The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel does not know, my people does not consider.
Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
Why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
Except the LORD of hosts had left us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
Isaiah 1:3-9
Many people refuse to read portions of Scripture because they don’t want to hear the truth. Why? Because it is like looking at oneself in a mirror, they don’t like what they see.
Israel (10 northern tribes) was already in captivity or they were about to be overrun by the Assyrians and Judah just years away from being destroyed by the Babylonians.
Preaching Hellfire and Brimstone
If one wants to empty a church all he/she has to do is preach about holiness or hell. Many people just don’t want to hear the truth. When Jesus said, “You shall know that truth and the truth will set you free,” He was speaking of the whole truth and not just what would “tickle” their ears. It is obvious that Isaiah was not interested in “tickling” the ears of His readers. He was communicating verbatim what God was communicating to Him.
Paul wrote, “For the time will come when they will not listen to sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.” Here is what it is all about: one can listen to what God says, obey and be blessed or refuse and suffer the consequences.
It really is that simple. As the old song says, “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” It really is just that simple. Amen.
