by Larry Ferrell | December 29, 2017
In this last section of his preface Isaiah faces the seeming inevitability of divine judgment. The choice of the vineyard metaphor is significant. In 1:8 the vineyard reference pointed to a remnant which the Lord preserved; in 3:12-4:1, when the vineyard was plundered, the Lord intervened to pass judgment on its behalf and against its plunderers. Now, however, the vineyard is the place where total destruction must be pronounced (vv. 1-7). The future seems like a great question mark, for even the Lord has come to the point where He asks what more is there that can be done (v. 4). In 1:2-31 though sin blighted life yet a bright hope was sketched in 1:26-27 for the future; in 2:1-4:6 though sin marred life’s highest purposes yet cleansing and new creation was held in view (4:2-6); but now sin takes even hope away and nothing is left but the gathering darkness (v. 30).

Isaiah lives always with the tension between what will be and what is; between the glorious destiny which beckons Israel and the awful reality of its present condition. It’s a tension which ultimately only the Lord can resolve. Here, once again, as in 2:6, we plunge from the heights to the depths as the prophet returns to the thankless task of exposing the sins of his fellows and warning of judgment to come. But it will not be easy for him to gain a hearing for such an unpleasant message.

According to Ezekiel 15:2-5 a vine is either good for fruit or good for nothing and since the Lord’s people are His vine, the same truth applies. By the Feast of Tabernacles the vintage would be gathered in. It may have been on such an occasion that Isaiah invited the crowd to hear him sing, first of his friend (vv. 1-2), then as his friend (vv. 3-4), then revealing who his friend is (vv. 5-6) and finally revealing who the vineyard is (v. 7). Skillfully he draws his hearers on to the point where they can only utter a condemnation and discover that they have condemned themselves.

Item by item Isaiah penetrates the façade and gathers the offensive fruit from the Lord’s vine and pronounces a woe on each in turn (vv. 8, 11, 18, 20-22). The structure of the passage is interesting and important. The first two ‘woes’ (vv. 8-12), dealing with abuse of the material benefits of life, are followed by two ‘therefores’ (vv. 13-17); the final four ‘woes’ (vv. 18-23), dealing with failure in the moral and spiritual obligations of life, are likewise followed by two ‘therefores’ (vv. 24-30). The ‘therefores’ match each other. In each case the shorter of them (vv. 13 & 24) explain how the judgment is suited to the foregoing sin, and the longer (14-17 & 25-30) describe an act of God in total judgment. At the center of Isaiah’s ‘anatomy of Judah’ lie his exposure of sin and the reversal of moral values (vv. 18-20). When life consists of the following of sin, denial of the living God and rewriting the moral code, there is no stopping place short of complete devotion to self-pleasing.

The destroyer of the Lord’s vineyard is to be a foreign invader, and he is to come at the Lord’s express command (v. 26). It was the message of Isaiah and other prophets that it was the Lord, not these nations, who called the tune. It’s a biblical revelation about how history has always worked and still does today. The first Christians, in their time of testing, cried out to God in full confidence that the worldly powers ranged against them, both Jewish and Gentile, could do nothing but what God, by His power and will, had decided beforehand should happen. Even Herod and Pontius Pilate, in conspiring to bring about the death of Jesus, had merely played roles that God had scripted for them. “The authorities that exist”, Paul tells us, “have been established by God” (Rom 13:1), and the book of Revelation points us with complete confidence to the day when God’s lordship over the nations will be manifested in final judgment (Rev. 11:15). Isaiah was absolutely certain of the Lord’s sovereignty over history; He was using the nations to accomplish His purposes and would continue to do so. It’s a theme that will be developed more fully as the book proceeds.

Isaiah 5:1-30 Reflection Questions:
Has your religion become passionless? How passionate are you about sharing the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ?
After studying these verses, do you hear God speaking to you about your life?
Do you see God using nations and people groups today for His purposes? What about how God is using you or the people in your life?

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by Larry Ferrell | December 22, 2017
The expression “in that day” has run like a refrain through the whole preceding judgment section, from 2:6 to 4:1. But now here in 4:2 the expression is used climatically as Isaiah’s attention is fixed again on the very end of history, the goal towards which everything is moving under God. The great and final day of the Lord, then has a double aspect. It’s both terrible (2:6-22) and glorious (4:2-6). But the way the text refers to glory as the climax reminds us that God’s ultimate purpose for His people is not destruction but salvation, a truth confirmed by the apostle Paul with resounding clarity (1 Thess. 5:9). Peter is no less definite (1 Pet. 1:5). That salvation which will be fully realized when Christ returns to draw history to its triumphant conclusion is represented here under four images.

