Post by Murph on Dec 19, 2009 9:42:50 GMT -6
Play: 'The Trial of Isaiah the Prophet'
December 19, 2009
Premier given at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church,
Sunday School Class of Deacon Naomi Hughey,
Dec. 13, 2009
Characters:
Isaiah, the Prophet
Judge {God the Father, Son & Holy Spirit}
Prosecutor {Satan, the Accuser}
Angelic Host
Bailiff
{Setting: Heaven on Judgment Day}
Bailiff: Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Hear Ye! The Trial of Isaiah the Prophet will now begin.
Judge God, Son & Holy Spirit: You have heard the bailiff. Prosecutor Satan, the accuser of the brethren, will present his case against my servant, Isaiah the Prophet. Are you prepared, Prosecutor Satan?
Prosecutor Satan: Yes, my lord. The charges against Isaiah the prophet are as follows:
Count 1: Discrimination – His prophecies are politically incorrect and discriminate against all the other philosophies, religions and cults in the world;
Count 2: Impossible Prophecies – Isaiah couldn't have prophesied about things 200, 500, 700 years later, and even prophecies thousands of years in the future yet to come to pass;
Count 3: Perjury – Therefore, Isaiah should be condemned as a false prophet, a perjurer, a liar and condemned to spend eternity in the lake of fire and brimstone. Send him to my realm, god. Send him to my domain, lord!
Judge God, Son & Holy Spirit: Prosecutor Satan, if your charges are true, then I will send him to your domain; however, if Isaiah the Prophet has spoken my words to my people the Jews and only my words that I put in his mouth did he speak, then he shall spend eternity with me in Paradise.
Stand up, Isaiah the Prophet. Tell the Court who you are!
Isaiah: My name is Isaiah. I was born into an influential, upper-class family and associated with royalty, and gave advice concerning the foreign affairs of the nation. I was commissioned by the God of Heaven to prophesy to the tribe of Judah in the Southern Kingdom of Israel. I fulfilled my charge for 60 years – from 740-680 B.C. Though most of my prophecies were mocked at and ignored by the people, I faithfully and zealously warned the Jews against foreign alliances and urged Judah to trust the Lord. I also attacked the social ills of the day…
Prosecutor Satan: {interrupting, mocking} I-sai-ah!! Who do you think you are? You are not a prophet of god. You are a fake, a fraud and a phony. Do you think you were some great social reformer like Noah, Abraham and Moses?
Isaiah: No, Satan, I was no social reformer, but I saw those social ills and spiritual abuses of the Jewish nation as symptoms of a deeper spiritual decline.
Prosecutor Satan: My "friend" and my servant King Manasseh (696-642 B.C.) certainly took care of you, didn't he, I-sai-ah, the prophet? {Ha Ha Ha!}
Isaiah: Indeed, Prosecutor Satan, after living most of my life in the holy city of Jerusalem, I was martyred during the reign of King Manasseh for preaching the uncompromised word of God. I was sawed asunder inside a hollow log.
Judge God, Son & Holy Spirit: Tell us, Isaiah the Prophet, of your ministry to my people, Israel.
Isaiah: During the latter half of the eighth century, Judah seemingly was about to follow the example of apostasy of the 10 northern tribes of Israel (who were captured by Assyria in 722 B.C.). King Ahaz foolishly looked to Assyria for protection, even though Isaiah told him the Northern Kingdom would shortly fall at the hands of the Assyrians (Isaiah 8:3-4). Hezekiah, Ahaz's God-fearing son, instituted spiritual reforms but sought the help of Egypt in foreign affairs. Egypt fell before Sennacherib of Assyria, and only through divine intervention was Judah saved from the same fate (Isaiah 37:36-37). During the reign of Manasseh, Judah fell into idol worship, and I warned the Jews of the inevitability of the Babylonian captivity. As God's prophet, I also gave assurance of the preservation of the people and restoration of the nation.
Prosecutor Satan: Didn't my King Manasseh call you "That old false prophet whom I hate"?
Isaiah: Perhaps, but the God of Heaven, as well as later theologians, have called me "the evangelical prophet," because I say so much about the salvation and redemptive work of Messiah. In fact, more is said in my book about the person and work of the Messiah than in any other Old Testament book.
Prosecutor Satan: Now I've got you, Isaiah. Who is this "messiah" ye speak of?!
The Angelic Host: {each standing with a loud voice}
Angel No. 1 – Isaiah 1:18
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Angel No 2– Isaiah 7:14
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel, meaning God with us.
Angel No. 3 – Isaiah 40:3-5
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
Angel No. 4 – Isaiah 53:3
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Angel No. 5 – Isaiah 2:4
And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
Angel No. 6 – Isaiah 52:14
As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
Angel No. 7 – Luke 4:16-21 {quoting Isaiah 61:1-2a}
And he {Messiah} came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Angelic Host: {standing, in unison}– Isaiah 9:6
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Judge God, Son & Holy Spirit: {to Prosecutor Satan} Now hear ye the judgment of the Lord: Satan, Oh Satan, thou art a liar and the Father of all Lies. Get thee hence to the underworld where thou and thy fallen angels will be banished forever!
As for my servant Isaiah the Prophet, enter into the joy of the Lord, thou good and faithful servant.
Prosecutor Satan (the Accuser): {leaves in disgrace with his hands covering his face, saying …}
Jesus is Lord! …
Jesus is Lord!! …
JESUS - IS - LORD!!!
***
Ellis Washington, authorized biographer for the conservative intellectual Dr. Michael Savage (see , is former editor of the Michigan Law Review and law clerk at The Rutherford Institute. He is a graduate of John Marshall Law School and a lecturer and freelance writer on constitutional law, legal history, political philosophy and critical race theory. He has written over a dozen law review articles and several books, including "The Inseparability of Law and Morality: The Constitution, Natural Law and the Rule of Law" (2002). See his law review article "Reply to Judge Richard Posner." Washington's latest book is "The Nuremberg Trials: Last Tragedy of the Holocaust."
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