God accuses Judah of Rebellion - Isaiah 1:1-9
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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 the Lord 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 are corrupters:
They have forsaken the Lord,
They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger,
They are gone away backward.
5 Why should ye be stricken any more?
Ye will 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 putrifying sores:
They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
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 cottage in a vineyard,
As a lodge in a garden of cucumbers,
As a besieged city.
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.
Introduction. vs 1
Introduction. vs 1
Isaiah stands at the midway point between Moses and Jesus.
His ministry lasted around 53 years.
Isaiah is almost certainly the person referenced in Hebrews 11:37 “37 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;”
His father, Amoz, has been traditionally identified as the brother of Amaziah.
This makes Isaiah the cousin of kings.
Isaiah’s name means “the Lord saves.”
He writes to the people of Judah, but most especially the people of Jerusalem.
Nature is called to bear witness against Judah and Jerusalem. vss 2-3
Nature is called to bear witness against Judah and Jerusalem. vss 2-3
Spoken in a similar fashion as Moses when giving the Law.
Deuteronomy 31:28-29 “28 Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to record against them. 29 For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands.”
Isaiah calls upon the inanimate objects of the cosmos to act as witnesses to the judgment of the Lord.
On author has referred to this passage as the great arraignment between God and His people.
The heavens and the earth are powerful and grand features of God’s creation.
They obey the laws that God gave them, unceasingly.
They are bound to them and cannot/will not rebel against them.
Their fealty to their creator stands in judgment of the rebellion of God’s people.
God’s problem with His people stems from His love for His people.
God does not love the heavens and the earth the way that He loves the people of Israel.
He has not nourished and brought them up as a father does a child.
Yet, the most privileged recipients of God’s love have rebelled against Him.
Isaiah also appeals to the testimony of animals of low intelligence.
The heavens and the earth are inanimate.
They are not thinking.
They have no will.
But animals do.
Even if they are as dense as an ox or ass.
Isaiah points out that, though the ox and donkey are not known for their high intelligence, they are at least aware of who their master is.
An ox recognizes who it’s master is.
A donkey knows where it gets it’s food from.
Judah, on the other hand, fails to live up to the example of the beasts.
They act as though they don’t know who their master is.
They do not consider the source of the blessings they have received.
Judah can make no claim of parental abandonment against God.
He has nourished and provided for them.
He has loved them.
And they have rewarded Him with rebellion and wickedness.
Isaiah exposes the stubborn wickedness of the people. vss 4-6
Isaiah exposes the stubborn wickedness of the people. vss 4-6
Isaiah refers to them using a Hebrew word reserved for the pagan nations of the unbelieving world.
He does refer to them as the people of Yahweh.
Instead, he refers to them as people burdened by iniquity.
They are guilty of corruption.
There is rot and disease festering under the surface.
The outside looks good, we will see this later.
They have abandoned the Lord.
They have provoked Him, repeatedly, as we will see in verse 5.
They are gone away backward away from God who seeks to draw closer to them.
We will see more specifics of what made Judah guilty before God.
For now we can generally see a few things.
They have rebelled against God.
They have pulled away from Him.
There is almost a hint of desperation in God’s message to the people.
“Why should you be stricken anymore?”
Desperation is not the right word for God.
I don’t even know if exasperation is right.
We see a fact illustrated in this verse though.
God has sought to discipline and chastise His people repeatedly with no result.
It’s like a parent who asks their child, “what is it going to take to get your attention?”
With Judah it seems that the more they get in trouble, the more they rebel against God.
The more He tries to get their attention, the more they ignore Him.
Look at the description of Judah that Isaiah paints.
If Judah was a single person they would be a wretched sight to behold.
They are sick in their head.
They are weakened in their heart.
Their body is like a person who has been beaten from head to toe.
The implication is clear.
Judah is sick in all parts of her existence.
Body
Soul
Spirit
Everything that makes her a person has been damaged.
Intellect
Emotion
Will
Judah’s injuries are the result of their rebellion.
The wounds remain because the people have refused the care that God has offered.
These wounds have not been closed up.
They have not been bound.
They have not had ointment applied to them.
That’s why they are described as putrifying sores.
Isaiah was not the first prophet to be sent by God.
The people had largely rejected God’s messengers and their attempt to help the people heal spiritually.
Spiritual wounds usually have a physical presentation that follows.
IOW, if you are sick in your spirit, it will eventually show up in your life.
Isaiah uses graphic imagery to illustrate the effects of their wickedness. vss 7-9
Isaiah uses graphic imagery to illustrate the effects of their wickedness. vss 7-9
The people of Judah should see the effects of their rebellion in the land around them.
Israel, to their north, has been destroyed by the Assyrians.
There was no deliverance from the enemy.
The Assyrians had pushed into Judah in an attempt to overthrow both countries, but God had spared the southern kingdom.
Of course, this deliverance came at a cost and much of Judah had suffered from the Assyrian invasion.
The people of Judah and Jerusalem didn’t have to go far to witness the destruction that Isaiah references.
Cities were burned, the Assyrians had plundered and consumed the goods of the people.
Isaiah relates Jerusalem to lonely relic of the past in three different illustrations.
He says the city is like a cottage in a vineyard.
A cottage is a temporary booth or dwelling set up in the vineyard for a watchman.
It is not a house, it’s certainly not anything you would be impressed by.
The vineyard cottage was made cheaply and quickly.
It is not built to last.
He says the city is like a lodge in a garden of cucumbers.
A lodge would have been a no-frills shelter meant for overnight stays but not much more.
Jerusalem was the place for pilgrims to gather.
You think of the Queen of Sheba coming up from Africa to see the city’s magnificence with her own eyes.
Now Jerusalem is the kind of place you only stay if you have to.
The city had fallen so far from it’s former glory and appeal.
Finally, he says that Jerusalem is like a besieged city.
A city that is besieged is on its last legs.
The future outlook for that city is bleak, not bright.
All of these pictures detail the poor state of Jerusalem at that time due to the rebellion of the people.
It is a sad and depressing image.
Especially for a person familiar with the good times in Jerusalem.
But, this is not where Isaiah ends his opening paragraph.
Verse 9 may sound morose and Eeyore-ish.
But it’s really not.
Verse 9 is a recognition of the demonstration of God’s grace.
God would have been completely justified in treating Jerusalem and Judah the way He had treated Sodom and Gomorrah.
Instead, He preserves a remnant of the people.
Application
Application
How have we rewarded God for the love He has shown us?
We may not be the same as the people of Israel.
We are the recipients of God’s love.
When we look at the rebellion that they rewarded God’s love with, it ought to cause us to turn our eyes inward.
We ought to ask ourselves, how have I responded to God’s love?
We need to understand that there is a principle that rules in one’s relationship with God.
When God’s people rebel against Him, He will respond with chastisement.
We see this in the Old Testament, but it is a repeated aspect of the New Testament relationship.
Hebrews 12:7 “7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?”
Chastisement does not change our position in Christ.
It doesn’t lessen His love for us, if anything it proves His love.
Finally, we understand that all of us have been recipients of God’s grace.
Whether it is in the long-suffering of God or His patience, He is gracious to us.
Even in chastisement, the mature believer will be able to recognize God’s grace at work.