Isaiah 1 - 2

The Indictment and Judgment of Judah!

MANDATORY REMEDIAL TRAINING ON THE LAW OF MOSES.

ATTENDANCE WILL BE TAKEN.

At this point they might be asking, “Can’t we just go to the temple and perform the rituals instead? That would be easier (and more profitable) than doing what is right in our everyday life and helping others.” “Can’t we just be outwardly religious one day a week and then resume our life like everyone else does?” The answer is NO! You can’t carve out a few hours a week for God and then live like the non-believer the rest of the week.

A similar message was given to the northern kingdom of Israel by the prophet Amos, an older contemporary of Isaiah. Like Isaiah, Amos condemned the empty worship of the people who were outwardly very religious, but unethical in their everyday behavior. Amos 2:4-7, “This is what the Lord says. . . they have rejected the law of the Lord and have not kept his decrees, because they have been led astray by false gods, the gods their ancestors followed. . . They sell the innocent for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. Father and son use the same girl and so profane my holy name.”

It appears that Judah was going the same way as Israel.

Verse 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 as crimson, they shall be like wool.”

“Come now, let us reason together.” This expression suggests that he wants to avoid bullying people into obedience, but rather to help them to understand the reasonableness of doing what was right. “Let’s think about this for a moment.” Rather than taking an authoritarian approach, where the people are dictated to, he is taking an authoritative one, explaining and guiding the people to want to do what was required.

Isaiah described Israel’s sin as having the color of scarlet and crimson (verse 18). Scarlet was a colored dye obtained from an insect found in some oak trees. Once stained with scarlet, it was nearly impossible to remove it from a garment.

To color a fabric scarlet, it would be soaked in a scarlet dye. This staining process illustrates how sin had permeated the fabric of society. The people are soaked in sin. Archeologists have recently found a 3,800-year-old piece of scarlet colored fabric. As for crimson, it comes from another insect, the cochineal. The dye that is produced “resists degradation with time.” That sounds like a good description of deeply imbedded, nearly impossible to remove state of sinfulness of God’s people.

Verse 19, “If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.”

Notice the word “if” indicating again the conditional nature of the Mosaic Covenant. Blessing come IF you obey me, curses if you do not.

Isaiah then targets the leaders, the influencers in society. Verse 23, “Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them.

Here is Isaiah Judah giving an appraisal as to how they have done in obeying the Law of Moses. This brings to mind the appraisal that Jesus gave to his church in Revelation chapters 2 & 3. There you find a series of letters written to the churches of Asia minor. There Jesus gives each church an appraisal of how they were doing. Some have strayed from the truth of scriptures, others compromised with the world rather than transforming it.

Have you ever wondered what Jesus would say if he were to give your church an appraisal? How would your congregation be rated as to how they fulfilling the great commission of Matt. 28 (“go into all the world, preach the Gospel, make disciples (students) baptize and teach) or in caring for the needy and keeping yourselves from the corruption of the world (James 1:27)? Would a modern-day prophet say, “Well done” or would he say that the churches nonessential activities were crowding out the essential ones? What if God sent a prophet to your house with a personal assessment?

As God is speaking to his people through Isaiah, I picture a parent speaking to a teenage son. Imagine that your son, who has always been a compliant, hard-working, conscientious student, just got his driver’s license and his first car. You know where this story is going, don’t you? You noticed that he is spending less time studying his lessons from school and his grades are starting to decline. He’s also starting to hang around with a new set of friends who are not having a good influence on him. He has become more rebellious, disrespectful, lazy etc. So, you sit him down and express your concern for the direction his life seems to be going in. You explain to him the bright future that you envision for him and the hopes and dreams that he once had. You encourage him to rethink how he is living and urge him to get back on track and focus on his bright future. The conversation ends with a hug and later he thinks about what you say. Soon, it is hoped, he cleans up his room, gets a nice haircut, begins to use forgotten words like, “please”, “thank you” or “Yes” and eyerolling disappears almost altogether. Yes, miracles can still happen. This is how I picture God speaking with Judah. Not as a demanding, authoritarian, tyrannical parent, but a reasoning, gentle, authoritative parent. And if that doesn’t work, He can always switch to the authoritarian parent, become more like a Marine drill sergeant who rather than reasoning with someone, plants a size 12 boot in their backside and smacks them on the side of his head.

Israel wasn’t just another nation among many. God had a special plan for these people. God chose Abraham and his descendants, the nation of Israel, to not only bring into the world the Messiah, but to create a nation of priests and prophets; to reintroduce monotheism, and the worship of the one true God. In Deut. 7:6 Moses wrote, “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his “treasured possession.” Amos 3:2 says, “You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth; therefore, I will punish you for all your sins.”

He didn’t choose them because they were better than anyone else. Nor did he choose them to give them privileges only. He chose them to give them special responsibility, which, so far, they had failed to carry out.

