Isaiah 1 - Part 1

1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

The beauty of God’s Word is that it makes things as clear as they need to be to prove them with perfect clarity.  Isaiah is possibly the most important of all the prophetic writers.  He is certainly the longest.  Notice how it not only states the name of his father, but the breadth of his ministry (Judah and Jerusalem) and the time period (in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah). 

A vast majority of those on earth today believe the Bible is a semi-historical book of poetry, religious law and fantasy and that we who believe are crazy; however, we who believe in God know it is far more.  Since we are intimately aware of the concept of, and battle between, spiritual good and evil we know that Satan has a vested interest in making it appear to be a fantasy.  It will be cold comfort to those millions who spend an eternity in Hell to find out it is more true than their own existence in this spiritually created world we live in.

2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me.

How do I know that there is a devil and a fallen nature in man?  It’s simple.  Israel had everything; they were chosen by God and had seen miracle after miracle over the years.  In spite of those miracles they chose to rebel and drift away from the life God chose for them.  He made specific rules for them and they obeyed those rules as long as flashy miracles and passionate leaders reigned.  It was during the day to day humdrum lives that they began to follow after the gods of those surrounding nations.  It wasn’t enough to be blessed and prosperous; they felt like they were missing something that the other ‘cursed’ nations were enjoying.

When God denies you some act or lifestyle it isn’t to make you miserable, but rather so you can actually have life more abundantly.  The arguments for sin are often powerful, logical and even sound altruistic and noble.  In reality they are simply the way Satan chooses to lead you astray from the truth of God’s perfect word and lifestyle.  Satan is the father of lies and a murderer (John 8:44).  Jesus continues in verses 45-47 to say that if we don’t hear His words …it is because we are not of God.

3 The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”

Have you ever heard someone called a dumb ox.  I would rather be a dumb ox or a donkey than to be a smart but devious trickster who leads others astray with flattering words and deeds.  Every day I hear from parents who want prayer for children who have strayed from the biblical teaching they were raised with.  Many have gone to college and become Buddhists or Muslims or nothing at all.  We send them to be taught by fallen depraved educators who believe nothing and teach less.  Unless our youth enter college with the zeal of an evangelist or the knowledge of Apostle Paul, we may well be sending them to their eternal doom.  This was the problem with Israel.  They did not obey God fully and the nations they allowed to live nearby them led them astray.  Professing themselves to be wise they became fools (Romans 1:22).

Israel was told to utterly wipe out any nation that lived near them.  God knew they would be curious and foolish if those nations were allowed to spread their demonic doctrines.  Today we read the demands of God to utterly wipe out these pagan nations and say He is an angry and evil God.  In reality, He tried to reach these nations for hundreds of years with no avail.  They spurned Him and tried to make His chosen people stumble.  When will we realize that apostasy and false gods are an eternal death sentence.  That does not mean they will cease to exist but suffer forever.  Our spirits are eternal.

4 Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.

Can you see the grieving parent here, weeping for His children.  He has fed and clothed them and protected them from all danger.  He warned them of their neighbors and they promised to stay away from their abominable practices.  We can’t seem to keep our focus for a day or week before we begin to temporize and say, “Does it really take all this?”  We take shortcuts in our prayers and only study occasionally.  Our parents are gone, dead and dust but we don’t even have their dedication.  We know what God’s Word says but …doesn’t that seem a bit – harsh.  Surely God can’t mean us to keep His Word perfectly …does He? 

Sins are fun, obedience is not.  Those other religions have temple prostitutes and for an offering to their god you can sleep with whoever you want.  Churches today offer beer night or wine tasting.  It’s all in good clean fun right?  Right?  It’s not our fault that God seems distant from us is it?  You might wonder sometimes why your prayers are not answered.  Is it because God is busy or because we are?  Lord (in name only), where are you?  God says, “I can’t hear you through your sins, attitudes and lusts.”

5 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.

