Isaiah 1

Isaiah 1:1-9, The Weight of Sin The message of Isaiah begins with a declaration about who Isaiah is prophesying toward and when the prophesies were occurring. Isaiah was prophesying to Judah, the southern nation of the divided kingdom, and toward Jerusalem, the capital city of Judah. The reign of the listed kings gives us the approximate time frame of 767-686 BC. Isaiah likely began his prophetic work around 740 BC. Isaiah declares that he has received direct revelation from the Lord. This book is the recording of the things he heard and saw from the Lord.Lost In SinThe Lord begins by calling the heavens and earth to bear witness to the actions of the people.

The Lord has spoken and has laid his charge. The people are not what they are supposed to be. The Father has reared his children. He nurtured and cared for them only to have them rebel against him. The construction speaks the audacity and pain of what the people of done. One literal translation is: “ Sons I have nurtured and reared and they — they! — have rebelled against me!” (Motyer’ s translation).

The audacity of turning against your own father. How painful it is to have your children rebel against you, after all you have done to rear and care for them. This is unbelievable for these people to have done in the face of God’ s gracious acts of adoption, election, and rearing. This is inexcusable rebellion!

God cannot understand why his people do not know him or have a relationship with him. He describes two animals known for their stubbornness and speaks about how these stubborn animals have more sense than his people. The ox knows it owner and the donkey knows where he is fed and who feeds him. But God’ s people do not know their master and do not know who has been caring for them. They are more foolish than these stubborn animals. Our sins make donkeys look like geniuses. Unreasoning, stubborn beasts show more sense and appreciation than these people. We wander from false master to false master and are unmoved by God’ s love.

Unbelievably, it seems that the people are unaware of their condition. They are unable to see who they are and what they have done. Verse 4 exposes the depths of their sinfulness. God declares his woe upon this sinful nation. Sadly, they had been called to be God’ s holy nation (Exodus 19:6). But they are not the holy people of God.

They are the sinful nation. They are weighed down by sins. They are loaded down with their wickedness. Their sins are so great that God calls them children of evildoers and corrupted children. They have forsaken the Lord, despised/spurned the Holy One of Israel, and turned their backs on him, making them utterly estranged. They are like foreigners before God rather than his children.

Friends, our sins are no small thing before our God. We frequently do not see our sins with the gravity with which God sees our sins. We do not see our sins as offending the holy character of God. “ What is the big deal?,” we think in our hearts. When someone approaches us about our sins, we become defensive and can’ t understand what the issue is. Listen to what you have done. You have forsaken the Lord, despised the Holy One of Israel, and are no longer his child but a stranger who is cut off from him.

What is the big deal about sin? Everything! Sin is everything! Sin breaks fellowship with God. Rather than walking with God, we are worn down by our sins. God takes our sins seriously because it is an offense against him.

It is a separation from him. Sin is the same as children rejecting and rebellion against their parents. We are telling God that what he has done for us as our Father is insufficient and unacceptable. Therefore we will turn to the world to find our joy and declare that there is no joy in the Lord. What an awful declaration our sins make!

Look At Yourself!If this were not enough, then God tells us to look at ourselves and see our spiritual condition. God asks why we are so stubborn that we continue to experience punishment. Why do you continue to feel the consequences of your sins and yet stubbornly maintain your sinful ways? We are so stubborn in our sinfulness! We continue in sexual immorality and wonder why our marriages are suffering. We continue to act outside the boundaries of how husbands and wives are supposed to act with God as their head and can’ t figure out why we have problems.

We do not raise our children as God teaches and experience the consequences from it. We do not turn our hearts completely to the Lord and wonder why worship seems dry and why spiritual disciplines seems boring. We do wrong, act wrong, think wrong, and speak wrong and wonder why everything is wrong in our lives! There is only one reason why things are not going right: sin. Sin is the cause. There is sin somewhere and that is why nothing is right.

Listen to the words in verse 6 as God describes how sick we are. We are like a bruised and wounded body that has been left untended. We are disease-ridden from the top of our heads to the bottoms of our feet. We have wounds that are untreated, unbandaged, and unsoothed with healing ointment. Can you imagine if we truly did this physically? Can you imagine walking around with large open, festering wounds without any bandages, antibiotics, or medicines to heal? Do you see the picture? People would by asking us why we are not doing something about it! You are loaded down by sins, disease-ridden, and yet you cannot see that your sins are killing you. You do not see what sin has done to you.

