Isaiah 1:1-17.  I will have the reading schedule updated tonight and hopefully have the “Intro to Isaiah” also written and posted.  We are returning to the Old Testament and this is going to be a long run.  I think this is probably the second longest book in the Bible but it is full of some very good stuff.  One expert said it is the most quoted book in the New Testament, 44 times.  I will also post a page “What Profit?” that you will want to read.

We will get into who all the players were and who Isaiah was and all of the rest of what is going on in the introduction. If you have read “The Old Testament Connection” you might remember that Israel was at one time a great nation under David and Solomon.  After Solomon’s death his son made some unwise choices as a ruler and the nation was divided into two kingdoms.  The Northern Kingdom was called Israel and the Southern Kingdom was called Judah.  Jerusalem, the capital of Israel (the whole nation), became the capital of Judah.  Shechem, a town that played an important part during the time of Joshua, became the first capital of the Northern Kingdom, Israel.

Isaiah’s tells us that he had visions about the Southern Kingdom during the reigns of four of it’s kings.  The first, Uzziah reigned from 791-739, the last Hezekiah, reigned from 728-686.  Judah was very prosperous under the leadership of Uzziah.  It is generally agreed among Bible scholars (at least ones who actually believe what the Bible says) that Isaiah began active ministry near the end of Uzziah’s reign.  In 753 Jereboam the second, king of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) died.  He had been a powerful king who expanded the northern kingdom and made it rich.  After his death the kingdom began to decline and had several kings in a few years.  In 743 Tiiglath-Pileser the Third, king of Assyria, started to move his armies to the west, approaching the territory where the two kingdoms were.  On the outside both kingdoms looked well but inside they were moving away from God, Israel had been for years and Judah was not far behind.

In today’s reading Isaiah is not bashful about scolding Judah for turning their back on God.  Sinful nation, children of evil doers, rotten sons, these are some of his descriptions of what the Israelites had become.  In verse seven he talks about desolate land.  Since the vision is about Jerusalem and Judah, and they were not subject to invasion yet the description of destruction in verses 7-9 is probably a vision of the future.  Sodom and Gomorrah were two cities destroyed in Genesis 18-19 because of their great wickedness, in this first vision Isaiah recognizes that Judah too deserves to be destroyed.  It was only God’s mercy that they still existed and would continue to exist.  But the spiritual decline was current.

Isaiah then went on to condemn the religious activity of Judah, describing Judah using those same two cites which were a part of Judah’s territory.  The religious activities which God condemned through Isaiah were actually things He had ordered in the law, all of the sacrifices and burning of incense.  Even prayer was condemned (v. 15).  Verse 16 and 17 give us a clue about the problem, the rest of their life did not match what they were doing with their offerings and prayers.  There is an old saying that goes something like, “They go to church on Sunday and live like the Devil the rest of the week.”  That is what the problem was.  God, the LORD, Yahweh, never wanted a bunch of dead animals he wanted the love and a devotion of the people he had created, not just Israelites but all of us.  The “religion” of the Israelites was always designed to show all of us our desperate need (Romans 3:19-20).  But the Israelites were not learning the lesson.  “Throw another bull on the barbeque and god will be happy, then I can go do what I want.”  God cannot be paid off for sin.  On the other hand God does want us to try to do good.  Isaiah was warning the people about both.  Lord help me realize that I have failed.  Help me see that my evil actions need your mercy.  Help me respond to your love for me by being merciful to others.