Chapter 1

Isaiah ministered or lived during the reign of five different kings. One is not mentioned — Manasseh. And since Manasseh was one of the worst kings of Judah it is quite obvious that Isaiah had no ministry and had retired from the scene during Manasseh’s reign. But there are four kings mentioned here, and while the dates of these kings are estimated to some extent, they are not accurate but are within a few years, they give some idea of the ministry of Isaiah. Uzziah, 785-748 BC; Jotham, 758-748 BC he was a regent and then from that time to 743 BC he was king; Ahaz, 742-725 BC; Hezekiah, 725-697 BC.

Now each of these four kings was very different and each one of them faced an unusual series of problems. And it is worth our while just to examine briefly some of the problems these kings faced because Isaiah is going to minister to these kings in a very critical and difficult time for Judah.

Uzziah is also known in history as Azariah. The passages which cover his reign are 2 Kings 14 and 15, and 2 Chronicles 26. By reading these historical passages you will have a better understanding of the various difficulties of the nation when Isaiah ministered. It was during the reign of Uzziah that Tiglath-Pileser the third came to the throne of Assyria. He was originally a gardener who was able to assassinate the king who was one day walking in the garden. He was able to take the throne and take a very famous Assyrian name — Tiglath-Pileser III. Under his reign Assyria again became prominent. Assyria had been a great empire which had faded away. Now it comes back into power.

During the reign of Uzziah in an attempt to stop the tremendous onslaught of the Assyrians, Uzziah became the leader of a coalition of nations, made up of various groups in Palestine plus Syria. As the leader of this coalition he was constantly attempting to frustrate Assyrian conquest. It was very unsuccessful, the coalition was made up of people with whom the Jews had no business being in alliance with and consequently the Assyrians continued their progress and conquered and developed a great empire at that point.

Jotham had a rather interesting career. The first ten years of his reign was actually as a regent. Uzziah or Azariah became leprous. He tried to assume the priestly office when he was not in the right tribe — Levi. But he was in the tribe of Judah, in the family of David, and therefore he had no business trying to fulfil priestly functions. As a result he was smitten with leprosy. During the period of his leprosy, the last ten years of his life, his son Jotham was the regent. The story of Jotham is given in 2 Kings 16 and 2 Chronicles 27.

Jotham was followed by Ahaz whose story is given in 2 Kings 16 and 2 Chronicles 28. And during this time there was a new power in Syria which developed around Damascus. There was a famous king by the name of Rezin. Rezin was the king of Syria, Pekah was the king of Samaria (sometimes called Ephraim or the northern kingdom). These two formed the Syro-Ephraimite coalition against Judah and during the reign of Ahaz they invaded the land and attempted to put a pretender on the throne in Jerusalem. And it was again Isaiah who stood in the gap and who advised the king; it was Isaiah who formed the spiritual background for resistance. Therefore the Syro-Ephraimite coalition came to nought.

Then Hezekiah came to the throne and we have his story in 2 Kings 18 and 2 Chronicles 19-31. During the reign of Hezekiah, as Isaiah had prophesied, the northern kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrians. In 721 BC Samaria, the capital, fell under the invasion of Sargon II and we have the end of the northern kingdom. It was during this period that Hezekiah came into contact with the king of Babylon, known as Merodach. As the ruler of Babylon he was looking for an alliance to stop the Assyrians. In the midst of all of the countries moving around for world power and the continued advancement of the Assyrians, Isaiah ministered. He ministered in a time when his own nation, the kingdom of Judah, faced some very serious crises which threatened to destroy them. And each one of these kings was tempted to seek help from a human source, to ally himself with Egypt. In one case Hezekiah was tempted and finally succumbed to ally himself with Assyria, and at other times some other nation round about in order to protect himself and to survive.

You can tell, of course, from the length of reign of each one of these kings that for over half a century Isaiah ministered as the chief minister and prophet in the southern kingdom of Judah. And he ministered in all kinds of weather. Much of it was stormy weather, some of it was pleasant, but there is a great principle behind it all. He served in a day when some of the kings were the best of the kings since David and some of them were the worst. Manasseh and Ahaz were very wicked; Hezekiah was one of the best kings. Jotham was mediocre. He served in all sorts of political weather, in all sorts of crises and all sorts of unusual situations. But through it all he learned one great principle: the believer’s happiness and stability does not depend on outer circumstances but on inner relationship with the Lord. Isaiah is one of the great illustrations of the Old Testament of the secret of inner happiness and the secret of orienting in spite of the difficulties..

