Isaiah 1:1-20 - Come, Let Us Reason Together

Target Date: Sunday, 20 August 2023

Sermon Text:

This morning we leave behind our study of 1 Thessalonians and begin to look at the book of the prophet Isaiah.

The good news, I think, for us all, is that although we will proceed methodically through the book, we will not, for the most part, proceed verse-by-verse.

The sixty-six chapters in this book would guarantee I would be preaching from this book for the rest of my life if I did that.

It is still my intention, as I think should be for any preacher of the gospel, to be expository in these sermons.

Expository preaching begins with a passage and seeks to illuminate and highlight that passage, providing applications and information regarding that passage.

This is different from what might be called “topical” sermons – those that begin with a subject or topic that the preacher wants to cover that the preacher then brings scriptures in to highlight.

Now, this is a perfectly legitimate type of teaching for other times than the Sunday message from God’s word.

In Sunday School and other Bible studies, topical studies may be completely called for.

But for our gathered worship on Sunday mornings, it seems that topical sermons leave far too much up to the preacher, with the great tendency to choose what is popular or trendy rather than to wrestle with the uncomfortable truths of Scripture.

I cannot say I would never preach a topical sermon – many of the preachers I respect deeply did from time to time,

But they should not be regular Sunday diet for the church.

Some preachers recognize a third type of sermon – the “textual” sermon.

They define this as where a preacher takes a single word or idea from a passage, and then goes off on a ramble on that subject.

It sits on the fence between expository and topical.

In general, though, I would classify these sermons as expository if two conditions are met:

1. The understanding of the topic is necessary to the understanding of the primary passage.

Much like when we spoke of grace or spiritual gifts in our last study in 1 Thessalonians.

They were referred to, and we needed to understand them to understand what was being said in the passage.

2. Another passage is used in an expository manner to support the teaching.

In these cases, we took other passages to help us understand the subject.

And so I will strive to allow the TEXT of the passage define the teaching of the day. That is expository.

You will also notice we will take much larger bites of text than a single verse.

Much like we are seeing in our Wednesday study in Job, we might take an entire chapter or more on any given Sunday.

With this in mind, we will generally read much of the passage during our Old Testament reading time in our service rather than reading the passage immediately at the start of the sermon.

Finally, while we proceed from beginning to end of the book of Isaiah, we might well move forward or back based on the primary part of the text.

For example, if the subject is introduced in the first few verses of a chapter, but is fleshed out in the last 20 verses, we may skip those first few verses until we reach the more thorough teaching.

This is because Isaiah is written in a poetic format, as you may see in your translation of the Scripture where it is written in verses rather than in prose.

Often, rather than the quick use of exact words we have seen with Paul, you will have word pictures drawn and parables of verse written to make you see and understand the teaching.

So we shall strive to treat this in a proper way for understanding.

Because this is the way the Holy Spirit has given us this wonderful work.

OK, enough of my class on preaching 101.

On to a quick introduction to the book and onward to the first great passage.

Isaiah the book was written by Isaiah the prophet between the years 750 BC and 701 BC (of course, these are approximations – but very good ones).

We know when he preached because he tells us in the first verse when he preached:

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem, which he saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. – Isaiah 1:1

The book represents, for the most part, a collection of his messages and sermons preached as part of his ministry, mostly delivered in Jerusalem to very influential people, including these very kings.

He does have words for other tribes – Israel, Edom, Assyria, Egypt, and even Persia, who would not become a world power until 200 years later –

But his primary audience were the people of Judah at the temple of God.

You may recall from history that after the death of Solomon, the nation of Israel split into two nations – Israel in the north (comprising 10 of the 12 tribes) and Judah in the south (comprising only Judah and Benjamin).

And Isaiah is living 200-300 years after this split at a particular time where Israel is often invading Judah.

This is 200 years before the destruction of the temple by Babylon, where the people were carried off to that land.

And almost 300 years before Ezra began to return with the exiles to rebuild the temple.

