1. Isaiah Chapter One
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Part Ia Prophecies Concerning Judah and Israel
Chapters 1-12 Isaiah Chapter 1 The prophet begins with the mention of his subject and the time of his writing. The subject is Judah and Jerusalem and it is to be noticed that this twofold theme is prominent in chapters 40-66 as much as in 1-39, and that it involves a constant reference throughout the book to the whole nation of Israel.
He invokes the heavens and the earth to be witnesses to what the Lord has spoken, just as Moses did in Deuteronomy 32:1, and, as also did Moses, he proceeds to declare the grievous ways of God’s people. God had acted toward Israel as a Father, nourishing (r.v. marg., "exalting," i.e., making them great, as in natural growth) and bringing them up, and they had fallen away from Him (Isaiah 1:3). Israel was His wayward son (Exodus 4:22-23; cp. Deuteronomy 14:1; Deuteronomy 32:20).
What He had done for them as a nation He has done for us individually and spiritually. The record of their apostasy is written "for our admonition" (1 Corinthians 10:11). How we need therefore to take heed lest we grieve Him, as they did, and suffer eternal loss! In Isaiah 1:3 the Lord declares that the way His people have behaved is worse than that of the brutes. "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s (a plural in the original, not of number, but expressive of fullness of authority, as in Exodus 21:29) crib: but Israel doth not know, My people doth not consider," i.e., that the Lord was their Owner and Master, that they belonged to Him and were dependent upon Him for all they required. This twofold relationship with God is ours and needs to be kept in mind at all times, in all our ways and service. In Isaiah 1:4 Isaiah speaks, breaking out into stern denunciation and lamenting over Israel as sinful, guilt-laden, a race of evildoers, a family corrupt in their ways. Their guilt was threefold. Each description is set in contrast to what God had designed them to be. They are (a) a "sinful nation"; the Lord had said "ye shall be unto Me … a holy nation" (Exodus 19:6); (b) "a people laden with iniquity"; God had chosen them to be "a peculiar people unto Himself (a people for His own possession) (Deuteronomy 14:2); (c) "a seed of evildoers"; God had made them the "seed of Abraham" (Isaiah 41:8, of Isaac, Genesis 21:12, of Jacob, Isaiah 45:19); (d) "children that deal corruptly"; the Lord had declared to them "ye are the children of the Lord, your God" (Deuteronomy 14:1).
All this is again admonitory for us upon whom the very "height of the ages" has come. The description given concerning us in 1 Peter 2:9 is similar to that given to Israel as God’s people just mentioned: "Ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood (as in Exodus 19:6), a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that ye may shew forth the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." We should therefore take heed lest we fall as they did, lest there be in any of us "an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God." The fourfold description is followed by a threefold declaration of the way in which Israel had acted toward God; they had become evil in heart, in speech, in act: (a) they had "forsaken the Lord," their heart had turned away from Him; (b) they had "despised the Holy One of Israel" (the word signifies to mock, to scorn), they had sinned in speech, and that against the Holy One of Israel (a title which is especially connected with Isaiah’s prophecies, see also Isaiah 5:19, Isaiah 5:24; Isaiah 10:20; Isaiah 12:6; Isaiah 29:19; Isaiah 30:11-12, Isaiah 30:15; Isaiah 31:1; Isaiah 37:23; Isaiah 41:14, Isaiah 41:16, Isaiah 41:20, etc., and finally, Isaiah 60:9); as the Holy One He was Israel’s Sanctifier, and they should have sanctified themselves in response; He had said "ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God, am holy" (Leviticus 19:2); (c) they were "estranged" and had "gone backward," they were guilty in act; they chose their own way instead of His. This is followed in Isaiah 1:5, by the remonstrance: "Why will ye be still stricken, that ye revolt more and more?" (or rather, "revolting continually"). Why reap the consequences of persistent rebellion, adding iniquity unto iniquity?
How fearfully the spirit of rebellion had permeated the nation is vividly portrayed in Isaiah 1:5-6 : "the whole [or rather "every"] head is sick, and the whole heart faint." The head represents the outward controlling power, the heart the inward emotions. The whole condition was a divine judgment. They were like a diseased body throughout. If the head and the heart are unsound the entire body is affected. From the sole of the foot to the head there was nothing sound, but "wounds, bruises, and festering sores." The wounds needed binding up; the bruises needed mollifying with oil; the sores required closing (or pressing) so as to cleanse them and quicken their healing. The remedies are mentioned in almost the opposite order to that of the evils (thus forming a sort of chiasm, or reverse order, for the purpose of vividness or emphasis). At Isaiah 1:7 Isaiah passes from metaphors to direct language, which recalls, no doubt purposively, the punishments threatened in Leviticus 26:33; Deuteronomy 28:49-52; Deuteronomy 29:22-23. These things had come upon them. The land had been unprecedently productive under Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26:10), but now wickedness was prevalent to such a degree that in Isaiah 9:18 it is described as burning like a fire. In Isaiah 1:8 the phrase "the daughter of Zion" depicts Zion as a daughter, not a mother; it means "Zion the daughter" (see Zechariah 2:10 and cp. Jeremiah 46:19; Jeremiah 48:18). It is expressive of the tenderness with which the Lord had regarded the relation which He had established between Jerusalem (as representing His people) and Himself. Her diminished population and desolate state were "as a cottage [a mere hut] in a vineyard, as a lodge [or rather, a booth or hammock for a gardenkeeper to use to scare animals away, and so corresponding to a scarecrow] in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city," a picture of isolation and difficulty.
Only a remnant was left. There always has been, and there will be in the coming time of Jacob’s trouble, "a very small remnant." Were it not so, says the prophet, "we should have been as Sodom, we should have been like unto Gomorrah" (Isaiah 1:9).
