WWUTT 1829 Hear You Rulers of Sodom (Isaiah 1:1-31)

Though Israel looked like a godly bunch, they followed the law. They did everything that God required of them, but their hearts were so far from God that He could not bear even their worship.

When We Understand the Text. This is

When We Understand the Text, teaching through a New Testament book on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and a

Q &A on Friday. With our Old Testament study today, here's Pastor Gabe. Thank you,

Becky. Being Thursday, we're in the Old Testament, and we come back to our study in the book of Isaiah.

Or rather, we begin our study in Isaiah. Last week was just introduction. Today we want to try to cover all of chapter 1.

Now that's 31 verses. That's a lot of text. So I'm going to break this up into three parts. We'll begin by looking at verses 1 through 9, and I'll explain that.

And then verses 10 through 20, and then 21 to 31. So starting here at the very beginning of Isaiah, reading from the

Legacy Standard Bible. This is the word of the Lord. The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, concerning Judah and Jerusalem, which he beheld in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for Yahweh speaks. Sons I have reared and raised up, but they have transgressed against me.

An ox knows its owner, and a donkey its master's manger, but Israel does not know.

My people do not perceive. Alas, sinful nation, people heavy with iniquity, seed of evildoers, sons who act corruptly.

They have forsaken Yahweh. They have spurned the Holy One of Israel. They have become estranged from Him.

Where will you be stricken again as you continue in your rebellion? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint.

From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is nothing sound in it, only bruises, wounds, and raw wounds, not pressed out, not bandaged, not softened with oil.

Your land is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Your fields, strangers are devouring them in your presence.

It is desolate as overthrown by strangers. The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a watchman's hut in a cucumber field, like a besieged city.

Unless Yahweh of hosts had left us few survivors, we would be like Sodom.

We would be like Gomorrah. Now, this is actually a setup for what's coming next in verses 10 through 20.

And what we have described for us here is the present state of Judah. In fact, there's a description here of all mankind in a certain sense, the fallen nature and the depravity of man, which we'll look at that as we get into our text here.

Oftentimes when we think of prophecy, we think of predictions of the future. When a prophet prophesies, they're telling the people about something that hasn't happened yet.

But prophecy, as I've explained it before, is more like this. It's a prophet exposing what is, what the people don't know or they cannot see with their earthly eyes or their hard hearts.

A prophet will expose by giving them the word of God. That may describe something in the present.

It could even describe something in the past. Something that's already been done, but the people don't see it.

Or it could be describing some event in the future that has not yet happened. Isaiah is going to do all of that.

We're going to see that over the course of the book. There will be things described in the past. There will be exposure in the present.

And then, of course, there will be a proclamation of things to come. Here, what we're reading is things that are in the present.

This is Isaiah exposing to the people. Here's your condition. Here is where you are.

We have this introduction with Isaiah, the son of Amoz. And like I said last week, we don't really know much about Isaiah's background.

And we only assume he was a priest because that's not explicitly stated. So there are things about Isaiah that are not fully known.

But we do know that the time of his prophecy was pretty lengthy. In the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, for 50 years or more, he was a prophet in Judah.

So in verse 2, hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for Yahweh speaks.

So that's an introduction to the word of the Lord. And then God is speaking from the midway part of verse 2 on through the rest of this text that we've read.

So this call to the heavens to hear and for the earth to hear, whether it's beings in the spiritual realm or the men of the earth, all must hear the word of the

Lord as delivered to the prophet Isaiah. This is not limited to just Judah, where Isaiah had his ministry.

But as you'll see going through Isaiah, going through this book, he also addresses Egypt and Babylon and Tyree.

So the people of the earth must hear the word of God. Sons, I have reared and raised up, but they have transgressed against me.

Now, this is specifically talking about Judah or Israel, those people that had been called out of Egypt.

An ox knows its owner, a donkey its master's manger, but Israel does not know.

My people do not perceive. So to say Israel would include all of it, whether it's the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom, which is

Judah, everybody who had been called out of Egypt, called by the Lord, who had followed Moses, who had followed

Joshua, the tribes that have been divided into the land that was promised to the descendants of Abraham.

These are the people that are being talked about. These are the sons of God. Verse four.

Alas, sinful nation, people heavy with iniquity, seed of evildoers.

