Isaiah Sunday School Class
Dear Friends,
Today’s devotional are the study notes for an adult Sunday school class I taught yesterday at the church of which I am a member. I recommend that you read through the notes with your Bible opened to Isaiah chapter one and think carefully about what the passage means to you. God bless you.
Because of Calvary,
John Janney
Grace Bible Fellowship Church
Adult SS Elective: Introduction and Isaiah 1:1-31
ISAIAH
“The Book of Isaiah is the Mount Rushmore of biblical prophecy. Sculpted on its massive slopes are the major themes of Scripture: who God is, what he has done for his people, and how he expects us to serve him…. No other part of the Bible gives us so panoramic a view of God’s handiwork in Israel’s history nor such clear perspective of his lordship over the nations. If Beethoven’s nine symphonies loom as landmarks on the horizon of classical music, Isaiah’s sixty-six chapters mark the apex of prophetic vision. Their music, their majesty, their mystery combine to inspire, challenge, and intimidate the saints of God from the least to the greatest, from the most naïve to the most profound. No other part of Scripture will be well understood without help from the text of Isaiah.” [David A. Hubbard, “Foreword,” in John D. W. Watts, “Isaiah,” Word Biblical Themes, (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1989), p. ix]
“…The whole Book of Isaiah is radiant with the glory of Christ…. No one ever saw more of the glory of Christ, not even Abraham who saw his day and rejoiced; nor Moses who wrote of him; nor David who sang of him; nor Peter, nor Paul, nor John, who saw him standing in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks in the Isle of Patmos. More than any one of them, more than all of them together, Isaiah saw his glory and spake of him…. Our Lord began his ministry with a sermon in the synagogue at Nazareth, when he took for his text the words of Isaiah, ‘The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted’…. The last recorded utterance of Paul as a preacher is a quotation from the Book of Isaiah…. In the Apocalypse of John some of the grandest and sweetest music, the softly flowing river of water of life, the compassionate God wiping away all tears from our eyes, and the glorious City where the gates are never shut and the sun never goes down — all that comes from Isaiah.” [Clarence Edward Macartney, The Greatest Men of the Bible, (New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1941), p. 113-116]
“Isaiah is the evangelical prophet. He speaks of Christ and of His redemption with almost the same clearness and fullness as an evangelist or an apostle.” [W. G. Moorehead, Outline Studies in the Old Testament, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1893), p.222]
Title (1:1)
- The Author of the Prophecy (1:1a)
“According to the New Testament, which quotes from and refers to Isaiah more than to any other book in the Old Testament, the author of the book was the eighth century prophet, Isaiah.” [Edward Joseph Young, “The Old Testament,” Contemporary Evangelical Thought edited by Carl F. H. Henry, (Great Neck, NY: Channel Press, 1957), p. 23]
“Until modern times the book of Isaiah was universally regarded as a unity, the product of the eighth-century prophet of the same name. A single scroll was used for the whole of it, as we learn not only from Qumran but from Lk. 4:17 (where the chosen reading was from one of the latest chapters).” [Derek Kidner, “Isaiah,” New Bible Commentary edited by G. J. Wenham, J. A. Motyer, D. A. Carson, and R. T. France, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), p. 630]
“Critical commentaries on Isaiah divide the material into three major divisions: chapters 1-39 are thought to have come from the eighth-century prophet Isaiah; chapters 40-55 from a sixth century prophet known as the Deutero (Second) Isaiah; chapters 56-66 from a fifth-century source known as Trito (Third Isaiah). Three arguments may be advanced in support of the unity of Isaiah.
“First, Jesus and the apostles held to the unity of Isaiah. Whenever they quoted from the Book of Isaiah, whether from the beginning or the end, they always referred to the prophet Isaiah. The Gospel of John has an interesting passage that combines two quotations from Isaiah, and each comes from a different section. John comments on the unbelief of the people at Jesus’ time by referring to Isaiah 53:1 and on the effect of their unbelief by appealing to Isaiah 6:12. In this instance one quotation comes from Isaiah 1-39 and another from 40-66, yet both are introduced as the words of Isaiah. [See John 12:38-39]….
“Second, many of the dissimilarities between the critical divisions of Isaiah can be explained by a change in subject matter. The first division emphasizes the coming doom of the Lord on all flesh, whereas the latter part of the Book of Isaiah brings out the comfort and consolation given to the remnant, for whom God still has a future. In fact, the second section begins with these words: ‘“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God’ (40:1)….
