Bible in 90 Days - Day 49 (Isaiah 1-13)

Lord, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life!

Help us now to hear and obey what you say to us today.

Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

—based on John 6:68

The ESV Study Bible notes say this regarding the opening of Isaiah: “A microcosm of the book’s message appears in 1:2–2:5. The Lord announces his basic charge against the people: they have received so much privilege from God and ought to be grateful children, but “they have despised the Holy One of Israel” (1:2–4). He describes the purpose of the various judgments they face, namely, to bring them to repentance, or at least to preserve a remnant who will repent (1:5–9). Judah is very diligent to observe the divinely appointed sacrifices, but the people’s hearts are far from God, as their unwillingness to protect their own weakest members exhibits (1:10–20). The Lord called his people to be the embodiment of faithfulness in this world, and yet they are now filled with rampant unfaithfulness at every level (personal, religious, and social); but God intends to purge Zion of its sinful members and set her up as a beacon of light for the whole world. In view of this glorious future, Isaiah’s contemporaries should commit themselves afresh to walking “in the light of the Lord” (1:21–2:5)."

The first few verses of chapter 3 talk about what God is going to do to Judah and Jerusalem. We have just read these histories. Isaiah is talking to the southern kingdom of Judah, the more faithful of the two kingdoms. We can picture what it looks like when God removes everything good and useful from them. Even Judah will lose what power it has as it faces exile.

5:7 is a particularly masterfully written verse. Justice and righteousness are pillars of who God is and what he expects. The words for justice and bloodshed sound very similar in Hebrew, as do righteousness and cries. Judah has actually taken beautiful things (justice and righteousness) and had substituted abominations (bloodshed and cries) for them. (The NIV is a great translation for finding references to the pair “justice and righteousness.” Keep an eye out for it.)

One of the most striking things in Isaiah is the contrast between the depths of what Judah does in breaking covenant and the glorious heights of God’s grace. Chapters 4, 9 and 11 are beautiful pictures of what God himself will do to restore his people. Even those who (unknowingly) are God’s instruments of discipline, like Assyria in this case, will be punished for their own pride and destructive heart (10:12ff).

I am reminded of the proverb we just read: “In his heart a man plans his course,but the Lord determines his steps” (Prov 16:9). Maybe better yet for Isaiah is Proverbs 19:21, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”