But God's People Have Failed To Be His True People And Must First Face Cursing And Revilement (Isaiah 43:22-28).
However, while there is the glorious vision of this future true people of God, Isaiah has not forgotten the present state of Israel. He was under no illusions about that. Indeed God had warned him what they would be like (Isaiah 6:9-11). Jacob was in a dreadful state even in spite of all God's offers of forgiveness. Israel was not walking in the way.
These verses must be read with care. At no time did Judah and Jerusalem actually cease the Temple ritual, (it probably even continued, at least spasmodically, during the exile in the ruins of Jerusalem), they simply ceased genuinely offering it to Yahweh. Their home cultus, formally carried on, had become a meaningless ritual, a sideline to their offerings to other gods. That this is the meaning is evidenced by the first verse. Never in Israel's whole existence did they cease outwardly calling on Yahweh, whether in the land or in exile. The ritual prayers continued, the Psalms were sung, the cult continued, dead though it might be. But here it is made clear that their hearts were not in it. They ceased because they had wearied of Him not because they had been driven from the land. (Note that the general cessation of sacrifice in exile was not due to weariness, so that this does not have that in mind). They were no longer really calling on Him, they simply muttered by rote. In the same way their sacrifices continued as a sideline to the religions they really took an interest in. They were offered mechanically, not as something really offered to a living and present Yahweh. This all ties in with the early part of the reign of Manasseh when there was a great turning back to false gods, probably under Babylonian influence.
This must not be taken too literally. It is the idea that matters. Not all in Judah rejected Yahweh. No doubt there were still some who treated Yahweh seriously, including Isaiah and his disciples for example, but the point is that the general trend was in this direction. This was what it looked like to those who saw them.
Israel Have Failed to Honour Him Therefore He Will Profane Them (Isaiah 43:22-28).
“Yet you have not called on me, O Jacob,
But you have been weary of me, O Israel,
You have not brought me the small cattle of your burnt offerings,
Nor have you honoured me with your sacrifices.
I have not made you to serve with offerings,
Nor wearied you with frankincense,
You have brought me no sweet cane with silver,
Nor have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices,
But you have made me to serve with your sins,
You have wearied me with your iniquities.”
The picture of Israel's present condition (that of Judah and Jerusalem) is a dismal one. They have not sought Him or genuinely called on Him, and it is because they are weary of Him. They have outwardly continued the ritual but their hearts have been with other gods, and it is on them that they have called and to whom they have looked. They have not brought their sacrifices with a glad heart, and with a genuine sense of worship. While they have continued with the cult it has been formal and dead. They were in fact not offerings made to Him, simply temple ritual, following a dead custom.
‘I have not made you to serve --.' They did not do it for Him. It was not the propulsive effect of their awareness of Yahweh that made them serve with offerings and an abundance of frankincense, but, in so far as they did it, simply habit and custom. It was not He, and the sense of His presence, Who made them carry out their service, because they looked to Him as living and as there, making demands on them, it was simply the fact that they were in a rut. Empty ritual went on but Yahweh was sidelined, indeed pushed out of mind. It was not He, and the thought of Him, that made them ‘serve'.
‘You have brought me no sweet cane (or ‘fragrant calamus') with silver, nor have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices.' They brought Him no gifts of sweet cane or fragrant calamus (Exodus 30:23; Jeremiah 6:20) and silver. These extra gifts from a thankful and responding heart went to other gods, not to Yahweh. There was no lavishing on God of fat from freewill offerings. He was sidelined.
‘But you have made me to serve with your sins, you have wearied me with your iniquities.' Rather than them serving Him, they had thought that through their ritual, offered so sinfully, they could actually make Him serve them, forcing Him to do their will, manipulating Him by their activity. Their whole attitude towards Him was sinful and was due to their sins. Sin unforgiven and not admitted always leads to formal worship. And all they have otherwise brought is their iniquities, which have wearied Him. And their sins and their iniquities have especially been brought to His attention by what they do in His house (compare Isaiah 1:12).
“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,
And I will not remember your sins.”
