Isaiah 1 - 0 views
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2 aHear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have brebelled against me.
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Rob Watson on 17 Jul 08The people of Israel are God's children-he is their Father. This is the doctrine they have forgotten, and they will be in no condition to receive it again until they have undergone the moral regeneration that is the burden of Isaiah's preaching.
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3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s acrib: but Israel doth not bknow, my people doth not consider.
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4 Ah asinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, bchildren that are ccorrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto danger, they are gone away backward.
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Because they can't live with it in their sinful state, they have run away from it. This is inexcusable; God does not look upon it with forbearance. He knows that they are quite capable of understanding and living by the gospel. Accordingly, he is more than displeased; he is angry.
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5 ¶ Why should ye be astricken any more? ye will brevolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart cfaint.
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Yet it is not he who has been giving them a hard time. They decided to go their own way, openly revolting against him. And their system is simply not working. They are not able to cope with the situation mentally nor do they have the spirit to carry it through. Men on their own are a pitiful object.
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6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been aclosed, neither bound up, neither bmollified with ointment.
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The whole thing is sick, sick, sick. Every attempt to correct the situation fails miserably. Nothing works.
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7 Your acountry is bdesolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, cstrangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
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8 And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a avineyard, as ba lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
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God's chosen people are holed up, trusting in their miserable defense, trapped by their own walls.
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In addition to Hugh Nibley's commentary pasted above from http://farms.byu.edu/publications/bookschapter.php?bookid=52&chapid=475, I have to add that I like the simile of cucumbers surrounding them. I have the idea that they represent armies of soldiers ready to invade Jerusalem. If you've ever planted lots of cucumbers and had a bumper crop, you'll get the picture.
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Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small aremnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
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The reason they survive at all so far is that there are still a few righteous, a small remnant of honest people among them.
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10 ¶ Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of aSodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
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So it is time they were considering the alternative, which Isaiah herewith offers them.
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11 To what purpose is the multitude of your asacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I bdelight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
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You are not going to appease God by trying to buy him off, by going through the pious motions of religious observances, your meetings and temple sessions.
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12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
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It is not for you to decide what to do to please God-it is for him to decide, and he has not required all this display of piety from you.
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13 Bring no more avain boblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and csabbaths, the calling of dassemblies, I cannot eaway with; it is finiquity, even the gsolemn meeting.
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Your most dedicated observances, even following my ancient prescriptions, if done in the wrong spirit are actually iniquity-not to your credit but to your loss.
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14 Your new amoons and your appointed bfeasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am cweary to bear them.
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15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many aprayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of bblood.
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Even when you pray I will not hear you. Why not? Answer: Because there is blood on your upraised hands.
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16 ¶ aWash you, make you bclean; put away the cevil of your doings from before mine eyes; dcease to do evil;
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The blood and sins of this generation are on you in the temple. What blood and sins? Your evil ways.
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17 aLearn to do bwell; seek cjudgment, drelieve the oppressed, ejudge the fatherless, plead for the fwidow.
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What evil ways? What should we be doing? Answer: Dealing justly, relieving those oppressed by debt instead of collecting from them, giving a fair deal to the orphans and assistance to the widow, in other words, showing some thought for people without money.
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18 Come now, and let us areason together, saith the Lord: though your bsins be as scarlet, they shall be as cwhite as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
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God is not being capricious or arbitrary. He is eminently reasonable. Is his way the only way? Let him tell you why, and then see if you do not agree: "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord." Then a surprising statement: "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." Plainly God does not take pleasure in these rebukes, he does not gloat as men would (for example, Thomas Aquinas) over the punishment in store for the wicked; he loves them all and holds forth the most wonderful promises for them. There is a way out, and that is why Isaiah is speaking, not because he is a puritanical scold.
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19 If ye be awilling and bobedient, ye shall eat the cgood of the land:
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Have they had enough? They need only to listen and to follow advice and all will be well.
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20 But if ye refuse and arebel, ye shall be bdevoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
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But you cannot go on as you have been. You will be wiped out by war if you do. "For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." The "consumption decreed" (D& C 87) is another quotation from Isaiah.
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21 ¶ How is the faithful city become an aharlot! it was full of bjudgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
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You can do it-because you once did. And then you lost it all-went over to unbridled sex and murder.
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22 Thy silver is become adross, thy wine mixed with water:
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And for what? Property and pleasure, for silver that is now as worthless as garbage and wine that is flat.
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23 Thy aprinces are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth bgifts, and followeth after rewards: they cjudge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
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The leaders set the worst example. They work with crooks, everybody is on the take: "Every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards," while the poor don't get a break in court and a widow can't even get a hearing.
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24 Therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine aadversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:
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God wants nothing to do with such rascals; he is going to get rid of them. They have made themselves his enemies.
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25 ¶ And I will aturn my hand upon thee, and purely bpurge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin:
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This calls for a thorough housecleaning. All that dross must be purged away.
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26 And I will arestore thy judges as at the first, and thy bcounsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The ccity of righteousness, the faithful city.
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To bring back the old order, "restore thy judges as at the first" (as quoted in the well-known hymn). It is still possible, and God is going to bring it about. There will yet be "The city of righteousness, the faithful city."
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27 aZion shall be redeemed with bjudgment, and her cconverts with righteousness.
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There is going to be a Zion redeemed with many of these same sinful people living in it, along with a lot of converts from the outside.
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28 ¶ And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed.
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All the rest will have to go, but not because God chooses to throw them out. They will walk away from safety right into destruction; with eyes wide open they will forsake the Lord and be consumed.
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29 For they shall be ashamed of the aoaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen. 30 For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water. 31 And the strong shall be aas tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both bburn together, and none shall quench them.
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These verses are the only references to paganism-popular cults that will wither and be burned up-not be destroyed, however, because they follow pagan manners or forms, as the doctors, ministers, and commentators love to tell us, but because they were part of the cover-up for avaricious, hard, and immoral practices.
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