Isaiah chapter 57

Israel fell into moral depravity. The LORD God offers forgiveness.

 


 

ISRAEL FELL INTO MORAL DEPRAVITY

 

VERSE 1. The righteous perish, and no one lays it to heart. Merciful men are taken away, and no one considers that the righteous is taken away from the evil.

 

VERSE 2. He enters into peace. They rest in their beds, each one who walks in his uprightness.

He enters into peace. Society had become so corrupt that righteous people had to die in order to find peace.

 

VERSE 3. “But draw near here, you sons of a sorceress, you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes.

sons of a sorceress. People were practicing sorcery.

offspring of adulterers and prostitutes. People were practicing religious prostitution.

People had sex with a sex worker. They considered it a religious practice that helped guarantee fertility in crops and animals, and families.

This religious practice is sometimes referred to as “shrine” prostitution:

Hosea 4:14. I will not punish your daughters when they play the prostitute, nor your brides when they commit adultery; because the men consort with prostitutes, and they sacrifice with the shrine prostitutes; so the people without understanding will come to ruin.

 

VERSE 4. Whom do you mock? Against whom do you make a wide mouth and stick out your tongue? Aren’t you children of disobedience and offspring of falsehood,

 

VERSE 5. you who inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every green tree; who kill the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?

kill the children in the valleys. They were sacrificing their own children to Molech, an Ammonite god.

2 Kings 23:10. He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.

Isaiah 57:5. you who inflame yourselves among the oaks, under every green tree; who kill the children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?

Jeremiah 32:35. They built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through fire to Molech, which I didn’t command them. It didn’t even come into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

 

VERSE 6. Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion. They, they are your lot. You have even poured a drink offering to them. You have offered an offering. Shall I be appeased for these things?

 

VERSE 7. On a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed. You also went up there to offer sacrifice.

 

VERSE 8. You have set up your memorial behind the doors and the posts, for you have exposed yourself to someone besides me, and have gone up. You have enlarged your bed and made you a covenant with them. You loved what you saw on their bed.

behind the doors and the posts. Their homes were to be centers of learning about the LORD God.

But instead people made them places of idol worship and adultery.

 

VERSE 9. You went to the king with oil, increased your perfumes, sent your ambassadors far off, and degraded yourself even to Sheol.

 

VERSE 10. You were wearied with the length of your ways; yet you didn’t say, ‘It is in vain.’ You found a reviving of your strength; therefore you weren’t faint.

you weren’t faint. Wicked people are zealous about the bad things they do.

Godly people ought to be even more zealous about the good things they do. But they rarely are.

 

VERSE 11. “Whom have you dreaded and feared, so that you lie, and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart? Haven’t I held my peace for a long time, and you don’t fear me?

have not remembered me. They had forgotten about the LORD God.

I held my peace for a long time. The LORD God had been silent for a long time. And so they forgot about him.

 

VERSE 12. I will declare your righteousness; and as for your works, they will not benefit you.

 

VERSE 13. When you cry, let those whom you have gathered deliver you; but the wind will take them. a breath will carry them all away: but he who takes refuge in me will possess the land, and will inherit my holy mountain.”

NLT translation. Let’s see if your idols can save you when you cry to them for help. Why, a puff of wind can knock them down! If you just breathe on them, they fall over! But whoever trusts in me will inherit the land and possess my holy mountain.

whoever trusts in me. This promise is available to anyone who trusts in the LORD God.

will possess the land. When we trust the LORD God, great blessings are in store.

 

THE LORD GOD OFFERS FORGIVENESS

 

VERSE 14. He will say, “Build up, build up, prepare the way! Remove the stumbling-block out of the way of my people.”

prepare the way. This is what John the Baptist did in the desert. He prepared the way for the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

VERSE 15. For the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, says: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

BBE translation. For this is the word of him who is high and lifted up, whose resting-place is eternal, whose name is Holy: my resting-place is in the high and holy place, and with him who is crushed and poor in spirit, to give life to the spirit of the poor, and to make strong the heart of the crushed.

high and lifted up. Some songs use this phrase.

with him who is crushed and poor in spirit. The LORD God has a bias toward people who are poor in spirit.

 

VERSE 16. For I will not contend forever, neither will I always be angry; for the spirit would faint before me, and the souls whom I have made.

 

VERSE 17. I was angry because of the iniquity of his covetousness and struck him. I hid myself and was angry; and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart.

 

VERSE 18. I have seen his ways, and will heal him. I will lead him also, and restore comforts to him and to his mourners.

 

VERSE 19. I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to him who is far off and to him who is near,” says the LORD; “and I will heal them.”

BBE translation. I will give the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace, to him who is near and to him who is far off, says the Lord; and I will make him well.

I will heal them. The Bible seems to promise healing of our illnesses. We should expect miraculous healing. It should be commonplace. But it is not. Why? Read more »

 

VERSE 20. But the wicked are like the troubled sea; for it can’t rest and its waters cast up mire and mud.

 

VERSE 21. “There is no peace”, says my God, “for the wicked.”

 


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ISAIAH

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