Today's Reading:

Isaiah 1
Isaiah 2
Isaiah 3
Isaiah 4

The book of Isaiah is the first major prophet book we have read (major just means longer than minor, not any more important). Isaiah was the prophet to the Southern Kingdom of Judah, and is one of the most quoted books in the New Testament. The beauty is that when the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, an almost identical copy of Isaiah was there, showing God’s Word had not changed since the beginning. The scroll of Isaiah was discovered in 1947 and measured 21 feet long.

The Assyrian Empire was expanding. Remember, they were just east of Aram (Syria), which was at constant border battles with Israel (N). The prophets for the Southern Kingdom at the time were Amos, Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah, though they most likely did not know one another. The Southern Kings of the time were Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. This is quite a long book with 66 chapters. It covers the sins in the Southern Kingdom and how the Northern Kingdom had been taken under control by the Assyrians. Isaiah went to spread the word that Judah, you are next! Then the book switched to hope and another coming Messiah (700 years later!) and finally judgment with restoration, a theme that crosses multiple books.

In chapter 1, Isaiah was given a vision as Assyria was expanding, condemning those who had rebelled against God in Judah. He condemned sin, saying that sin in itself was a sin. The ox and the donkey could understand who their master was and where their food trough stayed, yet the Israelites do not understand for themselves that God is their master and provider. They have rejected the “Holy One of Israel.” That phrase was written 25 times in this book. They were suffering from head to toe. The land of Judah had been invaded by Aram (Syria), the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Edom, and Philistia. Later to come would be Babylon. Zion/Jerusalem, the capital of Judah, was left with just poor structures and had to keep watch for thieves, and without mercy from God, there would have been total devastation.

Isaiah directed his speech to the Israelites in Judah as though they were a city of Sodom. Their sacrifices are not what God wanted (that is an insult to Him); it was never about the animals or rituals; it has always been about the heart. The sacrifices were pointless if you were not going to obey His commands. God was not listening to their prayers because they had turned from Him in sin. Their hands were stained scarlet from murder. But in His forgiveness, He would turn them white as snow IF they obeyed. Jerusalem represented all of the Southern Kingdom. They were prostituting (unfaithful) just like the book of Hosea called out.

God called out that He would avenge Himself and restore Judah, even some of their leaders. Those who rebelled and sinned would be judged and broken for putting their hope in “sacred oaks” (wooden idols).

In chapter 2, “The mountain of the Lord” was a reference to Mount Zion, describing where both Jews and Gentiles would be coming to God. This is a prophecy of Christ’s second coming. The wording is almost the same as written in Micah 4:1-5. The items of war would be turned into items for peace. “Come descendants of Jacob,” was similar wording used in Hosea. Isaiah listed all that Judah had done wrong and that God had a day in store “to humble them, bringing the arrogance of man low.” People would flee, and idols would be tossed in fear.

In that day, God would remove the leaders. People would oppress one another, and no one would want to be a leader anymore. In the snap of a finger, everything would be gone. God would suddenly remove everything they depended on: bread, support, their military, artisans, and even the wicked enchanters. Society had trusted in its own strength rather than in God. (He removes it all when Babylon exiled Judah’s best and brightest in 2 Kings 24:14). Without mature leaders, God left young children in power. The righteous would be fine and eat the fruit of their deeds, but the wicked would be like Sodom and reap what they sowed.

Weak leadership was often described as children and women ruling. This was both a symptom and a judgment from God. The fashionable women were proud, flirtatious, and obsessed with appearances. They took short seductive steps with jingling jewelry to attract attention. But God would strip them all away; anklets, headbands, mirrors, etc. Instead of beauty, they would get scabs, baldness, shame, exposure, mourning, poverty, and desolation. The fashion show was like a receipt of everything they had. They were proud, but watch as God would snatch it away in the blink of an eye. This was a mirror for the self-reliant, materialistic, and arrogant society.

Isaiah 3 gave a sobering warning: In a single moment, God can remove everything a society depends on. The leaders, security, talent, and even the things we use to impress others. The fashionable women of Judah trusted in their beauty, jewelry, and status… until God stripped it all away in judgment. What are you tempted to trust in more than God, your career, appearance, finances, or reputation? What would it look like for you to hold those things with open hands instead of clenched fists?

In chapter 4 Isaiah noted that after judgment comes salvation. This “branch of the Lord,” shoot of David, would be the pride and glory to the Messiah. Scripture noted that seven women would take one man because war would wipe out the male population leaving widows who were desperate for protection and a name. They want the dignity of being a wife. The remnant left would be called holy. God would wash away the filth of pride, vanity, guilt, injustice and violence.

Today's Discussion question:

Isaiah 3 gives a sobering warning: In a single moment, God can remove everything a society depends on. The leaders, security, talent, and even the things we use to impress others. The fashionable women of Judah trusted in their beauty, jewelry, and status… until God stripped it all away in judgment. What are you tempted to trust in more than God, your career, appearance, finances, or reputation? What would it look like for you to hold those things with open hands instead of clenched fists?

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