“Third, the dissimilarities in vocabulary and theme are not as great as some people believe.” [Willem A. VanGemeren, “Isaiah,” Evangelical Commentary on the Bible edited by Walter A, Elwell, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1989), p. 434]
“Once the initial criteria for dividing the book are accepted, they cannot simply be discarded after the first cut; they must be used consistently… So despite the attractive simplicity of a supposed two-volume work (by Isaiah and a successor), the only viable alternative to a single author is not two authors but something like a dozen.” [Kidner, p. 630]
“The Book of Isaiah is more frequently quoted in the New Testament than any other writing of the Old Testament. The quotations throughout regard the Book as a unity, referring to its several parts under the common title of Isaiah.” [W. A. Davies, in The Speaker’s Bible IV edited by James Hastings and Edward Hastings, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, n.d., p 3]
“O. T. Allis is correct when he observes that the fragmentation of the Isaianic literature among multiple authors and along an extended time-line is historically the product of the nineteenth-century rationalism which refused to countenance predictive prophecy.” [J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction & Commentary, (Downers Grove, IL, InterVarsity Press, 1993), p. 25]
“Little is known about the prophet Isaiah other than that he loved Jerusalem, freely associated with Judah’s kings, was married, and had two children. The name Isaiah means ‘Yahweh is salvation.’ His name and the names of his sons ― Shear-Jashub (‘a remnant will return’) and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz (‘The booty shall very quickly be taken’) ― were symbolic to the nation (8:18). These three names capture the essence of the book: (1) Yahweh is the source of salvation; (2) Yahweh will spare a remnant for himself; and (3) Yahweh’s judgment is certain to come….
“Isaiah’s father, Amoz, is not to be identified with the prophet Amos who ministered a generation earlier in the northern kingdom. The spelling of these two names is different both in Hebrew and in English….
“The beginning of Isaiah’s ministry can be dated by the reference to Uzziah’s death in 6:1 (ca. 740 B.C.). From Uzziah’s death on Judah would be cast into the midst of a stream of international developments that would leave her a vassal state of the Assyrian Empire. During his ministry Isaiah witnessed the fall of Aram (Syria) and Israel as well as the desolation of Judah by the Assyrians.” [VanGemeren, p. 471-472]
“In the pseudepigraphic work, The Ascension of Isaiah, there is an account of the prophet’s martyrdom under Manasseh, who sawed him asunder with a wooden saw. False prophets mocked him, yet he neither cried aloud nor wept, but spoke with the Holy Spirit.” [Edward Joseph Young, Young, “The Book of Isaiah,” The New International Commentary on the Old Testament I (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1965, 1969, 1972), p. 4] Cf. Hebrews 11:37
- The Nature of the Prophecy (1:1b)
III. The Subject of the Prophecy (1:1c)
“It was what he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, the country of the two tribes, and that city which was their metropolis…” [Matthew Henry’s Commentary IV, (Peabody, MA: Hendriksen Publishers, n.d.), p. 2]
“The inhabitants thereof lived in God’s good land, but would not live by God’s good laws… They knew what was right, but had no mind to do it…” [Trapp III, p. 286-287]
- The Date of the Prophecy (1:1d):
“Isaiah’s long ministry ranged from about 740 to 680 B.C… He began his ministry near the end of Uzziah’s reign (740-739 B.C.) and continued through the reigns of Jothan (739-731 B.C.), Ahaz (731-715 B.C.), and Hezekiah (715-686 B.C.)…. He outdated Hezekiah by a few years because chapter 37, verse 38, records the death of Sennacherib in 681 B.C. Hezekiah was succeeded by his wicked son Manasseh…” [Bruce Wilkinson and Kenneth Boa, Talk Thru the Bible, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1993), p. 191]
“His prophetic activity lasted it is thought by many for sixty years, perhaps for sixty-five.” [Moorehead, Outline Studies in the Old Testament, p. 220-221]
“In 740 BC the death of King Uzziah (6:1) marked the end of an ‘Indian Summer’ in which both Judah and Israel had enjoyed some fifty years’ respite from large-scale aggression. This would soon be only a memory. The rest of the century was to be dominated by predatory Assyrian kings: Tiglath-Pileser III. (745-727), Shalmaneser V (726-722), Sargon II (721-705) and Sennacherib (705-681). Their ambitions were for empire, not for plunder alone; and in pursuit of it they uprooted and transplanted whole populations, punishing any sign of rebellion with prompt and hideous reprisals.
