Isaiah 1:1

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim... And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory... Then said I, Here am I, send me. — Isaiah 6

God indicts a people He loves, reveals the judgment to come, and calls them to repentance — and the warning still speaks to our nation today.

Isaiah's Heavy Call

When people think of the book of Isaiah, their minds often go to chapter 6 — a glorious passage where Isaiah sees the Lord. We won't go in depth on chapter 6 tonight, since that gets ahead of chapter 1, but it matters for understanding the man and the call God gave him. Isaiah saw the Lord, recognized his own sinfulness, and cried out. The Lord took a coal from the altar, touched his lips, and took away his iniquity. Then Isaiah heard, "Who will go for us? Whom shall we send?" and answered, "Here am I, Lord, send me."

But notice the commission that follows in verse 9. God says, "Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not... lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert and be healed." God told Isaiah to preach to a people who would not listen, who would not receive his word — and to proclaim a coming work of judgment. One old Puritan preacher said God had called Isaiah to preach the people of his day to hell. A heavy call. A heavy word.

How Long, O Lord?

Imagine the Lord gave you that same call: preach the rest of your life, and almost no one will listen. Isaiah was fairly young when this came, in the year King Uzziah died, at the very beginning of his ministry. What would your response be? Probably the same as Isaiah's in verse 11: "How long, O Lord?" And God answered, "Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant... and the land be utterly desolate." How long? Until the land you love is destroyed and the people you long for are taken captive and killed.

There is one small glimmer of hope in verse 13: "But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return... so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof." Only a tenth, only a small remnant, would continue following the Lord. For the most part they would perish, and Isaiah was called to preach to them in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation.

Reading Isaiah in Context

I don't know how long it will take us to get through Isaiah. At the Bible college we do it in fourteen weeks; that's not going to happen here. It's sixty-six chapters written over at least sixty years — one of the longest Old Testament ministries and the largest of the prophetic books, which is why it sits among the "major prophets." That term has nothing to do with quality, like the major and minor leagues; it simply refers to length. Isaiah is one of the most quoted prophets in the New Testament.

To study any prophetic book, you must understand the historical context. So here's your homework: read 2 Kings 15–21 and 2 Chronicles 26–33. That's the historical backdrop to Isaiah, and it will make much of the book make sense. Many have read the prophets — Ezekiel especially — and come away bewildered. But if you read the historical books alongside them, it comes alive.

A Message Out of Step With Its Age

I've taught Isaiah at the Bible college for three years but held back from teaching it here, because much of it will challenge your thinking. Some of you — myself included — will be offended by the prophet's words when you see what God spoke to Judah and Jerusalem 2,800 years ago and how it corresponds to our nation today. God's message was heavy. Israel was filled with greed, immorality, drunkenness, pride, idolatry, and adultery, and God was positioned to strike.

Look at Isaiah 5:25: "For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still." We'll see that phrase repeatedly in the first half of the book. The picture is this: God says, "I've already spanked you, and I'm ready to do it again, because you've not been disciplined by my discipline." When they hardened their hearts to the prophets' words, He would speak more forcefully through His actions. These things are so far outside the politically correct stream that they're at times difficult to share — especially as they apply to our own nation.

The Vision of Isaiah

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. (Isaiah 1:1)

Isaiah saw something others did not. Because of their visions, prophets were often called seers — recall that Saul went looking for a seer to find his father's lost donkeys. God spoke through these prophets, usually calling His people back to Himself, because He never moves in judgment without first revealing what He is about to do.

A lot of people picture God in the Old Testament as angry, looking for any excuse to pour road tar out of heaven. But that's not what the Old Testament shows. God constantly calls out to the people He's going to judge — His own people and even other nations. In chapters 13–23 He repeatedly calls to the Philistines, Babylonians, Assyrians, Moabites, and Canaanites: "I'm going to judge you" — which is itself a call to turn. He sent Jonah to wicked Nineveh, and the people repented. As Amos 3 says, "Surely I do nothing unless I reveal my secret to my servants the prophets."

The Divided Kingdom and What Was Coming

Around 740 B.C. the nation had been split by civil war. Saul, David, and Solomon reigned over a united Israel; after Solomon's son Rehoboam, the nation divided. That's why Kings and Chronicles can confuse readers — it bounces back and forth between the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin and the northern ten tribes. Sometimes it helps to take pencil and paper and track which kingdom you're reading about.

Isaiah's message goes primarily to the southern tribes and their capital, Jerusalem. Judah had many kings, some good and some bad; the northern ten tribes also had many kings, and every one of them was wicked. So the north fell first, taken captive by Assyria around 722 B.C. The Assyrians then marched down into Judah, came "up to the neck," and surrounded Jerusalem — and only God's hand of protection spared them, as we'll see in chapters 36–37. He defended them not because they were good, but because of His covenant. From chapter 40 on, the tone shifts to the coming Babylonian invasion, which would destroy Jerusalem and the temple in 586 B.C. under Nebuchadnezzar.

