
Isaiah Intro
Isaiah 1
These are the visions that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. He saw these visions during the years when Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah were kings of Judah.
A Message for Rebellious Judah
2 Listen, O heavens! Pay attention, earth!
This is what the Lord says:
“The children I raised and cared for have rebelled against me.
3 Even an ox knows its owner,
and a donkey recognizes its master’s care— but Israel doesn’t know its master.
My people don’t recognize my care for them.”
4 Oh, what a sinful nation they are— loaded down with a burden of guilt.
They are evil people, corrupt children who have rejected the Lord.
They have despised the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.
5 Why do you continue to invite punishment?
Must you rebel forever?
Your head is injured, and your heart is sick.
6 You are battered from head to foot— covered with bruises, welts, and infected wounds— without any soothing ointments or bandages.
7 Your country lies in ruins, and your towns are burned.
Foreigners plunder your fields before your eyes and destroy everything they see.
8 Beautiful Jerusalem stands abandoned like a watchman’s shelter in a vineyard,
like a lean-to in a cucumber field after the harvest, like a helpless city under siege.
9 If the Lord of Heaven’s Armies had not spared a few of us,
we would have been wiped out like Sodom, destroyed like Gomorrah.
10 Listen to the Lord, you leaders of “Sodom.”
Listen to the law of our God, people of “Gomorrah.”
11 “What makes you think I want all your sacrifices?” says the Lord.
“I am sick of your burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fattened cattle.
I get no pleasure from the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
12 When you come to worship me,
who asked you to parade through my courts with all your ceremony?
13 Stop bringing me your meaningless gifts; the incense of your offerings disgusts me!
As for your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath
and your special days for fasting— they are all sinful and false.
I want no more of your pious meetings.
14 I hate your new moon celebrations and your annual festivals.
They are a burden to me. I cannot stand them!
15 When you lift up your hands in prayer, I will not look.
Though you offer many prayers, I will not listen,
for your hands are covered with the blood of innocent victims.
16 Wash yourselves and be clean!
Get your sins out of my sight.
Give up your evil ways.
17 Learn to do good.
Seek justice.
Help the oppressed.
Defend the cause of orphans.
Fight for the rights of widows.
18 “Come now, let’s settle this,” says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow.
Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.
19 If you will only obey me, you will have plenty to eat.
20 But if you turn away and refuse to listen, you will be devoured by the sword of your enemies. I, the Lord, have spoken!”
Unfaithful Jerusalem
21 See how Jerusalem, once so faithful, has become a prostitute.
Once the home of justice and righteousness, she is now filled with murderers.
22 Once like pure silver, you have become like worthless slag.
Once so pure, you are now like watered-down wine.
23 Your leaders are rebels, the companions of thieves.
All of them love bribes and demand payoffs,
but they refuse to defend the cause of orphans or fight for the rights of widows.
24 Therefore, the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
the Mighty One of Israel, says,
“I will take revenge on my enemies and pay back my foes!
25 I will raise my fist against you.
I will melt you down and skim off your slag.
I will remove all your impurities.
26 Then I will give you good judges again and wise counselors like you used to have.
Then Jerusalem will again be called the Home of Justice and the Faithful City.”
27 Zion will be restored by justice; those who repent will be revived by righteousness.
How God Responds Demonstrates His Holiness and Righteousness
Isaiah 1
28 But rebels and sinners will be completely destroyed,
and those who desert the Lord will be consumed.
29 You will be ashamed of your idol worship in groves of sacred oaks.
You will blush because you worshiped in gardens dedicated to idols.
30 You will be like a great tree with withered leaves, like a garden without water.
31 The strongest among you will disappear like straw; their evil deeds will be the spark that sets it on fire.
They and their evil works will burn up together, and no one will be able to put out the fire.
Idols and Idolatry:
Nearly every chapter deals with empty vs. true worship!
On Idolatry - What Is Idolatry?
My Way Instead of God’s Way
The first instance of idolatry happens in Genesis and it’s not a figurine, statue, or physical object that draws in Genesis 3:
The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”
2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied.
3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”
4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman.
5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”
6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.
7 At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.
Genesis 4.2
When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd, while Cain cultivated the ground.
3 When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. 4 Abel also brought a gift—the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift,
5 but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.
6 “Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected?
7 You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”
8 One day Cain suggested to his brother, “Let’s go out into the fields.” And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother, Abel, and killed him.
- What we will see when people idolize anything, any thought, any one, any place or any way in the place of God is that it becomes radical evil quickly.
- There’s no subtlety in denying God. Every step of compromise, every glance away from God’s holiness and righteousness immediately puts us on a path of total destruction.
Anyone other than God on the throne of life will lead to death, it is only a matter of pacing.
Idolatry says the thing I like in the place of God will fulfill me and I don’t have any consequences.
- Like Cain, we believe we can “live our truth” and nothing can interrupt our self satisfaction.
- There’s not a single example of idolatry that does not end in violence and destruction. Most importantly, note that it always results in self destruction.
- So what is the most concise definition of idolatry? What is it? ANYTHING.
1 John 5.21
Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.
CSB: Little children, guard yourselves from idols.
ESV: … keep yourselves from idols
AMP: Little children (believers, dear ones), guard yourselves from idols—
[false teachings, moral compromises, and anything that would take God’s place in your heart].
- How We Respond Indicates Our Idolatry
- Eager for God’s Holiness and Righteousness or Defensively Offended For Our Righteousness?
Aaron and the Israelites, Saul tired of waiting for Samuel, the false prophets of Baal with Elijah at Mt. Carmel, Acts 16 Paul and Silas, servant girl exorcism, jail, death…
But John warns BELIEVERS in 1 John 5.21 to flee idolatry.
- That means we can begin shifting our focus from Jesus to other, even when we KNOW Jesus.
James 1.27
Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.
Jude 1.3
Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people.
4 I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 6
14 Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness?
15 What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever?
16 And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said:
“I will live in them and walk among them.
I will be their God, and they will be my people.
17 Therefore, come out from among unbelievers,
and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord.
Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you.
18 And I will be your Father,
and you will be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty.”
1 Peter 4
So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin.
2 You won’t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God.
3 You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols.
4 Of course, your former friends are surprised when you no longer plunge into the flood of wild and destructive things they do. So they slander you.
5 But remember that they will have to face God, who stands ready to judge everyone, both the living and the dead.