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The Harvester Podcast is brought to you by the Florida School of Preaching. Listen weekly to take a dive into biblical topics and thoughtful studies on things that matter to our eternal souls.
Welcome to the Harvester Podcast.
We are happy that you have joined us
today.
I am one of the hosts, Brian Kenyon,
and with me is
Stephen Ford.
And Forrest could not be here today,
but we look forward to seeing him very
soon.
All of us are busy and we appreciate
Steven for taking his time out and
to help us in this podcast. And so we are
in season six,
minoring in the majors, the major prophets
that is,
and we looked last week
Our last episode on the introduction to
Isaiah,
the book of Isaiah. And so today,
we're going to take a look at an overview
of chapter one entitled A Holy View from
Heaven and what God, what we can see about
God and such in the book of Isaiah,
chapter one. And so Steven gonna lead us
in this study,
and we'll make some comments along the
way.
And if you are listening to us where you
can send us an email
or something like that, we would
appreciate and would love your feedback.
But go ahead, Steven, take us through this
chapter.
One of the attributes that of God that I
believe is oft overlooked is his holiness.
and I say that because we we think about
God as all powerful and he is.
We think about him being loving and
merciful and all knowing
and these various things, all present.
However, the attribute that I think shines
most throughout
the scriptures and especially through the
book of Isaiah,
and many of the prophets, for that matter,
is his holiness. God is holy, he's
completely holy.
That's to say, he's completely separated,
free of, and not associated with anything
wicked,
unrighteous, or sinful for that matter.
And in this first chapter, I think it just
kind of screams out to
us about the holiness of God as it's
manifested in a couple of ways.
in the first several verses, this holy God
that is in heaven.
Is looking down and being that he is holy,
sin stands out to him. So in these first
several verses,
God points out the sin of Israel.
In verses one through nine, God points out
just how bad their sin has gotten.
And and just some of the terminology here
just screams out like look
at where they've gone. He says at the end
of verse two,
or in verse two, he says, Hear O heavens
and give ear,
O earth, for the Lord has spoken,
I've nourished and brought up children,
and they've rebelled against me.
So
right away you see this relationship
that's turned on its side.
Here's a parent and children, and
obviously if there's a parent,
there's care, there's nurturing that's
involved.
And the children have risen up and they've
rebelled against me.
And I and I believe that most parents or
grandparents can relate to this
at least in some degree. Not all children
rebel in the same way,
but we can probably think of a time where
children are disobedient.
They're not, you know, being responsible
for the things they've been given
stewardship over. And we can
relate to how that feels as a parent.
All the things I'm doing and all the care
I'm providing and here is your response
to me, rebellion.
Yes, and we also see that it's not always
the parents' fault when the kids
are in rebellion, 'cause you can't get any
better father than God,
Absolutely.
but yet his children still went against
him.
Absolutely. Yeah. We you know,
in in the human form, ~ we sometimes will
say,
Well, there there's some, you know,
culpability on the part of the children,
then there's some culpability on the part
of the parents,
where did it all go wrong? ~ and that's
not always the case.
And of course here with God we know it's
not the case at all that
God has fault here. and he says in verse
three,
giving some
Greater depth, this he says the ox knows
his master and the donkey
is master of create, but Israel does not
know.
My people do not consider. And he's
saying,
look, even an animal can get it right.
And this really shows how bad Israel has
gotten.
it's he points to a rebellious child.
He points to this animal, and animals can
even get it right.
And here Israel is God's chosen people,
and they aren't behaving right.
And he says, You're a sinful nation.
A people laden with iniquity. So this is
not just they have done one thing wrong,
they are burdened down almost,
like they're dragging these heavy weights
of sin around.
it says you're laden with iniquity,
a seed of evildoers, children that are
corrupters.
So not only are they corrupt it,
but they are corrupters in that they
corrupt other people.
Their children, ~ it says they have
forsaken the Lord,
they have provoked the here it is,
the holy one of Israel unto anger.
And they are gone away backward.
And so just in these first four verses,
God's holiness is seen. He is the holy one
of Israel.
They've provoked him to anger.
They are corrupters. They're evil seeds.
They've now caused God to be angry because
they have gone away backward,
which shows that they were at one point
where God wanted them to be,
but here they've gone away from him.