The vision of Isaiah

First of all, the name of the human author means “God brings salvation” or “God brings deliverance.” Certainlythis is one of the great truths in connection with Isaiah. We do not know if this was his real name or whether it was a name which he took when he entered the ministry as many of the prophets did. Perhaps this is the name he assumed as he saw the war clouds gathering around his own little nation. Maybe he wanted the kings to realise from his very name that the only hope of deliverance in any national entity is God Himself. So perhaps he took the name Isaiah — “God brings deliverance.” For you see many of the kings under whom he will serve as a prophet are going to be tempted time after time to seek help from man. And every time a king seeks help from man he is going to be set back. So here is the name of a man to remind these kings that our deliverance comes from the Lord. He is our rock, He is our salvation, He is the only one who can provide for time and for eternity. The solution to every problem the believer has is in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It begins with eternal salvation and it continues through every phase of our experience on this earth. It concludes with phase three and the believer in eternity.

In addition we have little background with regard to Isaiah. However, historical tradition says that he was of a family of great nobility. He is said in our passage to be the son of Amoz and Amoz was the uncle of Azariah, the king of Judah. (Notice that Uzziah is often called Azariah) So actually Isaiah was the first cousin of the king mentioned here as Uzziah. He was therefore the uncle of the next king, Jotham. His nobility is reflected in his writing because he, by the way, wrote perfect poetry and he was a literary genius. He was not only a great preacher and a great prophet but a great literary man.

Verse 1 — “The vision of Isaiah.” The word “vision” is in the construct state in the Hebrew which means that the vision belongs to someone. We should translate this “the vision which belongs to Isaiah”; it is his message. Therefore, before the canon of scripture was completed Isaiah received direct revelation from God.

One more thing we should note from verse one is the stability of life in Isaiah. He ministered under many different types of personalities and many different types of situations. He probably ran the gamut of every type of disaster that could come to a nation and every crisis and every serious problem. Isaiah’s testimony throughout the entire book is the one found in Philippians 4:10,11 — “I know how to be abased, I know how to abound. Everywhere and in every circumstance, I am completely oriented” .

Verse 2 — Isaiah immediately gets into his message. We will not get the call of Isaiah until chapter six. First of all we have some of his sermons as he began his ministry. This one begins in verse two with a divine indictment against Israel, specifically the kingdom of Judah. This is the era of the divided kingdom. The ten tribes in the north are sometimes called Samaria, sometimes called Ephraim. The kings were generally wicked kings, apostasy existed, and even during the ministry of Isaiah this apostasy resulted in the destruction, the overwhelming of the Assyrians which removed entirely the northern kingdom. The ten tribes were taken into captivity, except for those fugitives who managed to get into the kingdom of Judah. They were scattered throughout the Assyrian empire. The southern kingdom is known as Judah and God now has a complaint against Judah whose headquarters is at Jerusalem.

“Hear, O heavens.” The courtroom is now in session according to verse two. Verse two is actually a technical piece of language which indicates that God is calling the kingdom of Judah into the court to hear the indictment. The witnesses are both angel and humanity. “O heavens” is the vocative which refers to the angels. Angels are watching the human race, as indicated in 1 Corinthians 4:9; 6:3; 11:10; Ephesians 3:10; 1 Timothy 5:21; 1 Peter 1:12. The angels are called upon to observe Judah. God has been faithful and gracious to Judah and yet they continue to move in the direction of apostasy, primarily because religion has now infiltrated Judah.

Now why does God call upon the angels to observe the history of Judah during the reign of Isaiah? Because Judah is a very small kingdom among the nations and Judah can only exist because of the grace of God. And Judah is existing at that time simply because of God’s grace and for no other reason, just as we continue to live in phase two because of God’s grace. And Judah has been doing very well until religion comes into the picture. Remember that the greatest destroyer of any nation in the history of the human race is the infiltration of religion. Most nations are not destroyed from without, they are destroyed from within and they are destroyed by religion. Religion may take many forms, e.g. Romanism, communism, United Nationsism (which has certain aspects which are comparable to the heathenism of old), the World Council of Churches. And whenever these religious organisations of any kind gain the ascendancy then the nation is destroyed. Now God has called Judah into the court because they have succumbed to religionism.

