This is a chapter which, I think, teaches an important lesson to those of us who desire the salvation of men, for it shows us how God sets about that work. He begins by exhibiting the sinner's sin to him before he proclaims mercy to him; and if we want to be the means of doing good to men, it will not be by merely crying to them, «Believe, believe, believe;» but there must be a laying of the axe at the root of the tree of self-righteousness, and a cutting away of all trust in self. A man must realize his danger before he will desire to escape from it, and it is a mistaken kindness which refuses to set before him the peril in which he is. God, who is infinitely tender and inconceivably merciful, shows us, in this chapter, how to go to work with sinners.
Isaiah 1:1-2. 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. 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.
«If they were simply my subjects, I could bear their rebellion better than I can now, for they are my children. I have nourished them, and brought them up; and after long and persevering kindness towards them, I might have expected some affection from them in return: but ‘they have rebelled against me.' «
Isaiah 1:3. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
See how the Lord still owns the children of Israel as his people, though he contrasts their conduct with the behavior of the ox and the ass. So we see that, however far God's people may have gone into sin, they are his people still, and he does not deny their relationship to him: «Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.»
Isaiah 1:4. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: What a terrible picture!
A nation burdened with iniquity, as full of sin as their fathers were, and their offspring growing up like themselves. By hereditary transmission they have received a predisposition to evil that cannot be taken out of the blood except by divine power.
Isaiah 1:4. They have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
What a description this is of the state of the unregenerate, even of God's elect among them who are still crushed under the ruins of the fall! Peradventure, as I am reading this chapter, some poor soul here is saying, «That just describes me.» Well, let it describe you; and lament, and mourn, and humiliate yourself before the Most High as you realize what is your sad condition. You have acted worse to God than an ass does to its master; you have behaved shamefully to him, and thus you have provoked him to anger. Do not think lightly of your sin, but let it weigh heavily upon your spirit; as you are «laden with iniquity,» God grant that it may be a heavy burden to you! The Lord next goes on to exhibit the sin of the people in the light of his chastisement. When a child sins, and does wrong, a wise parent uses correction to see whether he cannot overcome the evil tendencies; but, alas! there is no correction that will ever get sin out of the sinner. See what God did with these people, and what came of it.
Isaiah 1:5-6. Why should ye be stricken anymore? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
«You are already in this terrible plight, and your sufferings are the direct result of your sins.»
Isaiah 1:7-8. 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. 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.
Now, to translate all this into plain English, I have known men who have been chastened for their sins, and by their sins; God has chastised them, and they have been severely chastised; but no obedience, no repentance, has followed upon the chastisement. Men have been brought, by their sin, from wealth to poverty, from competence to actual want. Have we not seen them by drunkenness brought to rags, and by vice brought to rottenness? Have we not seen men brought to the very gates of hell by their iniquities, yet still they have clung to those iniquities? They have begun to drink the cup of their own damnation, and even when they realized what they were doing, they have still clutched the burning chalice in their hands, and have willingly drained it to the last dregs. Oh, it is horrible, it is terrible, to see at what a cost men will ruin their own souls! They go to perdition as if they were at a steeplechase; no hedge is too high, and no brook too wide for them, and they ride to destruction at a desperate pace. If we who are God's people were half as earnest in serving him as the ungodly are in their efforts to be lost, what great service we should render to him! God reminded these people of all that he had done to them by way of chastening; yet no good had come of it.
Isaiah 1:9. 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.
I am afraid that this verse applies to London at the present time. To what an awful extent has the sin of the people gone, and among those who commit it are many of the great ones of the earth. It is a crying iniquity, which may well make God angry. I marvel not that there are alarms, and all sorts of frightful rumors in the city which has become like Sodom and Gomorrah of old.
Isaiah 1:10. Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
Isaiah next goes on still further to expose the sin of the people; and, anticipating that they would say that they had been very religious, that they had attended the means of grace, that they had been observant of the outward ritual of God's sanctuary, he admits the truth of it all, and then shows what is the real value of it.
Isaiah 1:11-12. 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. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
Have not some of you at times felt as if the Lord had said to you, «What right have you to be among my people?» For years, you have been worshipping professedly, but not sincerely. It is a wonder that the seat you sit on bears you up when your worship has been all hypocrisy, a delusion throughout; you have only given to God the external husk of devotion, the kernel of true heart-worship has never been there at all.
Isaiah 1:13-14. Bring no more with 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. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
When God is wearied by a man's best things, what must his feelings be concerning the man's worst things?
Isaiah 1:15. 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.
When even a man's prayers become an abomination in the sight of God, what must the man himself be? As long as men live in sin, and love it, God will not hear their supplications. Whether their hands are stained with blood, or whatever other sin it is of which they are guilty, until they forsake the evil, God will not answer their prayers. The Lord, having thus set before the people their sin, the aggravation of that sin in that they had continued in it after severe chastisement, and the further aggravation of it in that, all the while, they had professed to be true and faithful servants of Jehovah, though they had been in constant rebellion against him, he yet goes on to speak to them in this gracious fashion:
Isaiah 1:16-17. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
That is to say,» Bring forth fruits meet for repentance, so that it may be seen that your heart is really changed, and that you desire better things, and things more pleasing in my sight.» Then listen further to this marvelous message:
Isaiah 1:18. 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.
There is not as much music, to a poor convinced sinner's ear, in a whole oratorio of Handel as there is in this one verse of Scripture. But your ear must be attuned to this music before you can appreciate its blessed sweetness. He only knows the music of mercy who knows the misery of sin. I think that must read this precious verse again: «Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet,» we will not dispute about them; they are all you think they are, and much worse; «though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.»
Isaiah 1:19. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
«You shall not any longer be ‘as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city;' you shall be no more desolate, but ‘ye shall eat the good of the land.' I will take away from you my chastisement when I take away your sin. I will take care to feed you if you will but come back to me. There shall be feasting, and music, and dancing, instead of starving, and sighing, and sorrowing, if you will only return to your Father's house: ‘If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land.' «
Isaiah 1:20. But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
So the Lord has mercy in his right hand for those who will turn from their sin; but he has a sword in his left hand for those who will abide in their iniquities.
God grant to us grace now to yield to the sweet reasoning of his love, and to turn from our sins, for his dear Son's sake! Amen.