Note: Entering new territory here -- I don't know if I have ever read Isaiah through -- though I'm sure I'll recognize many of the verses and/or passages, because the book is so Messianic. As a way of noting familiar phrases, they will be highlighted.
1 Intro
- The vision of Isaiah, son of Amoz
- Concerning Judah and Jerusalem
- In the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. This is pretty specific -- so we can know exactly who he's talking about and what's going on as he's writing.
- The LORD has spoken: My people rebel against me. An ox knows its owner, and a donkey its master's crib, but my people do not know me. Isn't this sad? Even a donkey knows the source of its sustenance, but God's people don't recognize him as their source of sustenance and protection.
- Isaiah: Ah, sinful nation -- why do you invite punishment?
- You are sick, from head to toe. Your land has been overrun by enemies.
- If God had not left us with a few survivors, we would have been like Sodom or Gomorrah.
- God says he has had enough of your sacrifices. "I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats."
- God: My soul hates your solemn assemblies (the outward show of piety, when I know better)
- This is what I want:
- Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean
- Cease to do evil, learn to do good
- Seek justice, rescue the oppressed
- Defend the orphan, plead for the widow. What an indictment of us today -- we're very good at "doing church," but do we actively seek justice, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow"?
- "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool."
- The faithful city has become a whore - murderers, rebellious, greedy, insensitive to the needs of others
- I will pour out my wrath on my enemies (which right now includes you)
- I will cleanse you, then afterwards will restore your judges and counselors, and you will again be the city of righteousness
- Those who repent will be redeemed, but the rebels and sinners will perish together
1-4 The Future House of God
- All nations will stream to it, saying "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD."
- "Out of Zion shall go forth instruction..."
- "They shall beat their swords into plowshares..."
- Isaiah: O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD!
- You have forsaken the ways of your people: Making sinful alliances, bowing down to idols -- you will be humbled, and will hide from God out of fear
- He will bring down everything that is haughty - eyes, pride, high mountains, high towers
- The pride of everyone will be brought low -- the LORD alone will be exalted on that day.
- The idols will be cast away, and the people will be hiding in the caves
More pronouncements of judgment
- The Sovereign LORD will taking everything away from you - bread, warrior, counselor -- and boys will become your rulers
- Anyone with a coat on will be designated a ruler
- Their evil is evident; your leaders mislead you
- To the leaders: "What do you mean by crushing my people...?
- And to the haughty daughters of Zion, "who walk with outstretched necks, glancing wantonly with their eyes, mincing along as they go, tinkling with their feet," the LORD will afflict them with scabs and lay bare their secret parts. God makes it clear it's not only the leaders who are guilty of arrogance and willfulness. The women do their part in disgusting God.
- He will take away all their finery, replacing perfume with stench, hair with baldness, taking away their warrior husbands, ravaging their city. All the things that are important to them.
- Prediction: 7 women will take hold of a man and beg him for his name alone, to take away their disgrace.
- Once Jerusalem has been cleansed "by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning," its residents will be called holy.
- There will be a canopy over it, and it will serve as a refuge from the storm.
1-7 The Song of the Unfruitful Vineyard
- "My beloved" worked hard to plant a good vineyard on a fertile hill, but it yielded wild grapes
- People of Judah, help me to decide. Why wild grapes?
- The only thing for me to do is to remove my protection from the vineyard, to let it go to waste, and to make sure it's not watered.
- The LORD of hosts expected justice from his people, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry.
- To you who expand your properties to the extent there is room for no one else, many houses will be desolate, much land will be barren
- You who spend your time drinking and partying, but don't regard God's works, will go into exile, in hunger and thirst
- Jerusalem's nobility will be swallowed up in Sheol -- those now haughty will be humiliated, but the LORD will be exalted.
- This is to you, who ask God to hurry up and show himself, who "call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!"
- You will be as stubble devoured by fire, because you have rejected the LORD's instructions and despised his word
- His anger will be kindled and will not turn away.
- God will give a signal for a mighty nation to come swiftly -- you'll see only darkness and distress over your land.
1-13 Isaiah's Vision in the Temple
- In the year King Uzziah died (See 2 Chronicles 26)
- Isaiah has a vision of God, surrounded by seraphs, singing his praises, shaking the temple and filling it with smoke.
- Isaiah's response: "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips."
- One of the seraphs touches Isaiah's mouth with a live hot coal, which cleanses his sin and guilt.
- Then God asks, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And Isaiah says, "Here am I; send me!"
- Isaiah is to "Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed."
- Isaiah: How long, O LORD? God: Until their cities are desolate and the LORD sends everyone far away.
1-9 Isaiah Reassures King Ahaz (2 Chronicles 28)
- In the days of Ahaz - son of Jothan, son of Uzziah - King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel (2 Kings 15:23-31), try but fail to attack Jerusalem.
- Ahaz and the people of Judah are frightened, but God sends Isaiah to Ahaz to reassure him that these two "smoldering stumps of firebrands" will not stand.
- And "if you do not stand firm in faith, you shall not stand at all." Wonder why I haven't heard this quote? It's a great one, isn't it? Maybe because it's not quite as "catchy" in the ASV and KJV: "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established."
- God tells Ahaz to ask for a sign, but Ahaz refuses to "put the LORD to the test."
- So Isaiah, saying "Must you weary God?" tells him, "The LORD himself will give you a sign. "Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel...."
- Before the child is at an accountable age, the lands you are afraid of will be deserted, full of briers and thorns.
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