“give ear, O earth” — God also calls upon the earth to be a witness. So there are two witnesses. To establish an indictment there must be two witnesses under the concept of the Mosaic law which was the Jewish law and the law for the land of Israel. So God has two sets of witnesses, not simply two witnesses but two categories. He calls upon the angels as witnesses that what He says is true with regard to His indictment of Israel, and He also calls upon the human race — “Hear, O earth” Then we have a reference to the Judge: “for the Lord hath spoken.” The Lord is in a sense the Judge and He is also the prosecuting attorney. The Lord here refers to Jesus Christ.

Then we have a brief statement of the indictment: “I have nourished and brought up children.” The word “children” is the defendant and the defendant in this case is the kingdom of Judah. The kingdom of Judah, the southern kingdom, is made up of two categories: those who are born-again and have received Christ as saviour; those who are perhaps the larger mass of people in Judah at this time, the unbelievers. And the unbelievers, likewise, are going to be indicted. In fact the indictment will be given in the next verse.

“I have nourished and brought up children” — these are the defendants, the kingdom of Judah, and “they have rebelled against me.” God has provided everything necessary to keep a nation, to protect it, to preserve it. Certainly a small nation like Judah in one of the great areas where armies are marching back and forth can only survive by His protection, His provision and His grace. All during the prophecies of Isaiah there will be constant pressures and yet through his entire ministry Jerusalem stands, as long as Isaiah ministers the Word of God in Jerusalem. He stood on the walls of Jerusalem and saw the armies of Assyria, he saw the armies of the Aramaans, he saw the armies of the Samarians, he saw the armies of the Edomites, he saw the Philistines approach, he saw the armies of the Egyptians, but none of those armies ever broke through. Why? Because people listened to the sermons of Isaiah; because for over fifty years Isaiah evangelised and people found Christ as saviour, and after that Isaiah presented the Word of God and the promises of God. And many, many times when the king and his cabinet and his war department and everyone else wanted to give up, Isaiah stood in the gap and said: “No, don’t do this thing.” For over fifty years the kingdom of Judah will survive because of the ministry of Isaiah, because of ministry of the Word of God. And at the very beginning of his ministry the reason for this is because Isaiah began his ministry by cleaning house. He had to completely change everything up because there was so great corruption. God prepares a nation for the things that are ahead. If Isaiah had not preached this message in chapter one the people and the king and the organisation of that southern kingdom could not have survived. They had to be ready for the great pressures which came their way. And until Isaiah dies in the reign of Manasseh — he will be sawed in two by that king —Jerusalem is safe. The country will never be destroyed even though it is devastated many times.

This gives some concept of the tremendous ministry of Isaiah. He lived in one of the most difficult days that a nation could ever face and in the midst of all of the tremendous pressures that were upon him he stayed faithful to the Word of God; he continued in occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. The greatest Messianic passages in the Old Testament are found in his writings and in his sermons. The principle is quite obvious: no matter how hopeless the situation may be, if a nation will seek God through Jesus Christ and depend upon the promises of the Word, that nation will survive.

The amplification of the indictment, verse 3. There are two different analogies here. One is the analogy of the ox and the other is the analogy of the ass. In the kingdom of Judah there are two categories of people: believers and unbelievers. The ox deals with the unbeliever and the believer is compared to an ass. Once you understand that it simplifies the entire indictment in the first part of this chapter.

The summary is given in verse three. First of all we have the ox indictment — “the ox knoweth his, owner.” The ox is the unbeliever. The ox is a very strong animal but he is also a very stupid animal. But as stupid as the ox is he knows where to go for his food. What a comparison to the Jews who are unbelievers! They are compared to an ox who is stupid but he knows where to go for food. “You Jews who are unbelievers don’t even know where to go for salvation. And so the stupid ox is smarter than you.” Christ has been clearly revealed to them and yet they still have rejected Him. The owner is a person and it refers to Christ and the issue is salvation.

The ass indictment follows: “the ass knows his master’s crib.” The crib is a place from where he gets his food. Where do the Jews get their food? They get it from the Word of God. And while the ass is a stupid animal he still knows where to go for food but the Jews don’t know where to go for food, i.e. the Word of God.

