Isaiah Chapters 1-5 - June 1, 2009

Read through the first 5 chapters of Isaiah and give me your feedback about God's heart for the entire world...

I thought this was going to be a difficult book to line up with God's love to all of humanity. Chapter one starts out by clearly defining that the vision Isaiah sees regards Judah and Jerusalem, so I expected the writing to have a very narrow scope. In verse ten of chapter one Isaiah calls out to the rulers of Sodom and Gomorrah which are destroyed cities that often serve as symbolic examples of people who are against God. Isaiah is calling people who stand in opposition the ways of God, to make themselves clean, seek justice, fight oppression and do good. While it is possible that Isaiah is simply referring to the rebellious people of Judah as Sodom and Gomorrah, I think it is clear that God is calling all peoples of the world to His truth. At the beginning of chapter two, the author states that the people of the Lord will stand as a shining example to the rest of the world as to what true life really looks like. He describes people from everywhere flowing to the House of God so that He might teach them His ways. Throughout the old testament we are constantly reminded that God is setting the nation of Israel apart so that they can bring the rest of the world to God. In verse twenty of chapter two Isaiah makes it clear that in the future people from every walk of the globe will throw away their idols when they come in contact with the splendor of God's majesty. This implies that all people were made for God, not just the Israelites. All people when confronted with the magnitude of God's nature cannot help but worship Him. Most of the third, fourth and fifth chapters are heavily Hebrew-centric until we come to verse twenty-six of chapter five. The prophet speaks of how God will raise up a signal to the nations and they will come from the very ends of the earth to heed His call. In the context of this chapter, the call seems to be a call of judgement on the Israelites, but it must be noted that when the Israelites turn away from God, He uses the rest of the world to do His will. This seems to foreshadow the Gospel presentation in the NewTestament which went frist to the Jews and then to the Gentiles.