And God is not the one that moved,
but they are the ones that have moved away
from
Yeah, notice see what God has done.
Verse two, I have nursed and brought you
up.
Mm-hmm. And see what they have done.
They have rebelled, they have forsaken,
they have provoked him, the holy one,
to anger, they have turned away backward.
Mm-hmm. And that's just like the almost
opposite direction that you would expect,
mm-hmm given what God has done for them.
Yeah, you you and you would think that
because of the things that they were
enduring
as a people at this period of time that
they would say,
Hey, hey, hey, all right, enough.
You know, let's at least behave for our
own self-preservation.
Mm-hmm. But they don't. He says,
Why should ye be stricken anymore?
You will revolt more and more.
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 wounds
and bruises and putrefying sores.
They have not been clothed, neither bound
up,
neither mollified with ointment.
And so now he's gone from the disobedient
child.
He's now moved in verse three to the ~
animal who knows it right,
but Israel doesn't. And now he's moving to
this almost like a corpse like body who's
laying there completely sick. There's
nothing almost redeemable in it.
Every aspect of it is sick. There's been
no medicines applied that
are working for them.
And so you just have these images,
which I love that Isaiah does.
He paints for us word pictures so that we
can see the extent.
Now I love analogies and things like that,
'cause they really help me to kinda get a
greater picture.
Yeah, the extent of it is is really what
stands out to me right here.
It's almost like I mean, there's just
there's just no alternative that
but something has to be done about this.
You know, not even nature acts this way.
Not even, you know, and so it's just
something's gotta be done and that will
be done and there's a lot of hope in
Isaiah later on,
but as he's setting it up, the reason why
they're in the situation that they're
in is because they have forsaken the
holiness of God.
And these first several verses set the
stage in in the demonstrating that Israel
will have no excuse. So this is not like
God's coming out the door saying,
I'm gonna do A, B, C, D, and E,
though he would have been just in doing
so,
but he paints a picture to Israel to say,
Hey, here's your history, here's your
past,
here's what you've been up to,
so that now you can't scream out and say,
this is unjust, this is unfair.
You know, there's there's no cry being the
victim.
Yeah,
it's like an indictment. You know,
here's
All the
done. Yes, and this is why this is why
justice has to be served.
Yeah, I I like that terminology.
I I don't know why I find it fascinating
to watch some of these court
TV shows on YouTube and the defendant will
be in the courtroom and
the judge will say, Hey, here's what
you've been up to and he'll just lay it
out,
you know, ten, twelve, fourteen things.
You've been on probation and here's all
these things,
and then the guy's just in there,
Well, I was kinda looking to get out on
bond again.
And the judge's like, No, you've done wow
all this and then they kind of,
you know, bang the gavel on him and and
bring down the hammer.
But it is to say that here's here's the
mercy that you've been experiencing.
extended in the past and here's how you
responded to it.
And in the case of Israel here,
~ God is making sure that they are fully
aware that they are completely
and wholly given over to selfishness,
which all sin is a result of selfishness
and arrogance when we turn
and obey ourselves instead of God.
But just how bad they've gotten he says in
~ verse number ~ where
do we leave seven your country is
desolate.
Your cities are burned with fire.
Your land, ~ strangers devour it in your
presence.
It is desolate and 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 left us a very small remnant.
We should have been as Sodom and we should
have been like Gomorrah.
These first nine verses, God is exposing
their sin.
And if there had not just been this this
small remnant group that have been
faithful
to God, they would have been like Sodom
and Gomorrah.
And and I again you have imagery.
Isaiah's making sure you know exactly
what's going on and why it's going on.
And so this draws our minds all the way
back to the book of Genesis,
eighteen and following. We think,
well, what was going on the Sodom?
that's right. yeah. Here are these cities
that were wholly and completely sinful,
so much so that God had to r yeah rain
down fire and destroy
Because of his holiness, he has to,
he has to respond in judgment.
And of course that'll be a theme
throughout Isaiah about that remnant that
will
a thread going all the way through Isaiah
that will come along
in the Messianic kingdom.
Yeah, this ~ that's that's one of the the
great things about Isaiah.
that even we'll see even in a micro shot
in this chapter,
which I think chapter one, at least in my
opinion,
kind of is a ~ just a mini view of what we
will see it throughout
the book of Isaiah. So in the first nine
verses,
you have God is looking at the nation and
saying,
You guys are completely wicked,
and his holiness requires that he
addresses it.