The ass knows his master’s crib. The master’s crib is analogous to the Word. The ox knows who his owner is even though he is a stupid animal. But the Jews who have pride in their brilliance and their perception do not know Jesus Christ as the God of Israel. The ass knows where to go for his food — his master’s crib — but the believing Jew does not go to the Word of God, he lives by his emotions, by his traditionalism. The combination of emotion plus traditionalism has tripped him up because the believing Jew has now apostatised into the heathen religions round about. All of these countries round about had false religions of heathenism and while their armies could not conquer Jerusalem their religions did. Therefore this warning. The believers themselves had ignored the Word of God analogous to the master’s crib.

“but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.” The Jews in Judea had failed to receive Christ as saviour — indictment of the ox. The believers in the land had failed because they do not keep themselves in the Word of God.

Verse 4 — “Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers;” Those three phrases are an amplification of the indictment of the ox. “Sinful nation” means that they were still lost in their sins, they had done nothing about it by receiving Christ as saviour. They are also said to be a people “bearing down under sin” and “a people laden with iniquity.” The word “laden” means to be under too heavy a weight and therefore to be breaking down. They are a people breaking down with iniquity, the iniquity is breaking them. “a seed of evildoers” — they are passing on their unbelief to their children, they are influencing their children to ignore the claims of Christ.

Beginning with the word “children” in the middle of verse four we have an amplification of the ass indictment and it goes through verse five.

“children that are corrupters” — the word “corrupters” means legalism. Here are believers and they are legalistic; they are bordering on being religionistic.

“they have forsaken the Lord” — apostasy which has entertained false doctrine.

“they have provoked the Holy One of Israel” — they are now the recipients of certain types of discipline.

“they are gone away backward” — they are estranged and have become spiritual morons because of this condition.

Verse 5 — “Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint.” This again describes believers.

“stricken” — disciplined; “the whole head is sick” — this means that in the frontal lobe they have the human viewpoint; “the whole heart is faint” — this means that they are unable to use any type of spiritual life to meet the terrible situations which they face. We have a picture of someone who is weak and fainting from wounds or from drunkenness. It is a picture of a person who has lost his co-ordination, a person who is weakened, a person who is disoriented and is no longer capable of fighting or resisting or going on in whatever the situation may be.

Before we begin verse six we need to understand the background. The background is actually Leviticus 26 where we have the law of punishment and dispersion. This law is about to catch up with Judah. All dispersion and punishment of nations such as Israel is based upon the infiltration of religion — Leviticus 26:1. Once religion comes then divine discipline follows. In verses 3-13 of Leviticus 26 we note that by following the precepts of God’s Word, by living in the Word of God, the nation will have prosperity. Prosperity is described in this passage in terms of agricultural economy.

In verse 14 we have a change of pace. We have the reasons for discipline. Verse 16 states the first of five cycles of discipline. Each cycle follows the other to awaken the people and when the people are not awakened then the next cycle goes into action. That is the principle.

The cycles of discipline are about to begin in Judah and that is why Isaiah is warning them. Actually, several times during the book of Isaiah the cycles of discipline will get up to about number three and then there will be a change. It gets up to about number four on one occasion but the cycles never get to discipline number five until after the death of Isaiah when later on Nebuchadnezzar comes into the land. But as long as Isaiah lives in the land of Judah and as long as he preaches the Word of God he is always able through his ministry to stop the discipline before it gets to cycle number five which is total destruction. Therefore Isaiah begins his great ministry with the indictment of the ox and the ass. The purpose of this indictment is to awaken the people, to warn them that the cycle of discipline is about to begin.

Verse 6 — “From the soul of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness [no health. The entire body is subjected to loss of health]; but wounds and bruises, and putrefying sores:”

We actually have a progression here of wounds. The word “wounds” is a small cut or a bruise and it is analogous to the first cycle of discipline — Leviticus 26:14-17. The first cycle has already taken place when Isaiah begins his ministry. Secondly we have the word “bruises.” The Hebrew word is a deeper cut, a wider wound that bleeds a little more. It refers to the second cycle of discipline — Leviticus 26:18-20. Notice that when Isaiah begins his ministry they have already passed through the second cycle. Now the third description we have is “putrefying sores” which refers to a fresh, deep, bleeding wound. And it is a reference to the third cycle of discipline — Leviticus 26:21-23. This means that the Jews of Judah were at the point of the third cycle of discipline under the concept of Leviticus 26 and Isaiah’s ministry put a stop at this point and they went back to spiritual prosperity. Then the cycle will crank up again and again be stopped, crank up and be stopped, several times during the ministry of Isaiah.