“In 735 Jerusalem felt the shock-wave of their approach, when the armies of Israel and Syria arrived to force King Ahaz into an anti-Assyrian coalition.; Isaiah’s confrontation of the king (ch. 7) brought to light the real issue of this period, the choice between quiet faith and desperate alliances. The king’s decision to stake all, not on God but on Assyria itself, called forth an implied rejection of him and his kind, and the prophecy of a perfect king, Immanuel, to arise out of the felled stock of the Davidic dynasty.
“Israel paid for her rebellion with the loss of her northern regions (‘Galilee’; 9:1) in c. 734 and of her national existence in 722. For Judah, bordered now by a cosmopolitan Assyrian province (2 Ki. 17:24) in the territory where Israel had stood, there was every discouragement to patriotic gestures.
“But it was a patriot who followed King Ahaz. Hezekiah…was a firebrand in whom faith and impatience took turns to kindle the flame. Much of Isaiah’s energy was devoted to keeping him out of intrigues against Assyria (see on 14:28-32; 18:1-7; 20:1-6). In the end this struggle came to a head in a bitter conflict between the prophet and a pro-Egypt faction at court, implicit in chs. 28-31. The sequel was Hezekiah’s revolt against Assyria (chs. 36-37), which brought the might of Sennacherib down upon him in 701 BC and left the little kingdom of Judah almost prostrate in spite of the miraculous rescue of Jerusalem.
“Isaiah’s dealings with Hezekiah were never confined to questions of political prudence, nor to the immediate future; and his last encounter with the king pinpoints the difference between these two men of faith. In 39:5-7 Isaiah looks far ahead to the Babylonian captivity, the fruit of the king’s disobedience, but the king’s only reaction is relief: ‘There will be peace and security in my lifetime.’ It was an understandable horizon for a monarch, unthinkable for a prophet. So the prophecy goes on to completion in the final section.
“The events implied in chs. 40-55 are identified beyond doubt by the name of Cyrus (44:28; 45:1), which carries us at once into the world of the sixth century. Cyrus, king of Anshan in southern Persia, had seized control of the Median Empire by 550 BC and most of Asia Minor by 547. This put him in a commanding position against the Babylonian Empire (where the Jews had been captive since the fall of Jerusalem in 587). The empire was itself weak and divided by now, the king, Nabonidus, being absent from the capital (where his son Belshazzar deputized for him) and at odds with the priests. In 539 Cyrus defeated the Babylonian army in the field and his forces entered Babylon without a fight. True to God’s prophecy in Is. 44:28, he repatriated the Jews (among other subject peoples) with instructions to rebuild their temple (Ezr. 1:2-4; 6:2-5). His own inscription on the ‘Cyrus Cylinder’ (now in the British Museum) reveals that this was his general policy, in order to enlist the good offices of the gods whom he restored to their sanctuaries (see on 41:25).” [Kidner, p. 629]
“Isaiah is called ‘the evangelical prophet’ because he says so much about Jesus Christ. Isaiah writes about His birth (7:14; Matt. 1:23); the ministry of John the Baptist (40:1-6; Matt. 3); His own ministry in the Spirit (61:1-2; Luke 4:17-19); His rejection by the nation (6:9-13; Matt. 13:10-15; John 12:38); the Stone of stumbling (8:14; 28:16; Matt. 21:42; Rom. 9:32-33; 1 Pet. 2:6); His ministry to the Gentiles (49:6; Luke 2:32; Acts 13:47); His future kingdom (11:1-9; Rev. 12:10); and His atoning death on the cross (53:1ff.; Mark 10:25).” [Warren W. Wiersbe, With the Word: A Devotional Commentary, (Nashville: Oliver Nelson, 1991), p. 458]
Prophecy (1:2-66:24)
- Messages of Judgment With Flashes of Hope (1:2-35:10)
“The first twelve chapters of Isaiah may be compared to a painting with three panels (triptych). Isaiah’s call to be a prophet (chap. 6) is at the center, while the other two parts of the triptych concern judgment and hope. The first section (chaps. 1-5) is in the form of a covenant lawsuit and the third section (chaps. 7-12) presents God’s word of judgment and hope in the historical situation of the growing Assyrian Empire. A holistic approach to these chapters presents the reader with Yahweh’s holiness (6:3), Isaiah’s prophetic calling (6:8), the finality of God’s judgment (6:11-13a), and the hope for the remnant (6:13b). Each motif is developed throughout the triptych. The prophet begins with Yahweh’s charges against Judah and Jerusalem (1:2-31) and concludes with the new song of the remnant who have discovered the Holy One of Israel is still in the midst of his people (12:6). The focus, then, of all twelve chapters is on the Holy One of Israel who cleanses Isaiah (6:7), and who through the process of judgment, cleanses his people from all their sins and defilement (4:3-4).” [VanGemeren, p. 476]
