Isaiah 1 - 6

Messages of Judgment

Our reading returns back to the Old Testament and the prophets.  We are in the seventh, and final, phase of our reading.

The tone of Isaiah at the beginning is dire. Isaiah was the prophet in Judah during the reign of several evil kings.  Because the kings did not obey the Word of the Lord, Judah and Jerusalem are in ruins.  The people live in constant fear and torment from the enemies of Israel and God.

The first five chapters are prophecies of the doom and restoration of Judah (the southern kingdom) and Jerusalem. The people had reached a point in their worship where there was no sincerity.  "I am sick of your burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fattened cattle." says the Lord in 1:11.  "Stop bringing your meaningless gifts;" he says in 1:13.  They were just going through the motions of worship and not honoring God with a pure heart.  He wanted their worship to be pure and holy and not contrived and legalistic.  He wanted their obedience (1:19).

Chapter 6 is one of the more notable passages in Isaiah and all of the the scripture.  Isaiah recounts a dream where he is in the Holy Temple of God and saw the Lord in all His glory with seraphim praising Him continuously.  Isaiah felt as though he were a dead man and realized he was sinful and lived among sinful people. One of the seraphim touched the prophet's lips with a coal of fire from the altar before God to purify Isaiah. And then the Lord asked, "Whom should I send as a messenger to this people?" (v.8) Isaiah replied, "Lord send me!"

The dream ends ominously with the Lord stating that all of Israel will be reduced to a stump.  "All the towns will be empty, their houses deserted, and the whole country a wasteland."  This was how great the sin of Israel and Judah was and this is the type of judgment to be visited on them for their sin.  Lord, be merciful to us.