His Recognition Before Yahweh Of Israel's Position (Isaiah 2:6-9).
However, Isaiah is really in no doubt about their true position. There are no scales before his eyes. He now turns to God and outlines the position of the people, for he knows that he is seeking to call them out from the dreadful darkness in which they live, which has resulted in their being forsaken by God, into His marvellous light, and that unless God acts there is little hope for them.
‘For you have forsaken your people,
The house of Jacob,
Because they are filled from the east,
And are soothsayers like the Philistines,
And they clap (strike) hands with the children of strangers.
Their land also is full of silver and gold,
Nor is there any end of their treasures.
Their land also is full of horses,
Nor is there any end of their chariots.
Their land also is full of idols.
They worship the work, each of his own hands,
That which his own fingers have made.
And the mean man is bowed down,
And the great man is humbled.
Therefore forgive them not (or ‘therefore there is no way that they can be forgiven').'
He has to recognise and acknowledge that in fact God's people are far from the light. God has forsaken them even though they are of the house of Jacob with all that that could have meant for the world. Six reasons are given for their forsakenness, divided into two sets of three.
The first set of three relates to unfaithfulness to Yahweh. They are filled or satiated from the east, they are soothsayers like the Philistines, they strike hands with the children of strangers.
· ‘Filled (satiated) from the east.' Contact with the east has introduced new gods, and new ideas connected with them, and these are now taking up all their time and worship, and leading them morally downwards. It is ironic that while the aim was that the nations would flow to Yahweh (Isaiah 2:2), in the meantime Yahweh's supposed own people were being ‘filled from the east'. They were, as it were, flowing away from Yahweh.
· ‘Soothsayers like the Philistines.' The Philistines were always seen as somehow not quite the thing. Israel had always looked down on them as ‘the uncircumcised Philistines'. And yet they are now making themselves parallel with them in seeking similar methods of divination to them, and prying into the future by false, occult methods, thus aping their ways and their religious degradation, something always forbidden by Yahweh (Isaiah 8:19; Leviticus 19:31; Leviticus 20:6; Leviticus 20:27; Deuteronomy 18:11; 2 Kings 21:6).
· ‘Clap hands with the children of strangers.' They partake with aliens to the covenant in alien ‘joyous ceremonies', often celebrated in drunken abandon and sexual perversity, which can only lead them into sin and idolatry and further away from Yahweh. Alternately the idea may be of striking the hand in bargains, suggesting idolatrous treaties and agreements.
The world changes little. The Western world still looks to the East because it wants religious titillation without the necessity of yielding to God's demands, it still looks to divination and the occult because it is spiritually bankrupt, it still indulges in sexually stimulating activities for the wrong reason. Here we have God's stern warning that His people should avoid the occult. It leads into darkness.
The second three references relate more to their ambitions in life. The building up of wealth, the building up of military strength, and the multiplying of man-made idols. A man is after all known by his ambitions. They were also the three things that they trusted in. They thought that it was their wealth which would cushion them from adversity, their armaments which would be their protection against the enemy, and their idols which would ensure their food supply. Thus they no longer felt that they needed Yahweh.
· ‘Their land is full of silver and gold, nor is there any end of their treasures.' It was clearly a prosperous time. It is the paradox of life, and the indication of man's sinfulness, that when he has most cause to be grateful he is most unwilling to give God praise. He sees God as only there for his time of need. Mammon, the deceitfulness of riches (Mark 4:19), had gripped their lives and they had no time for Him.
· ‘Their land also is full of horses, nor is there any end of their chariots.' What irony is here. They trusted in their own strength. They were proud of their full arsenals, their mighty weapons. They no longer needed Yahweh of hosts. These words were no doubt spoken well before the Assyrian invasion.
But those who have full arsenals tend to use them and to feel powerful through having them. They no doubt helped to contribute to injustice as they made the princes feel strong and invulnerable. And yet it was because these finally failed them, and they could not defend themselves from their enemies among their neighbours, that they finally sealed their own fate by calling in the Assyrian aliens, whose power they never even comprehended in their wildest dreams, and who would finally tread them down (2 Kings 16:7). They called in what they hoped would be a helping hand, and it turned out to be a jackboot. Unwise associations can destroy the soul.
· ‘Their land also is full of idols. They worship the work, each of his own hands, which his own fingers have made.' They had not dispensed with religion, just inconvenient religion. Indeed they were more religious than ever. The land was full of their gods. And they had made them themselves! Isaiah is being deliberately sarcastic. They worshipped the work of their own hands, each producing his own ‘god' (compare Isaiah 46:1-2 for similar sarcasm). But proliferation of idols signalled a deterioration in morality. The two went together. The word for idols is ‘elilim', meaning also ‘nonentities', a parody of ‘elohim' (‘God') and regularly used by Isaiah.
Idolatry is a means of making the idea of God manageable. A means of making Him earthly. A means by which He can be manipulated by priests. By representing Him in some earthly shape such as a perfection of manhood, or a brute beast, or a serpent, or a statue, He becomes more like ourselves and thus less demanding, less morally different (compare Romans 1:18-23). And we can then walk away and leave Him behind in His Temple. But in Israel it was made clear that God was not open to manipulation, was not restricted to His Temple, was not in any form known to earth, did not think like an earthly creature and did not act like one. He was the invisible God. His throne was among them but He travelled the heavens and did His will wherever He would. And His demands were totally unconnected with earth, they dealt with the heart and morality of man.
‘And the mean man is bowed down, and the great man is humbled. Therefore forgive them not.' Literally ‘adam (man from the generality of men) is bowed down and 'ish (the important man) is humbled.' Both prostrate themselves before the work of their own hands. All are involved from the lowest to the highest. Almost the whole nation grovelling before nonentities. They have basically lost their true humanity.
‘Therefore forgive them not.' This gives an appearance of being harsh, but the Hebrew negative imperative sometimes indicates certainty that something will not happen rather than a strict plea or command (compare Psalms 34:5 b; Isaiah 41:2 b. See Isaiah 6:10; Isaiah 7:4; Isaiah 8:9 for the imperative used to indicate certainty of outcome). Therefore here we should translate ‘there is no way that they can be forgiven' rather than seeing it as being a plea that they should not be forgiven. Their behaviour has been so appalling that judgment is inevitable (compare on the whole passage Micah 5:10-15).
The effects of the desire for power and wealth, and the making of idols of what they admire, are the constant cause of the downfall of men's spirituality. We need to be constantly on the watch lest it happen to us. No man, however spiritual, is immune.