Isaiah 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.
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 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.
Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
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.
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, as a besieged city.
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.
Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
To 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.
When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
Bring 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.
Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
And 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.
Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
Come 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.
If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord Hath Spoken it.
How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:
Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
Therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:
And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin:
And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.
Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.
And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed.
For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.
For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.
And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.
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"Nothing more is known of the ancestors of Isaiah than that he was the son of Amoz. He prophesied in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, all kings of Judah. From the closing years of Uzziah to the death of Hezekiah would be from about B.C. 765 to 700, embracing a period of 65 years. The first verse says that the vision was concerning Judah and Jerusalem [also in Isaiah 2 regarding "the last days"]. Had due attention been paid to this, it would have prevented many things being ascribed in the headings of the chapters to the church, and the prophecy would have been the better understood. In few words the prophecy may be said to treat of the failures of the nation of Judah and the judgments upon it. Assyria is used as God’s rod to punish them, and is then destroyed. Judgments are pronounced against the nations around the promised land that had been enemies to God’s people. The Messiah is prophesied of and His rejection, and universal blessing is spoken of.
The following seven divisions are distinctly marked:
Isaiah 1-12. The sinful condition of the people as still in possession of the land: various pleadings and chastisements culminating in the Assyrian: the introduction of Immanuel: ends with a song.
Isaiah 13-27. Judgments on Babylon and the nations where Israel was captive and outcast: ends in deliverance from their outcast condition and worship at Jerusalem.
Isaiah 28-35. Five woes on unfaithful Israel: ends with deliverance from the Assyrian and the confederacy of nations, and the joy of the kingdom.
Isaiah 36-39. Historical, but typical: the way of blessing for Jerusalem and the house of David.
Isaiah 40-48. Controversy of God with Israel on account of idolatry. Cyrus (type of Christ) the deliverer.
Isaiah 49-57. Controversy of God with Israel on account of the rejected suffering Messiah.
Isaiah 58-66. Final results: the remnant delivered and blessed.
Isaiah 1-4. is introductory. The “sinful nation” was completely corrupt, and had been sorely chastised; there was no soundness from head to foot; though chastened, there was no contrition, and God’s judgments must still follow. There is also grace in store for the latter days: Zion will be a center of blessing, and a remnant will be saved."
Isaiah 1-4. is introductory. The “sinful nation” was completely corrupt, and had been sorely chastised; there was no soundness from head to foot; though chastened, there was no contrition, and God’s judgments must still follow. There is also grace in store for the latter days: Zion will be a center of blessing, and a remnant will be saved."
Excerpt from: Concise Bible Dictionary: Book of Isaiah
"Isaiah's vision was “concerning Judah and Jerusalem.” He is told to “make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes” (Isa. 6:10). He inquires
“Lord, how long? And He answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and Jehovah have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten; as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof” (ver. 11-13).
Here, then, is a prophecy which only receives its full accomplishment after Christ's rejection by the Jews. It foretells the total desolation of the land, the scattering and destruction of the people. But still a remnant is left, who shall return, and be the “holy seed,” the real pith and substance of the nation.
About this remnant and its restoration the prophet gives us farther particulars, coupling the time of its blessing with the reign of Christ.
“And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people: to it shall the Gentiles seek, and His rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day, that Jehovah will set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim; but they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon shall obey them” (Isa. 11:10-14).
Nobody will contend that this prophecy has been fulfilled in Israel's history; and to apply it to the Church is to subject it to an amount of violence which would render all prophecy deceptive. But apply it to the future of Israel, and we find the exact counterpart of the promises and prophecies we have already seen. “The root of Jesse,” the Jewish title of Christ, comes in; and in connection with His appearance the remnant, which we saw was to be preserved after the desolation of the land, is gathered back to Jerusalem and Palestine; the divisions of the people, brought in by idolatry, are healed; and the neighboring nations, who have oppressed and despised them, are overthrown. We have all along seen that while the first man would fail, the full blessings promised to Israel would be accomplished by the coming in of the Second Man, the true Seed of David; and now we observe how His appearance at once accomplishes the ancient promises of God concerning this people.
But we have also seen that Israel's restoration is to be accompanied with a mighty moral change. Here, then, is what the Lord tells us about the condition of the people once more gathered back.
“Therefore, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of Mine adversaries, and avenge Me of mine enemies: and I will turn My hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin; and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counselors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called The city of righteousness, the faithful city” (Isa. 1:24-26).
Here we see that the judgments of God are to visit the people, that the dross of the nation is to be removed, that the rest are to learn righteousness, and that then Jerusalem is to become what God designed that it should be, as the center of righteous government in the earth. If this portion is to be understood in its natural sense, it is plain that the spiritualizing interpretation usually applied to the prophecies of Isaiah cannot stand. Is it, then, so to be understood? In the first place, the prophecy in which it occurs is expressly declared to be “concerning Judah and Jerusalem.” In the next place, everybody admits that the woes and judgments denounced in this same chapter refer to the real Judah and Jerusalem. How, then, can we say that the promises immediately following and closely connected refer to an allegorical Judah and Jerusalem?
Again, the titles of God used here are the titles by which He specially makes Himself known to Israel, not the titles He assumes towards the Church. Lastly, what have righteous judges and counselors to do with the Church? Whereas the unrighteousness of these officers was one great crime laid to the charge of Jerusalem, while their purity is an essential condition to the carrying out of God's purposes of earthly government, of which Zion is the chosen center."
Thomas Blackburn Baines
Excerpt from Chapter 5. Israel's restoration and blessing — Old Testament teaching.
From: The Lord's Coming, Israel, and the Church
Photo by guille pozzi on Unsplash
