by Larry Ferrell | November 11, 2017
Having introduced himself as a man whose message and whose ability to perceive its truth are both from God; Isaiah turns to expose the inner quality of the period whose outward shape he summarized in the names of the kings.
At once it becomes apparent why the vision concerns ‘Judah and Jerusalem’. Like us Christians, the people of this city and nation were the Lord’s own children and people (vv. 2-3), language which strongly recalls the exodus from Egypt and the forging of the covenant at Sinai. It must have seemed as strange to the more powerful nations around as it does to the world today, that as the Lord’s people, they, like us, had been chosen to play a key role in His purposes for the world. But they were in no state to fulfill their high calling. The Lord had been a Father to them, but, like headstrong, ungrateful children, they had rebelled against Him, and already this rebellion had cost them dearly. The image of verses 5-6 is followed by a stark description of their condition in verses 7-9. For these people the judgment of God was no mere theological abstraction, or something that existed somewhere else or might be experienced at some future time, as we tend to think of it. It was a very present, painful reality.

In bringing His rebellious people to trial, the Lord was doing no more than the Law of Moses required, but His was a special grief, for He was judge as well as Parent. Isaiah too, longed for the people to repent rather than to go on suffering, but everything now depended on the attitude of the remnant whom the Lord had so far graciously spared. Would they at least learn from the experience and turn back to the Lord?

The call to heaven and earth to listen in verse 2 serves two purposes. It underlines just how high the stakes are in this confrontation between the Lord and His people. In the very real sense the welfare of the entire universe depends now, as then, on how God’s people respond to His Word. It also foreshadows the climax towards which the whole vision of Isaiah moves. For, as we have already seen, the Word which God speaks to His people here is destined to have its final outworking in a new universe, new heavens, and a new earth (Is. 65:17; 66:22).

Isaiah 1:2-9 Reflection Questions:
How do you feel about the fact that you were chosen to play a key role in God’s purposes for the world?
Have you ever rebelled against God?
What’s your feeling about that the entire universe depending on how you respond to God’s Word? How are you responding?

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