That's to say your fathers were evil and you're doing as your fathers did sons who act corruptly.

They have forsaken Yahweh. They have spurned the holy one of Israel. They have become estranged from him.

Have any of you ever had a relationship with your parents in which you feel estranged from them, like either your parents are mad at you and they don't talk to you as much anymore, or maybe you at some point in your life, you were mad at your parents and you didn't want to have anything to do with them.

You were estranged from your parents. And so this sin, this wickedness that is going on in Israel has caused them to be estranged from God.

Now, I should have mentioned this at the very beginning, but remember that one of the poetic devices that's used in Hebrew poetry is what's called the parallelism.

And so you'll hear things repeated. You'll see one phrase, you'll see it another phrase immediately after it.

And you're like, it sounds like it's exactly the same thing. And it is. That's the form of poetry that's used in Hebrew, this repetition.

It'll be line by line. The line immediately after it will repeat the previous line. And it could even be phrase by phrase.

So we look at it one way here and then another way there. Continuing on into verse five, where will you be stricken again as you continue in your rebellion?

The whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint. So this is descriptive of the whole body.

If the head is sick, the whole body is sick. If the heart is sick, that's talking about down to the very core of the person.

So there's nothing good on the inside. From the inside out, the whole person is rotten.

From the sole of the foot, even to the head, there is nothing sound in it. Only bruises, wounds and raw wounds.

There's evidence of their being damaged from before. And there are still festering wounds that have not been treated even here in the present, not pressed out, not bandaged, not softened with oil.

Oil had medicinal properties to it. I don't know if you remember the parable of the Good Samaritan.

But when the Good Samaritan came and treated the man that was left beaten on the side of the road, he bandaged him up and treated his wounds with oil.

So here these wounds are being described as not bandaged and not softened with oil.

These are infected wounds that have not been treated, and they're making the body worse than it already is.

Verse seven, your land is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Your fields, strangers are devouring them in your presence.

It is desolate as overthrown by strangers. Now, there were four kings mentioned at the very beginning,

Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. The state of things as it's being described here would have been in the days of Ahaz.

Things were more prosperous in the days of Uzziah. So it would not have been then. But in the days of Ahaz is when you had the conspiracy between Israel and Syria.

You had the Philistines that had devoured things. So this had come against Israel because of their rebellion against God.

The state of their condition is being described here so that they would recognize this is the punishment that has come upon you because of your rebellion.

Would you turn back to the Lord? He would heal your land. But they continue in this state of damage, of festering wounds.

Verse eight, the daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a watchman's in a cucumber field, like a besieged city.

Now, though that's pretty descriptive, a cucumber field, you might think there's something particular about the cucumber.

Not really. It's just a kind of gourd. And so it would have been any of the fields that would have been growing gourds.

The gourds grow on the ground. And so when a farmer is tending those gourds, especially when they're getting closer to harvest, he will stay in a hut in the middle of his field.

So to ward off any animals or even thieves that might come in and try to steal the gourds right at the time of them being ripe and ready to be harvested.

But they're in that shelter. They're unguarded like the shelter is just there to ward off an occasional animal or an occasional thief.

You can't fight off an army that way. So this is talking about how Jerusalem is exposed.

The people are exposed. They do not have the protection of God because they have not turned to the

Lord. They are estranged from God. So they're like a hut in a cucumber field. It might be good for warding off the occasional predator, but you are completely susceptible to your enemies like a watchman's hut in a cucumber field, like a besieged city.

A besieged city is a city without walls. Unless Yahweh of hosts had left us a few survivors, we would be like Sodom.

We would be like Gomorrah, which is to be overthrown. And this calls back to exactly that statement, which was in verse seven.

Your land is desolate as overthrown by strangers. That word overthrown conjured up visions of Sodom and Gomorrah having been destroyed by the wrath of God.

And so that sets up the next section, verses 10 through 20. Let me go ahead and read through this and then we'll do our exposition.

Hear the word of Yahweh, you rulers of Sodom. Give ear to the law of our

God, you people of Gomorrah. What are your multiplied sacrifices to me, says

Yahweh? I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle.

And in the blood of bulls, lambs, and goats, I take no pleasure. When you come to appear before me, who requires of you this trampling of my courts?

Bring your worthless offerings no longer. Incense is an abomination to me.