God’s desire for Israel; for the entire earth, is that they be full of life and truth.  Israel has always been the test case of humanity.  They are no worse or better than anyone else except that God chose them.  He gave them His love and power and help and they decided that living by His standards was just too hard for them.  Instead of asking yourself what is wrong in your life and striving to fix it, when God chastens us in love we look for another god who will let us get away with anything we want.  Oddly enough the Jews have been blessed throughout history, even when they were in exile.

God’s word is full of those who have been chastened and have fled from the chastening rather than draw closer to God for healing.  I hear people every week saying, “I’m going to leave God.  He doesn’t treat me right.  I hate my life.”  Jesus said, “I come that you might have life and have it MORE ABUNDANTLY (John 10:10).  If He comes to give us more abundant life then why do we run from Him simply because parts of our lifestyle do not meet with He or His Father’s approval.  Just change.  God never changes.  It is up to us to come into line with His will (Deuteronomy 32:28-39).  He’s not going to change His will to make sin less sinful.

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. 8 And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a besieged city.

After her sins, Israel is abandoned and emptied of all value or wealth.  The people are captured, the wealth ransacked and carried off.  All the blessings God allowed them to obtain over the years have been scattered and dispersed.  The cities are burned and they were forced to watch impotently as the best and brightest are carried off as slaves.  Verse 8 is descriptive of a nation with nothing left to steal.  It describes the entire nation as an empty watchman’s booth after the harvest.  The value is gone and there is no longer any reason to guard it.  This is the nation as God sees it.  It is almost completely forsaken.

9 If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah. 10 Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!

God's faithfulness in the midst of Israel's total apostasy and idolatry is quite spectacular.  It would appear that He has accepted Abraham's prayer for leniency as a type of the sacrifice to come through Jesus.  In Genesis 18:25 he asks, “What if there are only 50 righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah?  Will you destroy them all?”  God said He would spare those cities for as little as 10 righteous.   He did not find them and though Abraham went that far and no farther, God in His grace went farther to the point where He would not allow His angels to destroy the cities while Lot and his family abode there (Genesis 18:1-19). 

Israel was not quite that bad.  There was a remnant left that were somewhat faithful to the God of Israel.  They were hungry and in a pitiful state.  The neighboring nations abused them and persecuted them (Nehemiah 1:1-3).  They were a laughing stock and derision.  This great Israel has fallen and their God has abandoned them (Amos 5:1-3).  Their crops are gone, the wealth is stolen and all the best and brightest have become slaves (Daniel 1:1-6).  What happened to the light, the virgin bride Israel?  They were supposed to be holy to God, His chosen bride, but they were unfaithful.

11 “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. 12 “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts?  Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me.

God looks at Israel and asks, “Why do you bother to sacrifice to me; assemble in my temple or bow your head before me?  You bow your head but not your hearts.  You kill animals without number and sacrifice with hands covered in the blood of man.  You have destroyed lives and wiped out the future of the poor and yet you burn incense to me day and night.  Stop the sacrifices and offerings.  I will not hear you or see your false piety (Isaiah 58:3-8).”  God does not answer pretty words and fair speeches.  God answers a pure and humble heart.

13 New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations — I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. 14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.

This is not an indictment against holy days or solemn assemblies.  This is against a solemn assembly to serve God with wicked hands.  This speaks against the lying pastor who preaches with skill and passion but then robs the members or cheats on his wife.  God abhors the apostle who goes about from church to church preaching God’s will while neglecting his own home or robbing the people.  When God says, “Be ye holy for I the Lord thy God am holy, He means it (Leviticus 11:44-45, 19:2).  God will not support or honor sin and deceit.  Your prayers will not be heard.

15 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.

Have you stolen your neighbor’s property or slain his ox or lamb for your food?  Have you killed in your anger and thought, “God does not see.”  There is nothing hidden from the eyes of God (Hebrews 4:13).  We pray to be seen by God.  Scripture says, “This is the confidence that we have that if we pray according to the will of God He hears us and if we know He hears us we will have the petition we have asked of Him (1 John 5:14).”  We can only have this confidence if our prayers AND our lives walk together.  God will not hear even a great prayer if we have a darkened and blood stained heart or hands.

16 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.