Now you may ask why that matters, but it matters a great deal.

Because in the pages of Isaiah, we have prophecies of that very return that would happen hundreds of years after Isaiah died.

And this very fact has caused some debate over the last 200 years or so.

Up until about 200 years ago, when the godless and poorly-named Enlightenment began to seek natural solutions to everything, no one of note ever questioned “who wrote Isaiah”.

But then, in the spirit of the Enlightenment, there arose theologians whose main goal was to remove anything supernatural or miraculous.

And so, rather than acknowledge what had been taken as truth as long as the scroll of Isaiah had existed, they proposed that there were 2 or even 3 different men who wrote the book of Isaiah.

And the place they split the book was where Isaiah’s lifetime would have ended, around 700 BC.

Thus, they said, chapter 40-66 were written by 1 or 2 other men, writing in Isaiah’s name.

And this ridiculous theory has gained so much traction that if you open a commentary today, you may find reference to “Deutero-Isaiah” or “Trito-Isaiah”, which mean second or third Isaiah.

This is just one more example of what errors people might believe with entirely no evidence other than someone’s “proof” that sounds more rational.

So let me respond to this:

1. There is nowhere to be found a “book” fragment of Isaiah that does not include the entirety of the book.

Until the 20th century, the oldest Hebrew version of Isaiah was the Masoretic text, compiled in the AD 600’s.

We had the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Old Testament, which was written in the 200’s BC (800 years before).

These two are in complete agreement as to the entirety of Isaiah.

But then the great discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls around 1950, and we had a Hebrew copy of Isaiah from around 150 BC – and it was the same text as the Masoretic and Septuagint.

2. The book of Isaiah has always been found in its current form, aside from minor textual differences, as a single work attributed to Isaiah.

3. Internal evidence ascribes individual parts of the book to Isaiah in the text.

4. The book of Isaiah is quoted in the New Testament more than any other book besides the Psalms. And those quotations come from EVERY section of Isaiah, and Isaiah is cited as the author of each section.

The only reason for people to believe in the multiple authors of Isaiah is their great desire to deny that Isaiah could have predicted what he did with such accuracy.

And while I would tend to agree that a prophets PRIMARY audience is the people of his own time,

I must also be quick to state that those God inspired to write the Scripture were also inspired to speak to God’s people of ALL TIME.

Thus, the New Testament authors celebrated the prophecies of Isaiah that were fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

The Ethiopian eunuch was led to Christ while reading the scroll of Isaiah (chapter 53 to be exact – in the passages usually attributed by liberal theologians to “Deutero-Isaiah”)

Jesus read and taught out of Isaiah 61 in Luke 4 when He taught in the synagogue in Nazareth – announcing

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, 19 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” - Luke 4:18-19

With that quick introduction complete, let’s look together at the first 20 or so verses in Isaiah 1.

We read them earlier, but it might be good if you follow along in your copy of the Bible.

He begins the book by calling it a “vision” in verse 1.

It is obvious he is referring to the entire book, not simply this first chapter because he says this vision came over the course of four kings of Judah.

But notice – it is a singular vision.

Not multiple visions or oracles as we might see in the other prophetic books.

A single vision, from a single source – the LORD God.

God calls the heavens and earth to witness His words.

And what is He calling all creation to witness?

The tale of His two unfaithful sons.

Children [Sons] have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. 3 The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” - Isaiah 1:2-3

There are some times when the conversion of “sons” in the generic in the ESV is troublesome, but they do give a footnote that the word is “sons”.

In this case, “sons” is the right word because it is the tale of two sons – the tale of two unfaithful nations – Israel and Judah.

It is interesting that Isaiah, after introducing himself as a prophet to Judah, speaks first here to the nation of Israel.

Judah is guilty also, but he calls out Israel in these verses.

Even though they were separate nations, God had brought them all out of Egypt, given them each His Law through Moses, and had kept them through all the years.

