5/03/17 Isaiah 1:10-20 “Are Christians listening to God anymore?”

I note that the word used last week for “nation” in Isaiah 1:4 (“Ah, sinful nation”) was gowy or goy. That same word is used for Gentiles in the following:

Isaiah 49:6And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.

So effectively, God was calling His people Judah “Gentiles”!

 

Isaiah 1:10Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

 

rulers – chief; ruler; commander (in war); dictator. Strong says it is derived “from 07096 in the sense of determining; a magistrate (as deciding) or other leader: —  captain, guide, prince, ruler”.

 “rulers” appears to be focused upon those who made the decisions in Judah, which may not necessarily have been the king. Instead of the king having the overall authority in Judah, God is aiming this at all those who have any decision-making capacity at all.

 

people – a people (as a congregated unit); specifically, a tribe (as those of Israel); hence (collectively) troops or attendants; figuratively, a flock: - folk, men, nation, people.

With “people of Gomorrah”, God is focusing upon those who belong collectively to that group called the people, in this case, Judah as a people rather than individuals. Once again we see that this condemnation of Judah by God focuses upon the group as a whole rather than upon individual people within that group.

 

Both Sodom and Gomorrah were together representative of extreme evil against God. Jesus used the wickedness of such as Sodom and Nineveh to demonstrate the level of wickedness of the people of His day.

Matthew 11:23And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.

Luke 11:32 – The men of Nineve shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas [is] here.

But in Isaiah Judah symbolises the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah; in Isaiah’s day there could be no greater condemnation. Judah has not heard the word of the Lord, nor has she paid attention to the law of God! Like the pharisees of Jesus’ day, they would have put on a good show of doing all the works of religion, yet totally disregarding God’s requirements at the same time.

 

Isaiah 1:11To what purpose [is] the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.

 

The people were clearly carrying out the sacrifices as required, the burnt offerings, the fat offerings, the blood offerings. Yet none of it was the least bit satisfying to God. It didn’t matter how much they did; here it is said to have been a multitude of sacrifices. All the t’s were crossed and the i’s dotted, as the saying goes. They were apparently doing everything by the book! They were “blameless”!

 

What was the purpose of their multitudinous sacrifices to God? What were they doing it for? What good would it do them? What did they hope to achieve?

But following the rules and formulae of worship is not what God desires.

Psalm 51:16-1716 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give [it]: thou delightest not in burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God [are] a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

1 Samuel 15:22And Samuel said, Hath the Lord [as great] delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey [is] better than sacrifice, [and] to hearken than the fat of rams.

Psalm 40:6-86 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. 7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book [it is] written of me, 8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law [is] within my heart.

 

All sacrifices and offerings must be an act of worship, not ritual!

 

Isaiah 1:12When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?

 

When you enter in to present yourself before Me, who has required (demanded) this by your hand (by your strength; by your doing) to trample My courts? Who asked you to trample (the idea is of desecration) My courts? Who asked you to desecrate My courts with your unwanted sacrifices and offerings?

 

The letter of the law was being observed, but not the spirit of the law.

Ecclesiastes 5:1Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.

Zechariah 7:5Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh [month], even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, [even] to me?

 

What does God require of them, but to be just and merciful, and walk humbly with their God.

Micah 6:6-86 Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, [and] bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, [or] with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn [for] my transgression, the fruit of my body [for] the sin of my soul? 8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what [is] good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

 

Isaiah 1:13Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; [it is] iniquity, even the solemn meeting.

 

oblations – gift; tribute; oblation; meat (meal) offering; Pulpit Commentarya cake of fine flour mingled with oil, and generally had incense joined with it.

It is translated “meat offering” in the following:

Leviticus 7:9And all the meat offering that is baken in the oven, and all that is dressed in the fryingpan, and in the pan, shall be the priest’s that offereth it.

Clearly incense was related to the oblation; one was vain (empty; lying; worthless) and the other an abomination (disgusting; unclean when used of ritual things).

