06/19/2026
PROPHESYING NOTES FOR ISA 9:1-16:14
Excerpted from The Life-study of Isaiah Chapter 13
In this message I would like to give a word concerning a very crucial matter—the vision of the economy of God hidden in the first twenty-three chapters of Isaiah’s prophecy.
A number of important matters are covered in Isaiah 1—23. For instance, 1:18 speaks concerning our being cleansed from our sins: “Come now and let us reason together, / Says Jehovah. / Though your sins are like scarlet, / They will be as white as snow; / Though they are as red as crimson, / They will be like wool.” This word is related to the word in 38:17: “You have cast behind Your back / All my sins.” God has forgiven our sins and has cast them behind His back. Although the forgiveness of sins is wonderful, it is not the economy of God hidden in the prophecy of Isaiah.
Another matter of great importance is the sign in 7:14 of the virgin conceiving and bearing a son. This verse says, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive and will bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel.” This sign covers not only the past and the present but also eternity. The Bible of sixty-six books consummates in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21—22), and the New Jerusalem is the aggregate of Immanuel. The sign of Immanuel consummates in the New Jerusalem—the totality of God being with us.
A third important matter is found in chapter twelve of Isaiah. This chapter shows us how to receive God Himself as our salvation and enjoy Him as salvation. We enjoy God as our salvation, drawing water with rejoicing from the springs of salvation, by praising the Lord, calling upon His name, crying out, and giving a ringing shout (vv. 3-4, 6). However, we may enjoy God as our salvation but still not see the vision of the economy of God hidden in the first twenty-three chapters of the book of Isaiah.
The content of chapters one through twelve of Isaiah is the all-inclusive Christ. This section of Isaiah begins with the degradation of God’s people and ends with the enjoyment of God as our salvation. If Isaiah’s prophecy ended with chapter twelve, we might feel that it was sufficient. Of course, the book is much longer, and the next eleven chapters deal with God’s judgment.
Isaiah 13—23 covers the judgment of Jehovah upon the nations, including Jerusalem, and its issue. Here God considered Israel the same as the nations. The key to this section of Isaiah is God’s “firing” and Christ’s replacing. In His judgment God discharged, or “fired,” everyone and everything. According to Isaiah, all of God’s chastising and judging is a firing. All the kings of the nations, including the kings of Babylon and Assyria, were raised up by God. He appointed them, or hired them, and eventually He also fired them. They were appointed by Him, but they proved to be unqualified and made many mistakes. Thus, the time came when God intervened to fire them. After this hiring and firing, there is the replacing. Who is the replacement? The replacement is Christ, Immanuel.
In these messages on Isaiah, we need to see not only the way to enjoy God as our salvation, but also see that we have been fired by God and replaced with Christ. God created us to be a man, but He has fired us, discharged us, from being a man. Although we have been fired, we may still keep our post as a man and go on trying to be a man. We need to see that when God created us, He hired us, and that when He put us on the cross, crucifying us with Christ, He fired us. We all have been fired by God. Concerning this, Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” God fired everyone on the cross, and He is replacing everyone with Christ.
After God’s firing and replacing of everyone and everything with Christ, there will first be the restoration for the kingdom, and then there will be the restoration for the new heaven and new earth for the New Jerusalem. That will be the real church life. The real church life is a life in which all the saints are fired and replaced with Christ. This will make Christ everything in the church. This is the vision of God’s economy hidden in Isaiah 1—23, and I hope that we will all see it.
In the New Testament, Christ’s replacing of us is altogether a matter of a grafted life. This grafted life is the highlight of God’s salvation in John 15. Christ is the vine, and we are the branches (v. 5). As wild olive branches, we have been grafted into Christ (Rom. 11:17). Thus, we are united with Christ, and in this union Christ replaces us. He replaces us by living in us, with us, by us, and through us. We live, yet not we, but Christ lives in us, and we live by the faith of the Son of God. This indicates a union with Christ.
In the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, there is a struggle between God and man. Man likes to replace God. In his reaction to God, man tries to replace God, to put God aside, to expel God. But in His reaction to man, God does not put man aside or expel man; rather, He puts man in a terminated position so that man can live by another person, Christ.
Although God desires to replace man, man does not agree with this, because Satan is behind man. According to Isaiah 14:12-14, Satan was the first one to attempt to replace God, to expel God and take God’s place, by uplifting his throne and making himself like the Most High. Now Satan is behind man, trying to do away with God and expel God. Even when man wants to do something for God, he does it by putting God aside. This is a crucial matter that we all need to realize.
—— Stanley Han