Verse 1 names the kings — Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Uzziah died in 739 B.C., and Hezekiah died in 680 B.C. According to rabbinical tradition, Hezekiah's son Manasseh — the most wicked king the south ever had — had Isaiah placed in a hollowed-out log and cut in half. Some believe Hebrews 11:37, which mentions those "sawn asunder," refers to him, though he isn't named.

God Brings His Case

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. The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not consider. (Isaiah 1:2–3)

"Hear" is the Hebrew word shema, the same word as in Deuteronomy 6:4. It doesn't mean to hear something pass by like a siren in the night; it means to hear, listen, and obey — to act on what you've heard. God calls the heavens and the earth as a jury in a great courtroom. Picture God as the prosecuting attorney, His people seated as the defendant, and creation in the jury box.

Then come His opening arguments. We have the phrases "dumb as an ox" and "stubborn as a donkey." To Judah, those would have been compliments. The ox knows his owner — even my 125-pound St. Bernard knows who fills the food bowl. The stubborn donkey knows his master's crib. But Israel did not know, nor did they consider.

A Sinful Nation, Laden With Iniquity

Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger. (Isaiah 1:4)

If we didn't know He was addressing Judah, we'd assume He was speaking to the Philistines or Canaanites. Yet He says this to His own people. As James reminds us, God is not a respecter of persons. Even though Abraham was called the friend of God, even though God made a covenant with his seed, gave them the promised land, and blessed them abundantly — now He calls them a sinful nation. The word laden makes me picture a grapevine heavy with fruit, but their fruit was wickedness. Jesus used similar language, calling them a "brood of vipers" (Matthew 12:34). God even called their children corrupters — we think of children as innocent, but He says even they are sinful in His eyes.

Because they forsook the Lord, they reaped the consequences. Deuteronomy laid them out: obey and receive the blessings of the land; rebel and the curses come. So famine, economic collapse, war, death, and pestilence followed.

Why Will You Be Stricken More?

Why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint... wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. (Isaiah 1:5–6)

God turns from the jury to the defendant with a passionate plea. There sits Israel — beaten, bruised, sick — and God asks, "Why will you allow yourself to be stricken this way?" Their wounds were unbound, uncleaned, untreated. Only God can do that, but since they rejected Him, they received no blessing.

Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire... And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. (Isaiah 1:7–9)

Notice the poetry. Would a garden of cucumbers be a good place to hide from an enemy? Cucumbers don't grow like majestic trees; they sprawl as little things on the ground — no protection at all. Because Judah departed from God, they were exposed, vulnerable, open to attack. And were it not for the remnant God preserved, they would have been consumed entirely like Sodom and Gomorrah.

Worship Become Wickedness

Recall Sodom: before judgment, God sent righteous Lot to call out to them, and they would not repent. Lot's own sons-in-law laughed when he warned them, and the city was destroyed by fire and brimstone. "Surely the Lord God does nothing unless he reveals his secret to his servants the prophets." So God uses Sodom as His example:

Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom... To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?... Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me... your appointed feasts my soul hates... and when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you: yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood. (Isaiah 1:10–15)

The people took pride in the temple, the priesthood, the law, the feasts and fasts and new moons — yet the rest of the week they were fornicating under every green tree and on every high place, worshiping Molech, Baal, and Asherah. So God says their worship had become wickedness. There is a point where God looks at someone's worship and says it would be better if they didn't come, because they're only heaping sin upon sin. In Malachi, God wished a Levite would simply close the temple doors. "Who has required this at your hand?" He says — it's a waste of your time, energy, and money, because you don't mean it.

Wash, Make Yourselves Clean

Wash, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings... cease to do evil; learn to do good; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow... If you be willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land: but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. (Isaiah 1:16–20)

Here is the conditional pattern — if, then — that fills both Testaments. Be willing and obedient, and be blessed; refuse and rebel, and be devoured. This is our first key principle: God never punishes a people without first telling them why and giving them an opportunity to repent. He is our example as a heavenly Father. So a practical application for parents — when you discipline, tell your children why. It gives purpose, and it also gives you a chance to cool down so you don't discipline in anger. God is the perfect Father.

Notice, too, that Old Testament man was not made right with God by sacrifice. Sacrifice was how he could approach God, enter His presence, have fellowship. But Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness. How would scarlet sins become white as snow? In about six years, we'll get to Isaiah 53 and see.

The Faithful City Become a Harlot

How is the faithful city become a harlot! It was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers... your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loves gifts, and follows after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come unto them. (Isaiah 1:21–23)

In one sense their very sacrifices were viewed as murder — "your hands are full of blood." Their worship, corrupted by sin, was like the wickedness of murder to God. And this wasn't the dregs of society departing from the Lord; it was the leadership — the princes, judges, and cabinet members. We don't see that in our nation, do we? Everyone loves gifts and bribes — and don't just say it's the Democrats or the Republicans; it's both. Our own congressman a few years ago, Duke Cunningham, is in federal prison today. Leaders seeking what they can get rather than serving, and a lack of justice for the fatherless and the widow — these are the very things that brought God's judgment 2,800 years ago, and the very things we see in our nation today.