- Prelude (1:2-5:30)
“Chapter 6 is indeed Isaiah’s call, but in order to depict the situation into which he was called he makes use of oracles originally preached after his call, constructing them here into an author’s preface.” [Motyer, p. 40]
- Sin (1:2-31)
“…John Hasselbach, professor at Vienna…read twenty-and-one years to his auditors upon this first chapter only, and yet did not finish it.” [John Trapp A Commentary on the Old and New Testaments III, (Eureka, CA: Tanski Publications, 1997), p. 286]
“Outwardly, the nation seemed prosperous and even religious, but God saw a different picture. His people were rebellious children, lower than animals (vv. 1-3). They were sick with sin, like lepers (vv. 4-6), and their ‘garden city’ had become another Sodom and Gomorrah (vv. 7-9).
“Their popular religious meetings were futile and a grief to the Lord (vv. 10-15). In fact, their religious activities defiled the people instead of making them clean (vv. 16-20…). The wife of Jehovah was now a harlot (v. 21); their treasures were now cheap (vv. 22-26); and their garden was destined to be destroyed by fire (vv. 27-31).” [Wiersbe, With the Word, p. 453]
- The national situation (1:2-9)
- The court convened (1:2a)
“The appeal to heavens and earth recalls the parting injunction of Moses (Dt. 30:19)…” [Kidner, p. 634]
- The charge leveled (1:2b-3)
“Call a man ungrateful, and you can call him no worse.” [Matthew Henry’s Commentary IV, p. 3]
“…The ox and the ass…are not only brute creatures, but of the dullest sort; yet the ox has such a sense of duty as to know his owner and to serve him, to submit to his yoke and to draw in it; the ass has such a sense of interest as to know has master’s crib, or manger, where he is fed, and to abide by it… A fine pass man has come to when he is shamed even in knowledge and understanding by these silly animals, and is not only sent to school to them (Prov. 6:6, 7), but set in a form below them (Jer. 8:7), taught more than the beasts of the earth (Job 35:11) and yet knowing less.” [Matthew Henry’s Commentary IV, p. 3]
“Sin has made man (a) like a beast, (b) like the worst of beasts, (c) worse than the beasts.” [Ralph Venning, The Plague of Plagues: A Treatise on Sin, (London: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1669), p. 61]
“…They…rebelled. ‘They’ is emphatic — ‘they of all people!’, the heirs of redemption the recipients of parental care.” [Motyer, p. 43]
“…Its cause: ‘Therefore they have rebelled because they do not know, they do not consider.’ The understanding is darkened, and therefore the whole soul is alienated from the life of God, Eph. 4:18.” [Matthew Henry’s Commentary IV, p. 3]
iii. The guilt exposed (1:4)
“He beginneth his complaint with a sign, as well he might, when he saw that the better God was to them, the worse they were to him…” [Trapp III, p. 287]
“What a terrible indictment, and every word of it was true!” [Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit XL, (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1894), p. 444]
“The most impressive stress on the divine holiness comes…with the use of the title ‘the Holy One of Israel’, which occurs twenty-five times in Isaiah as compared with seven in the remainder of the Old Testament…. Its use throughout the Isaianic literature is a unifying factor requiring explanation.” [Motyer, p. 18]
- The experiences ignored (1:5-8)
Israel “preferred to think of God as passive, not stirring until they summoned him.” [Watts, “Isaiah,” Word Biblical Themes, p. 3]
“The picture in vs. 5-6 is not of a sick man, but of someone flogged within an inch of his life, yet asking for more.” [Kidner, p. 634]
“None of the kings under whom Isaiah ministered were fools politically, economically or militarily. It is not, however, these factors which make for national well-being or security. For all their worldly wisdom, the country sickened unto death under them. The metaphors of the wounded man untended (6) and the land without defense (7) alike speak of the helplessness and hopelessness which forsaking the Lord brings.” [Motyer, p. 44]
“The literal reality comes out in vs. 7-8: it is the land of Judah trampled under foreign hordes, with only Jerusalem (Zion) left standing. It is evidently the aftermath of Sennacherib’s invasion, which has it outline in 2 Ki. 18:13, its effect glimpsed in Is. 37:30-32, and its statistics recorded on the Taylor Prism where Sennacherib claims forty-six walled cities as captured, together with ‘innumerable villages and a fifth of a million people. The shelter is the field-worker’s or watchman’s shanty, a forlorn Zion ― within an ace of being wiped out like Sodom (9).” [Kidner, p. 634]