The Branch of the Lord (4:2a): The Branch of the Lord or simply ‘the Branch’ is used as a technical term for the Messiah, and the motif of a ‘shoot’, ‘branch’ or ‘root’ springing up will later be used in some fairly specific ways within the book of Isaiah. Here however, it seems best to take the full-grown plant in conjunction with what follows, as a general image of the Lord’s saving purposes come to fruition and on display for all to see on the last day. Every gardener knows how a healthy plant in full bloom reflects credit on the one who planted and cultivated it. In a similar way the salvation that the Lord will achieve for His people will reflect great credit on Him on that final day. The Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious. The next three images reveal just what that salvation will involve.

A fruitful land (4:2b): The fruitful land of Canaan had been God’s gift to the Israelites in the days of Joshua in fulfillment of the promises made to their ancestors. The land therefore had religious significance for them. It was a visible sign or sacrament of the grace that the Lord had shown in choosing them to be His people. In Isaiah’s day that relationship was strained almost to breaking –point, and the land lay desolate and ravaged by Israel’s enemies, right up to the gates of Jerusalem itself (1:2, 7-8). But Isaiah was confident that the ancient promises would not fail. God would not destroy the nation; nor would He divorce her permanently from the land. A remnant would survive and enjoy in full measure what had been promised to their fathers long ago. It’s an image of abundant provision and deep contentment.

A holy city (4:3-4): Now the focus narrows from the land to Zion or Jerusalem, the city which had acquired a special significance for Israel in the time of David. In those days it had been holy in a double sense. It had been holy in that God, the Holy One of Israel, had chosen it as the place where David (His chosen king) and his descendants would rule over His people forever, and where God’s people would meet with Him in His temple. It was also holy in the sense that it had exhibited in its corporate life the very character of the one who had chosen it. It had been ‘faithful’ and ‘full of justice’. The Zion of Isaiah’s day had become a corrupt, harlot city, but Isaiah never doubted that it was still chosen to play a key role in the Lord’s purposes. In these two verses he sees the Zion of the future inhabited by an elect remnant, living in a city which has been purged of its moral corruption by divine judgment. Zion will then once more be holy in both senses: elect and faithful. The holy city represents perfect community.

A canopy of glory (4:5-6): The final image is of journey’s end, of the pilgrim people of God at last secure in God’s presence forever. There are many allusions here to the period of the exodus. That journey was punctuated by encampments, and at such times, rest in the land had never been perfectly achieved, even in the time of David. Now, in Isaiah’s time it seemed further off than ever. Isaiah believed that the final encampment of God’s people would be in the new Zion. In the final encampment the glory of the Lord’s presence fills the whole camp, and the protecting cloud, like a vast canopy or pavilion, covers the entire site and all who are assembled there (v. 5). There will no longer be any need for the tabernacle or temple, for the glory of the Lord will be directly accessible to all. And those with whom God is present in this way will be perfectly secure forever (v. 6). This is no out-of-date dream, but one which Jesus prayed to be realized, and which the apostle John sets before us again at the climax of the Bible as the vision of our own future in God which should still inspire us and draw us on. We too, are pilgrims.

Isaiah 4:2-6 Reflection Questions:
Putting yourself into this study, where are you in your spiritual pilgrimage?
Have you experienced the glory of The Lord?
What does it mean when you don’t feel close to the Lord’s presence in your life (according to your spiritual pilgrimage)?

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by Larry Ferrell | December 16, 2017
Verse I introduces a note of immediacy in contrast to the ‘last days’ perspective which has been dominant in chapter 2. But the two perspectives should not be too sharply distinguished, because, for Isaiah every occasion when the Lord intervenes in judgment is a ‘day of the Lord’ and anticipation (and therefore a warning) of the final one. What is anticipated here is famine caused by siege (v. 1), the removal of the community’s leaders by death or deportation (vv. 2-3), and as a consequence, a complete breakdown of social order (vv. 4-5). It was the Babylonians who would eventually bring this fully to pass more than a hundred years after Isaiah’s death. But Isaiah could already see in his own lifetime the direction in which things were moving. Babylon would finish what Assyria had begun. The final evidence of the collapse of order will be the desperate way the distraught populace will go about trying to reestablish it. The mere possession of a cloak will do as a qualification for leadership if only its owner can be persuaded to take it on. But no-one will be willing (vv. 6-7).