 

new moons and Sabbaths – special times of religious observance. There were special times each year which they were called to observe as a nation (calling of assemblies). This included the Passover and the Day of Atonement.

2 Chronicles 8:13Even after a certain rate every day, offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts, three times in the year, [even] in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles.

They were required to gather together as a nation; such times were usually declared rest or Sabbath days in which they were to do no work, thus being allowed time off for these observances.

 

God says, “I cannot away with it (cannot endure it; cannot put up with it); it is iniquity (trouble; wickedness; idolatry), particularly (especially) the sacred or festive assembly (solemn meeting).”

solemn meeting – Pulpit commentary says, “The word thus translated is applied only to particular days in the great festival seasons, as to the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:36; Numbers 29:35; Nehemiah 8:18), and the seventh day of the Passover (Deuteronomy 16:8), or else to days specially appointed for religious services by civil authority (2 Kings 10:20; 2 Chronicles 7:9; Joel 1:14; Joel 2:15).

 

Isaiah 1:14Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear [them].

 

God hated (in the way an enemy or foreigner might hate) their special religious observances (notably new moons and appointed feasts). They were a burden to God; He was weary of having to put up with such observances (tired of it; sick of it all).

 

trouble – burden. Used as “cumbrance” (encumbrance) in:

Deuteronomy 1:12How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?

God is sick and tired of their choreographed rituals. He hates them; they are a burden on Him, an encumbrance, a stumbling block. Why do they bother with so much ceremony when they just don’t have their hearts in it?

Deuteronomy 6:5And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

These people were “loving” God with all their might, but with very little soul and with absolutely no heart in it at all. Their hearts were elsewhere.

 

soul – soul; self; life; person; appetite; mind; living being; desire; emotion; passion. God hates these useless displays of religion with a passion (with His emotions). This was religious ritual, just following all the “rules”!

 

Isaiah 1:15And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

 

When you pray with your hands held up toward heaven …..

Psalm 63:3-43 Because thy lovingkindness [is] better than life, my lips shall praise thee. 4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.

 ….. I will refuse to look at them nor see them. I just won’t listen or take heed.

Proverbs 1:27-2927 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. 28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: 29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord:

 

When they cry out for Me to help, I will refuse to deliver them from their enemies.

Zechariah 11:6For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour’s hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver [them].

(Even though Zechariah is after the captivity, it shows that they just won’t learn, no matter how much judgement God brings upon them.)

 

your hands are full of blood – literally “full of bloods” (or bloodlettings, acts of violence spilling blood – plural). In Vs 21 God calls them “murderers”, probably associated with their hands being full of blood.

Isaiah 1:21How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

Note Acts 7:52Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:

 

It may also have included the murder of Zechariah.

2 Chronicles 24:20-2120 And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the Lord, he hath also forsaken you. 21 And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the Lord.

This was in the days of Joash, grandfather of Uzziah, so it is probable Isaiah was aware of this murder.

 

Isaiah 1:16Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

 

make you clean – purify yourselves (spiritually).

Psalm 51:7Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Also see Vs 18 below.

This is a spiritual cleansing in order to restore a relationship with God. These people have broken their relationship with their God. No longer is He their God and therefore no longer are they His people (Jeremiah 32:38). This is the context of this passage.

Psalm 51:10Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Also 1 John 1:9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

 

put away – to cause to turn aside; to put aside; cause to depart; reject; abolish.

They aren’t to just make sure God doesn’t see the evil they are doing; they aren’t to simply put their evil aside from God’s sight. Because God knows all things, there is no option at all of being able to do something without God “seeing” it. Therefore, as the last part of this verse emphasises, they are to cease doing (bring to an end) their evil. There is no compromise in this, no partial withdrawal from evil, but an abrupt and sudden end to all their evil. God will accept nothing else but a sincere effort to be holy as God is holy.

Amos 5:14-1514 Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken. 15 Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

 

Isaiah 1:17Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

 

relieve the oppressed – literally “set right (correct) the oppressor (the ruthless)”.

