I love quotes. Sometimes I will Google a book and read through the quotes and excerpts and think I have read the book. That’s part of the challenge in our study of Isaiah.  It’s one of the most quoted books in the Bible and, in fact, is quoted over 100 times in the New Testament. So, we feel like we have read and understood it just by the quotes we’ve seen and read. Or, we take familiar sections and study them out of context and believe we have understood the whole message of the prophet.  It’s not possible. Not even now. It is such a complex book but we only have so much time so I want to address just a couple of things this morning.

First, we talked a little about it last week but there is a rhythm to the structure of the book.  It is a message of despair and hope – punishment and redemption – exile and return. We don’t want to miss that so a good part of our time this morning will be reading select passages to illustrate how that rhythm works. If you have a Bible handy now would be a good time to open it to Isaiah.

To put it another way, Isaiah sees with the use of three lenses.  He sees the current condition through spectacles.  He sees the near future through binoculars. He sees the distant future through a telescope.  We need to study our passages in the same way.

What does he say about Israel in the time he is speaking? What is the state of the nation he is describing? What does he see through his spectacles? What is God saying about their current condition:

1:23 – “Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them.”

2:6-8 – “You have abandoned your people, the house of Jacob. They are full of superstitions from the East; they practice divination like the Philistines and clasp hands with pagans. Their land is full of silver and gold; there is no end to their treasures. Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots. Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands to what their fingers have made.”

3:8-9 – Jerusalem staggers, Judah is falling; their words and deeds are against the Lord, defying his glorious presence. The look on their faces testifies against them; they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it.”

3:16 – The Lord says the women of Zion are haughty, walking along with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes, tripping along with mincing steps, with ornaments jingling on their ankles.”

5:8 – Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till not space is left and you live alone in the land.”

5:11-13 – Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night..They have harps and lyres at their banquets..but they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord, no respect for the work of his hands.

5:18 – Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes.

5:20-23 – Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent.

We can imagine how his audience responded to these indictments. Fake news! Hoax! Witch hunt! No doubt they wanted to do away with Isaiah on the spot – especially since he was one of their own class and had dared to speak out about their sins and guilt. Isaiah was a whistle blower and a traitor for revealing the truth about the corruption of the leaders.

So, this is their condition.  How is God going to deal with this in the short term?  How will the punishment fit the crime? For that, Isaiah looks through his binoculars. This is what they can anticipate in the near future.

1:28-31 – But rebels and sinners will both be broken together, and those who forsake the Lord will perish..You will be like an oak with fading leaves, like a garden without water. The mighty man will become tinder and his work a spark; both will burn together, with no one to quench the fire.

2:12-18 – 12 The Lord Almighty has a day in store

for all the proud and lofty,

for all that is exalted

(and they will be humbled),

17 The arrogance of man will be brought low

and human pride humbled;

the Lord alone will be exalted in that day,

18     and the idols will totally disappear.

3:4-7 “I will make mere youths their officials;

children will rule over them.”

5 People will oppress each other—

man against man, neighbor against neighbor.

The young will rise up against the old,

the nobody against the honored.

6 A man will seize one of his brothers

in his father’s house, and say,

“You have a cloak, you be our leader;

take charge of this heap of ruins!”

7 But in that day he will cry out,

“I have no remedy.

I have no food or clothing in my house;

do not make me the leader of the people.”

5:8-15 – The Lord Almighty has declared in my hearing:

“Surely the great houses will become desolate,

the fine mansions left without occupants.

10 A ten-acre vineyard will produce only a bath[a] of wine;

a homer[b] of seed will yield only an ephah[c] of grain.”

11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning

to run after their drinks,

who stay up late at night

till they are inflamed with wine.

12 They have harps and lyres at their banquets,

pipes and timbrels and wine,

but they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord,

no respect for the work of his hands.

13 Therefore my people will go into exile

for lack of understanding;

those of high rank will die of hunger

and the common people will be parched with thirst.

14 Therefore Death expands its jaws,

opening wide its mouth;

into it will descend their nobles and masses

with all their brawlers and revelers.

15 So people will be brought low

and everyone humbled,

the eyes of the arrogant humbled.

