.

Hosea and Isaiah

Hosea was a prophet of the ten-tribe kingdom, beginning before Isaiah, say about B.C. 785. His work continued for sixty years, but all his written prophecy can be easily read at two sittings. From Jeroboam II to Hoshea in Israel, from Uzziah to Hezekiah in Judah, he faithfully points out the sin of Israel. Many of his figures are borrowed from rural life. The customs of his days are frequently referred to. Notwithstanding the strong condemnations, there are kind and encouraging appeals to a better life.

Isaiah is the greatest and sublimest prophet of the Old Testament. Beginning in about B.C. 760, his work as prophet covered the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. His message is full of great prophecies of the future age. Some circumstances of the apostatizing trend of that time become fit symbols for the greater days, the more important events, of the Messianic age. How clearly the culmination of the peace cry is given in chapter 2! and how forcibly the awful backsliding is set forth in chapters 2 to 5!

One at least of God's calls to Isaiah is given in chapter 6. Chapter 8:9-22 is a graphic prophecy of last-day confederacies and the vice of spiritism. Christ is clearly predicted in chapters 9 and 11; and chapters 13 and 14 are wonderful prophecies concerning Babylon and her highest king Lucifer, and God's refuge from Babylon's doom. Moab, Damascus, Egypt, and other lands come also within the field of the prophet's vision.