Saints, we cannot continue to curse the sinner or speak death to those who have fallen short.  God is giving grace, love and strength to those who are weak and He is turning former sinners into incredibly powerful saints.  Jesus came to redeem the world of murderers, liars, cheats and thieves and make them holy.  He will not allow us to continue in our sin and bear His name nor will He allow us to walk over and wound the weak and powerless (Mark 12:38).  God expects more from us and demands that we give it.  Our mandate is that we walk in the fruit of the spirit, “…love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance…(Galatians 5:22-23).  You may have just sped through that list.  Read it again slowly and ask yourself how you rate.

I often hear from widows who have been abandoned by their churches or have become ill or infirm and cannot make it to church.  Since they no longer can afford to bring an offering they are sometimes quietly written off the books of churches.  God knew a widow did not have much money to bring which is why he honored the widow who gave two mites (Mark 12:41-44).  We have become backward when we support the wealthy who support our salaries and have abandoned the widows who have given all and need our help (1 Timothy 5:9-10).  Just like scripture says there are schools to train prophets so they will not prophesy falsely, there are rules for widows.  God’s house must be in order. 

I remember a story where a king ordered his guard to search the woods and alleyways for a specific widow.  She had done him a good turn and he wanted to repay her.  In the search they discovered several destitute widows but not the one he sought.  His captain apologized for failing him in his search but the king responded that while he wanted to minister to one specific widow, God wanted to help them all.  He made sure they all had sufficient food to eat and a place to live.  When was the last time you gave widows or orphans a second thought? 

If a child does not have a father or mother then we in the church should offer that gift.  One reason homosexuality fails children in the home is that they need both father and mother to become well rounded.  God created us to live in body ministry, each part provides an important gift to the whole.  Two men cannot meet the mothering needs of a child while two women cannot meet the fathering need.  These are separate dynamics.  Every homosexual couple I have ever met has pseudo male and female role keepers in it.  There is always a masculine and a feminine partner.  Unfortunately these false male and female roll keepers cannot fill the place of a true male and a true female. 

The arguments of these couples is that there are many single parent households in the world and they are providing two parents.  There IS more security in a two parent homosexual home than there is in a single parent home but if you compare a loving two homosexual home to a loving two heterosexual home there is a vast gulf of difference.  Being comfortable in your own skin is a decision.  Our brains are capable of being trained to be at peace in almost any state.  What you feed grows.  If I feed homosexual tendencies they will grow.  If I feed heterosexual tendencies then they will grow.  If I feed anger and rage it will grow but if I feed, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” then that will grow.

God commands, I choose to obey or not.  God directs and I choose to follow or not.  One day, EVERY knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  Every Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Shinto and non-believer of every sort will confess this.  When they confess this they will be confessing that He is Lord of God’s Word and all that John chapter one says about Him.  By that time however …it will be too late.  The die will be cast and it will be the final bow of the vanquished.  Now, as God says, is the acceptable time (2 Corinthians 6:2).  Now is the day of salvation.  After we leave this body it will be too late.  Choose ye this day whom ye shall serve (Joshua 24:15).

18 “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.

As I said before, God is in the business of redemption.  If we repent and humble ourselves to His Word then He will honor us.  I have heard many in the church tell me that certain scriptures are not for us today.  Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away but My Words shall not pass away (Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33).”  His Words are primarily those found in what we call the Old Testament. 

A few of them have been curtailed because we are no longer under the law.  Not eating pork is under the law.  Tithing is not.  Sacrificing animals is under the law.  Prophecy is not.  I have had Christians tell me that their lack of tithing could not be the reason for not receiving God’s blessings.  They say that tithing is under the law.  Really?  Has God said we no longer must trust Him with our finances?  We no longer need to give?  Abraham paid tithes and HE was not under the law which came from Moses.  Forgetting the scriptural arguments in favor of tithing, experience alone will make it apparent that tithing is still honored today.  I find it curious that the laws many want to ignore are the ones that touch on money.  And here I thought Luke 6:38 was a New Testament scripture.  Could it be a flesh problem called greed?