With verse 8 we move from description to explanation. Isaiah begins with the wickedness of the people in general (vv. 8-9), but then traces it back to bad leadership as its root cause (v. 12). Like a skilful cameraman he first pans the turbulent crowd, and then zooms in on those chiefly responsible. The common people are in a sense victims but they have passed the point where their behavior can be excused, for they have become openly defiant and quite brazen in their wickedness (vv. 8-9). The corrupt leaders are tyrants (they oppress the people), but the terms in which they are described suggest that their bad behavior sprang from weakness. They copied the ways of the powerful nations they feared and so ended up being exactly like them. But the general populace is not uniformly evil, and the Lord’s judgment, when it comes, will not be an outburst of unbridled anger. It will be controlled and discriminating, sifting the righteous from the wicked and giving to each what their deeds deserve (vv. 10-11).

In the first twelve verses the Lord has been portrayed as a warrior, now He is portrayed as judge (v. 13). A hush descends as the heavenly court comes to order, for the divine judge has taken His place and the judgment foreshadowed in verses 1-12 is now to be put into effect. Isaiah has singled out the leaders as those chiefly responsible; now they are to be formally indicted by the Lord Himself. Leaders (v. 14) are literally ‘princes’, men closely associated with the court and the royal family. The elders were a wider group representing local communities. The charge brought against them both is oppression of the poor. They used their position to exploit the very ones they should have protected. The divine judge will certainly avenge those who have been so grievously wronged. It’s sobering to reflect that the same high standards of accountability still apply today. Those who lead God’s people are answerable, not just to those they lead, but to the Lord who has entrusted His precious people to them, and it is to Him that they will finally give account for how they behave. We should pray for them daily.

Verse 16-17 consists of an indictment of the women of Zion followed by an announcement of judgment of them. Verses 18-4:1 is an announcement of judgment from beginning to end. The reference to their men in verse 25 suggests that these women of Zion were married. Their husbands must have been rich to deck them out so extravagantly (vv. 18-23).The elders and leaders indicted in verses 14-15 were probably the husbands of these very women. The essential sin of the men was oppression; and that of the women was vanity. But clearly the common factor is ill-gotten wealth. The women have been partners in their husbands’ crimes.

Isaiah 3:1-4:1 Reflection Questions:
What New Testament Scriptures come to mind when studying verses 3:16-4:1?
How did the women and their husbands get their wealth?
Are you a leader of God’s people (a parent, employer, manager, church leader, etc.)? Are you holding yourself to a higher standard? What does that mean to you?

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by Larry Ferrell | December 9, 2017
The scope and content of the book’s message have been laid before us in outline in 1:1-2:5. Now it’s time for the basic themes to be elaborated: first judgment (2:6 -4:1), and then salvation (4:2-6). The movement from Zion under judgment to Zion restored is the same as in 1:1 – 2:5, but now the judgment aspect of the message is focused upon at much greater length. In verses 6-11 Isaiah is in the grip of strong emotions. His appeal of verse 5, like his earlier one in 1:5 and the Lord’s own appeal in 1:18, has met with no response. In his wrestling with God in verses 6-9 Isaiah follows in the footsteps of Abraham and Moses, and anticipates the later struggles of Jeremiah and Habakkuk.

The hub of the problem is pride (v. 11), and it’s not Judah’s problem only; it’s a universal disease, and one to which none of us is immune. It has a thousand subtle and devious ways of manifesting itself, and is ugliest of all when it dons religious garb. Such pride can eventually have only one outcome: a confrontation with God in which the proud will be finally undone. The expression Isaiah uses for this ultimate confrontation is that day, the day of the Lord (vv. 11-12).

Many of Isaiah’s contemporaries looked forward to the day of the Lord as the time when he would step in and destroy Israel’s enemies just as He had done long ago in the days of Moses and Joshua. But Isaiah and the other prophets of his time realized that this confident expectation was grounded in arrogance rather than faith, for Israel and Judah had taken on ways of the surrounding nations and were therefore just as deserving of judgment. In fact they were guiltier than others because of the greater privileges they had enjoyed. This is a most sobering thought, and one that we ourselves would do well to ponder. Interest in the last things – the second coming of Christ and the events associated with it – has always been , quite properly, a strong dimension of our evangelical tradition. But our excitement about such things has not always been accompanied by the concern to amend our lives that it should have been. We are in danger of being ‘caught napping’ because we have sat far too light to the solemn warnings that our Lord has given us.

