Doom and Gloom (Isaiah 1:28-31).
In contrast with this glorious future for the true Israel, is the fate determined for those who are untrue, those who do not respond to God's activity, as described in Isaiah 1:28 onwards.
Analysis.
a But the destruction of the transgressors and the sinners will be together, and they who forsake Yahweh will be consumed.
b For they will be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, and you will be confounded for the gardens which you have chosen.
b For you will be as an oak whose leaf fades, and as a garden which has no water.
a And the strong will be as tow, and his work as a spark, and they will both burn together, and none will quench them
And the destruction of the transgressors and the sinners will be together,
And they who forsake Yahweh will be consumed.'
In contrast with the redemption of the righteous is the fact that transgressors and sinners (the opposite of the just and the righteous) will be destroyed, and those who forsake Yahweh, those who are unfaithful, will be consumed. God's mercy will not reach all. Some will turn from it. Not all God's nominal people are God's true people. Time will reveal which are which.
‘For they will be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired,
And you will be confounded for the gardens which you have chosen.'
This sudden change of pronoun appears constantly throughout the Old Testament as the writers seek to bring home their words more personally. In that day those who perish will, in their perishing, be ashamed of the sacred oaks to which they have made obeisance, the very oaks which ‘you hearers' still do ‘desire' (seek to worship). And you will be confounded because of the sacred gardens, symbols of the fertility cult, that you have set your heart on, but which fail you in the end. ‘Ashamed' and ‘confounded' do not just include embarrassment, but also the sense of their failure. These in which they trusted have let them down. They have been fools.
The sacred gardens were places to which men went for their unnatural activities with sacred prostitutes and loose women as they sought to influence or imitate nature through their manifested behaviour. Possibly they also sought to absorb life from the trees. But it would do them no good. The gardens had nothing real to offer.
‘For you will be as an oak whose leaf fades,
And as a garden which has no water.
And the strong will be as tow,
And his work as a spark,
And they will both burn together,
And none will quench them.'
Instead of gaining life force from their sacred oaks, their sacred watered gardens and their sacred activities, which in their vain hope and lust they saw as life-giving, these will rather be like a fading oak whose leaf withers and is cast off, and like a waterless garden which has no source of life, and is therefore bare and empty. For the gods can give no life. They are lifeless themselves. Even the strong man, with his ‘work' (i.e. his idol which he has made for himself), will be like tow, that is, a piece of hemp or similar flammable material, made ready for burning, and lit by a spark. Both man and idol will burn up together. No one will be able to prevent it or put out the flame.
So God is finally merciful to His own. He chastens that He might restore. But for those who will not respond mercy finally runs out. For them there can only be judgment.
Note. Yahweh as sovereign ‘Lord' (adonai) is a regular feature of Isaiah. As sovereign Lord He judges His enemies, delivering and refining His people and destroying His enemies (Isaiah 1:24-28); He removes from sinful Judah and Jerusalem their mainstay (Isaiah 3:1-3); He punishes the vain and arrogant women (daughters of Zion) with scabs and takes away the jewellery and ornaments in which the women delight (Isaiah 3:16-23); He will wash away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purge Jerusalem from its bloodiness (Isaiah 4:4); He thwarts the enemies of Jerusalem and Judah (Isaiah 7:7), even the powerful Assyria (Isaiah 7:20); He will bring up mighty Assyria against His people because they look elsewhere than to Him (Isaiah 8:7); His word reveals itself against His opponents (Isaiah 8:8); He turns away from those who do evil (Isaiah 9:17); He will perform His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem (Isaiah 10:12); He will bring judgment on the king of Assyria (Isaiah 10:16); He will bring about His determined will (Isaiah 10:23); He will work on behalf of His true people (Isaiah 10:24); He will cut down their enemies (Isaiah 10:33); He will bring back His people from all over the world (Isaiah 11:11); and so on to Isaiah 65:13-18 where He provides blessing and a new heaven and a new earth to the faithful remnant. End of note.