“…‘Why, seeing that you will be beaten again, do you rebel again?’ Sin is not only unreasonable (2b) but also unreasoning, unable to draw proper conclusions and make appropriate responses.” [Motyer, p. 44]
“Abused mercy turneth to fury.” [Trapp III, p. 288]
- The situation reviewed (1:9)
“Into this situation where forsaking the Lord has brought the nation to the end of its tether, internally (6) and externally (7-8), comes the unmerited factor of divine preservation. There is a point at which the Lord sets his fence around his people and says ‘No’ to the consequences of sin and the power of the foe. Merit may call for an overthrow like Sodom (Gn. 19) but mercy determines on survival.” [Motyer, p. 44]
- The religious situation (1:10-20)
- What the Lord detests (1:10-15)
“To be addressed as Sodom was virtually charge and sentence in one…. For ill repute it stood alone ― until Isaiah spoke v. 10./ He was supported by Ezekiel (Ezk. 16:48) and by our Lord (Mt. 11:23)… Of all prophetic outbursts at religious unreality (cf. 1 Sa. 15:22; Je. 7:21-23; H. 6:6; Am. 5:21-24; Mi. 6:6-8) this is the most powerful and sustained…. First, the offerings are rejected, then the offerers (11-12); but while God’s tone sharpens from distaste to revulsion, his specific accusation is held back to the lurid end of v. 15: Your hands are full of blood.” [Kidner, p. 634]
“The men of Sodom were wicked, and sinners before the Lord exceedingly (Gen. 13:13), and so were the men of Judah. When the rulers were bad, no wonder the people were so. Vice overpowered virtue, for it had the rulers, the men of figure, on its side; and it out-polled it, for it had the people, the men of number, on its side.” [Matthew Henry’s Commentary IV, p. 5]
“His demand upon them is very reasonable: ‘Hear the word of the Lord, and give ear to the law of our God; attend to that which God has to say to you, and let his word be a law to you.’” [Matthew Henry’s Commentary IV, p. 5]
“They are reminded of God’s law which requires righteousness as a prerequisite for bringing offerings and sacrifices (Deut. 33:19),” [VanGemeren, p. 477]
(A) Willful rebellion (1:10)
“In the Mosaic deposit, redemption (Ex. 12), the giving of the law (Ex. 20) and the institution of religious observance (Ex. 25:1-Lv. 27:34) followed each other in that order. The Law was given so that those who were already the Lord’s people by redemption might know how to behave in ways acceptable to him who had redeemed them. The cultus was given so that those who were committed to the life of obedience might remain in the Lord’s presence notwithstanding their failures and have recourse to mercy and forgiveness for their lapses from obedience. Outside the context of the law of obedience the law of sacrifice had no utility.” [Motyer, p. 45-46]
(B) Worthless religion (1:11-15)
“This sinful nation, this seed of evil-doers, these rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah, brought, not to the altars of false gods (they are not here charged with that), but to the altar of the God of Israel, sacrifices, a multitude of them, as many as the law required and rather more — not only peace-offerings, which they themselves had their share of, but burnt-offerings, which were wholly consumed to the honor of God; nor did they bring the torn, and lame, and sick, but fed beasts, and the fat of them, the best of the kind. They did not send others to offer their sacrifices for them, but came themselves to appear before God. They observed the instituted places (not in high places or groves, but in God’s own courts), and the instituted time, the new moons, and sabbaths, and appointed feasts, none of which they omitted. Nay, it should seem, they called extraordinary assemblies, and held solemn meetings for religious worship, besides those that God had appointed. Yet this was not all: they applied to God, not only with their ceremonial observances, but with the exercises of devotion. They prayed, prayed often, made many prayers, thinking they should be heard for their much speaking; nay, they were fervent and importunate in prayer, they spread forth their hands as men in earnest. Now we should have thought these, and, no doubt, they thought themselves, a pious religious people; and yet they were far from being so, for (1.) Their hearts were empty of true devotion…. (2.) Their hands were full of blood.” [Matthew Henry’s Commentary IV, p. 5-6]
