“Regarding Isaiah, it would not be much of an exaggeration to say that his book is the Old Testament prophetic canvas upon which the colors of the New Testament are painted. By one estimate, all but three of the sixty-six chapters of Isaiah are quoted, alluded to, or echoed in the NT. Isaiah’s writings loom so large in New Testament books because of how this prophet foretells, in poetically striking ways, the dawn of the kingdom of God that comes when the Savior is born. Writing in the 700s BC, Isaiah speaks of the virgin birth of the Messiah, that he is the Servant of the Lord, the promised Son of David, the bringer of new creation, and the innocent victim who is put to death for the sins of humanity (see especially Isaiah 53). If we lost all other biblical books, but retained Isaiah, we would still have enough material to teach and preach for a lifetime about the Son of God and his work for us. Isaiah prophesied to his own generation, but he wrote in such a way that, whenever his readers might live, they sense that he is directly addressing them. In addition, Isaiah is rightly ranked among some of the loftiest, most beautiful poetry ever composed in any language.”