Isaiah 57:3-21.  Today’s reading continues the story of the evil leaders who have ignored and even hurt those who love God (the righteous).  This part of tier story describes their unfaithfulness to God.  In Matthew 22:34-40 a teacher of the Law of Moses asked Jesus what the most important rule in the Law.  Jesus told him that the most important part of the Law is the instruction to love God with all that we are.  Jesus then added that the second most important instruction is that we need to love our neighbor as much as we love our self.  The reading for the last two days has shown us that we need to be just in our lives, we need to care about the needs of others and not just our selves.  That is like the second most important instruction in the Law of Moses.  Today’s reading helps us understand about loving God with all we are.

Actually this next section talks not only to the evil leaders but to anyone who is unfaithful to God.  These people are called “sons of sorceress” and “children of a cheater and a prostitute”.  Deuteronomy 24:6 tells us that people are responsible for their own actions.  Children are not punished because of the actions of their fathers and fathers are not punished for the actions of their sons.  In this case Isaiah uses the words “sons” and “child” to show us that they following the example of the parents.  In this case a parent who tries to talk to the dead (a witch or medium) or a parent who is a cheater and one who is a prostitute.  All of these activities break the rules God gave the Israelites (and us) for living.  They are also called rebellious and liars in verse 4.  Scholars are not sure what the first part of verses 4 means.  Either they are making fun of the faithful people in verse 1 or they are using their voices to honor the false gods and idols that verses 5-8.  There are a bunch of different activities mentioned in these verses but all have a connection to worshipping manmade gods (idols).

Verse 9 probably deals with the other problem that the people of Judah were having at the time.  Remember their were being invaded by Assyria and had been tempted to make an alliance with Babylon and actually did make an alliance with Egypt and some of the other kingdoms around them.  This alliance failed as Sennacherib marched down the coast and eventually across the territory of Judah.  He also defeated Egypt during this campaign. Verse 9 seems to be talking about ambassadors sent to make these treaties.  It looks like some of them might have died in the process.  It could also be talking about the king of Judah misleading these ambassadors to the point that they were on the road to hell in a sense, they weren’t dead yet just headed that way.  Remember in Isaiah 56:11-12 the leaders were doing their own thing and thinking that God was going to let them keep on sliding by.  Even when their plans were failing (v. 10) they kept lying to themselves and moving forward.  They found their own strength.

Verses 11-13 challenge the leaders and other Israelites about who they were worshipping.  They had started to deny God and trust in idols instead.  To do this they had to lie to themselves because only God had proven himself through out their history.  According to verse 11 the people had stopped believing because God was not stopping all of the trouble in their lives.  Sometimes as a parent I let my children fail and see the consequences of what they are doing, especially when I have warned them in the past and they still go their own way (see Isaiah 56:11).  Sometimes they say I don’t care but I realize that if I always bail them out they will never stop doing the thing that is really hurting them.  I think that God does the same thing.  The thorns and weeds and death and even the death of the animal God used to make clothes for Adam and Eve were all reminders of the broken relationship with God, and still are reminders to us.  But weeds beat the lake of fire any day (see yesterday’s post).

Again in verse 13 we see the heart of God.  After he challenges them to ask their idols for help he tells them that if they put their existence in his hands that they will be a part of the promised forever kingdom.  Verses 14-19 then go on to tell us what god will do for “his people”.  The people who turn their lives and eternity over to him will be taken care of, revived, like a drink of water on a hot day.  Verses 17-18 is very cool because we see why god punishes, because of our sins and the way we treat others, but even when we are still going the wrong way God reaches out to us to help us.  Eventually the people who come back to God are filled with good things to say about him (praise).  And they will have peace (remember how the chapter started with those who love God suffering and dying).  God fixes things but for people who reject God and keep going their own way (Isaiah 56:11) their strength will fail and their will be no peace, their eternity will be filled with torment as we saw yesterday.

We have seen more of the down side of gong against God.  Yesterday we looked more at not treating others right (justice or injustice) today we looked at not treating God right, or being unfaithful to him by loving idols and our selves.  We see that God will eventually get the honor that he alone deserves and will deal with prideful self-centered people.  Remember those have been two of the main ideas through out Isaiah.  The is no peace for the wicked but in John 16:33 Jesus assured his followers that in him they would have peace even if they had trouble as they lived in the world, like the righteous man in Isaiah 57:1-2.  Lord help me trust you even in times of trouble.  Help me not forget you when it seems like you are being quiet.  Help me trust you completely.  You really have proven your love and concern.  But we can be so forgetful.  All the good and then one little bad thing and we jump overboard.  Help me remember and stay faithful.  Fill me with your peace even if I face death.  You have conquered sin and death, help me believe and trust.