Weekly Meditations: Is. 1 (2)

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”

Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.

Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds;they are not pressed out or bound upor softened with oil.

Your country lies desolate; your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence foreigners devour your land; it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners. And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a besieged city.

If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah.

Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.

“When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feastsmy soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.

(Is. 1:2-17)

We have seen in our last study how angry God is against His people who have compromise and sinned against God through syncretism and 'tolerance' of errors. And as such, they have become as it were estranged from God, people whom God know not of although they are called to be God's people. Despite having a veneer of religiosity, God looks at the heart (1 Sam. 16:7ff) and knows the secret thoughts of Man (Ps. 139:2b). In God's eyes, secret sins are no different from open sin and therefore God will punish self-righteous people even though they seemed righteous on the surface, as in the case of the Pharisees.

In verse 5, God expresses a desire for His people to turn to Him. In light of the 'common grace' controversy that I am currenly involved in, such a desire is to be understood as an anthropopathic expression directed towards a certain end and as the expressed (preceptive) will of God. As such, it does not expressed what God has actually decreed in the final sense, but of God's outward emotive (not emotional) response to the situation. Although God is sovereign and in control, and He has allowed eve decreed such a falling away to happen, the situation still evokes a emotive response from God, as God is not an uncaring Father. Such a response is dictated by God's character as the Covenanting God who loves His Covenant people, and does not at all refer to what God ultimately desires. (For those who are interested, I use the word emotive because God expresses emotion. Whereas 'emotional' refers to being in a state influenced by the situation, the word 'emotive' just refers to God expressing emotions, of which such expressions are the result of the application of God's character to the situation.)

Seen in such a light, God in verse 5 is is calling His wayward Covenant people to Himself. Due to their sins and secret wickedness in rebellion, they are under the curse of God and therefore are struck down. God calls His people to consider their outcome. He calls to them to at least even think about their own skins, as it were. Their rebellion against God has and will continue to cost them much. Verses 5b- 6 liken their condition in graphic terms, to those who are so diseased that sores, bruises and all kinds of wounds are found everwhere on their bodies. Worse still, they are not bound up and taken care of. Given what we know of the Jewish laws regarding leprosy and uncleanness (Lev. 13), what kind of image would be conjured up other than one of revulsion? Yet that is what the Lord is likning Israel to. Israel by her rebellion is an abomination unto the Lord and is absolutely disgusting to everyone. God is thus calling on Israel to consider how disgusting she actually is, and implores her to turn from her wickedness in repentance towards God.

In verses 7-8, the Spirit of the Lord proclaims through Isaiah the judgments that Israel had began to experience and which she would finally face — destruction. Although the army was relatively strong during the days of King Uzziah (2 Chron. 26:6-15), Isaiah saw through the temporal strength of Judah and the Spirit showed him that the corruption of the people would lead to their downfall, which they began to experience later on though during the days of the wicked king Ahaz, and which the northern kingdom have experienced much more severely. The judgment of the Lord upon His covenant people will be swift and devastating, and Isaiah praised God for even leaving behind any survivors. Comparing themselves to the wicked cities of ancient times, Sodom and Gomorrah, Isaiah proclaims his gratitude to God in preserving the people of Israel, even a remnant, instead of wiping them all out like what He did to Sodom and Gomorrah.

Continuing on with the fitting analogy, the Spirit of the Lord implores the rulers of Israel (both Israel and Judah) to heed the words of God (v. 10). From verses 11-14, God shows His utter detestation of the sacrifices and offerings that Israel is offering up to Him. Although God commands sacrifices, sabbaths and feasts, yet their surface-level observance is an offence to Him. After all, all these things are meant more for Israel to instruct them and as serve as signs of the Gospel than for God, as if God will starve if no sacrifices were offered! God detests their false religiosity and hates them (v. 13), with the result being that God will hide His face from such people and not visit them with favor. In fact, God treats them as murderers, stating that their "hands are full of blood"(v. 15).

Verses 16-17 are thus the works that God exhorts Israel to do. Israel is exhorted to stop doing evil (v. 16) which corresponds to washing themselves clean. On top of stop doing evil, they are exhorted to do good. They are to 'seek justice', 'correct oppression', 'bring justice to the fatherless' and 'plead the widow's cause' (v. 17). On the surface, this seemed to promote meritorius good works, or the heretical teachings of Liberation Theology. Yet, such readings miss the entire point of all these exhortations, as interpreting these texts according to the whole of Scripture (the Analogy of Faith) would yield their true meaning. As Jesus had said in Mt. 7:16-20, we shall know people by their fruits. So therefore God through Isaiah is exhorting them to bear good fruits in these good works, as they can only do such good works as biblically defined when they have repented and have turned back to God. Contrary to the heretical Marxist interpretation of such commands in Scripture, the phrase 'seek justice' refers to true justice, not 'justice' for perceived unfairness but kingdom justice like punishing those who murder children and excommunication of those who destroy the faith of others. 'Correct oppression' is the kingdom responsibility to proclaim and help others be free of the oppression of sin, and also not to take advantage of others; 'Bring justice to the fatherless' and 'plead the widow's cause' is to ensure that those who are disadvantaged are not discriminated against and oppressed by those who want to impose their values on others like Marxists. All of such are fruits of the Spirit and therefore God by focusing on the fruits is exhorting them to change at the roots with the result being the visible expression of a repentant and changed heart.

As we have looked at this passage, let us continue to seek God and turn to Him. Reader, have you been compromising recently? Have you allowed the things of the world to enter and squeeze out God? If so, please repent. Seeing the bitter and evil fruit that has been reaped by such unfaithfulness to God, why should you continue on in rebellion? Truly God is imploring us to turn back to Him while there is time. Repent therefore, and show forth your repentance in true good works. For God does not take any pleasure in the death of anyone. So repent and live! (Ez. 18:32)