Condemnation # 6 - They have provoked to anger The Holy One of Israel

Having listed for us five different provocations thus far in Isaiah chapter 1:

• Israel is a sinful Nation
• A Nation Laden with Iniquity
• A Seed of Evildoers
• Children of Evildoers, and
• They have forsaken the Lord

Isaiah now moves on to a sixth in his seven indictments of the nation here in Chapter 1 verse 4.  It is indeed a busy verse.

They have despised the Holy One;’ (compare Prov. 1:30; 5:12; 15:5). The Vulgate says: ‘They have blasphemed.’ The Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament says: ‘You have provoked him to anger.’ The meaning is, that they had so despised him, as to excite his indignation.

The verb, at its root means to despise, reject, or spurn, i.e., to feel contempt or strong dislike for an object, to rejecting as having little or no value either or both by words and actions.[1] Now, in human relationships this is bad enough.

God; called the Holy One of Israel because he was revealed to them as their God, or they were taught to regard him as the sacred object of their worship. This title is Isaiah’s “Special title for God, found 25 times in this book (1:4; 5:19,24; 10:20; 12:6; 17:7; 29:19; 30:11,12,15; 31:1; 37:23; 41:14,16,20; 43:3,14; 45:11; 47:4; 48:17; 49:7; 54:5; 55:5; 60:9,14), but only 6 times in the rest of the OT (2 Kin. 19:22; Pss. 71:22; 78:41; 89:18; Jer. 50:29; 51:5).[2] Of all of the Old Testament books, we might consider that Isaiah emphasizes the holiness of God. In many of the places in which he uses the phrase, it stands in contrast with the stark sinfulness and deliberate disobedience of the nation of Israel. We would do well to note this as we move through the book. There are also various other forms of this phrase, such as “Holy One of Jacob” (29:23) and others all that also emphasize God’s holiness as well as other shades of his relationship to His people.

It is interesting that in the midst of even such a stiff and harsh rebuke as this God is still the “Holy One of Israel”. “Israel” of course, being the covenant name for the Jewish people. Having just called them practically every insulting name in the book God yet refers to Himself by what is perhaps the most reassuring name for Himself there is. He is the One Who has set Himself apart for them. It emphasizes not only His absolute sacredness and separateness from sin, holiness in the sense of sinlessness, but also holiness in the sense of consecration. He is the One Who is consecrated to Israel.

Though Israel is given over to all of this horror of sinful indulgence and has provoked their God to anger; He is still Holy One of Israel…He is still their God. Indeed, that is the story of a goodly portion of the rest of Isaiah, that God will send a Messiah who come and redeem them, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ!

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[1] Ibid, 5540.

[2] MacArthur, J. J. (1997, c1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) (Is 1:4). Nashville: Word Pub.

Does God Do Harsh Chastening?

One of my favorite blogs is Ray Comfort’s blog, “Atheist Central”.  Today he answered a question that, sooner or later, any apologist gets. 

"Do you really believe the holocaust was God's punishment of the Jews?"

In answer to the question, Ray, I believe made one of the few mistakes he makes in that great blog.  In a very good desire, I think, to direct the attention of the questioner, to the Gospel, he actually denied the truth that God was using Germany in dealing with Israel.

I would never say that God used Hitler to punish the Jews. If God treated any of us justly and punished us according to our sins, we would all be in Hell in an instant. I’m Jewish and I am as guilty as any Gentile of violating His Law.

He then went on to talk about our sinfulness and our need for mercy as a people, all very commendable and very true.  The problem is, that it is not the truth. 

There are at least three  Biblical examples where God used horrible oppressors to chasten and correct Israel.  The first was Egypt.  Israel was there by choice, but God used Pharaoh (the embodiment of national Egypt) to chasten Israel and cause Israel to cry out to Him for deliverance.

God raised up the Assyrians to take the Northern Kingdom into captivity in 705 BC, never to return!  Some portion of the peoples of that area drifted down to live in Judah, but the 10 tribes were taken and never formally returned.  The Assyrians were responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths.

Babylon is another example of a terrible oppressor, responsible for innumerable deaths and the displacement of the nation that God raised up deliberately and with the sure purpose of bringing Israel back to obedience and causing him to forsake the idolatry and false religion that become a staple of their national existence.  Babylon kinds many, many tens of thousands over the three separate captivities they exercised (605, 597 & 586 BC)

Those three are very clearly put forth in the Scripture,  and we haven’t even talked about God raising up the Roman Empire, and allowed it to conquer the nation and exercise harsh rulership over that area.  We haven’t mentioned that God raised up Cyrus the Persian, mentioning him by name some 150 years before he came on the scene and conquered both the Israel and the Babylonian empire.  The Persians weren’t the nicest guys on the block either.

The point here is that is wrong to assert that God does not use such instruments to chasten His people.  Israel is alone in this, God uses harsh methods to chasten us all.  Because Israel is a national entity, God used national-level methods.

I do agree with Ray in one area.  It may be a small distinction, but I think it an important one.  All that God has done of the centuries in Israel’s life has not been done by way of punishment.  I think perhaps that this is part of what Ray was trying to get across.  God’s aim with his people, with His chosen ones is never punishment, it is chastening.

Now, one might argue that there is little difference – I beg to differ.  From a human point of view, an experiential point of view – it may be that there is little difference.  But from God’s point of view, the only one that really matters in the long run, there is a big difference.

The aim in punishment is to satisfy God’s wrath against sinful behavior.  That is not the primary aim in any of the occasions we have mentioned.  The intention of in all of those occasions was not punishment – satisfying Himself.  It was chastening.

Chastening has as its aim the teaching of a lesson with the intent of causing the change of perspective, of mindset and the resulting change of behavior.  That was the aim of God in each of the captivities and likewise it was the aim in the holocaust. 

If God is sovereign, and He is, how can we draw any other conclusion?  Is He in charge, except for this?  Has He abandoned His people?  We the Nazi’s stronger than He was? 

It is always the case that God does as He desires and that what occurs in life is as He has planned.  The horror of the crucifixion was planned before the world began happened exactly as God desired it happen.  I completely agree that from a human point of view it makes no sense, and even seems contrary to common sense, but we are not the God of the universe and are not the architect of the world and of the all that is in it.  Our minds are subject to the fall and our reason tainted by the effects of sin.  There is no shame in admitting that.  There is only shame in the pride and arrogance of insisting God conform the creatures standards and not vice-versa.

Was the Holocaust God’s punishment of the Jews.  With the change of single word – (punishment to chastening) and remembering that the intent of chastening in bringing men to glory – I fear we must answer yes. 

God is willing to what He must to bring His people to salvation – to obedience to the Gospel.  He simply is.  Men make the issue any number of things.  Fairness.  Harshness.  Suffering.  Human ideas of right and wrong.  But none of that is what lies at the root.  At the root of the issue is the character of God and His unwillingness to compromise that character for any reason.  That is why Christ had to come and die, and that is why God’s people must be chastened.  It is not our conception morality that rules creation – it is His.  Like it or not – that’s what reality is.

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.