February 7, 2009
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The Book of Isaiah Chapter 1 V.10-11 Pt 1
The Book of Isaiah
Chapter 1 V.10-11 Pt 1
Isa 1:10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
The first thing that catches my attention with this verse is the word “hear.” The ability to hear does not entail only the function of listening to something.
In this definition, it means to obey, to perceive by ear, to hear of or concerning, to have power to hear, to hear with attention or interest, to understand (language), to hear (of judicial cases), to give heed, to consent, agree, to grant request, to yield to, call to hear, summon, to tell, and to proclaim.
We already know that Sodom means “burning;” and Gomorrah means “submersion” and figuratively means “of iniquity.” So God is addressing rulers of “burning and “iniquity” or “submersion,” which iniquity causes. What I get here is more related to rulers of (unruly) passions and appetites.
We already know God calls them to hear, but He also calls them to “give ear.” This word is more about harkening, giving heed to, paying attention, and being obedient to hear or listen to prayers (of God).
What is He calling them to give heed to? He says the “law of God.”
This is a reference to direction, and instruction, and perhaps even a divine body of legal directives. It is also highly possible that He is referring at least in part to the laws of burnt offerings, because it talks about burnt offerings in the next verse.
Isa 1:11 To what purpose [is] the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
At this point, I’m starting to visualize a courtroom scene, and God is the prosecutor. He already gave his introduction. Now, He’s questioning the witnesses.
He gets right to the point, and puts them right on the spot, asking what their purpose is in a multitude (and I get the word “repetitive” here) amount of sacrifices allegedly unto God.
God is asking several things in this line of questioning. First, let’s look at the word “purpose.” I’m going to rephrase the that portion of the question in several ways that all point out and define the word “purpose” as used here.
1. “What is the aim or goal of what you are doing?”
2. “What is the result or intended effect that you seek?”
3. “Have you determined the outcome and resolution of your actions?”
4. “What did you intend to resolve or accomplish?”
5. “Did you perform these actions deliberately?”
What also strikes me here is the use of the word “multitude,” because it gives me the idea of a lot of hollow effort. It sounds like things people do for appearances sake; because truthfully, if your heart is in what you are doing, the necessity to “repetitively” do the same thing would not be occurring because the ideology is that you’d get it right the first time, and therefore, would not need to keep repeating the same actions.
It strikes me as something Dr. Phil would say: “What are you getting out of this?” In other words, what are you getting out of this empty effort? What are you getting out of repeating the same things over and over again…especially when nothing is being accomplished out of your alleged intentions? This means then, that if one is not getting the alleged end results, they are getting something else from the repeated behavior, and the motivation is incorrect.
So now, we need to look at what this repetitive, hollow behavior is and what it’s supposed to result in, verses what it apparently is resulting in. We have to go right to the actual purpose of the behavior.