He would not be a holy God if he allows
sin to be ~ and dwell in his presence.
And so he has to address it. In the next
several verses,
he addresses that this wicked people,
this unrighteous people, this rebellious
people are now making a failed attempt
at worshiping in a way that is
unacceptable.
And so the heart will dictate the worship.
So you remember in G John 4, where Jesus
is saying that God
is looking for worshippers that will
worship.
True worship.
True worshipers in spirit and in truth.
And so it's not just the empty and vain
practices.
~ God is not going to be duped by false
worship.
He wants worship that's a ~ engaging the
inner man and that's according
to his own will. ~ in these next several
verses,
he says, Hear the word of the Lord,
ye rulers of Sodom. Give ear unto the law
of God,
ye people of Gomorrah. and this is like a
really strong statement here in verse 10,
because he says, Look.
Here is how you people are. And so I'm
gonna just address you as such.
And the preceding verse he just said,
Look, if it weren't for this remnant,
here's who who you would be.
You'd be like Solomon Gamor.
Right? And so now he's like just sticks
the name badge on them.
Here's here's how you are. ~ and it says,
To what purpose is this multitude of your
sacrifices for me?
What are you doing this for? says the
Lord.
I am full of the burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of fed beasts.
I delight not in the blood of bullocks or
in the lambs or of the he-goats.
And so they are making these efforts,
but
God isn't impressed with he says,
When you come ~ to appear before me,
who has required this at your hand to
tread in my courts?
Bring no more these vain oblations,
incenses, and abomination unto me,
the new moons, the Sabbaths, a calling of
assemblies.
I cannot away with it. Iniquity,
even the solemn meeting, your new moons
and your appointed feast,
your my soul hates them. They are a
trouble to me,
and I am weary to bear them. And when you
spread forth your hands,
I'll hide my eyes from you. Yes.
When you make many prayers, I will not
hear.
Your hands are full of blood.
Yes, that's a very strong indictment that
he's given them.
And it's it's like when when you read
about this,
like, you know, who is it that commanded
them to for the to keep the new moon,
the Sabbath, and the calling of
assemblies?
Who is it that commanded them to offer
sacrifices?
Of course it was God. But yet,
because they are so wicked, ~ you know,
you and I've heard preachers talk about
this in the past,
I think I even mentioned this myself,
but it's like, you know, you can't come in
on Sunday
thinking everything's cool when you've
been living worse than
the world Monday through Saturday.
And you know, God is the one who commanded
all these things,
but yet they're doing it in such a way,
it's such an affront to his holiness,
that he's sick of it. He's sick of it.
And I think that shows us a great lesson
today that,
just 'cause we do all the external things
doesn't mean God is happy with it.
He wants our heart. just like you
mentioned from John chapter four,
worship is to be done in spirit.
and in truth. And so we may get the
externals right,
but if it's coming from a bad heart,
~ a a a wicked heart, a sinful heart,
then it's not going to be accepted.
And this is a message I could wish we
could just scream to our society today.
God does not have to accept anything from
anybody.
He's not beholden to us in the sense that
if I offer,
he's gotta take it. Sometimes we think,
you know, it's it would like how we might
view it impolite if we give somebody
a gift and you don't accept it.
Well, that's kind of rude. It's not the
way with God.
God doesn't have to take our worship just
because we offer to him.
Right, yes. He doesn't need it,
but we do. We need to acknowledge and
worship him.
Exactly. It it's he is magnified and
glorified,
no doubt, but it is for our benefit.
We are we are the ones that are blessed as
a result of that which we offer to God.
And he says to them that their worship is
vain and empty.
They're doing all these things that have
no purpose.
~ and so I I love the some of the
rhetorical questions that are asked
and posed to them. ~ to what purpose is
this multitude of your sacrifices for me?
Why are you making these sacrifices in the
first place?
If the sacrifices are supposed to be a
demonstration of your humility before God,
you aren't humble before God. So why are
you offering the sacrifices
in the first place? ~ you're doing all
these things,
and yet you are representatively in verse
10,
Sodom and Gomorrah. So why are you even
doing these things?