New moon and Sabbath, the calling of convocation, I cannot endure. Wickedness and the solemn assembly.

My soul hates your new moon festivals and your appointed times.

They have become a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. So when you spread out your hands in prayer,

I will hide my eyes from you. Indeed, even though you multiply prayers,

I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves.

Purify yourselves. Remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes.

Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek justice.

Reprove the ruthless. Execute justice for the orphan. Plead for the widow.

Come now and let us reason together, says Yahweh. Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow.

Though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool. If you are willing and obey, you will eat the best of the land.

But if you refuse and rebel, you will be eaten by the sword.

For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken. And that brings an end to the word of the

Lord, at least as far as that goes. It's going to come up again in the third section here. But let's look once more.

I won't be quite as precise on the exposition because I think that this is pretty self -explanatory. Hear the word of Yahweh, you rulers of Sodom.

Who is that talking about? Yeah, it's talking about the rulers of Israel and Judah. Give ear to the law of our

God, you people of Gomorrah. This should terrify them. God considers you now as Sodom and Gomorrah.

If you do not repent, you will be destroyed. Now, just how much were

Israel and Judah like Sodom and Gomorrah? What do you think of when you hear that name,

Sodom? Of course, you know, a city that was destroyed by fire. Why? Because the people there burned with unnatural desire, men having sex with men.

And Jude, verse seven, says that's exactly why Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. Lest anybody think, oh, yeah, well, in Ezekiel, it says that they were inhospitable.

And that's why God destroyed them. Now, everywhere else in the scriptures, it says it was because of their unnatural desire.

That was why Sodom was destroyed. So how much is Judah like that at this particular time?

Well, in case you missed it, in First Kings chapter 14, Judah's very first king, after the split kingdoms, northern kingdom is

Israel. That's the ten tribes. Southern kingdom is Judah, along with Benjamin. The first king of Judah was

Rehoboam. And in Rehoboam's day, there were male cult prostitutes.

So a wicked man in Judah would go into a pagan place of worship, and he would have unnatural relations with a male cult prostitute.

Yes, it was that much like Sodom, even from the very first king in Judah. Now, in Judah's case, there were periods of revival.

So sometimes a righteous king would come up. He would destroy all of the high places. He would issue the people of Israel to follow the law of God again.

Israel never had righteous kings. So the 20 kings that they had were always wicked. Judah also had 20 kings, but eight of them were righteous.

Josiah was one of those who would issue those reforms. He was one of the last of the righteous kings.

And some of the reforms that he implemented in Judah included driving out all of the male cult prostitutes.

But after Josiah died, the people of Judah just went right back to that sin again. So as God describes them as being like Sodom and Gomorrah, understand just how true that was.

This isn't being euphemistic here. God is saying, no, you've really become as wicked as Sodom and Gomorrah.

Why should I not wipe you out like I did them? So he refers to the rulers of Israel as Sodom and Gomorrah.

Verse 11, what are your multiplied sacrifices to me, says Yahweh? What do these sacrifices mean to me?

When you are as evil and as wicked as you are, they're not genuine. You're doing these religious practices as though they save you, but they come from a heart.

Remember, that's desperately sick. That was said before. The whole head is sick. The whole heart is faint.

So you are not righteous. You are not good. Your intentions are not holy. When you come into this place of worship, when you come in with your worship, you desecrate it.

You are not made righteous by this. You are unrighteous, and you make this worship unrighteous.

I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle, and in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

I take no pleasure in this, says the Lord. I love this line. Verse 12, when you come to appear before me, who requires of you this trampling of my courts?

Why are you in here? Why are you in my temple? You haven't walked in here to do anything holy or righteous in your worship.

You're just trampling on my floor. Bring your worthless offerings no longer.

Whatever offering you have to give is worthless. It's not going to do anything for you. Certainly doesn't do anything for me.

Incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath, the calling of convocations. I cannot endure wickedness and solemn assembly.

And that really summarizes the whole thing. God is listing things that he has said for Israel to do in obedience unto

God and their worship unto him. But when it comes down to it, you're wicked. And I cannot bear this wickedness combined with your solemn assemblies.

My soul hates your new moon festivals and your appointed times. They've become a burden to me.

I'm weary of bearing them. This is a warning. We're getting close here, guys. You're going to continue to do this.