The consequences of sin are further described in verses 7-8. The people cannot put two and two together. They cannot see that they are experiencing devastation in their lives and as a nation because they have chosen sins rather than choosing God. Their land is left to them desolate. Their cities are burned. Foreigners are consuming their land. If they would turn back God would restore the blessings he was previously giving to them. How sad to see the depths of our rebellion. Even with judgment falling all around them, the people will not turn back to God. We need to listen carefully to what God is teaching: rebellion has consequences. We will pay for our sins. Our lives will collapse under the weight of our sins.

God of GraceWhat should God do with these people? What would be right and just for God to do to a people that are stubbornly steeped in sins? They refuse to turn to the Lord. They are openly declaring that their joy is not in the Lord but in the things of the world. They have forsaken the Lord, despised the Holy One of Israel, and are like strangers before the Lord. What should God do about these things? Listen to the words of verse 9: 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 ESV) It would have been right for the nation, particularly Jerusalem, to have been consumed in judgment just like Sodom and Gomorrah. The contextual reference is likely 722 BC when the Assyrian nation came in and captured the northern nation, called Israel, and captured all of Judah also, except for the city of Jerusalem. Do you remember what happened so that Jerusalem was spared? Read 2 Kings 19:32-37. “ Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. 33 By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the LORD. 34 For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.” And that night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. 36 Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at Nineveh. 37 And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place. (2 Kings 19:32-37 ESV) Grace comes when there should have been utter destruction. If God had not intervened with grace, there would have been nothing left and no one left. But we see the faithfulness of the Lord to preserve a remnant. God said he would defend the city for his own sake and for the sake of David (implied is because of the promises he made to David). So God sends an angel of the Lord who kills 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in the night, causing the permanent retreat of Assyria. When Sennacherib returns to Ninevah, God’ s hand move again and Sennacherib is killed by his sons. God in his grace brings deliverance and victory.

ConclusionWhich master do we want to be with? Do we recognize God is our master, provider, and caregiver and therefore seek him, love him, and follow him? Or are we dumber than a donkey, rebelling against our master and refusing to enjoy what God has to offer his children? Repentance Driven Worship Isaiah 1:10-20, Isaiah’ s prophecy began with a declaration of the sinfulness of the people. God has charged them with rebellion, which is foolish rebellion because God had provided for the nation. Therefore the nation of Judah is experiencing judgment for rejecting the Lord. But in his grace, God has not allowed the nation to completely consumed like Sodom and Gomorrah. Survivors remain because God’ s grace continues to shine in the face of rejection and sin.

The Lord’ s Displeasure (Isaiah 1:10-11) The declaration begins with a serious insult to the nation, calling them spiritually Sodom and Gomorrah. The rulers and the people have a Sodom-like offensiveness to the Lord. In verse 11 the Lord describes his displeasure with these people. God does not call them “ his sacrifices” but “ your sacrifices.” God says these sacrifices are not for me but for yourselves. Listen to the threefold decrying of these sacrifices: “ What are the multitude of these sacrifices to me?” — “ I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams” — “ I do not delight in the blood of bulls.” These sacrifices mean nothing to God, add nothing to God, and do nothing for God. We must be amazed by this because God commanded these sacrifices.

Page after page through the book of Leviticus we read the commands for the sacrifices that God required. Consider what God is saying: you are giving the sacrifices I’ ve commanded and I do not want them and have had enough of them. I have no joy in these sacrifices you are bringing. The Lord is about to explain why he has had enough of their sacrifices and has no delight in them. But we before we explore those verses we need to consider that there is worship that God does not accept. There is worship that God does not delight in, does not want, and will not accept.

What The Lord Has Not Asked (Isaiah 1:12-15) All of their coming to worship with their animals is nothing more than the noise of shuffling feet and clacking of hooves on the pavement. There is plenty of religious activity, but God is not pleased with what is happening. All of this activity is just an incessant noise to the Lord. This is not what God wants. Therefore, do not bring any more of your vain offerings. The incense is an abomination.