And so I love in verse 13 where it says,
Don't even bring the vain oblations.
The incense, your incense now,
instead of God said saying that it's a
sweet smelling savor,
it's an abomination. I cannot away with
you.
He says
~ even the solemn meetings, everything
they're doing he calls iniquity,
which kind of goes back to Matthew chapter
seven.
Well not goes back to but reminds me of
Matthew chapter seven where there
is these group of people who are gonna say
to Jesus,
Hey, haven't we done these great things in
your name?
~ and Jesus will say, No, depart from me,
ye workers of iniquity. And why would he
do that?
Because they have not completely yielded
to the will of the Father,
which is in heaven. And so in the same way
God here in Isaiah 1 is calling their
actions iniquity.
Why? Because they have not yielded to the
will of the Father.
And so it doesn't matter what we do,
we could give everything that we've ever
possessed.
But if the heart isn't right behind it,
God doesn't have to accept it.
And that's right, 'cause they they're
doing the seemingly anyway,
the externals right, but since the heart
is just terrible.
And I think the keys down there in verse
fifty-one,
why will he not hear? Because it or not
fifty one,
fifteen. Did I say fifty one? Fifteen
fifteen,
your hands are full of blood. So again,
you know, you can't come before God to
worship correctly if your hands full
of blood, if you're not not right,
you know. And so ~ it's just an affront to
God.
Absolutely. And I I like when he says here
in verse fifteen,
you reference, you're gonna open and
spread your hands.
So they they will do this kind of
worshiping pose and lifting their hands to
God.
But God says, No, I'm gonna hide my eyes
from you.
I'm gonna cover my eyes. I'm not gonna see
it.
And when you make your prayers,
I'm gonna choose not to hear you.
He says, I will not hear you. It's not
that God,
as Isaiah would say later, it's not that
his ear is heavy,
that he can't hear, his arm is short,
they can't reach. No, it's because of
their iniquity that they've separated
themselves.
From God he says, I will not hear.
And again, as you mentioned, why why is it
that God won't hear?
It's not that God is ~ fickle,
it's his holiness where he says,
Your hands are full of blood. And it's not
as though that their hands
are full of blood because they are
offering these sacrifices,
you know, the blood of these animals.
Their head their hands are full of wicked
blood,
unrighteous blood.
Way they're treating their neighbors and
things like that.
There you go. He'll talk about later.
And he says, ~ in in verse 17,
here is where the imagery starts to turn.
Here's where you have now where God is
saying to them,
The things that you're doing are not
right.
The way that you've been living isn't is
not right.
You're completely sick, you're completely
~ unrighteous and ob disobedient,
these things. But his holiness,
also another aspect of his holiness,
is that.
He desires that we would share in his
holiness.
He desires that we would share in his
blessings and his goodness and those
things.
And so he says to them, Wash you,
make you clean, put away your evil doings
from before my eyes,
and cease from doing evil. Learn to do
well,
seek judgment, relieve the oppressed,
judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
And so he's giving them direction because
they might say,
and a person there, I guess there could be
a person that says,
Lord, I'm so lost.
I don't even know my way back.
How do I get back? And here in these
verses,
he says, here's what you need to do.
And so he's not just saying, like you
might talk to a person and say,
Hey, go be a good Christian. Well,
what does that mean? How do I walk out of
this building and go be a good Christian?
Well, God is telling them, Here's how you
are a faithful believer.
Here's what you need to be doing to get
back into your standing,
to be the opposite of the things that they
had been doing.
They need to wash, they need to put away
evil,
they need to ~ cease from doing evil.
They need to learn to do well,
they need to seek judgment, relieve
oppressed people,
judge fatherless, plead for the widow.
They need to be exactly what God had
always required for them to be.
So He gives them the path back to
righteousness.
Yeah,
and I think it's interesting that he's
even given them that path.
In other words, here's an opportunity to
get right.
Even though you're wicked, you're like
Sodom and Gomorrah,
if it weren't for that remnant,
you'd be like Sodom and Gomorrah,
unheard of again. Mm-hmm. But his mercy,
his love, his holiness, you know,
he still wants them to be right.
And he's offering that. Offering that to
wash themselves and start doing what
he wanted them to do all along.