The day of the Lord is pictured as a great earthquake, a mighty shaking (vv. 19, 21), which leaves nothing standing and sends people running in terror into caves and crevices in a vain attempt to save themselves. There is also a positive aspect, however, to the day of the Lord. Proud people will be humbled, but the Lord (and He alone) will be exalted (vv. 11, 17) and seen in all His splendor (v. 21b). There is therefore a sense in which it is right to long for the day of the Lord, because it will mean the final triumph of God and His purposes. What may be apprehended only by faith now – that the Lord is supreme ruler of the world – will then be plain for all to see. This, among other things, is what we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer when we ask for God’s kingdom to come. But if we are so bold as to pray such a prayer, we must make sure that we are prepared for the answer!

Isaiah is clear that if the people of Judah and Jerusalem place their ultimate trust where the surrounding nations have placed theirs, then they have forsaken the Lord, and will not escape the judgment that will overwhelm the proud everywhere on the day of the Lord. So then, just as in verses 1-5, a vision of the end issues in an urgent call to action in the present. Verse 22 does not deny the truth, taught elsewhere, that human beings are made in God’s image and therefore have a certain dignity. It does assert, however, that as objects of ultimate trust humans are of no account at all.

Isaiah 2:6-22 Reflection Questions:
What was the cause of the unresponsiveness to Isaiah’s and the Lord’s message?
Do you see this happening today? Explain.
Where are you putting your trust? How are you showing that?

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by Larry Ferrell | December 2, 2017
The heading in 2:1 is an abbreviated version if the book’s title in 1:1. Together these two headings alert us again to the comprehensive nature of the version which the book contains. This opening unit of chapter 2 completes a movement which anticipates the movement of the book as a whole, from the Zion that is to the Zion that will be, via purifying judgment.

Mountains played an important part in the religions of Israel’s neighbors. They were points where heaven and earth were thought to meet and were therefore highly favored as sites for alters and temples. The Canaanites worshiped their gods at the high places, and these became a snare to the Israelites, even when such high places were removed, the surrounding nations continued to worship their gods on their holy mountains. Isaiah here foresees the day when one holy mountain will stand supreme, reducing all others to utter insignificance. In this sense Isaiah’s vision is exclusive. It is also inclusive, however, because it envisions all nations and many peoples coming to Zion to share with Israel in the blessings of the Lord’s rule. Finally, it is a vision of universal peace, described in terms which have reverberated down through the centuries (v.4). But Isaiah sees that this peace will become a reality only when the nations are willing to submit to the word that goes forth from Zion where the one true God revealed Himself. Peace on any other terms is a cruel delusion, a truth we need to bear in mind constantly as we seek to be faithful to God’s Word in our own, modern world of religious pluralism.

The mountain of the Lord, then, is a symbol of the coming kingdom of God, in which a purified and restored Zion is destined to play a crucial role. An Isaiah summons his contemporaries to live now in the light of that glorious prospect (v. 5). Isaiah was not blind to present realities. He spoke out against injustice, faithless politics and hypocritical religion with a passion that few could match today. But it was this vision of the future which inspired him. Religion for him was never an escape from reality, but the source from which he drew the strength he needed to face it squarely. It is how we must live too.

Isaiah 2:1-5 Reflection Questions:
How does Isaiah 2:3 have an effect on us as Christians today (see Luke 24:47)?
Is your faith an escape from reality, or is it a source of strength for you as you go through your day?

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by Larry Ferrell. | November 25, 2017
The lament by Isaiah in verses 21-23 clearly implies that there has been no change of heart among the people. The way of forgiveness has been rejected, and judgment is now announced by the Lord in verses 24-26. But there is a surprise here. The judgment is described in terms which imply purification rather than annihilation. Even in judgment, the Lord remembers mercy.

The central image is of crude ore being passed through a furnace and emerging as refined metal (v. 25). The city which was once faithful (v. 21) will be faithful again (v. 26), but only after it has passed through the fires of God’s judgment. The same basic image underlies verses 27-28: the pure metal which emerges from the furnace is a remnant of those who repent while the rest are destroyed. But now a different way of viewing the whole process is triggered by the rich word redeemed: Zion will be redeemed with justice, her penitent ones with righteousness. The full treatment of the redemption theme will come in chapters 40-66, but already we are alerted here to a vital element of it. It will not involve any bypassing of justice and righteousness. God will rescue His people in a way which is in complete accord with His holiness. That is how He always acts, and how He acted supremely in the cross of Christ. Redemption and judgment are inseparable; the one can come only through the other.

A cluster of secondary images in verses 29-31 throws further light on the corrupt state of the once faithful city. It became polluted with pagan worship, involving sacred trees and gardens where fertility rites were practiced. But those who were guilty of these practices would become like drought-stricken plants themselves, tinder-dry and ready to burn. There is a particular emphasis in this passage on the accountability of the present leaders (vv. 23, 31) and on the promise of good leadership in the purified and restored city of the future.