In some ways, the Psalmist looks through binoculars and sees the destruction of the wicked and the judgment of sinners in his lifetime.  Look at Psalm 10:

1 Why, Lord, do you stand far off?

Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

2 In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak,

who are caught in the schemes he devises.

3 He boasts about the cravings of his heart;

he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord.

4 In his pride the wicked man does not seek him;

in all his thoughts there is no room for God.

5 His ways are always prosperous;

your laws are rejected by[b] him;

he sneers at all his enemies.

6 He says to himself, “Nothing will ever shake me.”

He swears, “No one will ever do me harm.”

14 But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted;

you consider their grief and take it in hand.

The victims commit themselves to you;

you are the helper of the fatherless.

15 Break the arm of the wicked man;

call the evildoer to account for his wickedness

that would not otherwise be found out.

Look at Psalm 11:

2 For look, the wicked bend their bows;

they set their arrows against the strings

to shoot from the shadows

at the upright in heart.

3 When the foundations are being destroyed,

what can the righteous do?”

4 The Lord is in his holy temple;

the Lord is on his heavenly throne.

He observes everyone on earth;

his eyes examine them.

5 The Lord examines the righteous,

but the wicked, those who love violence,

he hates with a passion.

6 On the wicked he will rain

fiery coals and burning sulfur;

a scorching wind will be their lot.

There is judgment on the wicked in this life. They are like withered grass and they will soon fade.  That is what I want and I suspect many are like me. We want to see punishment in the near future – just like Isaiah sees through his binoculars.  I want to know that the wicked will be brought up to justice and the destroyed foundations are restored. But God’s ways are not ours. Sometimes it takes decades and even hundreds of years for a corrupt culture to fail and a nation filled with people who prostitute themselves to fall in on itself.  God gave Israel 500 years from the time they entered Canaan to the time they went into exile.

But then Isaiah looks through his telescope into the distant future and what does he see? He sees hope and restoration.  He sees a return and redemption. But again, it is many, many years away.

1:26 – I will restore your judges as in days of old, your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you will be called The City of Righteousness, the Faithful City.

2:3-5 –

Many peoples will come and say,

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

to the temple of the God of Jacob.

He will teach us his ways,

so that we may walk in his paths.”

The law will go out from Zion,

the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

4 He will judge between the nations

and will settle disputes for many peoples.

They will beat their swords into plowshares

and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation will not take up sword against nation,

nor will they train for war anymore.

5 Come, descendants of Jacob,

let us walk in the light of the Lord.

4:2-6 – In that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel. 3 Those who are left in Zion, who remain in Jerusalem, will be called holy, all who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem. 4 The Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion; he will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a spirit[a] of judgment and a spirit[b] of fire. 5 Then the Lord will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over everything the glory[c] will be a canopy. 6 It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.

That is their future as seen through Isaiah’s telescope and that is the hope to which the righteous cling because, unfortunately, they will have to live through the hard times with those who are being punished. They are not exempt from the consequences of the sins of the leaders. This is not good news for those of us who think justice is handed out individually or we will escape judgment for not being guilty of these sins.  God holds leaders accountable for the way they encourage or discourage faithfulness, righteousness, and truth but he also includes even the innocent in the judgment on the wicked.

“So the Lord will cut off Israel both head and tail…the elders and prominent men are the head, the prophets who teach lies are the tail. Those who guide this people mislead them, and those who are guided are led astray. Therefore the Lord will take no pleasure in the young men, nor will he pity the fatherless and widows, for everyone is ungodly and wicked, every mouth speaks vileness.”

I think about Caleb who wandered with the disobedient people in the wilderness for 40 years – until he was an old man – instead of staying in Canaan and leaving them to wander on their own.  Prophets are not exempt. The righteous are not exempt when God judges the leaders of the nation. Their corruption infects the whole.

How do we live in the interim – between the revealing and the judgment? Scripture repeats it several times: Do good. Do not weary in doing good. Turn from evil and do good.

We are not Israel and we are not God’s special people but there are warnings here for all of us.

What would a prophet see in us through his spectacles today?

What would a prophet see for our near future through his binoculars?

What is our long term hope of redemption and a restoration of the foundations that have been destroyed? Will there be a remnant?

1 Peter 3:10:

“Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good.. He must seek peace and pursue it.