And I think that's great about the
mercy and long suffering of God and
there'll be an expression when
we get to Jeremiah over and over again,
but he has outstretched his hand or his
arm,
depending on the translation, but he's
he's constantly offering them
an opportunity to come back and to be
right,
which is just an awesome God.
Absolutely. And while we're look kind of
fading into this next section,
I just want to say this that Isaiah
demonstrates that worship
is not a substitute for faithfulness and
obedience to God.
It is absolutely not. And and this is not
unique to Isaiah either.
You'll find this even with King Saul,
where King Saul is saying, ~ hey,
hey, look, what look at all this stuff
I've done for for God.
And it's like, no, no, no. You didn't obey
God.
You aren't doing it. He was presumptuous.
You know, he goes to make a sacrifice when
Samuel takes too long.
He doesn't kill the the wicked king.
He he kind of parades him around,
then he says, it was the people.
They wanted me to do it. Yeah.
And ~ his disobedience caused him to be
rejected as king.
And so God's not going to be fooled by
false worship.
and so that lesson is for me, you and
everybody else.
It's not that you and I are sitting here
telling everybody else about their
worship.
We're saying we're reading the
All humans for all time are amenable to
God's will,
in that God is not going to be tricked and
fooled by worship that's
not pleasing to him from hearts that are
disobedient from him.
~ so he says, ~ his holiness is now
extended in offering salvation.
He tells him a pathway back in verses
sixteen and seventeen.
And now this holy God who had just almost
raked
Judah over the coals to get them back.
He says, Now, here's a path.
And then in the this probably has to be
one of my favorite passages
in the major prophets, God says,
Come now. So he's inviting them in.
Come now. Let us reason together,
says the Lord. And so before we even jump
into the how he's what he's gonna
say to them, here is the self-existence.
all powerful sovereign ruler of
everything.
And he says to feeble men like you and I,
these people who are just reeking with
their sins,
he says, let's have a reasonable
conversation.
I want to have this in in it's almost like
~ he's pleading with them.
They mankind cannot offer anything to make
God a better God.
Like we can't
make him more holy. We don't make him more
wealthy.
We don't make him more powerful.
Nothing. We can't add value to God.
But he says, I still want to be in a
relationship with you.
And he says, let's reason together.
So what's what's the thing that God is
going to offer in this deal?
It's a one way deal. We are the only ones
and mankind the only ones that benefit.
He says, let's reason together,
says the Lord. So he's not saying,
Hey, let's come to this this ~ kind of a a
surrender ceasefire where
You get a little bit and I get a little
bit.
And we both gain. No, God says no.
~ he tells him what to do in 16 and 7.
He says, now let's reason together.
Though your s your sins be as scarlet,
those sins will be as white as snow.
Though your sins are red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. So he's saying,
I am going to cleanse you of your sins.
That is a guy who says, I am holy,
but my holiness, an aspect of my holiness
is judgment.
But also an aspect of my holiness is a
love for the souls of men and desire
for us to be saved, so much so that he
will extend himself to us.
As you mentioned, like this outstretched
arm,
there's this anthropomorphic sort of
vision that God is reaching
out to this wretched man and and trying to
draw us in out of a sea
of depravity into which we've thrown
ourselves.
And he's reaching out to save us.
Yep, and of course he'll make it
conditional here in the next couple of
verses.
But yes, he he wants us to be saved.
He's not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance.
Second Peter three nine. And also,
I think you even mentioned this in one of
your sermons recently about he d
he has no pleasure, Ezekiel, you know,
he has no pleasure in the death of the
wicked.
And and and his people are definitely
wicked as as if he's comparing them
to Sodom and Gomorrah, they are definitely
wicked,
but he doesn't want them to die.
He wants to cleanse their sin.
He wants them
To be with him forever.
Absolutely. And he gives them the path in
sixteen and seventeen.
And in the same way that they chose,
they chose to leave God, he's giving them
a choice now to come back to him,
which shows all of it is free will,
to obey God, to disobey God. And he says
in verses nineteen and twenty,
If you be willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land.
But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be
devoured with the sword,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
And so again, his holiness is presented to
us in such a way that
God doesn't even force us. He's a holy guy
separated from sin.
And he says, Here's a path for you to come
back to me desiring that
we would be saved. He says, Look,
you get to make a choice. And I love this
like one of those game shows.
