Wednesday Bible Study: Drive-by Isaiah part 1

 

This week I start what we're calling Drive-By Isaiah:  Not my intent to go minute detail on one of the longest books of the Bible, but to get a gist of things.  This week, I read through chapters one through five.

You may have watched a movie or show where the scene opens with a "flashback to the future" before looping back to where it all began; that is Isaiah 1-5.  What I want to do is not so much go line by line, but pull out the things from each chapter that stood out to me.

Chapter One

Isa 1:27  Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness.
Isa 1:28  But rebels and sinners shall be broken together, and those who forsake the LORD shall be consumed.

So here we see those who are going to be judged negatively falling into three categories.  "Rebels", elsewhere translated as "transgressors", literally means "those who stride away"- those who are actively walking away from God and His instruction.  "Sinners" is literally "those who miss"- they mess up, they fail to follow, and while it is a benign ignorance, it is willful nonetheless. "Those who forsake" is literally "let go of"- those that had the chance, heard the word, but were drawn away, like those seeds in the Parable choked by the concerns of this world.  You might say, we all have these moments, and you'd be right.  Which is why the first of the two verses say you must REPENT.   You have to walk WITH the Lord, RECOGNIZE the target- Jesus- and HANG ON to Him.

Chapter Two

Isa 2:18  And the idols shall utterly pass away.
Isa 2:19  And people shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.
Isa 2:20  In that day mankind will cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats,
Isa 2:21  to enter the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.
Isa 2:22  Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he? 

 

When the sixth seal is opened in Revelation 6, this is what occurs.  The disasters- great earthquakes, the sun blotted out, and"the stars of the sky falling like figs in a storm"- are now so great that the elite being judged flee to holes in the ground, knowing full well that the Day of their doom has come, begging the rocks "fall on us and hide us".  Isaiah adds to the level of that horror by mentioning that they leave all that was of value behind them- "to the moles and bats"- to seek that shelter.  Compare that line at the end to the last part of the passage in Revelation: Rev 6:16  calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,
Rev 6:17  for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" 

 

Chapter three

Isa 3:8  For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because their speech and their deeds are against the LORD, defying his glorious presence.
Isa 3:9  For the look on their faces bears witness against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves. 

"They proclaim their sin like Sodom, they do not hide it."  Is there a way to mistake what this is saying AT ALL?  This is a big giant X with "You are here" written under it.

Chapter four

Isa 4:5  Then the LORD will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy.

It seems God never brings the doom without bringing the glory afterwards.  I noticed in this line a bit of demarcation.  In Revelation, the story ends with no more night, only God to light the universe- this is after Jesus reigns 1,000 years, and Satan is finally disposed of.  But in Isaiah, the focus is on the 1,000 years themselves, where they finally get to be the people they were meant to be- and you can tell this here, because there is still day and night then, though with God providing the cloud and fire as He did for the Exodus.

Chapter five

But God is not finished with the doom awaiting the unrepentant- some of them end-timers, some of them Isaiah's world.  He lists the crimes that will bring down the woes- the single most terrible word in the Bible- upon both groups.

Isa 5:8  Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land. 

The powerful and covetous, always expanding, always developing, until you have no choice but to exist in one of John Cougar Mellencamp's "Little Pink Houses".

Isa 5:11  Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them!
Isa 5:12  They have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts, but they do not regard the deeds of the LORD, or see the work of his hands.

The party animals, who 'party like it's 1999' without ever recognizing God.

Isa 5:18  Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes,
Isa 5:19  who say: "Let him be quick, let him speed his work that we may see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near, and let it come, that we may know it!"

Those that revel in their sin and disbelief, virtually daring God to do something, thinking Him toothless rather than patient.

Isa 5:20  Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

Here's that big red X again; who call Christians bigots and intolerant because they cling to the belief that sin is sin.

Isa 5:21  Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!
Isa 5:22  Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink,
Isa 5:23  who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right!

And summing it up, the crimes are threefold:  Pride, debauchery, and corruption.  These are the sins that bring the doom that we saw in the chapter one passage- crushed together, utterly consumed.  It came for Isaiah's world on a limited scale; it comes for this world as well, and so much the faster with the society that we are evolving- or rather devolving- to.  And we don't always see that, but Jesus and Peter did:

Mat 24:37  For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Mat 24:38  For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark,
Mat 24:39  and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

2Pe 3:5  For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,
2Pe 3:6  and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.
2Pe 3:7  But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.