Good morning! I am in Isaiah chapter 1 this morning. Since God's prophets are right at least twice, I am reading from the perspective of the future, or last fulfillment. Isaiah is sketching in a glimpse of future events.
The daily verses will be bolded and italicized, while cross-referenced verses will be italicized only. Unless otherwise indicated, the translation is the New King James Version (NKJV). I much appreciate and daily use blueletterbible.org for the text.
Judah Called to Repentance
1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
The Wickedness of Judah
2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth!
For the LORD has spoken:
“I have nourished and brought up children,
And they have rebelled against Me;
3 The ox knows its owner
And the donkey its master’s crib;
But Israel does not know,
My people do not consider.”
4 Alas, sinful nation,
A people laden with iniquity,
A brood of evildoers,
Children who are corrupters!
They have forsaken the LORD,
They have provoked to anger
The Holy One of Israel,
They have turned away backward.
In v.4, Judah is a sinful nation who has rejected the Holy One of Israel (Jesus).
This title is given to both Yahweh (God the Father) and Jesus (God the Son, who is our Redeemer), as is made clear in Isaiah 41:14—
“Fear not, you worm Jacob,
You men of Israel!
I will help you,” says the LORD
And your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
Judah rejected their relationship with God during Isaiah's time, so that was the first fulfillment. Subsequent fulfillments of v.4 would be a time when Judah (the descendants of Judah, shortened to "Jews") is in rebellion and have been shown their Redeemer, but rejected Him. This has already happened once in 32 A.D. Does it happen again? Are the Jews again confronted with the truth of Jesus as their Messiah after the Rapture, and reject Him a third time?
5 Why should you be stricken again?
You will revolt more and more.
The whole head is sick,
And the whole heart faints.
6 From the sole of the foot even to the head,
There is no soundness in it,
But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores;
They have not been closed or bound up,
Or soothed with ointment.
7 Your country is desolate,
Your cities are burned with fire;
Strangers devour your land in your presence;
And it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
Judah's cities are burned and foreigners are pillaging it. The Hebrew word here is not goyim but zur. Goyim just means the nations, "everyone who is not us." Zur means a stranger, someone not known. Isaiah makes other references to this:
Isa 33:19 You will not see a fierce people,
A people of obscure speech, beyond perception,
Of a stammering tongue that you cannot understand.
First fulfillment: Babylon? A Semitic-speaking nation, but far enough distant to be considered strangers.
Second fulfillment probably isn't Rome, because everyone spoke Greek as the lingua franca in those days. So the second (or third) fulfillment is yet to come. My first pick is China, just because linguistically the Asian languages are generally without any familiarity to Jews. Akkadian (ancient Babylon), Aramaic (Syriac), and modern Arabic are all Semitic languages and share word roots with Hebrew, but Chinese and other Asian languages are on another linguistic tree altogether.
8 So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard,
As a hut in a garden of cucumbers,
As a besieged city.
9 Unless the LORD of hosts
Had left to us a very small remnant,
We would have become like Sodom,
We would have been made like Gomorrah.
10 Hear the word of the LORD,
You rulers of Sodom;
Give ear to the law of our God,
You people of Gomorrah:
11 “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?”
Says the LORD.
“I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
And the fat of fed cattle.
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
Or of lambs or goats.
Verses 10 and 11 has God rejecting the sacrifices of His people, because they have been adulterous (worshiped other gods). He says something interesting in v.12: “When you come to appear before Me, who has required this from your hand, To trample My courts?"
The obvious answer is that God did require the sacrifices, but here He is rejecting them, hating even their footprints. Our hairdresser yesterday drew a great comparison to someone walking with their shoes on over her yoga mat. Who wants their skin touching dog poop germs? The Temple was God's very personal space on earth, and it needs to be holy as He is holy.
The Third Temple will be built because Israel wants to build it, not because God will tell them to build it. God rejects the Israelis' attempts to regain what was lost: "Even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen." It will have to come from God, not their own efforts. They will have to have changed hearts before they re-enter into relationship with Him:
12 “When you come to appear before Me,
Who has required this from your hand,
To trample My courts?
13 Bring no more futile sacrifices;
Incense is an abomination to Me.
The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies—
I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.
14 Your New Moons and your appointed feasts
My soul hates;
They are a trouble to Me,
I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you spread out your hands,
I will hide My eyes from you;
Even though you make many prayers,
I will not hear.
Your hands are full of blood.
What will it take to make Judah clean?
16 “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes.
Cease to do evil,
17 Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Rebuke the oppressor;
Defend the fatherless,
Plead for the widow.
They may learn to do good (in fact, God promises to teach them in Isaiah 29:24, complainers though they are!), but as the student of prophecy knows, they will never be able to make themselves clean…not without Yeshua HaMaschiah, Jesus the Messiah. So the bar is set.
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Next: Isaiah chapter 1:18-20