The Lord cannot endure iniquity and solemn assemblies. Isaiah now explains to us the problem. The people are coming to God in worship while their lives are happily continuing in sinful living. Their unconfessed, unrepentant sins make their worship intolerable to God. God is offended by hollow worship. We often do not think that God hates our worship when we are not in repentance to him.

Listen to verse 14: “ Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates.” The equivalent statement in our time would be, “ I hate with all my heart.” God cannot stand their worship. He hates it with all of his heart. All that God sees is their blood stained hands. God cannot stand our worship when we are full of unrepentant sin. Further, notice that God declares that our prayers are blocked and we are out of relationship with God when we have unrepentant sins. The Lord declares the withdrawal of divine favor.

Their prayers are ineffective because their prayers are not matched with godly lives. Even though we make many prayers God says he will not listen because our unrepentant sins block our relationship with God.

What The Lord Requires (Isaiah 1:16-17) First, wash to make yourselves clean. There is cleansing of the heart that needs to occur. God is calling us to repent in obvious ways. Clean up your lives. Stop thinking that you can continue to practice your sins and still remain in God’ s favor. God does not want our worship if it does not come from repentant hearts.

Further, God calls for the people to “ remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes.” The literal rendering is important here because Isaiah is not simply saying to remove your evil deeds. He is calling us to remove the evil of our deeds. The acts may already be done, but the evil remains. Repentance is not simply the removing of evil deeds. Repentance means that after the deeds are past we go back and clean up the residual evil and damage that we caused. True repentance tries to make things right again.

This is why Zacchaeus is held up to us as an example of repentance that leads to salvation in Luke 19. He did not just stop the evil acts. He cleaned up the evil of his deeds. He decides from the heart to repay fourfold anyone who he has defrauded. That is the cleaning up the evil of our deeds that God is looking for. God wants to see hearts that try to clean the evil we have done.

Our worship becomes beautiful to God when we work to set right the evil we have done. This is exactly what Jesus taught in the teaching we call The Sermon On The Mount.

So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:23-24 ESV) God wants repentance driven worship. God wants our hearts to desire clean hearts and clean hands. Second, God wants us to abandon the old life. The Lord instructs the people to stop what they doing. Stop the old lifestyle because God will not accept us if we continue in the old life. Third, we must develop a new mind. “ Learn to do good” (Isaiah 1:16). God’ s people need to adopt a new way of thinking, not conforming their minds to the pattern of this world (cf. Romans 12:2).

Fourth, we must set new objectives for our lives and have a complete change of priorities. “ Seek justice” (Isaiah 1:17). Jesus commands us to seek first the kingdom of God (cf. Luke 12:31). God’ s people must change their pursuit from worldly things to godly things. Fifth, God specifies what needs to be put back to right. They need to correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, and plead the widow’ s cause.

Right the wrongs and do what God has called you to do!

The Lord’ s Invitation (Isaiah 1:18-20) As always, God is ready to meet us with grace and mercy. Listen to his beautiful invitation: “ 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.” (Isaiah 1:18 ESV) This is not an aggressive call to a legal matter. This is a compassionate call. Let us resolve our differences. Let us settle the matter. There is hope. But the hope is found in God’ s way, not in our ways. Your sins which are like blood stained scarlet can be made as white as snow. You can be made pure. You can be made clean. If you will present your blood-red hands to God in confession and repentance, he will wash you clean and your worship will be acceptable again.

Further, notice the choices that lay before us. If we will be willing and obedient, we will receive life and blessings. But if we refuse and rebel, then we will receive death and judgment. God is very clear about what is going on here. The only thing that keeps us from renewal with God and cleansing of sins is our own stubbornness. The path is not difficult to understand. God has not hidden the means for cleansing. God’ s appeal is not unreasonable. God is asking us to be open and responsive to him. Stop the old life (cease), develop a new mind (learn), and set new objectives and priorities (seek). This is what makes worship acceptable to God. Our worship is unacceptable when it does not come from the overflow of repentance. Our hope is found in God’ s way. Isaiah 1:21-31, Restore Us Again The Need For Purification (Isaiah 1:21-26) The first section of this part of Isaiah’ s prophecy is about the nation’ s need for purification. Isaiah 1:21-23 paints the sad picture of a righteous nation becoming full of sin. The faithful city has become a prostitute. The nation full of justice and righteousness is full of murderers now. The Lord is praising the past but lamenting the present. The Lord contrasts what he intended and what he received.