Yet it should not be so. If only they were willing He was standing there ready to forgive. These wonderful words are a reminder to them of what the Temple service should have been all about, the removal of their sins, and a guarantee to those who were still faithful of forgiveness and of what He did for them. Let them remember that it is Yahweh, and only Yahweh, Who can truly blot out their sins, yes, and wills to do it. It is He Who can remove their sins in such a way that they are no longer remembered, but deliberately put aside, filed away as no longer relevant, and no longer held against them, because they are cancelled. And He does it for His own sake, that He might have them as His people. Let them remember this and come back to Him that He may do it. He is the blotter-out and non-rememberer of their sins. Let them therefore return to Him that they may obtain these blessings.
And He is still the same for us today. Once we become aware of our sins we can hear His voice calling to us, ““I, even I, am He Who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” And if we call on Him we can then be sure that He will do it. We can be sure that He will blot out our transgressions, our breaking of His Law and our coming short of His requirements, and He will put our iniquities in the place of non-remembrance (better than being forgotten for nothing will bring non-remembered sins back to God's memory. They are deliberately excluded). Compare 1 John 1:7. But it is not automatic. It results from our response to His call.
‘Put me in remembrance. Let us plead together.
Set forth your cause that you may be shown to be right.
Your first fathers sinned,
And your representatives have transgressed against me,
Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary,
And I will make Jacob a devoted thing,
And Israel a reviling.”
He pleads with His people to discuss matters with Him. Let them remind Him of their arguments. Let He and they both plead their two positions before a tribunal together. If they are right, let them set forth the case to prove that they are right. Then indeed will He have His opportunity to prove that they are wrong and He is right. But they will not listen. It is the same story all over again. Their fathers sinned in the wilderness almost immediately after the covenant had been written in stone, and continued to sin constantly, and now their own representatives and ambassadors to God have done the same. They have shown a continual obstinacy of heart.
‘Your first father(s).' Actually in the singular but probably a composite or collective noun signifying all their fathers, whoever they looked to. But it may possibly specifically mean Adam, Abraham or Jacob. The continual reference to ‘Jacob/Israel' in this section may suggest the latter.
‘Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary, and I will make Jacob a devoted thing, and Israel a reviling.' That is why He will profane the princes of the sanctuary. (He could only do this because the sanctuary was still standing). He will make the leading priests cease to be priests. They will be removed from priestly office. They will lose their ‘sanctity'. They will be made profane.
So the humiliation of the Temple is at the forefront of what Isaiah sees as inevitable. Those who serve in the Temple have humiliated God, and so He will now humiliate those who serve in the Temple. It may well be that he saw that this could only be achieved by the removal of these ‘princes of the Sanctuary' to an unclean land. Thus he may have seen the final destruction of the temple for its treasures as inevitable, with the consequent cessation of the whole round of sacrifices and the slaughter of priests as they incongruously defended it, and the removal of the chief priests to captivity where they would certainly be ‘unclean'. Isaiah is becoming more aware of what the future holds, but probably only slowly. It will shortly lead on to his declaration that the Temple will one day need to be rebuilt.
‘And I will make Jacob a devoted thing, and Israel a reviling.' This confirms that he is anticipating disaster for Jerusalem and for Israel. To be ‘a devoted thing' was to be under sentence of death. Things that were ‘devoted' had to be destroyed (see Joshua 7) for they were God's alone. Thus Jacob/Israel will either be destroyed as profaned, or reviled because defeated and humiliated.
Isaiah is aware of Assyria's continued dominance, but his thoughts are now fixed on what God had said concerning Babylon, the great anti-God which at present has jurisdiction over them under Assyrian overlordship, and his thoughts are now being turned more towards what God had said He would do through Babylon because of Hezekiah's folly (Isaiah 39:6). He possibly fears not only subjection and looting but the destruction and rape of Jerusalem, although he does not specifically say so. He was probably not aware of the full details. He only knew that those who ran the Temple must be humiliated, and that Israel (Judah) also must be humiliated. And he is recognising more and more the implications of it. That is why in Isaiah 44:28 onwards he will introduce God's partial solution to the problem that he foresees, although we have to interpret it with care.