You want curtain one or curtain two?
Mm-hmm.
And then there's a sound if you open the
second curtain and then there's just,
you know, yeah, the can of beans or
something.
And the other one has like, a ten thousand
dollar vacation.
You know. No, this isn't that.
God says, listen, I'm gonna show you right
up front what's behind each curtain.
You get to choose. That's right.
Do you want the prize or do you not want
the prize?
Do you want the judgment or do you not
want the judgment?
Yeah. He tells us the prize and he tells
us which door's behind.
We just gotta open it. You'll
That's it.
be obedient.
The prize or the price for disobedience.
And ~ and and he says, here's how you get
there.
And so he told him, Wash, make clean,
you know, do right. Here's how you get to
the the prize that he's got for us.
and he continues to to offer and extend
this salvation them.
He gives them his choice in verses
nineteen and twenty.
and then he's gonna describe what things
can look like for them
in verse number twenty-one.
How is the faithful city become a harlot?
~ it was full of judgment, righteousness,
lost in it, but now murders. Your silver
has become dross,
a wine mixed with water. And so he's
asking these these kind of questions
almost,
but he's making these he's declarations
almost of what they looked like.
Here's what they were: you were a faithful
city.
How did you become a harlot? And so as
Israel.
As they're hearing these words,
it's almost kind of like the management
profile.
If you talk to somebody, you give them a
couple positives first,
and then you give them hit them with the
negative.
He's kind of calling them to look back.
Look at what you were. You were this city
of righteousness.
You were you were you were look,
you were a faithful city, and now you
become a harlot.
you hit you were full of judgment and and
righteousness was lodged in you.
There was judgment and righteousness.
So
You judge wicked as wickedness as it was
supposed to be.
You judge righteousness as you were
supposed to be.
There was righteousness there,
but look now. Now there's just murder.
Your silvers become draws. That's the
stuff that you drag off and throw away.
So the silver has become worthless.
And your wine, ~ that which they had is
now mixed with water.
So it he's saying they're the things that
they had that made them of value,
that they're no no longer they're no
longer valuable.
Your princes are rebellious. The
companions are thieves the they're
the companions of thieves, excuse me.
Everyone loves gifts and follows after
rewards.
They judge not the fatherless,
neither does the cause the widow come unto
them.
So he's saying that look, the people who
are supposed to be upholding judgment
and righteousness, they they get bought
off.
They love bribes.
Yeah, that's the way the New King James
translates that gifts.
Everyone loves bribes.
wow. Okay, yeah. The King James says
gifts,
but yeah, New King James Bribes.
That that's a good translation that
because this is it it reminds me of
it just c popped in my mind when when the
apostle Paul is incarcerated
and they keep calling back just to see if
they'll they'll get a bribe at some point.
That's right. Felix or Festus,
Yeah, and so you Yeah.
one of those guys.
You get this idea that he here are here
are the people who are supposed
to be standing up for what's right.
And it it's like our own
judicial system. I mean just imagine if
we're looking for right if if the judges,
if the attorneys, if the senators,
whoever they are that stand in power with
the laws,
if they're taking bribes and they're just
bought off,
where is any judgment? How can you fight
for anything that's good or right
if every if the ones who are supposed to
uphold it are corrupt?
Yeah, and it just seems like part two of
the indictment,
you know. He part one he had the
indictment,
but he said, Come let us reason together,
showing that he he doesn't want to destroy
them.
He wants them to come back and have life,
but he leaves it on them. And here's the
second part of that,
you know, this is how the city should have
been and it was,
but now look what happened. Mm-hmm.
And then there'll be some
Stuff after that, there will be you know,
you can choose to either because he's
gonna have a blessing at the end there
of the chapter, yeah. If they will follow
him.
And so it's just again a ~ another
indictment,
just showing how wicked that something has
to be done,
and even though they deserve struction to
be wiped off the face of the earth,
God still holds out that opportunity for
them to make it right.
Absolutely. He says in verse twenty-four,
therefore, since these things are true,
since there's the the the judgments are
perverted and that sort of thing,
therefore, thus says the Lord,
the Lord of hosts, the mighty one of
Israel.
And I love that he kind of defines himself
multiple times,
so we get this this lofty, lofty view of
himself.
Right. powerful. Yeah, absolutely.
