ISAIAH
Chapter 1:4-9


Isaiah 1:4-9

quote:

"Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him. 5 Why should you be beaten anymore? Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted. 6 From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness-- only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with oil. 7 Your country is desolate, your cities burned with fire; your fields are being stripped by foreigners right before you, laid waste as when overthrown by strangers. 8 The Daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a field of melons, like a city under siege. 9 Unless the LORD Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah."

The "Ah" or in many versions "Alas!" speaks volumes to this scene. It comes from the heart of a prophet who truly loves and cares for his people and is deeply sorrowed by their condition. In just this one word Isaiah expresses grief, anger and amazement that the nation had sunk to such profound depths. It is hard to imagine how a nation who had been given so much - a potential life that would have far surpassed any other, could have sunk so low. They had made a mockery of all that God had done for them by repeatedly missing the mark He had intended.

Isaiah says they had turned their backs on the "Holy One of Israel", a reference to the Lord that first appears in this verse and is believed to have come from Isaiah's vision of the Lord recorded in Chapter 6. The Hebrew word "kadosh", translated "holy", means to be set apart. The Lord's holiness (separateness) is seen foremost in His sovereignty as the Creator and ruler of the world, setting Him apart from any other. His holiness also includes moral authority, which He exercises as King. With His kingship He has authority to guide us, who are a part of His kingdom, in how we should live.

It is His own character that sets the standard of behavior and so He says in Leviticus 19:2, "Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, 'You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy'" and again in 1 Peter 1:16 "because it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.'" But judging from Judah's immoral actions, Judah viewed the Lord with disrespect and contempt. In her continual state of rebellion Isaiah says Judah resembled a severely wounded body deprived of medical treatment, beaten down by God's punishments. Isaiah uses this imagery to get Judah's attention, but they still refused to look to the Lord for their only possible means of hope and restoration.

No longer flowing with milk and honey, their Land is now desolate due to invading foreign armies the Lord Himself had raised up against them. It was only God's hand of grace and protection upon Jerusalem, the Daughter of Zion, that kept Judah from suffering the same end as Sodom and Gomorrah.

Isaiah, however, gives a ray of hope as he introduces the concept of the "remnant of Israel" in verse 9. This is made reference to by Paul in

Romans 9:27-29
"And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, 'Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved; 28 for the Lord will execute His word upon the earth, thoroughly and quickly.' 29 And just as Isaiah foretold, 'Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left to us a posterity, We would have become as Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah.'"

In the context of Romans chapter 9 this passage was applied to the Jews, who in the 1st century had embraced their Messiah when the majority of their people had rejected Him. God has always saved a remnant from iniquity. Just as Noah was saved from the flood, God would preserve a lineage through Judah from whom the Messiah would come to ultimately save those who would repent and be faithful to Him.

One important thing to note is that majority or large numbers do not necessarily represent those who are godly or those who voice God's truth. God wants us to stand with Him. He will give us strength to stand against the tide and not be engulfed or overwhelmed by a world filled with hypocrisy and sin. Unfortunately, God's plan for Israel to be the model nation for the world was greatly diminished by both Ephraim and Judah's stubbornness to go their own way, rather than listen to Him. It is those whose hearts are turned toward the Lord that will be humbled in times of refining fire. Let's pray that if we were to stray our response to the Lord's efforts to get our attention would be one of humility and repentance. "For whom the LORD loves He reproves, even as a father, the son in whom he delights". (Proverbs 3:12)