So when Isaiah begins his ministry he begins at a very critical time when his ministry is needed the most. The Jews are now in the third cycle of discipline and are in very desperate straits in the kingdom of Judah. The ministry of Isaiah will draw unbelievers to Christ and will draw believers back into the Word of God and will discontinue the cycles of discipline for a time at least.

Now notice he says about these wounds: “they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment” .From this phrase we learn something of the treatment of wounds in the ancient world. The words “they have not been closed” mean to be pressed together or sewed together. The second treatment is “bound up” and they bandaged wounds in the time of Isaiah, which means in the eighth century BC they were actually using this treatment of sewing wounds and then bandaging them to keep out infection. Finally, “mollified with ointment” means the application of some kind of a medicine — usually an oil — to the situation.

All of this is carried into the analogy. What Isaiah is simply saying is this: the first, second and third cycles of discipline are now in operation in this land and nothing has been done to stop it. The people didn’t even realise they were in the third cycle of discipline because they had neglected the Word of God. They had neglected the 26th chapter of Leviticus and they didn’t know where they

were. Now what’s the principle that comes out of this? At all times orientation to the national and international situation around us depends upon our knowledge of the Word of God. The Word of God orients us historically to the situations which exist around us. The children of Judah were not oriented because they had neglected the Word of God — a part of the indictment of the ass.

Isaiah warns them in another way now. He says Judah is so bad now that they are getting close to becoming like Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah reached the fifth cycle and were destroyed. So he says in verse 7 — “Your country desolate; your cities burned with fire; your land, strangers devour it in your presence, desolate as overthrown by strangers.” There are no verbs here, the nouns therefore receive great emphasis. Now actually this is future; this is a prophecy. If they continue and ignore the warning of the third cycle of discipline this is what will happen very shortly. As a matter of fact this is eventually what happened when Nebuchadnezzar came into the land — “your country desolate, your cities burned, your land strangers devour in your presence” .

And then in verse eight, three analogies again: “And the daughter of Zion [the kingdom of Judah] is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.” First of all “a cottage in a vineyard” is actually a workman’s tool shed in a vineyard. It is supposed to be an analogy to desolation. There is nothing more deserted than a workman’s tool shed in a vineyard, except at certain times of the year. So here we have the concept of God’s desertion.

“a lodge in a garden of cucumbers [or melon patch].” And, again, the lodge is a workman’s tool shed. Desolation, isolation is the concept — no fellowship with God.

“a besieged city” — there are a lot of people around but they are all hostile. You are isolated, you are deserted because you are not having fellowship with the Lord.

“like unto Sodom and Gomorrah” — the climax of all, you are on the verge of being destroyed.

Verse 9 — “Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant” we would possibly have been destroyed now.

“we should have been like unto Sodom, we should have been like unto Gomorrah.” Often the difference between survival and non-survival in a national entity is a small group of believers, believers who are faithful in the Word, believers who are faithful to the Lord. The greatest thing that you can do for your country at this hour is to be faithful in the Word of God, to be faithful in the application of the Word in your own life, to be faithful in witnessing for Christ.

A threefold cause for judgment, verses 10-15

In verse 10 we have the neglect of the Word of God; in verses 11-14 we have the hypocrisy of religion; in verse 15 we have failure in prayer.

The first in verse 10 is the neglect of the Word of God. One of the greatest causes for discipline among believers in any generation is neglect of God’s Word.

“Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom.” The rulers in Judah at this time are compared to the rulers of Sodom. The leadership of the country needs the Word of God. There is a twofold concept here: 1. The Word of God clearly declares the way of salvation and the divine viewpoint at any point on any subject in life; 2. The principles for good government are all specified in God’s Word. And, of course, they run the gamut from the divine institutions to what constitutes a national entity, the freedoms that people should have within a national entity, and where the government has no right to infringe or to encroach upon the freedoms of individuals, and where the government does have a right — in the area of law enforcement, the use of capital punishment, the concept of the policeman on the beat and the judge on the bench. The principle is: if rulers know the doctrine of God’s Word, the principles which even pertain to good government, then they will avoid the evils and the difficulties which we find ourselves facing at the present time.

