The first book of this four-volume commentary includes an interpretive “how-to” that can be applied to any part of the Scriptures.
The entire Book of Isaiah has been “parsed” and charted, with lots of notes made along the way. The commentary also includes (with permission) some very excellent excerpts from Peter Leithart’s Theopolis Fellows notes. The first book of the commentary includes a detailed structural summary of the entire prophecy, and also has five “primer” chapters that provide the methodology for interpretation, which applies to all of Scripture. They are all worth a read, but the main one for this purpose is entitled “A Tour of the Tablets.” Additionally, Appendix 1 on the “DNA” of the Scriptures contains many of the fundamental charts that illustrate the fractal nature of the Bible. Find Jared Leonard’s Amazon review below.
You can read the preface and two of the primer chapters here on the blog:
Preface: The Highest of the Mountains
The Unity of Isaiah: One Body in Sickness & in Health
Masters of Allusion: Prophecy as Spiritual War
The Key to Isaiah: Maps of Meaning
A Tour of the Tablets: School of the Prophets
An Overview of Isaiah: The God of the Living
The first book (Isaiah 1-12) is published and can be read in the Online Library (Silver Patron or above) or purchased in print form on amazon here. The second book is well under way.
The Shape of Isaiah (1-12) review by Jared Leonard
You NEED this Isaiah commentary on your shelf.
Mike’s commentary on Isaiah is work, but it is not a slog. It isn’t drab. It isn’t ornamental. It doesn’t try to showcase any academic chops (i.e., he isn’t trying to show how “well read” he is). It’s just straight Bible. And the only reason it might even feel like work is because of how unfamiliar the Church is with the way the Bible was written, its literary fractals, structures, and architecture.
Mike lays out the biblical blueprints so they can be ingested, like heavenly scrolls, in order for the word of the Lord to shape the reader. God’s wisdom flows like wine through the pages of Scripture and few places are as potent as Isaiah (behind the Psalms, it is the second most quoted Old Testament book in the New Testament); Mike has begun pouring much of Isaiah’s wine into elegant theological crystalline glasses for us to enjoy.
Some highlights:
- An argument that Isaiah is the “pivot point” of the biblical narrative, something of a transition between a corruptible national/physical Israel into to the spiritual body that would eventually become the Church. The book climbs up the prophetic mountainside of Israel’s destruction then down to her transfigurative restoration in order that she might be (or become) an even greater witness of God’s truth to the nations.
- A textual argument that Isaiah is a singular work, not written and edited by multiple (and “later”) authors, but written by a prophet who had a deep an intimate relationship with God. This relationship enabled God to pour out His heart for the world to see His desire, and plan, for the redemption of humanity and the rest of creation.
- A detailed look at the shape of the text of Isaiah, how it connects to Israel’s past and to the Church’s future, and how those patterns help bring clarity to many other passages of Scripture (and how those passages bring clarity to Isaiah).
This commentary belongs on your shelf. There’s nothing else like it out there in commentary land, and there is no doubt in my mind that Mike’s work, not just here in Isaiah but even more broadly (his other commentaries, his books, his blog), is going to be mined for many decades after we here have all gone to be with the Lord. This first volume and the volumes to follow will be a great service to the Church, and they will be a great service to you as well, whether you end up agreeing with him in all the details or not.
