The Glorious Hope of Isaiah (#2: Raising the Question)

In one sense, you can see the whole book of Isaiah as the weaving together of two threads.  The first thread is judgment, and the second is hope.  Judgment is decreed because God’s people are guilty.  But God’s promises require that judgment is not alone.  When the Lord blasted the Philistines, he didn’t say, “but later, I will restore you.”  But he did to Judah.  And he did it more than once.  This in fact is one thing that makes Isaiah so delightful – though he has to condemn Judah for its sin, he keeps coming back to the glorious future.  But he doesn’t do so in formulaic terms.  He doesn’t keep repeating some generic phrase.  Instead, he plants a little idea, maybe a phrase long.  Later, he ‘ll say something somewhat similar, but also a bit different, and probably a little longer.  When he comes back to it later, you may see the same idea but with exciting new aspects.  Thus Isaiah, if you read him carefully from the beginning, creates the joy of discovery. 

The impact would probably be greater if you received Isaiah’s prophecies the way his hearers did.  The first year, Isaiah gave one chapter.  You thought about that, you meditated on it, you stayed awake at night wondering what he meant.  Then next year, he gave a new message.  Having been steeped in the first one, you were very conscious of the similarities and the differences of his new message.  Do this for the next 40 years.  I am quite confident that if you took this approach, you would get much more out of it than reading the 66 chapters in the next month.  But since you probably won’t spend the next 40 years allowing this book to unfold in your life, let me encourage you to try to think this way.  Think about the progression.  Think about how one builds upon the other.  Think about how ideas are enlarged.  Think about how similar but different ideas relate.  This, of course, is what I am going to try to help you with in this series.

Chapter 1 is like the preface to the book.  As an author sometimes summarizes what the book is about in his introductory comments, Isaiah certainly prepares the reader for the rest of this book.  As with the whole book, you have the two threads of judgment and hope.  The thread of judgment is very thick (~25 verses); the thread of hope is thin (4 verses).  Concerning judgment, God calls the universe as witnesses and he lays out the sin of Judah.  By the time he declares their sacrifices worthless, you ‘re wondering if there’s any hope for Judah.  This reality runs throughout Isaiah: words of judgment are not minced even though God will restore.  God’s fury against sin is not “balanced” or tamed but rather is given full vent.  God does not offer hope on the basis of restrained judgment.  All judgment that is deserved is apportioned.  Hope comes another way.  And this idea Isaiah will “tease” us with until the second half of the book.

The emphasis of this series will decidedly be on the hope thread, and not on judgment.  Even though judgment is often more prominent, the more lasting message for later generations and us, I believe, is his message of hope.  So let me conclude this post with a few words about 2 of the verses of hope in chapter 1.

Isaiah 1:26-27 (ESV) “And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.” 27 Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness.”

Most importantly, the question that should be ringing in your head (and was certainly ringing in the ears of the first hearers) is: HOW???  Given all of what Isaiah just said about judgment, and our filthy rags, and our murder, and our harlotry, and our worthless sacrifices, HOW can God restore the city?  HOW can Jerusalem be called a “city of righteousness”?  This is the great question that is continually raised throughout Isaiah.  And we get snips of the answer in ever-increasing measure.  Oh, what a glorious solution the Lord has!