Learn (practise) doing well (doing right; doing good)

Seek judgment (justice) – do not act unjustly, nor seek to be unjust toward others.

Correct (set right) those who would oppress (weaker ones).

Ensure that orphans get proper justice.

Plead the case for widows, be their advocate in the courts of justice.

This is apparently applied to the rulers who should be acting justly and to the people who were to do as proper authority would require (see Vs 10 – the rulers of Sodom and the people of Gomorrah).

Also note that they were required to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God (Micah 6:8).

 

Isaiah 1:18Come now, and let us reason together, 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.

 

Come now – God desires that they come to Him in order to hear the problem and find the solution. If they don’t (won’t!) come, they cannot partake of His mercy and grace; they will be out on their own, unable to avoid the inevitable consequences. Jesus had similar to say to those of His day. The only solution was for them to come, but they would not come!

Matthew 23:37O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, [thou] that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under [her] wings, and ye would not!

 

If only they could reason with God (that is, hear His words on the problem and its solution), then the filth of their sins could be as clean as snow; though their sins be red like crimson (as with blood on their hands), they could be made as white as the wool. All it would take is for Judah to listen and pay attention to God’s requirements.

Isaiah 5:3-73 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. 4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? 5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; [and] break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: c  6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. 7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts [is] the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

 

Isaiah 1:19If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:

 

If you would only do the right thing and obey Me, says God, you shall once again enjoy the consequent blessings. (That is, you, and not a foreigner or enemy, shall eat the good of the land.) The land once again would become fruitful and productive for them, for at that time it was only fruitful and productive for the foreigners and enemies. Israel had been warned about their choice between the blessing and the cursing of God; they should have known!

Deuteronomy 11:26-2826 Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; 27 A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day: 28 And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.

 

Isaiah 1:20 – But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken [it].

 

Here’s the other side of the coin: the blessing for obedience in Vs 19, and now the cursing for disobedience. If they continued to refuse to obey God, if they continued to rebel against His laws and statutes, then there was only one way: downhill to destruction, here noted as the devouring by the sword. (See the two options in Deuteronomy 11:26-28 above.)

 

rebel – be rebellious toward a father, or toward God. That is, rebellious against authority, against rules and laws.

hath spoken – spoken or promised, as used in Isaiah 1:2.

 

If they refuse to obey God, then He has spoken (has promised) that even Jerusalem (that hut in the vineyard, etc, see Isaiah 1:7-8) will now be eaten up by the swords of the enemy. It is the word of God; it is not just a spoken statement but a promise that will not be broken.

Every one of God’s statements is the equivalent of a promise; God has spoken and He will make it good.

Numbers 23:19God [is] not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do [it]? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?

 

Churches today are going through the motions of their works of religion. They are even dictating to God what He is and isn’t allowed to do for His people. Their God may bless them but not curse them. He may not be permitted to let them fall into trials and tribulations unless they have sinned, and He must bless with health, wealth and good relationships all those who raise holy hands unto the Lord! (And, of course, pay their tithes into the bank account of the pastor!) As long as the church social gathering is large enough, God is clearly blessing them. As long as the pastor has a nice house and a good car, God is blessing him. And their God blesses such Christian groups with harmony and accord, and any who might dissent are advised to toe the line or take their trouble elsewhere. Of course, this includes those pesky trouble-makers who dare question the doctrines of their leaders; such people are clearly not genuine Christians, or else they would be more supportive of their pastor and leaders. Don’t they know their pastor is always right?!

 

Nor should Christians leave their churches simply because of its alleged doctrinal heresies; if the pastor says it is true Biblical doctrine, then what unqualified person may argue or dissent? Only the pastor and leaders now have the right to determine good and bad doctrine; all others must listen and obey! Is the music too worldly? That’s no excuse to leave your friendly neighbourhood church! But have they actually asked God or listened to Him as to what He might want? Tested all things? Probably not.

 

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