Isaiah 1

Yesterday I got the opportunity to speak on some passages in Isaiah.  That led me to want to study more of the book.  I will attempt over the next three months to study each chapter and see where the LORD leads me through this study.

Chapter 1 ... Once upon a time ...

יְשַׁעְיָה

Isaiah means "Jehovah has saved".  Not that He WILL save, but that He HAS saved.  I learned this week that often times when a prophet speaks it is in the present tense AS IF IT HAD ALREADY HAPPENED. 



Isaiah 14:24 The LORD Almighty has sworn, "Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen.


Isaiah 46:10  I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, 'My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.'


Isaiah comes and speaks to the heavens and the earth and states that God's children have fallen away from Him.  They have turned their backs on Him (1:2,4).  They are not even aware of His presence anymore.  They are not experiencing Him (1:3). 

Not only that but their lives were broken.  They were experiencing disease and poverty.  They weren't right in the head; they had no soundness about them (1:5-8). 

Their lives were desolate (wasted) and devoured (burned up) and destroyed (1:7).

It says they were left 'as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers'.

Gesenius puts it this way: 'a booth in which garden-keepers lodge; also a suspended bed, hanging from lofty trees, in which wanderers and also the keepers of the gardens and vineyards lodge for fear of wild beasts'. 

This tells me that these people lived in fear.  They had been almost completely overtaken, except that the LORD had left a very small remnant (1:9).  He didn't completely let them be destroyed.  He goes on to plead with them to stop all the bloody sacrifices (1:10-17) because they meant nothing.  They were sacrificing, but were still doing evil or better put, they weren't doing right.

Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.  (1:17)

This is what He wanted from them and from us.

So let's look at that verse to conclude today.

Let's break it down:

1)  Learn to do well:  He needed them to become disciplined and trained on how to be good.  They needed to put it into practice - to exercise it.  They needed to learn how to do things right or do things well - to learn what pleased the LORD.  Then He gives them four things that please Him.

   a)  Seek judgment:  How?  Through prayer to God, through practice and study He wanted them to become very familiar with His ways - His laws. 

   b)  Relieve the oppressed:  How?  To relieve is to bless or cause the oppressed to walk straight or erect.  To help them stand up.  Who?  Those who are suffering, those who have become bitter, those who are grieved and those who are acting violently.  He wants us to help them, to lead them into right living.

   c)  Judge the fatherless:  How?  To defend them, again to set them upright.  Who?  The orphan, the
fatherless, the lonely ones. 

   d)  Plead for the widow:  How?  To contend and strive for - to please their cause.  Who?  The widow, the desolate ones, those who are forsaken or bereaved - those who have no companion. 

Gesenius puts it this way:  'a solitary person is silent as he has no companion with whom to talk'.

What does God expect from us? 

To study His ways, to put them into practice and do them.  He wants us seeking justice, being a blessing to others, helping those who are grieving, those who do not have fathers and mothers, and those who have lost spouses.  Basically those who are hurting.  He wants us to be out there practicing how to love and help them in practical ways.

Then he says in verses 18-20 then if we are willing and obedient to follow His way of living then our sins will be forgiven (made white as snow) and we shall eat the good of the land.  This is the kind of life He wants for us.

Today may you look for those God brings in your path to help in practical ways.  Help those who are grieving, who do not have anyone to talk to, who are lonely and feel isolated and alone.  Stop all your 'sacrificing' and 'doing' for the LORD and get down and dirty with the hurting.  Pray with them.  Cry with them.  Do for them.  Help them see that Jesus hasn't forgotten them, that God still cares for them in the midst of what they are facing today. 

Do you want a wasted life or a life lived on purpose for God, working for eternal things or things that will burn up and be destroyed in the end?  I know which one I want ... let's seek those things!

Blessings Abundant,


Michelle