The Prophecy of Isaiah - Lesson 2

Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil. Your country lies desolate; your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence foreigners devour your land; it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners. And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a besieged city.
- Isaiah 1:5-8

It is a remarkable thing to see someone run from God and suffer the consequences. God makes it clear in these verses that when we ignore Him and run that we are not being rational. We can't escape the “Why?” with an “I don't know.” Israel at this time had been fighting the Assyrians. They were more powerful and Israel couldn't cope without God. We can't cope without God either but we do wait until our whole head is sick, our whole heart is faint, and we don't seem to have anything working correctly. These Scriptures also show that we don't have any effective means of healing apart from God. As Jeremiah 8:22 says, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?” The answer to that question is that we avoid the physician. Scripture shows us our sin and our sin causes to look away from Scripture. God in His mercy will restore us and heal us but repentance from our sins must come from His Grace first. But remember that He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). The contrast here is in the condition of Israel as deserved and the condition of our Saviour as undeserved. We'll See God's salvation often in Isaiah.

Apart from God, we are unable to stand against our enemies. Our best things lie desolate and burned. We stand and watch our best devoured and overthrown when we decide to live without God. The reference to a booth and a lodge indicate a temporary shelter that was only used for a few weeks by watchmen in the fields during harvest and would be abandoned and decaying. So the youth and future hope of Zion is abandoned and decaying. The wisdom of this world comes up far short and is unable to save. The solution is not in better politics but in serving God with a whole heart.

If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors,we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah.
- Isaiah 1:9

God in His mercy sets a limit to the judgment to prevent the complete destruction of Israel. The nation was falling apart from within (untended wounds) and from without (in your presence foreigners devour your land). We can rejoice that God is perfect in mercy as He is perfect in holiness. Merit would say that Israel (and we as Israel) should suffer judgment but mercy sends our Saviour. The name for God here is Lord of Hosts. It is a name that sets to nouns side by side. It sets Lord next to Hosts. Hosts being a plural of diversity or “every sort of” or unbounded resources. God's perfections are infinite both with regard to quantity and quality. So the infinite quality of His mercy is found with the infinite quality of His holiness. Consequently our Judge is also become our Saviour. Not one of us could stand for an instant before His holiness and we would all fall at the judgment throne but for the Grace that clothes us in His righteousness.

If you have accepted Christ as your Saviour then you are one of the survivors kept by the Lord of Hosts. You can call Him the Holy One with a holy fear in your heart and not the terror that you should feel apart from His mercy. Sodom and Gomorrah were judged because they deserved it. Had God never intervened in our lives then we would have been judged because we deserved it. It truly is amazing Grace.

Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God,you people of Gomorrah! “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.
- Isaiah 1:10-11

Here God applies the names of Sodom and Gomorrah to Israel to warn them as ask them to hear His word and His teaching. But the picture is of a people who give themselves to sin being commanded to be righteous.

God then begins to explain His view of worship offered by a guilty and sinful people. First He says He has had enough of it. Not that there is anything wrong with the rams, or other animals. In fact He says they are well fed. Then He says that He doesn't delight in the bulls, lambs, or goats offered. These are all sacrifices offered by a people with a heart that is not committed to serving God. They want God in the place they have created for Him. They want Him caring for them and helping to keep the Assyrians at bay when Israel is having trouble but not being Lord of All or a Lord who convicts of sin.

There is an appropriate outward form for our faith as there was for Israel. When that outward form becomes a false representation of our hearts then we are inviting the Lord's discipline in our lives. If your worship is a lie then it is not truly worship and we have a God who cannot be fooled. Our ethics must be consistent with our actions in worship. In Sodom sin was on parade and accepted. We can't live in Sodom all week and then find worship in our hearts on Sunday.

The “says the Lord” is better translated “The Lord says and keeps on saying”. Blood was the key to sacrifice and worship but it was not acceptable before a Holy God.

“When you come to appear before me,who has required of you this trampling of my courts?
- Isaiah 1:12

When God asks you to tell Him who it was that asked you to come to church then it is time to repent for sure. He actually indicates that they are defiling His house with their presence and the presence of their sacrifices. God still claims the Temple as His. There was nothing wrong with the place and nothing wrong with God ordained worship but this was a false worship from sinners who were simply trying to use worship as a means of getting what they wanted.

Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.
- Isaiah 1:13-17

So from a position of “enough” and “do not delight” God moves to “bring no more” and calls their worship an “abomination”, says He can't endure it, He hates it, they are a burden, they weary Him, and He will no longer see or listen to there prayers.

The response is to their sin. They show up for worship physically but their hearts are trapped in sin. Nothing changes as they prepare to meet God. The sins of the week are not repented of and they carry a sinful lifestyle right into the worship service. Rather than conforming to God's will they were simply practicing what was acceptable and helpful to themselves.

Isaiah is not critical of observing the Sabbath or feasts or any part of the process of worship that God has ordained. What Isaiah is critical of is those who shrug off their sin and whose “hands are full of blood” or guilt. To consecrate a person carried with it the idea of total preoccupation with God and to “have your hands full”. Similar to our use of the expression. So if you hands are full of sin and covered with guilt then you are consecrated to sin and not God.

So in remedy the command is to 1) wash, 2) stop sinning, 3) learn God's will, and 4) work to accomplish that will in your life and in the lives of those around you.

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
- Isaiah 1:18-20

This is presented in a way that can be interpreted as a legal judgment. It is a wonderful judgment considering the guilt of scarlet and crimson. It isn't presented as irony but as a promise. God has placed a limit on the deserved justice for sin and God will have a people who are pure. You are washed by repentance and forgiveness that only God can give, you come to God, you learn from God, you then live for God. The judgment is on the way if you are willing and obedient, you eat the good of the land; if you refuse and rebel, you are eaten by the sword.

These warns are acts of Grace, to be told of our sin is an act of Grace, to be given a promise of forgiveness is Grace unimaginable. We look at the phrase “willing and obedient” versus “refuse and rebel” in that verse and our wicked hearts make us think works. If it were works we would all perish in our sins. There would have been no warning for the Children of Israel and there would surely be no warning for us. Our low view of our treason against God and our great pride in our own judgment make us balk at Gods promise of blessing and cry “works righteousness” when it would (and could only) be God blessing the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.