Day 197. Isaiah 1-3

Moving so suddenly from the Song of Solomon into the world of the prophet Isaiah, we experience what must be called a seismic shift in meaning and mood. The prophet condemns the sensuality of the pastoral love song in favor of lamentation upon the decadence and indifference of the southern kingdom of Judah and its kings. Active between 742 and 700 B.C., Isaiah son of Amoz takes on the voice of a prosecuting attorney, presenting God's lawsuit against the elites of Judean society—"The LORD enters into judgment with the elders and princes of his people" (3:14) for "grinding the face of the poor" (3:15). Through his prophet the LORD says—"Come now, let us argue it out" (1:8).
And that is what the first portion of the Book of Isaiah-- chapters 1-33 which contain the words of First Isaiah or Isaiah of Jerusalem--is—God's indictment of a rebellious people, who are called to return to the LORD and fulfill their covenant obligations or face a terrible fate. They have been "estranged" from God (1:4) by their refusal to keep the Law of Moses—and particularly their gross indifference to justice. Indeed the word "justice" is the key to understanding the writings of all prophets. They are less concerned with ritual purity and more with mercy and fairness.
The failure to do justice has already brought the nation near ruin. The southern kingdom is described by Isaiah as desolate and depopulated, little better than Sodom and Gomorrah (1:9), the two cities God had destroyed for their wickedness.
Isaiah implies that the sins of Sodom were not sexual but social—sins of indifference. And if Judah and Jerusalem were not to share the fate of those cities, the people and their leaders must "cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow" (1:16-17). And they must not rely upon the temple for their deliverance. Isaiah and the other prophets, though often closely attached to the Jerusalem temple, are nevertheless critical of shallow worship and perfunctory sacrifice. Through the prophet God tells the people that he "cannot endure" their assemblies any more (1:12-13). Elaborate worship without justice is worse than meaningless. Sacrifice will not save them—Jerusalem "will be redeemed by justice" or not at all," and the people who repent, "by righteousness" (1:27) and the keeping of the Law.
God has a plan for this people and for the city of Jerusalem, a purpose that involves the whole earth--this is another message common to the prophets. Jerusalem is intended to be the place where the nations will come to learn the ways of the LORD (2:3), to receive judgment according to the Law, and where the LORD will arbitrate disputes so that peace may be established and warring people may "beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks." In that new order established by obedience to the LORD "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (2:4).
But in order for that high destiny to be realized, the house of Jacob must forsake darkness and "walk in the light of the LORD" (2:5). But if they fail to do so, the LORD has "a day." On that Day the terror of the LORD will be revealed to humble "all that is proud and haughty" (2:12); "the LORD alone will be exulted on that day" (2:17). So the people and their leaders are called to choose—obedience or destruction. This is always the fundamental choice the lies behind the words of the prophets.