The Word has three basic categories which are helpful to rulers: 1. Personal salvation; 2. The way of life, the divine viewpoint on every factor in time; 3. What constitutes correct government under God.

“give ear unto the law of our God” — a reference to the canon of scripture as it existed at the time of Isaiah. We have a failure in Judah to listen to the Word of God. And notice that the people are called the people of Gomorrah, they are following their rulers, Sodom, and they are called Gomorrah. This is very strong language and it is also very suggestive of the fact that Sodom and Gomorrah persisted until God had to destroy them. There is a great principle here. When a national entity is so universally mad as far as the people are concerned and so far from the principles and laws of God, then they must be eliminated and destroyed, as illustrated by Sodom and Gomorrah, the Canaanites and so on, otherwise the madness spreads to the total destruction of the human race. The human race would destroy itself were it not for certain things which God has ordained for the human race for its own protection.

The second cause for judgment, 11-14: the hypocrisy of worship. “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?” They were offering hundreds and hundreds and even thousands of animal sacrifices, the Levitical sacrifices of chapters 1-6 of Leviticus and they are very significant. But they involve ritual.

We have to understand something here. All true ritual is based on doctrine and ritual is merely a way of conveying or teaching doctrine. Ritual in itself is absolutely meaningless unless it is backed by doctrine. In the Old Testament when most people could not read or did not read, or the copies of the scriptures were not available, obviously they had to see the doctrines in pictorial form. Consequently they went through many types of ritual — the holy days, the Passover, unleavened bread, firstfruits, Pentecost, the feasts of Trumpets and Tabernacles, and so on. Every one of these depicted a great portion of Christology of the Old Testament. Other activities included the modus operandi of the Levitical priesthood. In this way the great teaching of the priesthood of Christ was brought out. As far as the Tabernacle was concerned the articles had great significance doctrinally and could be used to teach the people, like training aids.

Then, of course, there were the Levitical offerings. There were five of them. The burnt offering spoke of propitiation with emphasis on the work of Christ. Every time that someone offered a burnt offering he was going through the whole doctrine of propitiation. Then the offering that usually accompanied it, the meal or the food offering, was propitiation with emphasis on the person of Christ, and the two of them together taught the whole plan of salvation. There was the peace offering which was the doctrine of reconciliation. There was the sin offering which was rebound with emphasis on the unknown sins. Then there was the trespass offering with emphasis on the known sins. All of these offerings had great significance, but when the doctrine was not taught because the Word of God was neglected the ritual became meaningless. The principle is that they were now offering all of these animal sacrifices and in the middle of verse 11 the Lord responds to ritual without doctrine, ritual without regeneration — “I am full [completely fed up with] 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 you come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to trample my courts?” Who makes you come to church? in other words. The temple is up now and the courts refer to Solomon’s temple. Illustration: Going to church. There is no merit in going to church. The merit is, first of all, in receiving Christ as saviour. And then once you are born again then there is worship and the absorption of the Word. So the idea o going to the temple is useless, it is meaningless. Part of the population had rejected Christ as saviour and the believers had neglected the Word of God, so going to the temple doesn’t mean anything. Verse 13 — “Bring no more vain [empty] oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; “new moon”— mentioned Numbers 10:10 and 28:11-14. The first day of each month was a new moon and the day was usually characterised by animal sacrifices and by the blowing of the silver trumpets, special types of services. They observed the new moons but they had lost their significance. “Sabbaths” — every Saturday. Sabbath means “rest.” God rested on the seventh day. Why? Because in six days He had provided everything that man would ever need or could use in status quo innocence. The significance of the Sabbath is grace. God provides for man what he does not earn and what he cannot deserve. The Sabbath was a memorial to grace but now in Judah it has lost that significance because they have rejected Christ.

“the calling of assemblies” — the special sacred feasts. The significance behind these feasts is wonderful. It has to do with the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But once you remove the doctrine and have simply ritual, then ritual is absolutely meaningless. It becomes an energy of the flesh operation, it appeals to human aesthetics, but it is useless as far as God is concerned. “My soul hateth” is the divine attitude.

“they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them” — I am sick and tired of them, as it were.

The second area of failure, then, is ritual. Notice the logical progression:

a. They neglect the Word of God. When you neglect the Word of God you have nothing left but empty and hollow activity — that’s ritual; b. They pray over everything.