You are hastening the judgment of God that would come upon you. So when you spread out your hands in prayer,

I will hide my eyes from you. Indeed, even though you multiply prayers,

I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood. The violence that goes on among you, the injustice that exists there, you have blood on your hands.

You've got to wash yourself before you come into the place of worship. We see that in the book of Leviticus and elsewhere, as we've been talking about the need for purification before coming and offering righteous sacrifices, as we've been going through the book of Hebrews.

So here the Lord is saying to Israel, you've got to wash yourself. That's the next line. Verse 16, wash yourselves, purify yourselves, remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes.

Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Now, let me mention something else about verse 15.

When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you. There are qualifications for prayer.

Not just any prayer is good prayer. Your heart has to be in a certain state when you come before the

Lord. In James 1, it says, if any of you lacks, let him ask of God. But if you ask with doubting, it will not be given to you.

Jesus said in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth and the life.

No one comes to the father but by me. So you cannot lift prayers up to God through Mary or any other saint.

You can't pray to Allah. You cannot pray to the Mormon Jesus. Those prayers do not get to the father unless you know the

Jesus Christ of the Bible. Psalm 66 says, if I had cherished iniquity in my heart, you would not have heard my prayer.

And in 1 Peter chapter 3, if there is strife in a marriage, if there's strife between a husband and wife, it hinders your prayers.

So there are conditions for right prayer, for offering good prayer up to God.

And here the Lord is saying, you spread out your hands in prayer. In the state that you're in right now,

I'm going to hide my eyes from you. I will not listen to what you have to say to me. And so we must come before the

Lord with humble hearts, asking to be renewed and restored. Now, as the Lord is saying here to Israel, wash yourselves and purify yourselves.

The thing that he's demanding of them is the thing he will give to them if they turn to the

Lord. He's not telling them that on their own, they have to make themselves of a certain condition before they come to God.

This is what you must be in order to be received by me. So they must ask him for that.

They must ask the Lord for that pure heart, that the evil would be removed from their deeds.

Verse 17, learn to do justice. How do we learn to do justice? By seeking the word of God.

Seek justice, reprove the ruthless, execute justice for the orphan, plead for the widow.

Come now and let us reason together, says Yahweh. Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be white as snow.

Though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool. There's a parallelism there.

Why is it that scarlet, which is red, and then they're red like crimson.

Why the colors red and white? So don't be red any longer, but be washed and be white, is kind of the illustration there.

Why those two colors? For a couple of reasons. First of all, because God had previously said in verse 15, your hands are full of blood.

So what color is that? They're covered in red because of the violence and injustice that they have done.

So you need to be washed and you need to be white again. That's one reason why. The second reason why is because the dyes of Tyree, what

Tyree was known for was red dye, which was a red dye is difficult to make and very expensive.

And it's difficult to make. Well, furthermore, it's hard to keep red in a garment.

And so Tyree was famous for their red dye. It was highly valued by the

Arabs, the kinds of red garments that would come from Tyree. So there's a reference here to the fact that you want the stuff of the world.

You want what they have. You want to be like them. Don't be like them.

Be washed white. And that calls attention to the priestly garments, which were to be white.

You're not you're not supposed to be like the pagan cultures. You're supposed to be as the Lord has called you to be just as a high priest when he goes into the

Holy of Holies had to be dressed in white linens. So you must be pure in all your conduct.

This applies to all people, not just Judah, not just Israel, not just God's people, but all people are called to be living lives of holiness set apart unto the

Lord. Now, for the sake of time, I'm going to exposit 21 to 31 as we go through it here.

So how the faithful city has become a harlot, she who is full of justice, righteousness once lodged in her, but now murderers.

So describing here how much Jerusalem has fallen, your silver has become dross.

Your drink diluted with water. Your rulers are rebels and companions of thieves.

Everyone loves a bribe and pursues rewards. So justice is not being done.

There's not equal weights and measures, but everybody's looking at how they can benefit themselves and willing to do injustice for personal gain.

They do not execute justice for the orphan, nor does the widow's plea come before them.

That parallels with what was said in verse 17, execute justice for the orphan, plead for the widow, verse 24.

Therefore, the Lord Yahweh of hosts, he who sits enthroned even above the angels, the mighty one of Israel declares, ah,

I will be comforted concerning my adversaries and I will avenge myself on my enemies.

