Isaiah 1
FAITHFUL WARNINGS
God has His servants for the time and places of His choosing. He knows each personality and each situation as well as the condition of the people to whom He wants them to minister. The population of a nation, takes their attitude and actions from those who lead the nation, like the four kings who ruled during the time of Isaiah’s ministry. Those who led God’s people in the past have left a legacy for young people who want to please the Lord and make their lives count for the sake of the kingdom of God. That will make their purposeful living now, have meaning for them, and will let them send “treasure” ahead to heaven that will benefit them and others for eternity.
Isaiah was a young man when he came on the stage of the nations of Israel and Judah. He was a patriotic prophet who was concerned about revival for his people and longed for that to bring God’s people back to the blessings of their covenant relationship with Him. He is considered to be the chief of the prophets because of the great scope of his prophecies that began in the time of the four kings mentioned, and goes all the way to the new heavens and new earth in the distant future. Also, the descriptions of our Lord Jesus Christ and of God’s grace to erring people, stand out as beacons of hope to Jews and Gentiles alike.
In Isaiah’s prophecies to Judah concerning the sins of Israel and Judah, he does not hold back from denouncing them because of their sins. He likely saw what happened to those Jews of the northern ten tribes when the Assyrians came and took them away as captives to be dispersed among the various nations of the Assyrian empire. He could see the same things happening in Judah if there weren’t some changes made, and genuine repentance, and turning back to the Lord and His sovereign governance.
Judah was still an identity as a nation, but was in serious trouble with the God regarding their national covenant with Him. They were willfully sinning against God and didn’t seem to care. They were rebelling against Him and refusing to submit to divine guidance and authority. They had been given prosperity as God acted as a Father to them in making provision for their every need. But the moral and spiritual relationship that was intended between the Lord and His people had been broken by the people. Consequently, judgment was coming which is the overriding theme of the first thirty-nine chapters of the book of Isaiah. As a chosen people who broke the covenant agreement, they were bringing judgment down on themselves.
The attitude and actions of blessed people like us, are not hidden in any way from the holy God with whom we have to do. It is wise for us to ask ourselves, “To what degree do I want to live for the Lord? How far am I willing to go in obedience to Him? How seriously do I want to sanctify the Lord God in my heart so that I will not sin against Him?” Our Owner is the Lord Jesus Christ who has purchased us with His own blood. Our Master who has the “crib, the manger,” of the word of God for our nourishment, has made full provision for all we need to maintain a close happy relationship with Him.
But sin and guilt isolate us from our Lord in the same way it happened to the people of Judah. God didn’t abandon His people. They abandoned Him, and the same thing can happen to us. Our sins will cut us off from our fellowship with our Lord. When that happens, and we face the fact that we have turned our back on the Lord and what we know He wants from us, confession of sin and not returning back to it, will bring us back to Him. Our Lord is willing to forgive those who deal appropriately with their own sin. To see ourselves and sin as our righteous, holy God sees it, should awaken our consciences. An awakened conscience doesn’t compare its sins with those of other people and think it is not too bad. It faces the responsibility that there is absolutely no justification for sin, and deals with it. There is no excuse for sin nor can we make comparisons of my sins with those of other people. All sin is against God and must be dealt with by holy justice and judgment, either by me in confessing and forsaking it, or by God if I don’t.
Isaiah warned the people of what would happen when judgment came on God’s people by those who were their enemies. There would be no place to hide and they would be as defenseless as a field of “cucumbers.” Open ungodly sin like what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah, is absolutely inexcusable. When people hear warnings but do not obey, and are not willing to return to the Lord in repentance and faith, they can do what they want but it has no purpose.
Making sacrifices, religious activity, giving to charitable causes, keeping religious holidays and going through religious forms are a burden and offense to God. Prayers made by those who do not repent of sin nor live by faith in Christ, mean nothing. Guilt is not taken away by doing things our way instead of God’s way. However, we might say things, or we might try doing things for God in our own way and on our own terms, but that is an exercise in futility. But when we apply God’s word to our conscience, and in our heart, return in genuine faith to the Lord, the power of the word of God takes effect. Self-judgment will lead us back to the Lord who is willing to reason with a repentant person. In the case of Isaiah making this call, he let the people of Judah know that God was willing to reason with a repentant nation. This a clear Gospel principle. The invitation of our righteous God to an ungodly sinner is real and purposeful. God is ready and willing to cleanse the vilest sinner and make them fit for heaven “When they come as a sinner to Jesus.”
Contrary to that attitude is this fact. If the invitation to come to God and reason with Him is refused, and if rebellion is evident instead of contrition and confession of sin, there will be unavoidable judgment that cannot be stopped. God has given His word. He is willing to forgive and cleanse the repentant sinner. But He will definitely bring righteous judgment on the rebellious one who refuses His offer of grace.
Jerusalem and Judah had become as abhorrent to God as a woman who was once an honorable, just and clean- living lady, turning willfully to one who sells herself on the streets for money. That is how God looks at those who were once committed to faith in Him and obedience to His word, but then turn to idolatry and spiritual adultery for personal gain or social popularity. To turn from whole-hearted commitment to God for the love of money or the pleasures of the world and what it has to offer, is to open one’s self up to a just judgment from the Lord.
The refining of the soul is painful and costly, but is necessary for a sinning believer in order for them to return back to God. Then we can become what he intended us to be when He saved us. The last part of this first chapter has warnings and promises mixed. Israel as a nation has suffered and will suffer as they have through the generations that have come and gone. The nation is waiting for God’s promised recovery, but that cannot happen until there is real repentance. We as individual believers need to rid ourselves of anything and everything that is in any way taking the place of the Lord God in our hearts. Our main interests and commitments identify those things that are of most importance to us.