Isaiah 1:1-9

I.

PERVERSITY AND PROPHET - Chapter S 1 - 6

CHAPTER ONE
A. THE IMPEACHING ACCUSATION
1.

CONTROVERSY DECLARED Isaiah 1:1-20

a. JEHOVAH'S COMPLAINT

TEXT: Isaiah 1:1-9

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 Jehovah hath spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

3

The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.

4

Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that deal corruptly! They have forsaken Jehovah, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are estranged and gone backward.

5

Why will ye be still stricken, that ye 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 fresh stripes: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with oil.

7

Your country is desolate; your cities are burned with fire; your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

8

And the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

9

Except Jehovah of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

QUERIES

a.

Why mention the fact that Uzziah was dead?

b.

Why compare people with animals?

c.

What sickness did the people have?

PARAPHRASE

These are the messages that came to Isaiah, son of Amoz, in the visions he saw during the reigns of King Uzziah, King Jotham, King Ahaz, and King Hezekiahall kings of Judah. In these messages God showed him what was going to happen to Judah and Jerusalem in the days ahead. Listen, O heaven and earth, to what the Lord is saying: the children I raised and cared for so long and tenderly have turned against Me. Even the animalsthe donkey and the oxknow their owner and appreciate his care for them, but not My people Israel. No matter what I do for them, they still don-'t care. Oh, what a sinful nation they are! They walk in reverse from the way I have asked them to walk. Their fathers before them were evil too. Born to be bad, they have turned their backs upon the Lord, and have despised the Holy One of Israel. They have cut themselves off from My help. Oh, my people, haven-'t you had enough of punishment? Why will you force Me to whip you again and again? Must you forever rebel? From head to foot you are sick and weak and faint, covered with bruises and welts and infected wounds, untreated and unbound. Your country lies in ruins; your cities are burned; while you watch, foreigners are destroying and plundering everything they see. You stand there helpless and abandoned like a watchman's shanty in the field when the harvest time is overor when the crop is stripped and robbed. If the Lord of Hosts had not stepped in to save a few of us, we would have been wiped out as Sodom and Gommorah were.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 1:1 The first chapter is a prototype of the entire book. Contains the basic outline of the whole message: (a) sinfulness of Judah and Jerusalem (Isaiah 1:3-8); (b) appeals for repentance (Isaiah 1:16-19); (c) the coming judgment (Isaiah 1:24-25; Isaiah 1:29-31); (d) the blessings of the salvation to come (Isaiah 1:26-27). The combined reigns of the four kings mentioned covered some 81 years. 2 Chronicles 32:32 suggests that Isaiah may have outlived Hezekiah. The prophecy concerns the destinies of Judah and Jerusalemnot the Second Coming of Christ-the preservation of the covenant people and points toward a fulfillment in the First Advent of Christ.

Isaiah 1:2 Jehovah's complaint is expressed in terms of Fatherhood (Cf. Hosea 11:1-7). When God chose Israel she was a small and insignificant people. He reared her and nourished her to a position of eminence and exaltation through special gifts and protections. Then she rebelled against Him and spurned His love (Cf. Ezekiel 16:1-63).

Isaiah 1:3 This sin on the part of Israel is unnatural. It is animalistic, brutish, unreasoning. They behave worse than the most unintelligent, instinctive brute, for even the ass and the ox know enough to know who feeds them. Men often allow sin to degrade them; they behave worse than animals (Cf. Hosea 10:11-12; Jeremiah 5:8; 2 Peter 2:12; Psalms 73:22; Isaiah 56:9-12; Romans 1:18-32). When men exchange the truth of God for a lie and serve the creature rather than the Creator they live in the passions of their flesh, following the (animal) desires of body and mind (Cf. Ephesians 2:1-3). Evolutionism as a philosophy teaches that man has no Creator and such a philosophy is responsible for much of the animalistic behavior of men and women in our age.

Isaiah 1:4 Notice the sins of which they were guilty: Inconsiderateness; Sins of their forefathers (grumbling, idolatry, etc.); Crooked dealing; Forsaking the Lord; Going backward (backsliding); Reducing their worship to a mere formality; Despising the Holy One of Israel. Unbelief usually first manifests itself in the sin of Ingratitude (Inconsiderateness) (Romans 1:21; Deuteronomy 8:11-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-10).

Isaiah 1:5 It amazes the Lord that in spite of the afflictions He has allowed to come upon them, they persist in the hard way of the transgressor. (Cf. Ezekiel 33:10-11) So useless, uncalled for, but as long as they continue in sin they will be stricken. Jesus marvelled at the unbelief of the people of His home town (Mark 6:6). With all the advantages, liberties, and blessings of people in countries where the Gospel has been preached for centuries, it is nothing short of amazing to behold the unbelief, ingratitude and despising of the Holy God.

Isaiah 1:6 What is the explanation? The head is sick and diseased. The intellectual and moral life of the nation is diseased. They think wrong, because they love sin (Cf. John 3:18-20). Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people, (Proverbs 14:34). You cannot think wrong and be right! As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he, (Proverbs 23:7). The malignant cancer of sin is in all four receptacles of the heart (intellect; emotions; will; conscience). The whole man is diseased! The immortal heart pours its poison to every facet of life.

Isaiah 1:7 Note the use of both figurative and literal language. The country is desolate and literally burned with fire because of the spiritual conditions described figuratively. Desolationburned citiesforeigners occupying their farms. Who the invaders were we do not know for certain. Possibilities: Edomites and Philistines who invaded Judea in the time of Ahaz; Israelites under Amaziah; Assyrians under Sargon.

Isaiah 1:8 Because of this condition Jerusalem is left humiliated like a frail, lonely, neglected watchman's shack in a vineyard or a cucumber patch. She was surrounded by her enemies and cut off from the rest of the nations like a besieged city.

Isaiah 1:9 But there is one hopea remnant, literally, a very small number which remains righteous and thus saved from the coming judgment. Only a few thousand remained faithful through the captivity and returned to restore the commonwealth of the covenant people with Ezra, Nehemiah, et al. Had it not been for this faithful remnant, Judah and Jerusalem would have been utterly obliterated like Sodom and Gomorrah. Ed. J. Young says, Whereas, however, the delay of judgment also involves postponement of blessing, nevertheless the fact of the choice of the remnant is evidence that God is fulfilling His purposes in history. Here, then, is the true philosophy of history. It is because of the righteous remnant that the world remains. The wickedness of the world is permitted to continue until, in the counsel of God's infinite wisdom, the time of punishment has come. That time is delayed for God is truly the God of the heathen also, a God of longsuffering and mercy. At the same time, in that delay, the delay of the full accomplishment of the blessing is also involved. The preserving of a remnant, however, is a step toward the fulfillment of the promise of blessing. This applies to the blessings of redemption fulfilled in the First Coming of Christ and applies to the redemption and ultimate salvation to be fulfilled in the Second Coming of Christ.

QUIZ

1.

How many years are spanned by the four kings who reigned during Isaiah's ministry?

2.

What makes men act like animals?

3.

What is usually the first sign of unbelief?

4.

Where does spiritual sickness start?

5.

What is a booth in a vineyard?

6.

Who is the remnant remaining?