Isaiah 1
Isaiah 1:1:
The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. |
Uziah, the tenth king of Judah, became a leper because he intruded into the holy place, which even a king was not permitted to do. However, he is classified as a good king. Ahaz, the grandson of Uzziah, was a bad king.
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Isaiah 1:2:
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. |
They forsook the one who gave them health. God Begins by calling the world to come to his courtroom and listen to the proceedings as He tries His people. God does not do anything in a corner or in the dark
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Isaiah 1:16-17:
Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow." |
Much of Isaiah was written in a prose form and often steps in a matter of either importance or ability to a climactic end: This begins with Wash yourself (or, take your evil deeds out of my sight). Then: Stop!! Seek!! and to the climactic point: Defend!! Though something of importance in God's economy, the training of the soul is scarcely recognized as any proper part of public education but life on the third rock from the sun depends on it...and affects social order far more than many realize.
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Isaiah 1:18:
“ Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the LORD, “ Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. |
This proposition came from God. It is NOT initiated from mankind. Grace, salvation, etc, and a host of other things which man needs are all initiated by God. Salvation is a fruit of grace. Once man ignores grace he then views salvation as something that is owed to him. The word “now” is not used as a point in time (“now”), it is an entreaty or an appeal for man to come and reason with God. When speaking of faith one must express with caution, lest “reason” is villified, which is the only faculty we have to judge concerning anything, even revelation itself. If we contrast reason and faith with one another and assign faith to the domain of revelation alone, we then yield reason to supremacy over everything outside of that. Somehow, in this age which suggests it is based on “reason,” reason and faith have been established as opposing each other. There is even a debate forum on the internet (Debating Christianity and Religion) which repeatedly allows the premise to permeate the attempts at debating Christianity. All it creates is atheist or nontheists to create very imaginative concepts of God and the Biblical interpretations. For my purposes, the site serves as a way to glean from the “pearl-less” tidbits of atheistic imagination just how bankrupt many of the so-called “rational” thinkers really are.
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Isaiah 1:3:
"The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider." |
This verse is a splendid piece of satire. The two animals that are used for illustration do not have a reputation for being very intelligent. God meant something when he made each one of us, and it is our duty to find out what He did mean. The devil's staunchest ally is lack of perception. We must consider who God is. It was Israel's lack of perception that was at the root of her sins. Ignorance is NOT bliss when it comes to reckoning.
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