Isaiah 59 – Part 1

Friends, I came across this passage the other night during our family worship. It presents some striking similarities to the situation in the body of Christ today and I had to speak to you of it. Please take a few moments to read what God laid on my heart to say.

Isa 59:1 – Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: [This gives us hope, right from the beginning. He is still able to hear, and still able to save! Hallelujah!]

Isa 59:2 – But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. [Friends, if we want our Father in heaven to heal our land, repentance comes first. “If my people…will humble themselves…and turn from their wicked ways…then I will hear from heaven and heal their land.” (2 Chr. 7:14) This is not earning grace or favor from God, or even earning deliverance. That is because repentance is not a work. It is giving up. Simply admitting that God is right, and I am wrong. It is forsaking sin and turning to him. That is not a work of our flesh, it is the work of the Holy Spirit.
But you might say, “Hey preacher, that is right! Everyone else needs to turn back to God. But I am a Christian, and I love the Lord. Surely I don’t need repentance. I’m doing pretty well. I’m not as bad as some. I’m better than most.” My dear Christian friends, who are called by the name of Christ, we need to take a good hard look at our own lives and see how we are contributing to the overall apostasy of the Church. Let’s continue…]   

Isa 59:3-8 – For your hands are defiled with blood, [How many Christians have justified abortion? You might be surprised. How many of us have turned a blind eye while millions of children are murdered? How many of us have voted for someone who thinks it is OK to kill children in the womb? How many of us have attacked the horrible practice of abortion, but have the same attitude toward children that those abortive parents have? Various excuses are used but at the heart it is a selfish desire to do what I want rather than be “burdened” by children. When did it become honoring to God to call children a burden? Is that what Christ would say about children? Doesn’t he call them a blessing? Did he somehow change his mind? If I haven’t stepped on your toes yet, just read on.
We might say we are not willing to abort our baby, no matter the circumstances, but how many of us realize that many (though not all) birth control methods actually destroy a fertilized egg? Fertilized…as in…conception. As in a human life. How many of us take the time to find out which ones are safe for babies? How many of us still believe our hands are not defiled with blood?]

and your fingers with iniquity; [How many of us fathers have used our fingers to commit iniquity? You know what I am speaking of. Our lust burns within us, and we allow its poison into our homes, never counting the true cost to ourselves and our families. We think it will only affect us, but that is a lie! Our fingers are drenched in the putrid filth of pornography and lust.]

your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. [How many Christians are willing to lie about others? (I use the term Christian very loosely here.)  I have seen recent evidence of this among people I am close to. If it’s not a complete and utter falsehood, it is deceptions and half-truths told in such a way as to destroy a fellow believer. “Perverseness” if you will. Gossip is repeated without a thought. Accusations are made without a shred of real evidence. How shameful this is! Truly did James say that the tongue is a horrible evil, set on fire by the very flames of hell itself! We can check this one off too.]

None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: [One of the great tragedies of our time is the lack of men with real courage. Courage to confront evil, to speak the truth in love. Very few have the guts to call sin by its rightful name, and stand to be heard in the public square to side with the Lord, with righteousness, with TRUTH! Men sit on the sidelines, more concerned about football and other sports than about the needs of their families, and the troubles of our times. Or even hours playing video games instead of doing ANYTHING to grow in Christ…or fight wrong…or acheive something of lasting value. I’m not condemning all rest, but we are far to addicted to “amusements” of all sorts. And I’m not even speaking of teen-age young men and women. I am speaking of grown adults, with children. And what do you think will happen to those children? Honestly, I am speaking of myself when I say these things. I cannot escape blame.]

they trust in vanity, and speak lies; [Too many of us have trusted vain things, rather than Christ. We trust in our vocation to give us identity, rather than Christ. We trust in our peers to give us acceptance, rather than Christ. We trust in our self-image to give us security and peace, rather than Christ. We trust in the vain words of false teachers to give us comfort and appease our conscience, rather than Christ. We trust our own righteousness to give us favor with God, rather than Christ.
We also speak lies to ourselves, and seek out teachers who will give us lies that tickle our ears and perpetuate our own self-deception. We are guilty here also.]

they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper. Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace. [I cannot exegete this whole passage, but I read this and I can’t help but think of the American church. I know that in my own life, when I follow the crooked and perverse paths I have devised for myself, I have no peace whatsoever. I struggle to judge right from wrong, or to discern the Lord’s voice above all the other voices I have listened to.]

Isa 59:9-11 – Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men. We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us. [We seek God’s face and his deliverance from the evils of our time, but we have forgotten the first step is repentance. We seek for God to direct us, but there is only darkness, because he wants us to come to him without the self-righteousness we are so skilled in producing.]

Isa 59:12-14 – For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them; In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. [Though perhaps not every one of these indictments speak to my own sins, many of them do. And I can’t help but wonder how many others have assumed, either through ignorance or denial, that they have no need of repentance. Friends, we all must repent before God if we want him to bring a reformation to our land again. We should say with the prophet “We, and our father’s, have sinned.”]

These are hard things to say and to hear, but I will take us back to the first verse: “Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:” Our Father in Heaven is still able to save us. We must simply turn to him. Genuinely seek his face in a humble state of repentance and faith. Such a seeker will never fail to find Him. He will not reject such a penitent heart!

Check back later when we will see the rest of this chapter and it’s expectation and promise of Christ and his New Covenant!