The Lord Saves

Isaiah 1:1-9

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.

2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth!
For the LORD has spoken:

"I have nourished and brought up children,
And they have rebelled against Me;
3 The ox knows its owner
And the donkey its master's crib;
But Israel does not know,
My people do not consider."

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.

5 Why should you be stricken again?
You will revolt more and more.
The whole head is sick,
And the whole heart faints.

6 From the sole of the foot even to the head,
There is no soundness in it,
But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores;
They have not been closed or bound up,
Or soothed with ointment.

7 Your country is desolate,
Your cities are burned with fire;
Strangers devour your land in your presence;
And it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

8 So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard,
As a hut in a garden of cucumbers,
As a besieged city.

9 Unless the LORD of hosts
Had left to us a very small remnant,
We would have become like Sodom,
We would have been made like Gomorrah.

We are wicked and rebellious children from birth in our fallen sinful state.  These words describe the human condition of God’s people then as well as now.  We are wise to listen and hear the words of the Lord because it is He who has spoken, and our words mean nothing if they do not echo His.  The philosophy and reasoning of mankind which denies these things from God’s own mouth are foolishness and lead to a certain judgment reserved and deserved by the cosmic insurrectionists we all are.  We do well to know and consider these words describing us just as Israel was charged with by Isaiah, we who all have sinned and come up short of God’s standards and requirements of righteousness (Romans 3:20-23).  Yahweh is salvation.  That is the meaning of the prophet’s name, and we are pointed to our Savior as God Himself and not our feeble works we would like to call righteous.  They are so very far from right and holy when compared to His works and character.  We carry a load of sin and corruption as we turn away from God and provoke His righteous wrath by that rebellious refusal to listen and trust the words spoken to us to follow without arguments and rationalizations to find our own ways in place of his clear guidance.  We are like Israel, corrupt to the heart and mind in our rebellion against God’s clear instruction as given first to Adam and Eve in Genesis 2:16-17, 3:5-6 with eternal repercussions for all Adam’s descendants which we are.  The call is not to turn back away again from Him but to trust and obey - there is truly no other way.  The sickness of our sin causes us to revolt again and again, but He has provided the way of salvation as contained in the prophet Isaiah’s name.  God Himself has become our salvation (Psalm 118:14, 21)!  We are born with heads and hearts sickened by inherited inherent sin as God’s people were then as well.  These things God shows and tells us in His word.  Our wounds to the soul need to be healed by the great physician with the balm of redeeming love and forgiveness of His grace in the Messiah, Jesus Christ.  As the land of Israel was laid desolate due to their rebellion of refusing to trust His word and live accordingly to do as they were told to avoid destruction, so all now must trust His work in Christ to avoid eternal destruction by the faith He gives and deliverance we do not deserve.  This unwarranted deliverance is grace in His work in our place (John 6:28-29).  As the Lord left a remnant of Israel to be delivered from physical destruction, so He also has a remnant of all peoples whom are called by grace in Christ solely by His choosing and purpose.  We neither deserve nor earn any of our deliverance from the just punishment due to us all for our disbelief and disobedience.  If not for this grace, we would be destroyed by fire from heaven as Sodom and Gomorrah were because they attempted to define their own righteousness instead of accepting His salvation as He seeks and finds us (Romans 9:28-29, 10:3-4, 13, 20).  The Lord saves!  We cannot save ourselves by the strength of our will or by birth as John 1:12-13 tells us.  Amen.