Isaiah, The Prophey & Chapter 1

Isaiah 1

Verses 2-9........A courtroom scene in which the Lord is the plaintiff and nation Israel is the defendant. Instead of responding to God’s ultimate care and provision for them, these people have failed to give Him the loving obedience that He is due.

In verse 2 God is wanting all if heaven and earth to hear and see His people that have rebelled against Him.

God intended for Israel to be a channel of blessing to the nations, instead He calls on them to look on their shame.

Verse 3.......Animals appear to have more powers of reason than God’s people who have broken fellowship with Him.

Verse 4.... “Holy One of Israel”.......this is Isaiah’s special Title for God........it is found 25 times in his book.

6 times in the rest of the OT.

Isaiah also uses “Holy One” 4 times, “Holy One of Jacob” once.

It seems this is used in the Hebrew, in a way of contrasting God’s holiness with the sinfulness of all of Israel.

Verses 5-8 seem to indicate the fruits of their sinfulness!

There are discussions on which attack Isaiah is referring to, but no one really knows for sure....the idea however, is not so much when and who, but that this attack is part of God’s judgement on a sinful nation!

I spoke Sunday from Romans 1......where God turned them over......it seems that this is what is happening here.

If we get lost in the who’s and where’s, then we will lose sight of the why!

We will lose sight of our Owner, The Lord!

“Daughter of Zion” is a reference of Jerusalem “The Holy City”

Verse 9......Except for the “Lord of Hosts”........this pictures God as a mighty warrior, with a Leader of mighty armies.....

Paul references this verse in Romans 9:29 “And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.”

God rained fire and brimstone on these 2 Canaanite cities, because of their deep sinfulness.

Because of this, it became an expression/example of God’s temporal judgement against any people.

Matthew 10:15 “Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.”

Had God’s Grace not intervened, He would have judged Israel in the same way!

Verses 10-20.......I read this in my studies about the next few verses: “Isaiah turns now to the religious life of the nation. The placing of this topic between his review of national fortunes (2–9) and social conditions (21–23) is significant. The kernel of every national problem is how people relate to God. They cannot be right anywhere if they are wrong here. Religion determines everything.

J. Vernon Mcghee spoke about this and actually wrote a book/essay, inspired by this chapter called “A Declaration of Dependence”

In it he writes this: The historian Gibbon gives five reasons for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. The first step down is the undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society. Second, higher and higher taxes, the spending of public money for free bread and circuses for the populace. Third, the mad craze for pleasure, sports becoming every year more exciting, more brutal, more immoral. Fourth, the building of great armaments when the great enemy is within — the decay of individual responsibility. And fifth, the decay of religion, fading into mere form, losing touch with life, losing power to guide the people. These were the downward steps that Rome took, Greece took, and which all the great nations of the past have taken.

Verses 10-15.......God had had enough of their rituals......their heart was not right. They put on a good show....

In a sense they did what they thought they had to do, to be ok, but their hearts was not toward God.

It was toward themselves......It was not “I sinned against God”.....it was “I need to do this to be ok”

No repentance!

God was sick of them going to the altar, stretching their hands out in prayer and He knew their heart when they started!

He started off this by stating that in essence they were the exact replica of Sodom and Gomorrah.

The rituals are not themselves a burden, for the Lord commanded them to start with. It is not the use but the abuse of divine ordinances that vexes him. This is true even of prayer (15), for we can ‘pray on Sunday and prey on our neighbours for the rest of the week’.

Verses 16-20.......A call to repent and run to True Mercy and the effects if you do not!

Wash yourselves..............Seek Justice.....Repentance!

Defend the orphan and plead for the widow......these are illustrative of the good works....

Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

Learn to Good.....Jesus tells us in........Matthew 11: 29 “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”

Verse 18 is powerful........

First, come let us reason together....as was spoken of in verse 3 the ox and donkey have the power of reasoning.......knowing their owner......Daughter of Zion do the same.......

It is though God is calling them to hear again the Truth of His Holiness and His Graciousness!

Their sins were scarlet and crimson(so are ours)............The 2 colors speak of the guilt of those whose hands were “covered in blood” (vs. 15)......it speaks of extreme iniquity and perversity.

Coming to God.....Repentance......2 Corinthians 7:10 “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”

This is the idea in this chapter........turning away from their wickedness and turning to God and He will make you white as snow, clean like wool.

The blood guilt has been removed! Psalm 51:7 “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”

Consent and Obey.............Repent and follow Jesus Christ and reap the benefits of being a “joint-heir” with Christ.

Refuse and Rebel...........you will be devoured......

Notice the contrast.....”Eat or be eaten”

Either way it will be God that does it...........Blessing or Judgement.

Verses 21-31.......The rest of the chapter recounts Jerusalem’s disobedience, with an account of God’s action to purge.

Verse 24.......These titles that are used here by God through Isaiah, emphasizes His role as the rightful judge of His sinful people.

Verses 25-27.....God’s judgement of His people has future restoration as it’s goal.

They will be put in captivity, as we read in Daniel, they were delivered from that. But God goes even further in the future to the Millineal reign of Christ, where Jerusalem will reign supreme over the nations.

Verse 28-31.....More judgement on those who refuse and rebel!