Isaiah 1:21-31 Reflection Questions:
What are the similarities between Isaiah 1:31 and Matthew 3:12?
Can you recall a time in when you experienced the judgment of God?
What are some things today that God would consider to be idolatrous?

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by Larry Ferrell | November 17, 2017
The summons to hear in verse 10 marks the beginning of a new unit, linked to the previous one by the repetition of Sodom and Gomorrah. The rulers and people of Jerusalem were involved together in something every bit as offensive to the Lord as what had gone on in those two notorious cities of old.

The rebellion referred to generally in verse 2 is now specified: worship had been divorced from justice, and the fatherless and the widow had become the chief victims (v. 17). Such disregard for justice was a fundamental violation of the Sinai covenant for which no amount of cultic observance could compensate. The exodus itself had flowed out of God’s concern for the oppressed, and from the very beginning He had demanded that His people should have a special concern for the poor and defenseless among them. Isaiah is together with other eighth-century prophets in insisting that ceremonial worship and even prayer are worthless if they are not accompanied by active concern for justice. But in the long and prosperous reign of Uzziah such concern had dried up. The rich grew richer while the rights and needs of the poor were disregarded, so that when Isaiah was called to his prophetic ministry at the end of Uzziah’s reign, the nation was already ripe for judgment.

Verses 18-20 are deservedly one of the most famous expressions of the grace of God in the Bible. The theme of rebellion has been progressively developed through verses 2-17. The guilt of the accused has been amply established, and they are reminded of it here in vivid language: their sins are scarlet, red as crimson, the color of blood. We have reached a point of crisis.

But at the very point when judgment is expected, grace intervenes. The divine judge reasons with the accused, and makes an offer which is truly amazing in its generosity: nothing less than total pardon (v.18)! What they had wrongly tried to achieve by cultic manipulation is now offered to them freely, on the one condition that they cease their rebellion (vv. 19-20). The alternative is certain destruction: they can eat the good from the land or be eaten by the sword. The choice is theirs. The Lord is gracious, but He is not to be trifled with.

The just basis for the forgiveness freely offered here will be unfolded later in the book. But it did not require the suffering of the exile to make it possible. It was always possible if only the people would repent. But grace is always hard for rebels to understand; their view of God is too small.

Isaiah 1:10-20 Reflection Questions:
Why do think it is so important to God that we have special concern for the poor and defenseless?
Where in the New Testament did Jesus talk about the poor and defenseless?
How does this study about God’s grace make you feel?

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by Larry Ferrell | November 11, 2017
Having introduced himself as a man whose message and whose ability to perceive its truth are both from God; Isaiah turns to expose the inner quality of the period whose outward shape he summarized in the names of the kings.
At once it becomes apparent why the vision concerns ‘Judah and Jerusalem’. Like us Christians, the people of this city and nation were the Lord’s own children and people (vv. 2-3), language which strongly recalls the exodus from Egypt and the forging of the covenant at Sinai. It must have seemed as strange to the more powerful nations around as it does to the world today, that as the Lord’s people, they, like us, had been chosen to play a key role in His purposes for the world. But they were in no state to fulfill their high calling. The Lord had been a Father to them, but, like headstrong, ungrateful children, they had rebelled against Him, and already this rebellion had cost them dearly. The image of verses 5-6 is followed by a stark description of their condition in verses 7-9. For these people the judgment of God was no mere theological abstraction, or something that existed somewhere else or might be experienced at some future time, as we tend to think of it. It was a very present, painful reality.

In bringing His rebellious people to trial, the Lord was doing no more than the Law of Moses required, but His was a special grief, for He was judge as well as Parent. Isaiah too, longed for the people to repent rather than to go on suffering, but everything now depended on the attitude of the remnant whom the Lord had so far graciously spared. Would they at least learn from the experience and turn back to the Lord?

The call to heaven and earth to listen in verse 2 serves two purposes. It underlines just how high the stakes are in this confrontation between the Lord and His people. In the very real sense the welfare of the entire universe depends now, as then, on how God’s people respond to His Word. It also foreshadows the climax towards which the whole vision of Isaiah moves. For, as we have already seen, the Word which God speaks to His people here is destined to have its final outworking in a new universe, new heavens, and a new earth (Is. 65:17; 66:22).

Isaiah 1:2-9 Reflection Questions:
How do you feel about the fact that you were chosen to play a key role in God’s purposes for the world?
Have you ever rebelled against God?
What’s your feeling about that the entire universe depending on how you respond to God’s Word? How are you responding?

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