We don’t like to talk about sin. We don’t like to bring it up and shine a light on it. We don’t like to tell others what the Bible says about sin because we don’t want to be cancelled or called a hater. It’s easier to hide our heads under the blankets when it comes to sin. Why? Because there is a huge element of shame that covers us when we take the blanket from over our heads, and we look upon our transgressions and the transgressions of our nation.
Yesha’yahu, more commonly known as Isaiah, was a member of the royal family. His call to prophet is one of the most known passages of scripture in the entire Bible. When he encountered the holiness of Adonai, he realized what the severity of sin really was, exclaiming, “Woe to me! I [too] am doomed! – because I, a man with unclean lips, living among a people with unclean lips, I have seen with my own eyes the King, Adonai-Tzva’ot!” Isaiah 6:5 This is followed up with that great commission that is quoted far and wide. “Who shall I send? Who will go for us? I answered, “I’m here, send me!” (v8) With that call to action, Isaiah’s life changed forever, and he shined a light on the sins of his nation without fear, without compromise, and without apology. Saying “Here I am, send me!”, reminds me of another famous line, this one from Spiderman. “With great power comes great responsibility!” Will we be willing as Isaiah was to hold the course and speak truth about sin? Are we willing to take that responsibility and be active, sharing God’s Word in love rather than sit back and be a middle of the road Christian?
Today when I sat down with my Bible, I didn’t feel led to read anything specific, so I said a simple prayer and asked God to speak to my heart to wherever I opened the pages to, that He would reveal to my heart what he wanted to teach me. The pages fell at Isaiah chapter 1. The first words that caught my attention straight away were from verse 2. “Hear, heaven! Listen earth! For Adonai is speaking.” I felt a little bit like Samuel, when he said, “Your servant is listening.” (1 Samuel 2:10) I then sat and read through the chapter, then went back and read it a second time as my heart began to break for our nation because while I know this was written for Israel at the time it was penned, I also know that God doesn’t change and His word is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We are to learn from His word and to be transformed by it. All I could see was the state of our nation, that we have fallen into the same state of shame and sin that Israel had all those years ago, and as I began to read commentary it led me to continue reading into the next few chapters as well. This commentary pointed out the specifics of that announcement of judgment and that was when reading stopped and more in-depth study began. I encourage reading the full first chapter as I will not be putting it in its entirety but focusing on the specific verses pointed out in the commentary from the Complete Jewish Study Bible.
THE ACCUSATIONS
Rebellion
Hear, heaven! Listen, earth! For Adonai is speaking. “I raised and brought up children, but they rebelled against me. (Isa 1:2)
We have all as individuals at some point in our lives been in rebellion towards God. If we take an honest look at our nation, it is glaringly obvious that we are a nation in rebellion towards our Creator. This was the first point while reading this chapter that my heart broke. Knowing that we as a collective people are thumbing our noses at the Almighty. On more than one occasion, I have prayed Daniel’s prayer over our country because of this very thing, “Yes, Adonai, shame falls on us, our kings, our leaders, and our ancestors, because we have sinned against you. It is for Adonai our God to show compassion and forgiveness because we rebelled against him. We didn’t listen to the voice of Adonai our God, so that we could live by his laws, which he presented to us through his servants the prophets. Yes, all Isra’el flouted your Torah and turned away, unwilling to listen to your voice.” (Daniel 9:8-11) As a nation, we have chosen to not live by God’s Word or listen to His voice, as a nation we have turned our back in rebellion and shame falls upon us just as it did Israel.
Rebellion in Hebrew is the word pasha (paw-shah) meaning not only to rebel but to transgress or revolt. It also carries the idea of being tepid or insipid. Looking at the definitions we see that tepid means 1) Moderately warm; lukewarm and 2) Lacking in emotional warmth or enthusiasm; halfhearted, and insipid means 1) Lacking flavor or zest; not tasty, 2) lacking qualities that excite, stimulate or interest; dull, and 3) Wanting in the qualities which affect the organs of taste; without taste or savor; vapid; tasteless.
There are two very specific things from the New Testament that spring to mind reading these definitions. Tepid takes us straight to the book of Revelation. “To the angel of the Messianic Community in Laodicea, write: ‘Here is the message from the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the Ruler of God’s creation: “I know what you are doing: you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm (TEPID), neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth!” (Revelation 3:14-16) Insipid takes us to the words of Yeshua Himself. “You are salt for the Land. But if salt becomes tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except being thrown out for people to trample on.” (Matthew 5:13)
Rebellion opened the door for the next nine accusations declared by Isaiah. We will continue to look at them individually as this series unfolds, and as the Word shines a light in our own hearts, may we daily take a hard look at our own lives and see where we fall short so that we may repent and turn back to Yeshua as the Spirit reveals them to us.
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