Verse 15 — “And when ye spread forth your hands.” Oh God! etc. What is God’s attitude toward these prayers? “I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood [guilt].” What does it mean, their hands are filled with guilt? It means that God doesn’t hear the prayers of those who regard iniquity in their hearts — Psalm 66:18. So they go through all of this prayer but it is just a lot of words. It has no meaning; it has no spiritual significance at all.

The solution, verses 16-20

Since we have two different indictments here, the indictment of the ox [unbelievers] and the indictment of the ass [ignoring of the Word by believers], we need to recognise that the solution offered in each case is separated one from the other so as to avoid confusion.

In verses 16 and 17 we have the solution to the ass indictment. This is for believers. In verse 16 they are to rebound — “Wash you, make you clean.” This has to do with rebound, restoration of fellowship, 1 John 1:9.

“put away the evil of your doings” — this is, of course, a change of pace in your life as a result of being in fellowship.

“from before mine eyes; cease to do evil” — the evil, of course, has to do with modus operandi religiosity and the corrections that he is demanding in context are: a. Give heed to the Word of God; b. Avoid empty ritual. The ritual was definitely prescribed for that day but it must be on the basis of doctrine, knowing the truth; c. Let’s have effective prayer life based upon the fact that you are “washed and made clean.”

Verse 17 — a concept of spirituality and production is a part of the solution.

“Learn to do well” — production based upon divine operating assets; “seek judgment [not justice]” — seek to do justice in all of your activities, seek to be just and fair; “relieve the oppressed” — responsibility toward those who are oppressed; “judge the fatherless” — the word “judge” means to render justice, or render help to the fatherless, to the orphans, to provide for children who do not have homes; “plead for the widow” — the word “plead” is a judicial term. They had a system in Isaiah’s day. Often someone would get them into debt and then if they couldn’t pay their debts they had to forfeit their own freedom and became slaves. In this way some people worked a little racket and the leaders would get about five or six hundred widows and move them out into different areas and sell them for slaves into other countries, move them into houses of prostitution and so on. This happened all the time. And so when it says “plead for the widows” it means stand up and protect widows from this terrible evil.

Verse 18 — Now we also have a solution to the ox indictment which deals with the unbeliever.

“Come now [right now is the time for an unbeliever], let us reason together [The Hebrew says: “let us settle this dispute"]. Here is the concept: you have the impassable barrier with man on one side and

God on the other. And there is hostility because of the barrier. The barrier is removed by the person of Christ and His work on the cross. Therefore, the only way the dispute can be settled is by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what this actually means. When it is settled this is the way it looks: some times this word “settle” means to settle up accounts. Let’s clear up the air, the situation.

“though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow” — provision of the work of Christ. “though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” — wool, of course, after it is processed and cleaned white. So the concept is that the only solution to the indictment of the ox is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, to accept God’s solution to the problem of man’s sin.

Now if these solutions are ignored — salvation for the unbeliever and returning to the Word for the believer — then the alternative is discipline. The alternative is stated in verses 19 and 20.

Verse 19 — “If ye be willing and obedient [respond], ye shall eat the good of the land:” You will have prosperity as a nation.

Verse 20 — “But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.” Most of them rebelled and they suffered from the sword on at least three different occasions. The first occasion was the invasion of Rezin and Pekah, the second was the invasion of Senacherib, and Isaiah predicts the third [it did not occur in his time], the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar which finally took the southern kingdom into captivity. All of these things have to have a starting place. We are talking in the first twenty verses about the land of Judah, the southern kingdom in general. But now, where is the source of all of this trouble? In the rest of this chapter, verses 21-31, we go back to the source of the problem.

The indictment of headquarters, verses 21-31

Headquarters for these evils is Jerusalem, so Jerusalem is now personally indicted. Generally speaking the things which the Lord condemns in the indictment are things which have to do with religion. Religion has blinded the unbeliever and has robbed the believer of the true source of his blessing.

Verse 21 — spiritual declension. The indictment of the holy city, the source of all the problems. The prophet starts out by describing what a wonderful blessing Jerusalem had been in the past. Of course there is a principle. Any church, any city, any people, any organisation can be a great blessing in the past and come to be something entirely different. Jerusalem in the past have been wonderful. Notice verse 21 — “How is the faithful city become an harlot!” In the past it was a city which glorified the Lord. Notice it was “full of judgment and righteousness” .In the past they had justice and righteousness — “righteous lodged in her.” Righteousness means that there were a maximum number of believers and their influence was felt.

