This is the vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Sermons
I. INGRATITUDE THE BASEST OF SINS. He, the Father, has been faithlessly forsaken by ungrateful sons. This is the worst form of ingratitude. "Filial ingratitude! The wretch whom gratitude once fails to bind, II. THE PEOPLE HAVE ADDED REBELLION TO INGRATITUDE. They have forsaken, reviled, "gone backward" from him. This is a climax of sin. Our passions are ever in movement; there is no stagnation. Insensibility to God's goodness soon leads to antipathy, antipathy to active hatred, and this to open revolt. "Be ye thankful." The neglect of the heart and its proper attitude to God is certain to lay us open to every sin. The greatest physical pests of the city, and not less its moral corruptions, may be traced to neglect. Some "covenant" of God made known to us in natural or in spiritual law has been broken; hence sin and sorrow, and hence alone, as the prophets ever teach. III. HEAVEN AND EARTH WITNESSES OF MAN'S GUILT. The whole language and style call up to mind the court of justice. All human events form part of a drama, of which God and the angels are spectators. We in all our thoughts and deeds are surrounded by a great cloud of spectators. The great solid mountains, for example, seem the very symbols of those fixed laws by which our actions must be judged. Napoleon in Egypt called his soldiers to reflect that "forty centuries were looking down upon them from the pyramids." By a similar figure, Micah summons the people to trial in the presence of the mountains (Micah 6:2); the Deuteronomist appeals to heaven and earth to listen to his words (Deuteronomy 32:1). So does a psalmist (Psalm 1.) represent Jehovah as demanding the attention of earth from east to west. All our acts run out into a universal significance. IV. THE EXTREMITY OF NATIONAL RUIN. The people have run the whole course of sin, have left no stone unturned in the attempt to defeat Jehovah; and lo! the result. The body corporate is one mass of disease and wounds, fresh and bleeding. The land is devastated and fire-scarred. Barbarians are devouring it; it reminds of awful Sodom's ruin. Jerusalem, indeed, is as yet unscathed; but she stands alone in the midst of the dread silence. Like "a booth in the vineyard, a hammock in a cucumber-field, "is she? Thus, when appeals to the car have been repeatedly neglected, God paints the truth upon the field of vision. If we heed not the voice, we must feel the weight of the hand, of the Lord. Yet there is still a spark of hope. Jerusalem is all but, yet not quite, a Sodom or Gomorrah. There is still a remnant of people left. Thank God, while there is life there is hope. At the very moment when we are tempted to say of the ruined nation, the broken life, "All is lost!" a voice is heard, "All may yet be restored!" - J. The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz. This is not Amos the inspired herdsman. It is his glory simply that he was the father of Isaiah. Like many another he lives in the reflected glory of his offspring. The next best thing to being a great man is to be the father of one.(S. Horton.) (C. Geikie, LL. D.) (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.) (S. Horton.) It is a living man who speaks to us. This is not an anonymous book. Much value attaches to personal testimony. The true witness is not ashamed of day and date and all the surrounding chronology; we know where to find him, what he sprang from, who he is, and what he wants.(J. Parker, D. D.) Links Isaiah 1:1 NIVIsaiah 1:1 NLT Isaiah 1:1 ESV Isaiah 1:1 NASB Isaiah 1:1 KJV Isaiah 1:1 Bible Apps Isaiah 1:1 Parallel Isaiah 1:1 Biblia Paralela Isaiah 1:1 Chinese Bible Isaiah 1:1 French Bible Isaiah 1:1 German Bible Isaiah 1:1 Commentaries Bible Hub |