A Seven-fold Condemnation - Isaiah 1:4

Having finished the initial portion of his appraisal of the spiritual condition of the Israelites in verses 2-3.  He finished up by saying that they were a people unwilling to think, and disloyal to their masters/owners, unlike even the Ox and the Donkey.  They refused to observe their world and what God had done around them and draw the obvious conclusions.  He will now move on and deal with the specifics of what the complaints are that He has to lodge with them.

4 Alas, sinful nation, A people laden with iniquity, A brood of evildoers, Children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the LORD, They have provoked to anger The Holy One of Israel, They have turned away backward.

One would almost think Isaiah to be thinking as a lawyer here. Having finished his introductory statement and set the stage and tone of the book in verses 103, he now proceeds to lay out the basic indictment of God against His people, an indictment which He will develop over the next chapters and, ultimately, for which He will provide the solution in the person of the Lord Jesus, the coming Messiah.

This indicting statement is not intended to be specific, but rather is general and encompassing. It is intended to display God’s displeasure, even His dismay and upset, His anger and wrath, and to portend His judgment and fury at the betrayal of the people upon whom He had lavished His good graces and blessing over the centuries.

Isaiah is the perfect writer for this kind of communication. His is the consummate poet and poetry is the perfect medium for the communication of this kind of sentiment and information. There are occasions where simple didactics are not sufficient. Poetry allows for an expression of emotion and power that prose is unable to easily achieve. Sadly, this also, for some, makes Isaiah hard to read.

Isaiah opens the verse with an expression of God’s great dismay and then proceeds with a seven-fold declaration of His general displeasure with His people. We ought to take the time to note that, even though they are in the shadow of the Northern captivity, Isaiah is writing some 50 to 100 years before the falling of the captivity of Babylon. There is still time for repentance. 

This is ultimately the case for all men in all cases, save three. 

1. There comes a time in all men’s lives when the word of God teaches that men become hardened to the pleading of the Spirit of God.  Because of their sin nature, many unbelievers rebel against God and refuse to accept divine truth. That pattern of refusal results in the heart being hardened, which was Pharaoh’s response to each of the first five plagues (Exod. 7:13, 22; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7). God then hardened Pharaoh’s heart in a finally fashion, (9:12; 10:1, 20, 27; 11:10; 14:4, 8).¹
2. Men’s have time for repentance until the time of their deaths.  That is, of course, unless God has, as above, judicially hardened them in preparation for judgment.
3. Finally, there will be time for repentance up until the time of the Great White Throne.  One of the great differences between the two thrones in Chapter 4 and chapter chapter 20 of Revelation is that the great glassy sea that symbolizes the ability of men to approach God in no longer present in chapter 20 at the time of the final judgment of sinners, as there is no longer any time for repentance or the “safe” approach of God.

These warnings and calls for repentance are never empty in the Bible. We know that the Scripture portrays God as a Sovereign God Who has ordained the beginning from the end and has set in place all things, assuring His people that nothing can escape His complete control. But yet, we also know that He offers mercy and that this mercy, if grasped, results in real reprieve. One has but to read the book of Jonah to realize the truth here. God sent Jonah to both preach coming judgment and to offer mercy. The Ninevites repented virtually to the man, and God granted reprieve (much to Jonah’s chagrin).

While we may not understand the dynamic that goes on in the Godhead here, we must admit it’s reality and its presence. There is a God Who is absolutely sovereign, to the point that there is nothing that occurs that is not from His hand. We may quibble over what that is called, but it is true none-the-less. And yet, we also know that the Bible clearly tells us that God is not the author of evil. This too is a truth that is unarguable. Sadly, men have argued the one over the other all too often as they have set their own minds and understandings above the teaching of the Bible. There is a reason, I think, that the Bible does not go to lengths to explain these things. They are high and far above our capacity. This is not to dismiss them as mystery with a wave and a knowing glance. Rather it is walk in humility and to recognize that we are but dust and that God, though bowing and stooping to communicate with us still has areas, large areas of His being that will remain shrouded in bright light and remain indistinguishable to us until we walk with Him in glory.

One of the great mysteries is that, in spite of the great sin and rebellion that we will see unfold before us over the next verses and chapters, God still loved Israel. His promise was that He would love her forever and as we watch OT history unfold, we see, in slow motion at times, that promise be fulfilled, time and again. Through chastening, blessing, wrath, judgment, silence and rebuke we see God actively filling His Word. There is literally nothing that can or will cause Him to slacken His will on that promise.

We ought to note that this is not a dry, accounting type of love. God’s love is not only commitment; it is not only choosing sides. It is not merely setting a plan and then going about seeing that it is completed and accomplished. God’s love is passion. It is all about God’s great, burning passion for His chosen people.

There are many who would describe God in terms of being passionless. He is unaffected by His creation. I can see the point that such are trying to make but I must disagree. I am fully convinced that God is unchanging and that He is fully self-existent and self-dependant. But yet clearly we see that God has a fervent love for both His people and, indeed, for all men. Surely, we must recognize that the character of that love is different for those two groups, but love them He does never-the-less.

It is this passion that server as a portion of both the foundation of both the promise of blessing for His children and the promise of wrath for the unredeemed. It is that passion for His people that we see at the beginning of verse 4.

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¹ Campbell, D. K., Swindoll, C. R., & Zuck, R. B. (2000). The theological wordbook : The 200 most important theological terms and their relevance for today. Includes index. Swindoll leadership library (150). Nashville, Tenn.: Word Pub.