Isaiah 1:1-20

Isaiah 1:1-20

We now begin a study in the book of Isaiah. It is a tremendous book, referred to as a major prophet of the Old Testament. The book of Isaiah is quoted many times throughout the New Testament. It is a book centered on God, the work that God was doing and the work that God will continue to do, right up to the present and beyond.Isaiah is broken up in two parts. Chapters 1 through 39 emphasizes judgment and deserved punishment. In this section the people of Isaiah's day are being called back to holiness and obedience through repentance. Chapters 40 through 66 deals with salvation, restoration and atonement. This message is to those in the future. God is assuring the people of Israel that they would be restored to the land and that He would establish His kingdom.In these opening verses, Israel is called into the court room of God with all of creation as witnesses. Isaiah reveals a scathing indictment by God against the people. The accusation and its details should come as a surprise to no one. Isaiah under the power of the Holy Spirit is calling it straight. He will not tip toe around the crisis that the people have brought upon themselves. He is calling it straight and clear according to God's word. There can be no mistake as to what he is saying. He is speaking the truth of God's word without apology. How desperately we need Isaiah's in our present day.In spite of this scathing indictment and the fact that God has every reason to punish with great severity the nation of Israel, yet God offers to them full pardon. God offers to them complete forgiveness if they will choose to repent. For those who refuse to repent, judgment and destruction. God's offer is gracious but includes no middle ground.God is both just and the justifier. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.We all stand guilty before a Holy God, but by His grace through Jesus we can all receive full pardon and forgiveness through the blood of the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.
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Chapter 1
1 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.
2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
4 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, they are gone away backward.
5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
8 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.
9 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.
10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
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Isaiah