We should take heed lest what was literally true of Israel becomes spiritually true of us, lest we be diminished, not it may be in numbers but in spiritual power and fruitfulness. If we yield to sin in our own hearts and lives, we are bound to make way for the enemy against us collectively as the Lord’s people. In Revelation 11:8 Jerusalem is described as Sodom. Isaiah now addresses the authorities and people as "rulers of Sodom" and "people of Gomorrah" (Isaiah 1:10).
Ezekiel 16:49 shows that the sins of Sodom were pride, lust, luxury and cruelty, and now rulers and people under them in Jerusalem were guilty of the same sins. But there was something additional. Over all the abominations there was a garb of religion, a perfunctory discharge of certain details of the law. They presented their offerings to God, but of what value were they in His sight? They were simply trampling His courts (Isaiah 1:12). Their observance of the appointed days and feasts was hateful: "I cannot away with iniquity and the solemn meeting," He says (Isaiah 1:13, r.v.); in other words, "I cannot bear ungodliness and gatherings at festivals."
Mere external religion is ever a cloak to cover iniquity. The Lord exposed all that in His strong denunciations in Matthew 23:1-39. The guilty combination in Judaism has largely developed in Christendom. The conscience of a believer may become so seared that a person can practice religion while yet living in sin. The Lord warns His people in Isaiah 1:15 that, if they stretch out their hands to Him, He has to hide His eyes from them. If they make ever so many prayers He does not hear, for their hands are full of blood. God listens to those who lift up holy hands (1 Timothy 2:8 and see Psalms 24:4-5). The word "blood" is plural, which points, not merely to murder, but to acts of violence akin to murder, and to bribes which purchased the ruin of widows and orphans (cp. Micah 3:9-11). They are therefore called upon to wash and cleanse themselves, and put away the evil of their doings in His sight, to "cease to do evil and learn to do well, and seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow" (Isaiah 1:16-17). Let them learn the first principles of well-doing. God has a special care for widows and orphans (Exodus 22:22-24; Deuteronomy 10:18; Psalms 68:5; James 1:27).
If they would do this and turn from their evil ways, there was mercy for them, both in the removal of their sins and in the prospect of eating the good of the land. The message of Isaiah 1:18 invites them to realize both the graciousness of His appeal and the justice of His demands: "Come now [or Come, I pray you], and let us reason together [as if challenging them to a trial], saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." The scarlet may suggest the deep-dyed character of sin. There would seem to be a reference to Numbers 19:2, Numbers 19:6, Numbers 19:9, where scarlet was burnt in the sacrifice, and thus there is an intimation as to the atoning efficacy of the blood of Christ. The glaring character of sin is certainly in view, and for the whiteness of snow see Psalms 51:7. Some regard the scarlet and white as emblematic of the relation of fire to light, i.e., of the wrath of God against sin to His pardoning grace.
"If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land" (Isaiah 1:19). The offer of justifying grace is designed to lead to repentance, not to be repented of. True repentance leads to willingness and obedience, to listen to the voice of God and do His will. This leads to spiritual blessing. What was the good of the land for Israel is to us the provision made for us in Christ as the nourishing and sustaining power of our life by the Holy Spirit. Refusal must bring judgment (Isaiah 1:20). The lamentation which follows bewails the apostate state of the nation. The once faithful wife (pictured as a strong citadel) had become a harlot. Judgment had given place to violence and murder. The pure silver of righteousness had become dross, an amalgam of formal religion and vileness. The wine of divinely imparted wisdom (Proverbs 9:5) was diluted with the water of mere tradition. The princes, forsaking righteous judgment and the cause of the widow, had become lawless (Isaiah 1:21-23).
There was One who acted as the righteous judge, "the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, the mighty One of Israel." This last title is used here only. He was mighty to deal with these adversaries and to restore the nation (Isaiah 1:24). Promises are therefore given to Zion: "I will turn My hand upon thee"; His strong hand would be outstretched to redeem from iniquity, to smelt out the dross and take away the tin (or lead) (Isaiah 1:25).
Righteous judges and counselors would be installed as in the earliest days, e.g., of the reigns of David and Solomon. The day is approaching when Zion shall be called "The city of righteousness, the faithful city" (or "citadel"), a different word from that rendered "city" in the preceding clause (cp. Isaiah 60:14). The names express the nature. These glorious characteristics will result from the great basic acts of God in redeeming Zion with judgment and her converts (those who have looked on Him Whom they pierced and turned to Him in repentance) with righteousness (Isaiah 1:26-27).
It will be all God’s doing. God’s justifying grace in Christ leads to righteousness and steadfastness in the lives of the justified. These are the evidences of genuine conversion. In contrast to these converts who will enjoy the Millennial Kingdom, those who have followed the Antichrist will be destroyed together and consumed (Isaiah 1:28). In Isaiah 1:29 the "oaks" which they have desired represent the mighty ones of earth, the Man of Sin and the leaders under him. The "gardens" which they have chosen symbolize the pleasures and glories of the world (Isaiah 1:29). They themselves will be as a fading oak and a waterless garden (Isaiah 1:30). They forsake "the Fountain of living waters" (Jeremiah 2:13). To choose anything but the will and way of God results only in loss and shame. The close of this first chapter (Isaiah 1:31) points on to the close of the whole book and speaks of the time of the end. The strong man is a phrase suggestive of the two great "beasts" of Revelation 13:1-18, the final Gentile world ruler and his colleague (perhaps a Jew). He shall be "as tow, and his work [r.v.] as a spark"; his sin will kindle the fire of the punishment that will fall upon him; "they shall both burn together, none shall quench them" (see Revelation 19:20).