Now notice the change. The faithful city is become an harlot, a prostitute, and prostitution is often identified spiritually in the analogy with idolatry and religiosity. And what was once a very spiritual city and a very faithful city to the Lord, is now a very religious city. This is why God says, “they have rebelled against me.” Religion is rebellion against God.

Notice, too, that murderers live there. The Hebrew word for murderer is one which means literally “professional killer.” Instead of righteousness being lodged there it is now the home of “murder incorporated.” Notice something. It happens time after time in history. Where you find a heavy concentration of religion you find a heavy concentration of gangsters and crime. Professional gangsters and religionists go together!

Verse 22 — economic anarchy. “Thy silver is become dross” — i.e. the coinage is debased [inflation]. “thy wine mixed with water” — the operation of the huxter. The more inflation you have the more huxters you have. The only way to make a profit when inflation gets bad is to cut down on the real article and now we have inflation and cheating in business correlated.

Verse 23 — political degeneration. “Thy princes rebellious.” There is no verb here. The princes are the political leaders of the land. They do not have the divine viewpoint, they are rebellious therefore. They look at life from the human viewpoint — rebellious against God.

“companions of thieves; everyone loveth bribes, and pursues after the rake-off: they do not render justice to the orphans, neither does the cause of the widow come on the docket,” literally. The indictment is very modern. Justice is often dispensed in high places on the basis of expediency or, “what can I get out of it?” Or on the basis of rebellion, failure to understand the true principles of justice from the divine viewpoint. Now this is Jerusalem, the capital of the kingdom of Judah.

Verses 24-27 — some promises. A promise of purging, a promise of discipline. “Therefore said the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies [those who have been selling children into slavery and widows into prostitution, who have been consorting with gangsters and who have been going after bribes and so on].” Verse 28 — “Destruction of the transgressors and other sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed.” Here is a promise of discipline.

In verses 29 and 30 a judgment on religion. “For they [unbelievers] shall be ashamed of the oaks [reference to the practice of heathen religions to have worship among trees, usually the operation of the phallic cult] which ye have desired, ye shall be confounded [blush] on account of the gardens [for the practice of the phallic cult] that ye have chosen.” They had deliberately chosen these things rather than the Lord. “For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth [they are going to fade out through discipline], and as a garden that hath no water.” Jerusalem, the great centre of religion is going to fade. “And the strong [the idols which had been set up in the gardens and in the oak forests] shall be as tow [a Hebrew word for combustible material or waste products which were used to make a fuse. The idols are going to be the fuse that will blow the whole thing up.]” What is the principle? Religion is the fuse that blows up a country, that destroys a national entity. The greatest enemy of any national entity is religion.

“and the maker of it as a spark” — the people who make these idols are actually making your destruction. “and they shall both burn together, and no one shall quench them. ”That last phrase indicates a principle of judgment. When God puts the finishing touch of judgment on a nation there is absolutely nothing that can stop it. And this judgment was fulfilled for the first time at the coming of Nebuchadnezzar and at the second time with the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman legions.

And yet we have a very interesting conclusion. It is never too late — Matthew chapter 23. The Lord Jesus Christ is discussing the indictment of religion. He condemns religion because it destroys a nation. There are seven condemnations in Matthew 23. Verse 13, religion blinds people to the truth of the gospel; verse 15, He calls religion the children of Hell; verse 16, He calls the religious leaders blind guides; verse 23, religion gets people to tithe; verses 25, 27, 29. Notice verse 36 — “All of these things shall come upon this generation.” Judgment! Notice the pattern: religion destroys a national entity. Where you have a maximum amount of religion the nation is destroyed and then there is divine judgment.

But it is never too late until the judgment comes. Verse 37 — “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killeth the prophets, and stoneth 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! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” They won’t see Him until the second advent. The house is left desolate, the Roman legions will fulfil the judgment which is prophesied here. And these words were uttered by the Lord Jesus Christ the day before His death. It wasn’t too late even then.

What intervened? What led to the destruction of that southern kingdom the day after Isaiah lived, the day of Nebuchadnezzar, the day of the Romans? It was religion. This is the whole impact of the first chapter of the book of Isaiah. Religion destroys a nation. Religion removes from a nation all of those things which bless a nation under God.