And it almost reminds me of later on in
Isaiah where
The cherubim are screaming out,
holy, holy, holy. And here you have this
three kind of ~ three time reference
of God, therefore says the Lord,
the Lord of hosts, or the Lord of the
armies of heaven,
the mighty one of Israel. So he was the
holy one of Israel earlier in chapter one.
Now he's the mighty one of Israel.
So now we're seeing his holiness,
we're seeing his power. He says,
~ I will ease me of mine adversaries and
avenge me of mine enemies.
God being the powerful one, he's not
powerless against his enemies.
I will turn my hand upon thee and purely
purge away thy draws and take away
all thy ten. And I will restore as judges
as at the first and thy counselors
as at the beginning. Afterward thou shalt
be called the city of righteousness,
the faithful city. And so God is giving
them a look and is kind of going back
and forth, back and forth. They're sin and
what they can be,
their sin and what they can be.
And so you see his justice and his
holiness in defining what they are,
and then his holiness in offering them.
An opportunity to become better.
And I don't know, ~ well, let me say it
that way.
It's a wonderful thing that God says to
us,
I want you to be a better version of you.
Yeah. You know, he's trying to improve us
and not just for his benefit.
It's not saying I want to I want you guys
to be better servants of mine,
or you know, like an actual you know,
you're teaching a maid how to fold the
sheets back and how to cook better dinner.
No, he's saying, I want you to be better
people,
and this is for your sake. If there are
better judgments.
Better judges and the people will be
better taken care of.
And so this ultimately will make society
as a whole much better.
Yeah, and I was thinking with the
appealing to his mightiness and all that,
and a couple of reasons come to my mind is
like,
in addition to what you just said,
is that he is the mighty one whom you have
offended,
number one, so it makes their offense even
that much greater because he's
way up here, they're way down here,
but they've offended him, makes them even
further away.
But then also he's the mighty one to bless
them.
He's the mighty one to give them the way
back to him.
And he's a mighty one to give them the
blessings that they have by their
own conduct have forsaken. And he's just
mighty one to do that.
And so it's it's a it's a lose lose if you
still rebel against him,
and it's a win-win if you don't.
Because God loves his people and he wants
his people,
and that remnant is the only thing that's
kept them going so far.
Right. And ~ he he's letting them know
where they can be.
He says in verse twenty seven,
he says verse twenty seven,
Zion shall be redeemed with judgment and
her converts with righteousness.
And here is this first mention of Zion,
which will be brought out a little bit
more in chapter two also.
which is gonna be kind of this great this
is his place where his people will become
which is synonymous with Jerusalem.
and so you you'll find this Zion kinda
mentioned multiple times but this
is its first kinda introductory
Yeah,
and that yeah, 'cause it'll be throughout
Isaiah,
really. Yes, but especially in chapter two
as you mentioned.
Mm-hmm. Yes, I'm kind of looking forward
to a little bit more articulation of that,
how that kind of expands out throughout
the rest of the book.
He says, ~ and the destruction and the the
transgressors and the sinners shall
be together, and they shall ~ or they that
forsake the Lord shall be consumed.
And when he says consume, this is not I I
don't have the image of like
how we eat and we consume food.
I guess that might also be appropriate.
It's completely gone. But I think about
like if you
I've gone camping before and things like
that and I love to grill.
I think you know that some sometimes I'll
use wood in my smoker.
Yeah. And you think that wood is there and
then after a while it's totally consumed.
Yeah. There's nothing left of it.
Yeah, that's what I think I think of a
fire.
Yeah. Forest fire just consumes everything
its past.
Absolutely. And recently we're going over
the book of Joel and that locust plague,
you know. man. They consume everything
before it and leave behind just dirt.
Yeah, it's nothing. They they get it down
to the Jibrine.
And so there is this this idea that
there'll there'll be nothing remaining,
for they shall be ashamed of the oaks ~
which ye have desired,
and ye shall be confounded for the gardens
that you have chosen,
for ye shall be as oak, whose leaf fadeth
in his garden that hath no water,
and the strong shall be as a toe,
and the maker as its spark, and they shall
both burn together,
and none shall quench them. So as chapter
one
There it is. As chapter one concludes,
you kind of have sandwiched,
you have Israel's wickedness and this
picture of this is completely rotten,
sinful, wicked people. And then in the
middle,
you have God is kind of sprinkling in,
you can be restored. I want to restore
you,
you can be saved, everything can be good,
there can be righteousness and judgment
can be right.
