The once faithful Judah has become like a harlot. As a result, the Lord will turn His hand against Judah but He says one day He will restore Jerusalem.
Isaiah speaks of the coming kingdom with the Lord’s temple where people from all nations will come to worship Him and there will be peace. Many believe Isaiah is referring to the coming Messiah. It could refer to His first coming or His second coming or both. Regardless, He is coming!
But for now judgement is coming to Judah bc of their pagan worship, wealth, and pride which has corrupted the people. The Lord rebukes the leaders for abusing their power by mistreating the people and using their positions for their own personal gain.
Then Isaiah turns his attention to the rich ladies in Judah who are flaunting their fine clothes, jewelry, and perfume. They are much more concerned about the external than the Lord, so the Lord says He will remove that distraction from them by giving them stinkiness, baldness, ugliness, and a sackcloth to wear. 😱This must be an ongoing problem with women bc later in the Story Paul will say to the church in Corinth, “… women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with… costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works”. (1 Timothy 2:9-10)
After the rebukes, Isaiah gives them a word of hope about the Branch of the Lord, Jesus, who will be the final sacrifice to give the people a permanent cleaning from their sin. God refers to His people as a vineyard that He cared for and expected to produce good grapes; instead they produced worthless grapes.
We end the reading with messages against Judah’s people for building their own wealth, being drunkards, testing the Lord with their sin, exalting themselves, and taking justice away from the righteous. The Lord has seen all of their wickedness and He will judge them for it by eventually sending the Babylonians to take them off into captivity.
Tomorrow Isaiah warns the nations so keep reading.
(Isaiah 1:21-5:30)
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Chronological Bible in Layman's Terms 