Isaiah

Introduction, Chapter One, First Lesson

The ministry of Isaiah begins at the end of the life of King Uzziah and continues through the reigns of Jothan, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. These were kings of the southern kingdom, called Judah. We are some 260 years from the end of David's reign and the nation is very different than when he ruled it.

The northern tribes had revolted during the reign of David's grandson and had founded their own kingdom, ruled over by a succession of interlopers and would-be kings who led them down a road of moral and spiritual ruin. The southern kingdom fared some better with a mixed bag of David's lineage, some very good, some very bad and some just mediocre.

During Isaiah's lifetime, he saw some of the best and some of the worst. Let me tell you something about the men who were king while Isaiah was prophet.

Uzziah (also called Azariah) was a good and godly king who reigned for 52 years. He had great success in defeating his enemies and in fortifying the nation, especially the city of Jerusalem. But there were two great moral and spiritual failures of his reign as well. He did not get rid of the 'high places' where false gods were worshiped. And, in a fit of pride, he undertook to usurp the office of priest for which he was smitten with leprosy the last years of his life. It was in the last year of the life of Uzziah that Isaiah first encountered the Lord in that great vision which he records in chapter six.

Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was pressed into duty as king early because of his father's leprosy. This had forced Uzziah to live in isolation and kept him from the daily affairs of the court. Though Jotham only ruled sixteen years, his rule is considered a good one. He did not try to enter the temple like his father but he did not get rid of the 'high places' either.

As I thought about these two men, I could share in the frustration of men like Isaiah, Hosea, and Micah who prophesied during their reigns. As much as I have liked a couple of our presidents, including the present one, I have been disappointed that they have not provided more leadership in seeking to rid our culture of its more corrupt elements.

Ahaz, the son of Jotham, was, without a doubt, one of the worst kings that Judah had. He reminds us of a king of the northern kingdom who had a similar name, Ahab. Ahaz was a devotee of false gods. He not only worshiped the popular one's of Israel, he imported Syrian paganism as well. Ahaz closed the temple, raided the treasury, and established false worship in every city of Judah. We can only imagine the frustration and sense of failure which Isaiah must have experienced during the mid-point of his ministry. It must have seemed to him that the more he preached the worse things got. I have had that feeling as well. I will leave you to make any presidential comparisons.

Hezekiah, the son of Azaz, was a different from his father morally and spiritually as any person might be. He restored the temple but he went further and re-established the worship of God in Judah. Not only that but he oversaw the destruction of the places of false worship. I think the conversion and success of Hezekiah can be greatly attributed to the faithful ministries of men like Isaiah who kept preaching repentance even when it seemed that no one was listening. God greatly blessed him and kept the Babylonian kingdom from invading them during his lifetime. Hezekiah was a man with failures but his record was one of great spiritual leadership and blessing.

Again, I can somewhat relate to this situation. We know that the judgment of God upon our country is inevitable. He has never allowed a country which once acknowledged Him to depart from Him without severely judging it. But we still hope for a revival which will at least push that judgment out into the future a while longer.

We know little about Isaiah other than that he was a historian and one of the most prolific of the prophets of the Old Testament. His writings are more clear and easy to understand than many of the others. He seems to have had a firm grasp on the issues of redemption and a clear view of the Messiah Who would suffer and die to redeem His people.

Idolatry had always been a problem, from the very early days of the invasion of the land, when Israel did not totally drive out the Canaanites. It had been largely suppressed in the reigns of Saul and David but had returned during the reign of Solomon who had foolishly and wickedly worshiped false gods. By the time of Isaiah, it had become a large problem, though many people remained faithful to the ancient form of worship. With the rising of idolatry, there was a decrease in morality and spirituality as well as the threat of God's impending judgment.

We can assume that Isaiah helped to stem the tide of wickedness and had a part in pushing back the inevitable date of God's discipline. I believe that we can credit him at least partially with the great revival that occurred during the reign of Hezekiah. Let us explore together how he ministered and seek to draw from him some encouragement for ourselves and our own country.

Isa 1:1-2

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.

2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. (KJV)

We are told, first of all, that what we are about to hear was not a single message but one which Isaiah continued to feel impressed of God to preach throughout his ministry. I have wondered why he did not begin with chapter six, the beginning of his call but I think I know now. He is taking the first few pages of his book to give us the theme of his ministry and life which he considers as more important than the event which initiated him on his course as prophet. These first words tell us of his assessment of the situation and how he responded to it. They also tell us that he did not quit when it seemed that things were 'generally OK' during Jothan, when all seemed lost under Ahaz, or even when God gave great revival under Hezekiah. He continued to preach the same thing.

The core of the problem is clearly stated in v.2. God has greatly blessed a people, even calling them His children, and they have rebelled against Him. There are few of us who cannot relate in some way to the picture that is being painted here, especially those of us who have grown children. There is little that tears open the heart of a parent as having a child who forsakes what he/she has been taught and goes into rebellion against it.

In our text, God is the Father and Israel are the children. The ways they have forsaken Him will be described in detail, but the fact of their forsaking is beyond excuse. We only have to consider all that God has done for them since the days of Abraham to realize that He has invested heavily in them and time and again has rescued them from certain destruction. Any father who has invested so in a child never understands that child's rebellion.

Isa 1:3

3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. (KJV)

First of all, we have the rank stupidity of such behavior. Neither the ox nor the donkey are considered as particularly intelligent animals in any culture. They are beasts of burden, 'dumb animals' if you will. Yet they have a basic and rudimentary wisdom about some things. They know their owners and they know who provides for them.