He intended faithfulness but received prostitution. He intended righteousness but received murder. One of the interesting observations we need to make is how infidelity to God leads to infidelity toward people. When we are not faithful to the Lord and his commands the result is the mistreatment of other humans. People become self-serving and live for their own personal advantages. Isa. 1:21:23 reflects the social situation in the nation.

The princes are rebels. They are friends with thieves. All the people love a bribe and run after gifts. There is no concern about others but the financial impact for ourselves. If I can make more money then I will do it without any regard for the impact it has on other people. Isaiah 1:23 continues to describe the lack of justice to the orphans and the failure to uphold the cause and needs of the widows.

They are seeking possessions and wealth at any cost. There is a blatant disregard for the innocent. They ignore the needs of the people and do not care about who is hurt.

We must feel the similarity of circumstances from Isaiah’ s day to our day. When we reject God as our ethical standard, there is nothing to stop us from committing all kinds of atrocities against each other. This is the critical failure of atheism or any removal of God from our society and from our government. If God is not the reason for constraining my actions, then what reason is there to constrain my desires? If there is no God or judgment, then why can’ t I rip you off? Why can’ t I steal from you?

Why can’ t I mistreat you? Why can’ t I harm you? Moral and ethical degeneration explodes when we reject the will of the Lord. If I do not answer to the Lord, then I answer to myself and I will do whatever I want. Government, corporations, and businesses will exploit people because they consist of people. People run these things.

Neighbor will raise his hand against his neighbor because there is no ethical or moral standard. Therefore, as verse 22 describes, there is total degeneration. The people are not pure but are completely tainted by sin. Their silver has become dross. Their best wine has been mixed with water. There is nothing good.

There is nothing pure or right in their actions. Social justice cannot take place through legislation. Social justice will only be effective when hearts and lives are faithful to the Lord.

Isaiah 1:24-26 describes the coming purification. God is determined to have a purified people. Notice the powerful self-declaration of the Lord in Isaiah 1:24 : “ The Lord, the Lord of Hosts, the Mighty One of Israel.” The word translated “ hosts” in most translations refers to a host of armies. This is a declaration of the power of the Lord, the Lord who commands heaven’ s armies, the Mighty One of Israel. The powerful Lord is going to act. He is going to get relief from his enemies and avenge himself on his foes. Please consider who the enemies of God are in this prophecy: the people of God! Judah and Jerusalem are the foes. They are the enemies of the Lord because of their sinfulness. They were supposed to be God’ s people but they have become God’ s enemies.

After reading the charges of Isa 1:21-23 and reading the firm, angry resolve of the Lord in Isaiah 1:24, what would expect God to do? Rather than total annihilation for sins, God promises redemption. Rather than turning his hand against the people in hostility, the Lord describes the coming restoration. The Lord is going to thoroughly purge his people of the dross that has corrupted their silver. God has the cleansing agents needed to remove the deep stains of our long-standing sins. God is able to recreate our lost purity, removing the dross, and making us pure again.

The removal of dross from metal implies putting the metal through extreme fire to melt away that impurities. What we see is that in one act God is able to accomplish two things. The discipline of the Lord brings purification and restoration. The declaration of judgment also brings the proclamation of salvation. God will restore the people so that they can be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city again. They will be restored to what they were at the first, likely a reference to the Davidic kingdom and Davidic promises.

Amazingly, even though the people had become his enemies at this point, this fact had not changed God’ s ultimate purpose. God is going to refine the people and remove their impurities. We learn that God is not pleased with the current condition. We are a mess. We are faithless. We have acted in self-serving and self-satisfying ways rather in godly ways.

Listen to what God is going to do and what God expects of his people. This is how the Lord will restore Zion.

