Isaiah 57:1-5

D. WEARINESS TO WICKED WHO BREAK COVENANT WITH THE LORD, CHAPTER 57
1. SORCERY

TEXT: Isaiah 57:1-5

1

The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.

2

He entereth into peace; they rest in their beds, each one that walketh in his uprightness.

3

But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the harlot.

4

Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and put out the tongue? are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood,

5

ye that inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every green tree; that slay the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?

QUERIES

a.

Who are the sons of the sorceress?

b.

Were the Israelites really slaying children?

PARAPHRASE

These insensitive, indulgent leaders of Israel have produced a whole nation of uncaring people. These are times when good men are being destroyed and dying and no one seems to care or wonder why. Most do not realize that when the good man dies he is being taken away from these calamitous times. When the good man dies he enters in to a peaceful rest from the trials of this life. But you followers of sorcery and idolatry, prepare yourselves to face the wrath of Jehovah. Who are you making fun of? Who are you mocking with your impudent face-making? You are the sinners, aren-'t you? You passionately indulge in the sexual orgies of idol worship in the groves of terebinth trees and let your children be slain as human sacrifices in the rocky valleys of Palestine, do you not?

COMMENTS

Isaiah 57:1-2 THE RIGHTEOUS: The problem Isaiah addresses here has been a problem for mankind ever since the Fallwhy is it that the wicked seem to prosper and the righteous suffer? Of course, it is a problem only because of faulty perspective. History looked at from the human perspective (limited to the past and the present; limited to this world and this life only) does seem to substantiate the idea that it does not pay to be good. But history seen from the divine perspective (by faith in the revelation of God about the past, present and future) says quite the opposite. The righteous man may perish (-avad in Hebrew which means destroy) and the world evaluates it as something to be shunned. But the prophet of God says when the righteous man dies it is far from a tragedy for he is taken away from the evil to come. That is, the righteous man is delivered from the trials and tribulations of this world (cf. Revelation 7:14-17; Revelation 14:13; Psalms 116:15). Hosea, a contemporary of Isaiah, writes of the social chaos in the northern Ten Tribes (Israel) (cf. Hosea 4:1 ff). No doubt the same kind of injustice and destruction was being directed against the righteous in the southern kingdom (Judah). Micah, also a contemporary of Isaiah, speaks of the ungodliness of Judah (cf. Micah 2:8-11; Micah 3:1-3; Micah 6:6-16; Micah 7:1-6). Micah agrees with Isaiah that the godly man has perished from the earth. (Micah 7:2). The Hebrew word yanuhu is translated rest and has the connotation of repose (relaxation, ease). It is more precise than the usual Hebrew word for rest which is shavath (sabbath). Isaiah likens this rest unto sleep in the bed. The word shalom at the first of the verse indicates the utter peacefulness which death brings to the man who walks in righteousness (cf. Daniel 12:10-13). Even if the righteous man must walk through the valley of the shadow of death, he will dwell in the house of the Lord forever (cf. Psalms 23). The wicked covenant breakers of Isaiah's day have it all wrong! They are self-deceived. They think the righteous have come to an untimely death because of their stubborn faithfulness to keep God's covenant. But it is the wicked covenant breakers who shall suffer!

Isaiah 57:3-5 THE RIOTOUS REBROBATES: Thus the prophet arraigns the riotous leaders whom he had just characterized as dumb dogs (cf. Isaiah 56:9-12). These leaders and their followers (which was the majority) are now characterized as sons of the sorceress. The Hebrew word used here for sorceress is -onenah which means literally one who divines by the clouds. All divining, soothsaying, magic, astrology was prohibited by Mosaic law (cf. Exodus 22:18; Deuteronomy 18:9-15). In the passage in Deuteronomy 18:9-15 Moses categorizes the pagan practices as:

1.

me-onenone who bewitches with the evil eye; a cloud diviner

2.

menaheshan enchanter; snake-charmer; mesmerist; hypnotist

3.

mekashephmutterer of incantations; ventriloquial whispers as under the influence of the spirits of the dead

4.

khoverone who inflicts a spell by weaving magical knots

5.

-ovlit. means bottle indicating something like one who pretends powers over genii

6.

yidde-'oniya wizard; one who interprets the ravings of a medium

7.

doresh -el-hammethiyma necromancer; one who calls up the spirits of the dead

Moses placed Moloch-worship at the head of his list, probably to show the integral connection between the practice of magic and idolatry. Making their children pass through the fire (human sacrifice) was more intimately connected with soothsaying (delving into the future) and magic than any other practice of idolatry. See Isaiah 8:19; Isaiah 44:25 and Ezekiel 21:21 for more on this. Men have, ever since Eden, been possessed with the desire to penetrate the future and to manipulate its course. History clearly demonstrates that such power is not within the realm of the natural abilities of man. Men therefore have always attempted to gain the help of beings (departed dead, demons, Satan, angels, etc.) supposedly possessing such knowledge and power. But this is strictly forbidden by God and His word. By faith in God and obedience to His word men may know all (past, present and future) that pertains to life and godliness (cf. 2 Peter 1:3-4).

The majority of people in Isaiah's day no longer sought the word of God but had turned to wizards (cf. Isaiah 8:16 ff), This inevitably led to the other abominable practices of paganism and idolatryadultery, fornication, and human sacrifice. They were an impudent, scornful, profane people (cf. Ezekiel 2:1-7; Ezekiel 3:1-11, etc.). They were making malicious sport at someone else's expenseprobably the poor and the righteous; they were making impudent gestures with their faces, sticking out their tongues in derision. This showed their real character. They proved their falseness by these actions. They mocked the righteous man who died an untimely death, but they were really profaning themselves!

Isaiah's generation was as sick as our generation. The Hebrew word hannechamim means literally, violently, passionately, but is translated, inflame yourselves in verse five. They indulged in the violent, passionate, sexual orgies among the terebinth (-elim) trees. The terebinth is related to the pistachio trees. In Palestine it grows sometimes as high as 40 feet and spreads its branches, with their thick, dark-green foliage, over a wide area (cf. 2 Samuel 18:9 ff). The same Hebrew word is sometimes translated oak and sometimes green tree. It was the tree that provided the groves in which the pagans practiced their idolatry and adultery (cf. Deuteronomy 12:2; 1 Kings 14:23; Jeremiah 2:20; Jeremiah 3:6; Jeremiah 3:13; Jeremiah 17:2; Hosea 4:13 ff; Ezekiel 6:13, etc.). The worst of the idolatrous practices was child sacrifice. This was often carried out in the Valley of Hinnom, within sight of the Temple of God (cf. Jeremiah 32:35; Ezek. 26:26-31). In the valleys suggests the many rocky valleys of Palestine walled on each side by clefts of the rocks. Archaeologists have uncovered earthen jars containing the bones of sacrificed infants from various cities and villages of ancient Palestine, confirming the statements of the prophets. Ed. J. Young points out that the description in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks is certainly not applicable to Mesopotamia. Another piece of the cumulative evidence that the latter portions of Isaiah were written by the prophet Isaiah who lived in Palestine before the Babylonian captivity, and not by some unknown postexilic Deutero-Isaiah.

QUIZ

1.

What is the problem with the righteous dying Isaiah deals with in this text?

2.

Is it a tragedy when the righteous man dies?

3.

How many different kinds of sorcerers might have practiced in Palestine?

4.

What kind of sorcerer did Isaiah name in verse three?

5.

How were Isaiah's people demonstrating their profaneness?

6.

How intense was their indulgence in idolatry?

7.

What bit of evidence do we have for the authorship of Isaiah here?