My question every time I teach this book is: has God changed? The last book of the Old Testament answers — "I am the Lord, I change not." That is sobering, especially when in chapter 10 God calls the Assyrians "the tool in my hand for judgment." A physical army was God's instrument against His own people. So we have to wonder — and I know this is beyond politically incorrect — could God not say to us of Al-Qaeda, "They are the tool in my hand for judgment"? I'm only asking questions.

Punishment for the Purpose of Purification

Therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of my adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies: and I will turn my hand upon you, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin. (Isaiah 1:24–25)

In verse 24 the two "Lords" differ: the first is Master, the second is Yahweh — the Master Yahweh, Commander of armies, the Mighty One of Israel. Remember who is speaking. And whom does He call His enemies? His own people. Yet He says, "I will purge away your dross" — referring back to verse 22, where their silver had become dross and their wine mixed with water. So here is the second principle: God's punishment is always for the purpose of purification. It is never arbitrary, never a loose cannon flying off the handle. It is purposeful.

And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counselors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness. (Isaiah 1:26–27)

The result of God's punishment is restoration. He is strategic and specific: "the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed." They will be "ashamed of the oaks" they desired — a reference to the idolatry practiced in groves and under trees — and will burn like a garden without water, with none to quench the flame.

A Word for Our Nation

These are sobering words, and I believe God has given the church a heavy word for our nation and the world. We're living in the last days. I don't know when the Lord will return or who the Antichrist is, but I know He has promised to come again. The first time He came as a lamb to bring redemption; the second time He comes as a lion, and a sword will go forth from His mouth to destroy the transgressors. That destruction is total, just like the nations of Isaiah 13–23. God made good on His word at the first and will fulfill it at the last.

So we have a word for this world: judgment is coming, and you need to repent, because God offers grace. "Come now, let us reason together; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." How? By the work of the Messiah Isaiah prophesies — the branch, the root out of dry ground, the child born of a virgin, called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah speaks of Him more than any other Old Testament book. He is the only shelter from the storm, the only refuge from the wrath of God.

The United States is not Israel; we are not a spiritual or godly nation. But just as God called out to the Philistines, Ninevites, and Canaanites, He calls this people to repent. If we don't, we will experience His judgment — and I believe we already are, as the book of Isaiah will prove. When God removes His hand of protection, the enemy comes in like a flood. Read Job: God set a hedge around him, then removed it, and the adversary came in.

The Spiritual War Behind the Curtain

The enemy isn't very creative. He uses the same methods over and over because they work. Economic collapse, terrorist attacks, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, hurricanes — the same things named in the Old Testament as God's judgment. When God removed His hedge from Job, what struck first? A tornado. We'd call that a normal, earthly thing — but it was the adversary at work. We say it's just a war in the Middle East. No — it's a spiritual war manifested in the physical realm, and Isaiah opens our eyes to see behind the curtain.

Last week our legislative branch quietly slipped a hate crimes act into a defense spending bill, and the president signed it. This is spiritual warfare. We need to recognize we are in a war and live like it. I'm not telling you to go buy guns and ammo — take up the armor of God, because we're in a spiritual battle. The war has always been there; now it's becoming physically apparent, and it scares people. Every week I get questions from those frightened by what they see. It is not my aim to add to fear, but to recognize that something spiritual is unfolding.

God Is Still on the Throne

But God is still on the throne. Amen? What did Isaiah see in the year King Uzziah died? He saw the Lord on the throne. When Stephen was being stoned in Acts 7, what did he see? Jesus standing before the throne. When everything on earth seems to be falling apart, the Lord is on the throne. We'll see that throughout this book.

So I encourage you to read Isaiah on your own, to study it, to dig in where we move quickly. Take up the sword of the Spirit so you can stand in the evil day, because we are at war, and our adversary prowls like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour — and he is on the prowl in America today.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple... And one cried unto another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. (Isaiah 6)

He's in control. He's on the throne. And He's speaking to our nation as He spoke to Jerusalem 2,800 years ago: Repent. Judgment is coming. The towers have fallen, the Pentagon burned, Wall Street crashed and recovered and may crash again, Katrina hit, terrorist attacks, earthquakes. "For all this, his anger is not turned away, and his hand is outstretched still." Don't miss the message. The Lord is speaking.

Closing Prayer

Father, I thank you for your word, although it is at times hard to struggle with, Lord. I pray that you would take what was shared tonight, and if anything is of me and not of you, that you'd weed it out and may it be burned as chaff. But, Lord, may your word endure forever. We know that it will, and that wherever your word goes, as we read in Isaiah 55, it will not return void. As we leave here tonight and take your word in our hearts and upon our lips, would you cause it to bring forth fruit wherever it goes — on the internet, on TV, wherever — and use it to bring about a harvest of life. May it not be that only a tenth of this nation is considered a remnant. Yet we thank you that though there be only ten righteous, you would have spared Sodom and Gomorrah for the ten. We thank you for your grace, that you do not arbitrarily judge, that you are not a loose cannon ready to fly off the handle, but that you speak tenderly and lovingly, calling your people to repentance before you bring judgment. And though there be punishment in our nation, may it purify — may there be no more dross, no wine mixed with water. Work a work in our days that we would not believe though it were told to us. We ask in Jesus' name, and all God's people agreed, saying, Amen.