The Restoration of Zion (Isaiah 1:27-31) God does not redeem his people by lowering his holy standards. This is important to recognize. There has been far too often a false dichotomy made between the nature of the Lord in the Old Testament and the New Testament. God was not full of wrath under the law of Moses but full of grace under the covenant of Christ. I hope that we have seen in our study of the prophets that God has always been full of grace. The apostle John made the same point in John 1:16 that we have received grace upon grace already given.

Grace had been given before Moses and under the Law of Moses. A greater overflow of grace has been poured out by our Lord through Jesus. God does not change his standards in his effort to restore his people. The people are going to be redeemed by justice and by righteousness. God is going to redeem the people and the people are going to respond with repentant hearts. This is an awesome promise.

God is going to pay a ransom price for his people. He is going to buy back the people from their sins and make them his own.

Who are those who will be redeemed by the Lord? Isaiah 1:27 tells us that those who return to the Lord will be redeemed. The ones who come back to the Lord are those who repentant hearts are the redeemed of God. Isaiah 1:28 tells us who are not the redeemed. Rebels are not going to the redeemed. Those who forsake the Lord are those who will be consumed in judgment. Then time went by as Israel waiting for the Lord’ s redemption. Listen to the prophetic words of Zechariah who was filled with the Holy Spirit when the forerunner to Jesus was born:

“ Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old…” (Luke 1:68-70 ESV). When Jesus died, we read about two men who are walking who are disappointed because, “we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21). Hope of redemption and the restoration of a relationship to the Lord was the long awaited hope of the people.

As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “ Be holy, because I am holy.” 17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’ s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. (1 Peter 1:14-20 NIV 2011) The scriptures call us to holy living because you were redeemed from this sinful, futile life through the blood of Jesus. We are redeemed at a cost to God that we can hardly understand. God has paid a tremendously high price to set us free from our sins. The people of God would be redeemed by the Lord. Restoration would be offered to the people through the blood of Jesus. Therefore, the apostle Paul would write this clear instruction: You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV) Peter and Paul are communicating the message of Isaiah in this part of his prophecy. God has come with restoration to those who will return to him. He has paid the price to set us free from our sins. Therefore, we have been purchased by God and belong to him. This is a glorious blessing. If we refuse to be God’ s possession then the word of the Lord has spoken in Isaiah 1:28. Those who forsake the Lord will be consumed. Rather than be consumed, we can belong to the Lord. He has paid an enormous price so that we can be restored to him and belong to him. Therefore, glorify God with your body.

This call to restoration is to turn away from false gods. False gods are like a tree with withering leaves and like a garden without water (Isaiah 1:30). There is no strength in them. There is no life in these gods. They cannot provide for you. They cannot redeem you.

They cannot give you the life you need. There is no reason to rely on them. The mighty think they are strong because of their gods they rely upon. But they are tinder and a spark. God can buy you back from the useless, empty way of life. He can take the dross from your life and refine you into silver.

He can restore us to the relationship we were meant to have, but was severed because of our sins. Turn back to God and find forgiveness. Forsake your reliance on false gods. Through Jesus you will be redeemed if you will give your life to him.

Isaiah 1:1

1:1

Isaiah 1:10

Before taking up the comments of each verse, I request the reader to indicate, either in bis Bible if he Is marking it, or in whatever place he is making notes, that all of the verses from the present one through the end of the chapter, and through the first 6 verses of the next chapter, are to be regarded as one paragraph with one general subject. That has to do with one of the outstanding apparent contradictions in God’s tbreaten- ings and predictions against His people. In more than one place they have seemed to be condemned for doing some of the very things that the Mosaic system required. We cannot be-lieve that God would tell a man to do something, and then condemn him for doing it. When it seems to he so, there Is an explanation in the premises and we should examine them for it. I have composed at length a note, based on the truths and facts of history, both sacred and profane, that fully clarifies this seeming difficulty, and the reader is urged to consult that note again with extreme care, before proceeding with the study of these comments.

That note is offered in the comments on Isaiah 1: 10, volume 3 of this Com:- MENTABY. 1 shall now take up the comments on the verse of this paragraph, followed with the others in their order, explaining them in the light of the general subject of the suggested general paragraph. The note referred to will explain why God hated their feast days. In their solemn assemblies they used sweet incense under the law, and the only use that could be made of it would be to smell it. God refused to smell the odor of their incense for the same reason that he hated their feast days.