Isaiah 1:1-9

Isaiah 1:1. The vision of Isaiah the son of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. 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.

The good and gracious God, having been treated ungenerously, makes his appeal not to men who themselves are guilty, but to the very heavens and each, calling on the silent stones of the field, and the trees of the wood, and the stars of heaven, to judge between him and his rebellious children. «I have nourished and brought up children « taken a nurse's interest in them, shown a parent's love to them, «and they have rebelled against me.»

Isaiah 1:3. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. 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.

More brutish than the brutes are men when they forget their God. The dog follows its master's heels, but man will not be obedient to his Lord. The ox knows his owner, and gives some sign of recognition when he sees him; but alas! the ungodly sons of men know not the God that made them, feeds them, keeps them alive. Where art thou, oh! backslider? Mingling once again with the people of God, let these words come home to you. There is a «Thus saith the Lord» in the prophets words to them; and thus saith the Lord to you. You have gone away backward, provoking the Holy One of Israel to anger.

Isaiah 1:5. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

It was of no use chastising these people. They only sinned the worse for all the afflictions that were sent, and when the fire of affliction doth not melt the iron heart, what can do it? Why waste the fuel upon them? Ye will revolt more and more; the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. They had been smitten, they had been afflicted, till the whole nation through and through had been brought low. Their head and heart had been made faint. And, oh! there are some that have passed through many trials and are none the better. They have seen poverty, and yet they go again to the sin that first brought them to it. They feel in their very bones the result of their transgressions, and yet they hug in their bosoms the serpent that has stung them.

Isaiah 1:6. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

The whole land of Israel was so destroyed through sin, it was like a body that is covered with sores that have not been touched by the surgeon's hand. Yet they do not repent.

Isaiah 1:7. 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. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers,

A mere shanty run up during the grape season, wherein the persons who took care of the vineyard found shelter from the rain.

Isaiah 1:8. As a besieged city.

For the same purpose.

Isaiah 1:9. Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

Yet, though they were reduced to this, they kept on with their sins. It really seems as if men would suffer anything for their sins rather than give them up. It is not always the pleasure of sin which seems to fascinate, but the very bitterness of sin seems sweet to some.