FOREWORD TO ISAIAH ONE.
The prophet’s vision and prophecies encompass all that Jehovah, or JAH’S view of the fallen, but divided State of Israel. More importantly he focuses on the southern kingdom of Judah ( with Benjamin) and its hallowed capital of Jerusalem. God speaks through the mouth and pen of Isaiah to apostate Judah fallen into idolatry, and wicked perversion. Nauseated over the impenitent descendants of Jacob and David he expresses his frustrated fury over the depraved degradation of its citizenry. Particularly is he indignant over the hypocritical false piety and the worship of worship.
However, he in wrath remembers mercy because of his everlasting merciful kindness and restrains his full retribution. Why? Because of the faithful remnant who adamantly refuse to worship the cult of Baal and faithfully adhere to the true God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. References: Isaiah 1:9; 18; 25-27; 6:10.
The latter’s name was changed by the angel to Israel and his son Joseph preserved his descendants in Egypt, and 430 years to the day Moses led them in them away to the Promised Land they now occupy. The general description of Judah’s abject immorality is interlaced with the hope of mercy and redemption under the condition of their repentance. The darkness of Jerusalem’s doom hovers like Damocles’ Sword held by a hair’s breadth and it seems that the rank impenitence of the stiff-necked people will bring inevitable judgment. Seeing no hope of that happening the tone of mercy becomes an intermittent, spasmodic recurring theme. . Thus three future events are foreshadowed:
1. the Return of the remnant from seventy years Babylonian captivity led by Ezra and Nehemiah;
2. the arrival of Christ, the prophesied Immanuel, or First Advent’s efficacious blood covenant, (v 18); and
3. the Second Coming of Christ, the Messiah, to reign in Jerusalem: a post apocalyptic event of the end days.
Isaiah 1:
Isaiah’s visionary insight into the corruption of Judah & Jerusalem.
1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
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 closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
8 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.
9 Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
10 Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full 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.
12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
22 Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:
23 Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
24 Therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:
25 And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin:
26 And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.
27 Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.
28 And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed.
29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks 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 as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.
*[Extract of Holy Scripture KJV from biblegateway.com Public Domain]
FOOTNOTES:
Samaria: describes the region occupied by ten of the twelve tribes of Israel. Confusing to the reader can be the three names used to describe them: Israel, Ephraim, and Samaria. Samaria is the region (between Judea and Galilee), occupied by the rebel ten tribes that had ceded from the kingdom of Israel after Solomon’s death leaving a split kingdom of Israel in the north and Judah in the south with neighbouring Benjamin. The two books of Kings and the other two books of Chronicles describe the constant conflicts and incessant civil wars between the north and the south. Samaria is also the name of the city.
Foreword, Chapter Heading, Chapter Sub-Headings, and Footnotes by John David.
Bible Chapter is from the King James Version (Public Domain, ex biblegateway.com)