“The most pompous and costly devotions of wicked people, without a thorough reformation of the heart and life, are so far from being acceptable to God that really they are an abomination to him. It is here shown in a great variety of expressions that to obey is better than sacrifice; nay, that sacrifice, without obedience, is a jest, an affront and provocation to God. The comparative neglect which God here expresses of ceremonial observance was a tacit intimation of what they would come to at last, when they would all be done away by the death of Christ.” [Matthew Henry’s Commentary IV, p. 6]
“It is strong language to describe their temple worship as meaningless, detestable and unbearable! The accusation is not now of formalism (as in verse 12) but of religious commitment devoid of ethical resolve…. In Skinner’s memorable description it is the ‘unholy alliance’ of religious duty and personal iniquity…. The inclusion of the Sabbath shows that Isaiah is condemning not the thing itself — how could he dismiss the Sabbath as lacking divine authority? — but its misuse (see his own commentary in chapter 58).” [Motyer, p. 46-47]
“The topic now is intercession. This too means that Isaiah is criticizing not use but abuse for he would not denounce prayer as such.” [Motyer, p. 47] Cf. Psalm 34:15-16
“This is plain speaking, but God never sends velvet-tongued men as his messengers. They who are called to testify for God speak out boldly, and faithfully denounce the sins of the day in which they live. Blessed be God for Isaiah and for men like him!
“When men are committing crimes, when they are oppressing the poor, when they are living in the daily practice of injustice, when they indulge in secret drunkenness, when their whole life is a lie, they may do what they will, but God will not hear their prayers. While we keep sin in our hearts, it is in vain for us to stretch out our hands unto God. He is a holy God, and he seeks holy hearts and holy lives; and nothing short of these can be acceptable to him.” [Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit XL, (1894), p. 156]
“Your prayers are as jarring in mine ears, as if…so many dogs should set up a howl together…” [Trapp III, p. 290]
- What the Lord requires (1:16-17)
“Let them not say that God picked quarrels with them; no, he proposes a method of reconciliation.” [Matthew Henry’s Commentary IV, p. 6]
“Hitherto Jehovah has spoken to His people in wrath. But His love began to move even in the admonitions in vv. 16, 17. And now this love, which desired not Israel’s destruction, but Israel’s inward and outward salvation, breaks fully through…. Jehovah here challenges Israel to a formal trial… In such a trial Israel must lose, for Israel’s self-righteousness rests upon sham righteousness; and this sham righteousness, when rightly examined, is but unrighteousness dripping with blood. It is taken for granted that this must be the result of the investigation. Israel is therefore worthy of death. Yet Jehovah will not treat Israel according to His retributive justice, but according to His free compassion. He will remit the punishment, and not only regard the sin as not existing, but change it into its very opposite. The reddest possible sin shall become, through His mercy, the purest white…. Red as contrasted with white, the color of light (Mat. 17: 2), is the color of selfish, covetous, passionate life, which is self-seeking in its nature, which goes out of itself only to destroy, and drives about with wild tempestuous violence: it is therefore the color of wrath and sin…. Sin is called red, inasmuch as it is a burning heat which consumes a man, and when it breaks forth consumes his fellow-man as well…. It is a deeply significant symbol of the act of justification. Jehovah offers to Israel an actio forensis, out of which it shall come forth justified by grace, although it has merited death on account of its sins. The righteousness, white as snow and wool, with which Israel comes forth, is a gift conferred upon it out of pure compassion, without being conditional upon any legal performance whatever.” [Franz Delitzsch, “Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah,” translated by James Martin, Keil and Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament VII, p. 64-65]
“What God wants is not yours but you. Self, service, substance — that is the Divine order.” [Vance Havner, Day By Day, (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1953), p. 84]
(A) Cleansing (1:16a)
“When sinners are under the judgments of God they will more easily be brought to fly to their devotions than to forsake their sins and reform their lives…. Many that will readily part with their sacrifices will not be persuaded to part with their sins.” [Matthew Henry’s Commentary IV, p. 6]