God is like a parent who looks at his little child and pictures him someday being presented a Nobel Prize as he proudly sits in the audience. Instead, he’s sitting in the back of a conference room as his son appears before a parole board to determine if he is going to remain incarcerated or be let loose on society.

Judah’s disobedience has persisted for so long that God finally had to discipline them.

Verse 24-25, “Therefore. . . I will turn my hand against you.”

Now that is something you don’t want to hear from God, “I will turn my hand against you.” But He does this not to destroy them, but to restore them. “I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities. I will restore your judges as in days of old, your counselors as at the beginning.” When God is done refining them, “You will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City, Zion will be redeemed with justice, her penitent ones with righteousness.”

But what about those who refuse this reformation effort? Verse 28, “But rebels and sinners will both be broken, and those who forsake the Lord will perish.” He goes on to say, “You will be ashamed because of the sacred oaks in which you have delighted; you will be disgraced because of the gardens that you have chosen.” The sacred oaks are referring to the locations where offerings were made to pagan gods which included sexual immorality.

In Chapter 2 Isaiah jumps ahead in tome to when Jesus returns to reign which is described in Revelation chapters 19-20. By doing so God reminds His people of the bright future He has for them. He reminds them of who they are and that they should be acting like God’s chosen people, not like the world. He speaks to them about a time referred to as “the last days.”

When are these “last days” or “end times” that we hear about today? The last days began at the first coming of Christ. The fact that we now are living in the last days is seen in Heb. 1:1-2, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.”

When we are asked, “Do you think we are living in the last days or the end times?” I would say “yes” if you define “end times” as the time between the birth of Jesus and the rapture of the church.

These terms are like the term “old”. Am I old? It depends on how I define the term “old.” When I was in my twenties, I thought 70 was old. Now that I’m 76 I think that 70 is young. Am I in my personal “end times” or “last days”? I’d have to say yes, based on the average life expectancy. But I am not in terminal decline or in hospice care, yet.

Chapter 2:2-5 describes the millennial reign of Jesus. “In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains. . . and all the nations will stream to it.” There “he will teach us his ways. . . he will judge between the nations. . . They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”

In the millennium or the Kingdom of God, neither London, England nor Washington, D.C. will be the center of the world. It will be Jerusalem. During this time of peace all the militaries of the world will be disbanded, and all the weaponry will be repurposed for peaceful use.

“Beating swords into plowshares” is done after wars. After World War 2 armored fighting vehicles and tanks were converted into bulldozers and tractors for logging and farming. Ships were sunk off shore to create artificial reefs. Uniforms, knapsacks, tents, boots, winter clothing, were sold to Army surplus stores to be sold to campers and hunters. Even poison nitrogen mustard gas, a blistering agent, was reformulated to develop the first chemotherapy drug called Chlormethine.

The Global Positioning System was originally developed to enable more accurate strikes with long-range weapons by the United States. Fuel from nuclear warheads have been used to power nuclear power plants.

When I was in Belarus, I stayed at a former nuclear missile site that is now a Bible camp. Its’ water tank was once part of a nuclear missile, and a military barracks was being renovated into a home for the elderly.

Verse 5, “come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord.”

Nations will be disarmed; military academies will be shut down. Imagine if all these resources were able to be used for peaceful purposes. Average global military expenditure as a share of government expenditure was 6.9 per cent in 2023. Add to this figure the percentage of the world’s budgets used by their national security agencies and other agencies of government and you can see how much better the world would be.

God gave the people a view of their future and then encouraged them to “walk in the light” (verse 5).

In verses 6-8 he continues to describe their current state. Verse 6, “You have abandoned your people, the house of Jacob. They are full of superstitions from the East; they practice divination. . . their land is full of silver and gold; there is no end to their treasures. Their land is full of horses there is no end to their chariots.” (verse 7). Weren’t they told in Deut. 17 that the king wasn’t to acquire many horses or much gold?

They abandoned their heritage; they adopted the lifestyle of their neighbors.  clasped hands with the pagans. Their land became full of idols, and they bowed down to the work of their hands (verse 8).

Isaiah again goes on to contrast their present dismal condition with their glorious future. Jerusalem, which at the time was the center of apostacy, will in the future become the center of truth.

Verses 12-19 describe a time when the proud leaders, the king, priests, false prophets, elders, etc. will be humbled. Verse 12, “The Lord Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted, and they will be humbled.”

Verse 17, “The arrogance of man will be brought low and the pride of men humbled; the Lord ALONE will be exalted in that day, and the idols will totally disappear.” Verse 19, “Men will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from dread of the Lord and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth.” This brings to mind another time when men will seek the safety of caves with troubled times come. In Rev. 6:1-17 it says, “Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand.’”

Verse 20, In that day men will throw away to the rodents and bats their idols of silver and idols of gold, which they made to worship.”

Rather than being a light to the world, Judah adopted the ways of the world. The church has always been at risk of doing the same thing. Paul wrote in Rom. 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”