The miraculous thing about the Isaiah connections is that only God could have made them occur. God in His wisdom gave us the Bible in such a way that no man could have designed these connections.
Many times an unbelieving person will say, “The Bible was written by a lot of different men living a long time ago.” This statement does not recognize God; however, it does acknowledge two important facts.
- God did use about 40 different penmen to write down His exact words.
- The Jewish Old Testament was written down before Christ, from around 1500 BC to 400 BC.
The New Testament was written from the time of Christ to about 100 AD.
The Prophet Isaiah wrote near the MIDDLE of this 1600 year time period. The book of Isaiah was written from around 750 BC to 700 BC. By God choosing this time frame it’s obvious that no one living before Isaiah’s day knew what Isaiah would write, and that Isaiah had no idea what those after him would write. Yet the Bible is perfectly woven together.
The thing that makes the Isaiah connections even more miraculous is the time frame God chose to assemble the scriptures. God had the early Church gather the books of the Bible together, but God did not give the Bible chapter or verse divisions until much later. The first Bible to use chapter divisions was the Wycliffe Bible completed in 1382 AD. The first Bible to use verse divisions in the Old and New Testament was the Geneva Bible completed in 1560 AD. By God choosing this time frame, it RULES OUT ANY POSSIBILITY that man could have conspired to make these connections happen.
To make it even more clear that the Bible is the word of God, the Isaiah connections are linked to both the Jewish and Christian order of Old Testament books. The Jews would not have collaborated with Christians to manipulate the scriptures because; these connections prove the New Testament.
God also did something so we can know He preserved His word and that no one has tampered with it. In 1947 God allowed a great discovery to be made. A young shepherd found some clay jars in a cave near the Dead Sea. These jars contained many ancient manuscripts. Because of this discovery a several year search took place and many more writings were found. These writings are known today as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Many of these scrolls contained scripture; however, the greatest thing found in this discovery was a complete copy of Isaiah.
This Isaiah scroll was date tested several times and in a few different ways. It was dated to be at least 100 BC, the results ranged from 335 BC to 100 BC. This scroll is written in Hebrew and can be read online from beginning to end. An exact copy of it is displayed at the Israel Museum located in Jerusalem. It is approximately 24 feet long and 11 inches tall and is unrolled for all to view. So we can know the Isaiah we have today is the same Isaiah the Jewish people had before Christ, IT HAS NOT CHANGED as it was handed down to us through the years. The Bible tells us God will preserve his Word.
The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever. (Psalms 12:6,7)
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. (Isaiah 40:8)
Then in the 40th book of the Bible, God makes a connection with:
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. (Matthew 24:35)
(As you continue through this study the evidence that the Bible is the perfect, preserved word of God can become overwhelming.)