But then as it's closing, it's like,
but remember.
Judgments there. And so as we're closing
this book,
God's holiness, at least to me,
as I look at it, just screams out in
chapter one.
Because a holy God cannot be in the midst
of ~ judgment or in
the midst of wickedness and corruption and
sinfulness and false worship
and all these sorts of things,
~ which Habakkuk struggled with.
You know, y ~ you're holy. You know,
how can these things be? And and that is
the case.
God is holy.
And so God does not have to tolerate our
sin.
He does not tolerate our sin.
It's just a good thing. And of course in
the latter verses too,
I think there's some reference there to
idolatry.
Your idolatry is gonna fail you.
You know, the oak trees or terabith trees,
depending upon your translation,
they're not gonna help you, they're gonna
be burned,
they're gonna be gone. And so,
~ but there is that judgment. And that
judgment is brought upon because of us,
our choices. Right. Just like in the days
of Isaiah.
And so he wants us to make the right
choices.
And when we do make wrong choice choices,
he wants us to reason together with him
and come back and make the right choice.
'Cause it's and I think you often say
this,
maybe from the pulpit, but it's not too
late.
You know, it's not too late to obey God,
as long as we got the as they used to say,
the blood flowing warm in our veins and
we're of a right mind.
It's not too late and there's room for
more.
There's always room for more. ~ as as you
just pointed out,
that reminds me, and we may get to this
too,
Isaiah forty-four, where it's like,
look, man, you guys are carving these
idols out of wood.
You have to make a f campfire to warm
yourselves,
and then you carve the other half,
and then you bow down over
Worse. ~
how futile and crazy is that. and so in
the same way,
in chapter one, is this writ th those oak
tree,
those parts, those branches, all that man,
it's not gonna serve you. and he's
pointing again,
those have to be viewed in reflection.
~ to God, his holiness. He is able to
save.
He is able to restore. He is powerful.
And so in this chapter, his holiness just
comes forth and we
see ourselves in reflection of his
holiness.
How do we look ~ in comparison to God's
holiness?
Well in comparison to his holiness,
I see myself as flawed. I see myself as
imperfect and those sorts of things.
And so his holiness causes us to see
ourselves as we truly are.
That's an aspect of humility, seeing
yourself truly as you are,
not as this inflated view. Right.
~ and so this chapter really helps us to
see how his holiness should
be viewed with our responsibility.
Yeah.
And God always shows us who we are if we
just accept it.
I'm thinking about James, you know,
the perfect law of liberty. We look into
that.
We have his word to to guide ourselves by.
But we like the people that Isaiah
addressed,
we can we can kind of put this aside and
forget about it and start thinking like
the world, and then we're overcome with
all this worldliness,
and next thing you know, we're way over
here and God's right there.
But he is still
outstretched, wanting us to come back as
he does here.
His holiness is an awesome thing,
and we're thankful for it that he he wants
us.
He wants us. He does everything for us to
come back to him if we just come
and reason together. If we're willing and
obedient,
we're gonna be blessed, but if we refuse
and rebel,
as per verse nineteen and twenty,
we shall be devoured by the sword.
Absolutely. And studying Israel's history,
which we don't have time to get into
necessarily,
but studying Israel's history,
you'll see that God is so patient with
them.
Over the years, they had just been
terrible with the various kings they had.
in Israel, they were just horrible.
They were horrible. And some he Man,
they've done so bad. There's no one like
them.
No one like them in all history.
And God was still faithful. Right.
God still loved it. And so
That's my assessment of ~ of chapter one.
I I love that chapter. It's a great way to
start out the book.
It it really opens up where we'll be
headed,
and not my presentation of but just the
content of the chapter one of the book.
Yeah, it really shows ~ what you have to
look forward to.
He sets the stage, I think, to let Israel
know who they are and who he
is and what can be found in him.
Absolutely. And that's a good way to end
this episode.
We appreciate your listening, and again,
we'd love to hear back from you.
And so we will join you next time in
episode three as we discuss the book
of Isaiah Minoring in the Majors.
Join us again.