“Wash yourselves with the tears of true repentance, and God will wash you with the blood of his Son…” [Trapp III, p. 290]
(B) Conversion (1:16b-17b)
“It is good to pray, ‘Wash me’ (Ps. 51:7), but keep in mind that God says, ‘Wash yourselves’ (Isa. 1:16). Paul wrote, ‘Let us cleanse ourselves’ (2 Cor. 7:1).” [Wiersbe, With the Word, p. 453] Cf. Jeremiah 4:14; James 4:8
(I) Cease to do evil (16:b)
“We must put away not only that evil of our doings which is before the eye of the world, by refraining from the gross acts of sin, but that which is before God’s eyes, the roots and habits of sin, that are in our hearts; these must be crushed and mortified.” [Matthew Henry’s Commentary IV, p. 7]
(II) Learn to do well (17ab)
“It is not enough that we cease to do evil, but we must learn to do well. (1.) We must be doing, not cease to do evil and then stand idle. (2.) We must be doing good, the good which the Lord our God requires and which will turn to a good account. (3.) We must do it well, in a right manner and for a right end; and, (4.) We must learn to do well; we must take pains to get the knowledge of our duty, be inquisitive concerning it, in care about it, and accustom ourselves to it, that we may readily turn our hands to our work and become masters of this holy art of doing well.” [Matthew Henry’s Commentary IV, p. 7]
“Negative goodness profiteth not.” [Trapp III, p. 291]
(C) Concern (1:17c)
“The final triad of commands covers the reformation of society, beginning with (lit) ‘put right the oppressor’.” [Motyer, p. 47]
iii. What the Lord offers (1:18-20)
“There are two kinds of people one can call reasonable; those who serve God with all their heart because they know Him, and those who seek after Him with all their heart because they do not know Him.” [Pascal, Pensées, translated by W. F. Trotter, (New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, Inc., 1908), p. 58 #194
“Sinful men do not care to think…” [Charles Haddon Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1884), p. 192]
(A) A Promise (1:18-19)
“If we make ourselves clean by repentance and reformation (v. 16), God will make us white by a full remission.” [Matthew Henry’s Commentary IV, p. 7]
“It is better to meet God with tears in your eyes than weapons in your hand. You may overcome Him sooner by repentance than by resistance.” [Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity, (London: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1692), p. 81]
“What blessed words of mercy! Oh, that every one of us may prove them true in our own case, for Jesu’s sake! Amen.” [Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit XL, (1894), p. 444]
(B) A Warning (1:20)
“Note, Those that will not be governed by God’s scepter will certainly and justly be devoured by his sword.” [Matthew Henry’s Commentary IV, p. 7]
“Those not ruled by the rudder will be ruled by the rocks.” [Welsh proverb in A World Treasury of Folk Wisdom compiled and edited by Reynold Feldman and Cynthia A. Voelke, (New York: HarperCollins, 1992), p. 130]
- The social situation (1:21-23)
“People and leaders are all alike: each one is out for himself.” [VanGemeren, p. 477]
“Cato complained that in his time some thieves stood at the bar in cold irons, when others, and worse, sat on the bench with gold chains about their necks.” [Trapp III, p. 292]
“Silver can contain some alloy and still be silver, but silver which has become dross has suffered total degeneration.” [Motyer, p. 49]
- The coming situation (1:24-31): restoration through judgment
- Refining Fire (1:24-26)
“From these earthly princes (23) our gaze is turned to the supreme King…. Here the word is of one who is sovereign in status (the Lord…), omnipotent in power (the Lord Almighty, ‘Yahweh of hosts’; cf. verse 9) and absolute ruler of his people (the Mighty One of Israel; cf. 49:26:60:16).” [Motyer, p. 49]
God takes up his own metaphor from v. 22, to reveal the fiery aspect of love and the merciful aspect of judgment.” [Kidner, p. 635]
- Destroying Fire (1:27-31)
“God’s line between friend and foe, the redeemed and the broken, runs right through Zion; not between Jew and Gentile but between penitent ones (i.e. lit. those who ‘turn’) and rebels. For the latter the fire is the end, not the beginning. The key to the metaphor of oaks and gardens (29-30) is in v. 31; they stand here for human strength and organization, which one is tempted to trust…. There is a modern ring to the warning that man’s very skill can be his undoing, the spark (31) that sets off the conflagration.” [Kidner, p. 635]