I have seen farmers drive up to the pasture where their cattle are and honk the horn and then seen the whole herd turn and head toward the barn. There were two things they knew. (1) They knew who was honking, and (2) they knew that it was time to eat. Not one of them stayed in the pasture and refused to come when called. Long practice and habit of the farmer faithfully providing for them had conditioned them to come when he called.

But human beings, for all their intelligence, are at times dumber than an ox and more stupid than a donkey. Even in the face of all that God has done for them, they lose sight of the knowledge of Him as their Father, their Owner, their Sovereign Lord.

According to Paul in Romans 1, even the unbelievers are without excuse concerning certain knowledge of God. But how much more those who know Him, who have been provided for by Him, who have been rescued and kept by Him times without number? How can such behavior be explained or rationalized? It cannot. It is just plain stupid!

Those who were so far surpassed in knowledge and perception even by animals, and so thoroughly put to shame by them, were not merely a nation, like any other nation on the earth, but were "Israel," descendants of Jacob, the wrestler with God, who wrestled down the wrath of God, and wrestled out a blessing for himself and his descendants; and "my people," the nation which Jehovah had chosen out of all other nations to be the nation of His possession, and His own peculiar government. This nation, bearing as it did the God-given title of a hero of faith and prayer, this favourite nation of Jehovah, had let itself down far below the level of the brutes. (from Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)

Isa 1:4

4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. (KJV)

With v. 4 there commences a totally different rhythm. The words of Jehovah are ended. The piercing lamentation of the deeply grieved Father is also the severest accusation. The cause of God, however, is to the prophet the cause of a friend, who feels an injury done to his friend quite as much as if it were done to himself (Isa 5:1). The lamentation of God, therefore, is changed now into violent scolding and threatening on the part of the prophet; and in accordance with the deep wrathful pain with which he is moved, his words pour out with violent rapidity, like flash after flash, in climactic clauses having no outward connection, and each consisting of only two or three words. (from Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)

(1.) According to the choice and determination of God, Israel was to be a holy nation (goi kadosh, Ex 19:6); but it was a sinful nation

(2.) In the thorah Israel was called not only "a holy nation," but also "the people of Jehovah" (Num 17:6, Eng. ver. 16:41), the people chosen and blessed of Jehovah; but now it had become "a people heavy with iniquity."

(3.) Israel bore elsewhere the honourable title of the seed of the patriarch (Isa 41:8; 45:19; cf., Gen 21:12); but in reality it was a seed of evil-doers (miscreants).

(4.) Those who were of Israel were "children of Jehovah" through the act of God (Deut 14:1); but in their own acts they were "children acting destructively (bânim mashchithim), so that what the thorah feared and predicted had now occurred (Deut 4:16,25; 31:29). (from Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)

In the Hebrew a three-fold declaration was customarily used for emphasis. A statement was considered complete when it appeared in such a form. Isaiah uses a four-fold declaration here to make the point that the wickedness of Israel had gone beyond all bounds, stretching even the conventions of human language to describe it.

For those who know God, know of God, and know His word to rebel against Him amounts to a denial not only of God but also of their very identity. How often have I said to my self when struggling against my own sins and corruption, 'this is not me, this is not who I want to be.'

Ps 107:2

2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; (KJV)

We are called upon to identify ourselves both to ourselves and to those around us, and we do so more with behavior than with words. The redeemed of the Lord are to behave as those who are indeed redeemed, bought out of the slave market of sin.

There is a three-fold declaration of how they have falsely identified themselves: 'they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, they are gone away backward.' But the English Bible does not fully capture the intensity of Isaiah's words.

There was apostasy in heart: "They have forsaken Jehovah." There was apostasy in words: "They blaspheme the Holy One of Israel." The verb literally means to sting, then to mock or treat scornfully; the use of it to denote blasphemy is antiquated Mosaic (Deut 31:20; Num 14:11,23; 16:30). (from Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.)

Deut 31:20 For when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey; and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat; then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant. KJV

Num 14:11 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? KJV

The prophet here envisions the normal course of the life of the believer as going forward, away from a former life and toward a better one which is captured in Paul's statement of his life's goal.

Phil 3:8-15

8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. (KJV)

According to Paul, there is a mark, a finish line, which lies out ahead of ed more like the wicked, more like the world, more entangled and enthralled by its' pleasures and its' comforts. But it is more than that for the professing believer. To go backward is to blaspheme the Lord, to treat Him with scorn.

Now we have all at one point or another experienced something that is at least similar to what is being described here. We have all done things for people, sometimes very large things, and have had them reject us (even though they kept what we had done for them). The sting of that is very real and the anger that it stirs in us is sometimes very profound. Imagine, then, how the Lord of Heaven senses that He has been blasphemed when we take the mercy and grace of the Lord Jesus, purchased at such an incredible price, and then slide backwards still into apostasy from Him. No wonder He is provoked to anger!

I may be speaking to someone who recognizes that he/she is going backward rather than forward. Will you not see what you are doing and the crime of it all? Will you not seriously consider the direction that your life is going and seek after God to be restored?

I know that such a confession, even to yourself, is incredibly painful. But if it is true, then it must be faced. Are you going forward? What is the evidence? Do others see it? Or are you going backward, blaspheming that holy name by which you have been called? Oh my friend, will you not acknowledge your sin and allow the people of God to help you pray your way back from destruction?

Let Isaiah express aloud the true emotions of your soul if this is indeed the case with you.

Isa 1:5-6

5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. (KJV)

Your soul is wounded, bruised, and filled with sores that are not healing. It is the result of the direction you have been going, backward and not forward. Will you not return to the One Who was wounded so that you might be healed?

Isa 53:5-6

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (KJV)