Called “the centerpiece of prophetic literature” (LaSor, Hubbard, Bus, 276) and “quoted, paraphrased, and alluded to more than any other Old Testament book” (Bosma, 17–18), it is no wonder the book of Isaiah has earned the title “Fifth Gospel” (Sawyer). Yet, for the noted significance within scripture and throughout church history, the preaching of the book of Isaiah is primarily relegated to the high holidays of the liturgical calendar. Why?
Although numerous reasons can be identified (I’m currently working on a commentary on Isaiah for Eerdmans that will address these), the complexities surrounding the book of Isaiah’s structure seem to stand as the primary obstacle that preachers must overcome in order to preach the book of Isaiah effectively. This session proposes that understanding Isaiah’s canonical structure provides the necessary framework for preaching the book of Isaiah.
Beginning with a succinct overview of major contributors and movements, the first section proposes a seven-movement structure for the book of Isaiah. This section will build on and modify Berges’s proposal. With a structure in place, the second part of the study applies principles of text-driven preaching (Aiken, Allen, and Matthews) to model what preaching through the book of Isaiah may look like. Finally, the paper examines the proposed structure and model as Christian scripture and presents an approach that is both consistent with the historical and Christian reading of the text.