Isaiah 1-6

Wow! Blood and guts and destruction galore! Isaiah is a book I've been wanting to dig into deeply for about a year now. This reading is only going to open up more questions and desire for further study that I probably can't take on right now. I know that a cursory reading of the book will not do it justice. In this passage I found myself thinking, "Has this happened already or is it still to come?" Figuring that prophecy can be proleptic, I'll allow for the possibility of future fulfillment, but most seem to be focused on the coming fall of the nation of Israel.

The Lord begins with a statement of repulsion with the empty religion being practiced in Israel. Boy, some of these accusations sound applicable to many in the Church today! To wake them up, God even refers to His people as Sodom and as Gomorrah, which should have stirred at least some indignity among His people. His instructions are to

"Seek justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow."

Social responsibility, put simply. Of course, Israel was essentially a theocracy, but still Christians today could learn something from what God wanted done.

The terrible judgment. Israel being laid low. In 3:8-9 the accusations again take a familiar turn:

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. Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves.

And so the punishment will come. More woes in 5:20-24:

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. Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Again, awfully familiar. How does God restrain Himself?

Finally chapter 6! An incredible vision of heaven itself. After seeing all that, how could Isaiah say anything but, "Here am I, send me!"? A touch of a coal to the lips has allowed guilt to be taken away and sin to be atoned for. At least in the same sense that any animal sacrifice atoned for sin. The real atonement came later.