I have thoroughly enjoyed your series on The End Times According to Isaiah. Each week I print the next part off and study carefully. We are also studying the Book of Isaiah in my Sunday School class. But we have differences in opinion. Some in my class think that Isaiah was prophesying in the 700’s BC to events which later occurred between the 600’s BC up to the beginning of the first century AD. They have difficulty applying Isaiah to “end time events” soon to come. How can I reconcile Isaiah’s prophecies to both Israel’s times of trouble before Jesus’ birth and also to upcoming “end time events?” Is there scripture to support God’s prophetic judgments through prophecy to equally apply to past history and the future?
If you look at Isaiah’s prophecies literally and compare them to history, you’ll see that while some of them have been fulfilled, others were only partially fulfilled and still others not at all. For an example of a partial fulfillment read Isaiah 9:6-7. It’s a very popular Christmas prophecy in which the child was born and the Son was given, but the part about establishing a government, sitting on David’s throne, and reigning over David’s Kingdom forever awaits a future fulfillment.
And for one that hasn’t been fulfilled at all, read Isaiah 2:1-5. In the first place Isaiah identified the prophecy as referring to the End Times. And in the second, there’s never been a time in history when this statement has been literally and completely true. King Solomon was a model who partially met its requirements, but he died before Isaiah was born and since then no king of Israel has even come close. This is a Messianic prophecy the the Lord will fulfill after the 2nd Coming.