I will also turn my hand against you and I will smelt away your dross as with lie and will remove all your alloy.

Then I will have your judges return as at the first and your counselors as at the beginning.

Afterwards, you will be called the city of righteousness, a faithful town. So the

Lord is saying here that he's not going to wipe out the rebellious, those who had previously done righteous, but have since rebelled.

He's going to purify them. He's going to destroy his enemies, those who are against the people of God and have caused them to go astray in this way because Israel is looking like the pagans around them.

Right. So the Lord is going to strike them, but he's going to purify his own. And there's a reference here even to the fact that the

Lord has a remnant, though his own people have gone astray. There's a remnant that that desire to do righteously.

I will have your judges return as at the first and your counselors as at the beginning. And afterwards, you will be called a city of righteousness once again, a faithful town.

Verse 27, Zion will be redeemed with justice and her repentant ones with righteousness.

But transgressors and sinners will be broken together. And those who forsake

Yahweh will come to an end. This is absolute in this statement. Certainly, it applies to Judah.

But this is the case always, as said in Psalm 711. The Lord is a righteous judge who feels indignation every day.

So everyone who rebels against the Lord, all who forsake Yahweh will come to an end.

For you will be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired and you will be humiliated because of the gardens which you have chosen.

The oaks which you've desired refers to the trees that they would cut down and fashion into idols. And because of the gardens which you have chosen, that would be like the building of shrines around those around those idols.

For you will be like an oak whose leaf withers away or as a garden that has no water.

And the strong man will become tender, his work also a spark. Thus, they shall both burn together and there will be none to quench them.

The promise of judgment in that particular passage. As we wrap this up, let me give some modern application to this, particularly found in verses 10 through 20.

This applies to so many churches today. How many churches, particularly in the

Western English -speaking world, is the Lord saying to them, what are your multiplied sacrifices to me?

I don't care. I've had enough of what you give to me. You bring your worthless offerings to me.

Incense is an abomination to me. I cannot endure wickedness in the solemn assembly. It doesn't matter how wonderful their songs sound.

It doesn't matter how many people they draw in and fill those chairs. So much worship in the church in America today is far from the word of God, far from what

God requires of his people, and it sickens the Lord. It does not please God.

We must know what right worship looks like, and we understand what true worship unto the

Lord looks like when we come to his word. Furthermore, worship that we give to God is not limited to the assembly of God's people.

It's not limited to the congregation assembling together, the corporate worship setting. It's something that we all should be doing every single day with every moment that we live.

Romans 12 .1, in view of God's mercies, present your bodies as living sacrifices unto the

Lord, holy and acceptable to God. This is your spiritual act of worship.

But if you live like the devil all week long and then come into the house of God, he is sickened by your offering.

Churches are beginning to accept the LGBTQ movement. They're becoming warm to the idea that a man can marry a man and a woman can marry a woman.

This corruption and perversion of this beautiful thing called marriage that God has created, the culture is perverting it, and the church is going along with it.

There is no Holy Spirit in such a church that would receive such an abomination.

The Lord is sickened by their offerings. He will not receive them. There are many ways that a church may do unjustly, but especially in our culture today, if they are soft on marriage or on the definition of when life begins and when it ends, that's a church that does not fear

God. As we have this call in verse 17 to execute justice for the orphan. What group of children in our culture today are in greater need of justice than the unborn?

A quarter of unborn children die. They are murdered. And if the church is soft on this, they want to go along with the culture because they don't want to make too many people mad.

And they're even soft on the definition of marriage. That's injustice. And the Lord's favor is not with them.

They must repent. Come now, let us reason together. The Lord says, though your sins are like scarlet, they will be white as snow.

Though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool. If you are willing and obey, you will eat the best of the land.

And the best of the land is the blessing of God that is given to us through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Let's finish with prayer. Heavenly Father, forgive us our sins and help us to be attentive to the needs of others.

The ways of justice, according to what is said in your word. Turn us from the temptations of this world.

Let us not be wooed by these things, even their approval. Who do we need approval from more than God?

And how do we gain your approval? By turning to the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, that we may be clothed in white and come into your presence in righteousness.

The thing that you demand, you give to us. So take our sins from us, Lord, and give us your righteousness, that we may live holy before you today.