The first speech in Isaiah is one where God brings the nation into a courtroom where He is both prosecutor and judge.
In His opening statement, God declares that His people know less than farm animals.
Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: I
reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled
against me.
The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel
does not know; my people do not understand. (Isaiah 1:2-3)
Knowledge is more than acquiring information about God. To know God is to have a personal relationship with Him.
God’s children should both know about Him and know Him through an intimate relationship. God’s complaint is that His children know Him less than farm animals know their owners.
Hosea explains the importance of knowing God.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge! Because you have
rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me; and
since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget
your children. (Hosea 4:6)
Why do God’s people not know Him? When we make a choice to ignore God, count Him irrelevant to our lives, or consciously rebel against, we lose a sense of closeness to God.
Presentation of Evidence
Following God’s opening remarks, He provides the court with evidence that His chosen people know less about Him than farm animals do their masters.
Woe, sinful nation, people laden with iniquity, offspring who do evil,
children who act corruptly, who have forsaken the Lord, who have
despised the Holy One of Israel, who are utterly estranged! (Isaiah 1:4)
God makes the full use of language to describe His people’s guilt.
- Sin: They have fallen short of God’s goal for them.
- Iniquity: Their inner self is warped and twisted. It is bent toward rebellion against God.
- Evil: They are morally corrupt and demonstrate it in the way they treat other people.
- Corrupt: Like rotten fruit, they have degenerated from God’s original design for their lives.
- Forsaken: They have turned their backs on God and embraced the world’s gods.
- Despised: They think less of God and find Him irrelevant to their lives.
- Estranged: Like Hosea stated, they have rejected a personal and intimate relationship with God.
More Evidence
The people of God didn’t abandon Him. Like popular Christianity today, they wanted God – and the gods.
If modern-day idols in America are as Richard Foster states, “money, sex, and power,” many professed followers of Jesus claim to walk with Him and embrace the pursuit of these idols at the same time.
The Hebrews of Isaiah’s day worshiped Yahweh in the temple, but also aligned with Baal, Asherah, Moloch, and other Canaanite deities.
Instead of their worship practices commending them to God, they were further evidence of how little they knew about God.
What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have
had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I
do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats.
When you come to appear before me, who asked this from your hand?
Trample my courts no more! (Isaiah 1:11-12)
When we blend our worship with modern-day idols, we risk hearing God accuse us of trampling on our relationship with Him.
If our prayers are mingled with the kind of behavior God outlines in His presentation before the court of heaven, they simply add evidence of our culpability.
When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even
though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are
full of blood. (Isaiah 1:15)
Reflections
How do we respond to this courtroom scene? Here are some suggestions.
(1) Someday, we all will stand before the Lord. Only the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection will save us from judgment.
(2) In the light of this courtroom scene, let’s evaluate our lives. In what way do we want God – and the gods – of this world?
(3) Let’s follow Jesus’ direction: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33).
(4) If God’s people suffered because they didn’t know God, let’s make sure that we know Him. To know God is to know things about Him, but also to intimately relate to Him in a personal relationship.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross, Bruce Kirby, and I discussed this passage on YouTube today.
Real Voices 