But Israel, the northern 10 tribes, in rebelling against David’s descendant on the throne in Jerusalem also rebelled against God more strongly.

They chased after other gods more quickly;

They tried to redefine the worship of the true God on their terms, not on God’s terms.

And they saw, time and again, civil war, internal rebellions, coups and overthrow of the northern king, and invasion from stronger nations to the north and east.

This is exactly what God had promised through Moses and Joshua would happen if they abandoned Him:

When you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and you will perish quickly from off the good land which He has given you.” – Joshua 23:16

Beginning in verses 5-7, God asks:

Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6 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. 7 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. - Isaiah 1:5-7

They had not heeded the calamities God had ALREADY sent on them as a warning.

The nation of Israel was in its last days, and they wouldn’t acknowledge it.

They may not have known WHEN the final blow would come that would erase them, but when they denied their desperate sickness, they were simply denying what everyone else could see.

The calamities they had experienced, rather than making them softer, more caring, even repentant of their sin – these had the opposite effect.

They had begun to live each man for himself, taking from others to hedge against the day of calamity.

And so that left Judah, called here the daughter of Zion, isolated and alone:

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 1:8

History tells us Jerusalem would be TRULY besieged, surrounded by armies, before the final deliverance of the Lord, but here they are simply alone in their worship of God in the way He commanded.

From there through verse 15, God condemns Israel’s solution (and perhaps Judah’s) to their dilemma: bring more sacrifices to God.

Like the person who feels guilt over their sin so much that they attend church more, but they never REPENT of their sin.

The people of Israel thought they could BUY God’s favor like all the idols around them.

Baal could be appeased through sacrifices they thought.

Burn your children to Molech, and he would be appeased, they thought.

So instead of treating God as holy, they tried to buy His favor.

People do that.

They attend church.

They give great amounts.

Not because they LOVE God, but because they want Him to accept them because of their offerings.

Like the sale of “indulgences” that caused Martin Luther to break with the Roman church, people would try to use their wealth, even wealth acquired from others through theft, to BUY their pardon.

But God would have none of that.

HE is REAL.

He is HOLY.

And He demands we approach Him in holiness.

What would God find acceptable?

Not their “hands covered in blood”.

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. - Isaiah 1:16-17

What does this add up to? REPENTANCE.

A few Wednesdays ago, we looked at this word “justice”, but for those who missed it:

Justice, as God is demanding here, is giving someone something they deserve or, perhaps a better word is require.

For someone who has committed a crime, justice is their sentence.

For someone who is starving, justice is giving them food and drink.

What we see here is God calling these people who had been oppressing their neighbors to begin to care for those same people.

But they had not.

They continued to rebel.

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. 19 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; 20 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

Let us REASON – this is a legal term, used often in Job – let us dispute, let us argue.

He is not inviting them or us to what we might call a fair fight, or a fight among equals.

He invites them to listen to Him and obey.

He invites them to GRACE – a grace only He can give.

We need to notice this: He has condemned them through the Law up to this point.

He has called heaven and earth to witness their sin, their rebellion, and their lawlessness.

They are entirely guilty, without a single plea or anything that would reduce their guilt.

And then He invites them: Come…

This is grace that was given to Noah, to Abram.

This is grace given through faith in those who are called by God to come.

This is their final possibility of peace with God – the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Friends, the world has many false remedies it tries to peddle to you.

It has false assurances of salvation that will tell you if God is blessing you with things and money, you are among His saved.

It has false tests that assure you that if you have done more good things than bad things, when you die, you will go to heaven.

It has a false gospel that says when God calls you to come and reason with Him that you have ANY leg to stand on.

You don’t.

You have no righteousness in yourself.

The only remedy for your sin and rebellion is God’s grace that you receive in faith.

The forgiveness He Himself accomplished on the cross of Jesus Christ.

The punishing of your sin in Jesus Christ, and the transfer of His righteousness to you.

It is only by that transaction that your sins can be made as white as snow, whiter than bleached wool.