Isaiah 1

Introduction

We’re in Isaiah chapter one. Hopefully you looked through the questions from the previous session. I’m not going to go through all those because largely it was an exercise of matching up passages in Isaiah with passages in the New Testament, which is a useful thing. But I’m not going to go through all that tonight. But quick review. Theme of Isaiah. What would you say the theme is? Trust. Trust in God. Trust in the Lord. And eight times. Isaiah says, wait upon the Lord. What’s that phrase, wait upon the Lord, mean to you?

He takes his time.

Sometimes we feel pressured to act. Because something must be done. Often we think justice needs to be done. But God is the judge. And we need to wait upon him. That’s his position to execute justice. Sometimes we think we need to do something because nobody else is going to do something. And if my rights are going to be defended, I have to do something. If my personal safety, if the safety of my nation is important, then I need to do something. And if God is the protector of the nation to wait upon the Lord, it’s more than just sit and be idle. It’s trust. It’s trust and depend on God for justice, for deliverance. The most common name for God is, there’s the answer, Lord of Hosts.

Robert didn’t mention, but uh in your Bible, Lord is probably all caps, and that’s the Tetra Grammaton. Usually Y H W H or J H V H. You know, they when you transliterate from one language to another language, the letters don’t always come out the same. Just read about Colonel Qaddafi. Is it K-H-A or is it Q-U A? Well, when you transliterate, different people use different letters. But scholars say it’s probably Yahweh. The Tetra Grammaton is all consonants or no vowels, so we don’t really know how it was pronounced. So Yahweh is a uh is uh what scholars believe it was probably Jehovah is a contrived name, or you take the consonants from the Chetragrammaton and the vowel points from Adonai, which means Lord, stuff them in.

So when you have people coming and saying Jehovah is absolutely the name of God, well, no, we don’t know that. It’s contrived. We know it’s contrived. Isn’t there no J in the Hebrew alphabet? Isn’t there what? No J in the Hebrew alphabet. Are you sure I’ve heard that? So it can’t be Jehovah for that reason either. No. That’s not a valid reason. Uh the whole world, the whole world doesn’t run on the same alphabet that we do, A through Z. Well, if that’s an incontrovertible name for God. If somebody tells you it’s incontrovertible, absolutely use the name of God, and uh that doesn’t work with Jehovah for that reason. Well, not necessarily. You could indicate that it was a transliteration, but that’s not the point. The point is it’s not even a transliteration, it’s a contrived name.

The second most common is the Holy One of Israel. And think about that. What does it mean? The Holy One of Israel. Well, here’s Israel, the nation of God, and he is the Holy One. So he is the King, He is the ruler, He is the God of Israel. Major divisions. How many divisions of the book? Two. Two? Assyrian and B. Babylonian. There you go. That’s a good way to remember it. A and B. Okay. When he went through the list of passages in the New Testament for Isaiah, there were a couple that I thought were important that weren’t on his list. And so I just bring them up. Because when you compare the New Testament quotations of Isaiah, or the application of Isaiah, or the fulfillment of Isaiah, what you have is confirmation of our understanding.

For instance, when we get to chapter 11, the second line, when we try to understand that prophecy, and what he really meant by that prophecy, and you can turn to the book of Romans and have him apply that prophecy and say, this is what he was talking about. Now you have strong evidence for our understanding of Isaiah. So in Romans 15, 12, when he’s writing about the times of Messiah, and he says, This is what was prophesied by Isaiah, saying the root of jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles in whom the Gentiles have hope, showing that Jesus brings salvation to Gentiles as well. And says, that’s what Isaiah said. And you can look at it and say, yes, that’s what he said.

In Isaiah 2, next chapter, you’re going to read about the mountain of the house of the Lord. It’s going to be established as high as above the mountains. And the mountain is a symbol of strength, so it’s applied to kingdoms. So God’s going to set up his kingdom, and it’s going to be above all the kingdoms of the world. In Revelation, you see the same thing. The kingdom of the world is now become the kingdom of our Lord, and he will reign forever, but kingdoms of men do not reign forever. So we see these themes, overarching themes of Isaiah carried through to the New Testament. And it’s important to see that because Isaiah is not just one man writing, it’s the word of God revealed. The prophets of old spake as the Spirit of God moved them.

And the message is consistent over hundreds and hundreds of years. Talked a little bit about political situation. What’s really significant about this chart, and the reason I bring it up is think about the political situation. You’ve got Israel right here in the middle.

You’ve got a strong and rising Assyrian Empire. Right in the middle is Israel. Politically, Israel looks like a small thing compared to the Assyrian Empire. So now, if you are in the shoes of Hezekiah and other rulers, it’s going to be easy to say trust in the Lord. It’s a lot harder to say trust in the Lord, where it seems like sure oppression is coming.

And this situation is going to go on for a long time. In fact, even beyond the empires of Assyria and Babylon, when Greece comes on the stage and Alexander dies, his four sons divvy up the kingdom. And then you’ve got the Seleucid Empire occupying what used to be Assyria and Babylon and even much, much more. And then you’ve got the Ptolemaic Empire down in Egypt. And guess what? Israel’s still in the middle. And it’s back and forth and back and forth on the world stage for hundreds and hundreds of years. And it’s easy to think, poor Israel. But think about what God is accomplishing. He’s got his people right in the middle of things, testifying there is one true God. Just as God calls us to stand today and be a witness to those around us of what God says and who he is, that’s what he’s accomplishing.

So when he says, trust in the Lord, God has a purpose in many of the things that happened. And some that happened, even if they weren’t his purpose, he can use them to demonstrate himself in the world. So we enter in chapter one.

Well, one other slide I wanted to show you. And that’s more geopolitical situation. You can see that beginning in the time of Ahaz, there are four significant events. Robert mentions that in his book.

Ephraim and Syria have this alliance and they threaten Ahaz. That’s going to be become important in the middle of Isaiah chapter 35. 732, Tiglath Pelezer from Assyria conquers Damascus. And so it’s right on the doorsteps. Most important one, arguably, is 701 when Sennacherib laid siege to Jerusalem. And that’s important because when we consider the question, when is chapter 1 written? We don’t know. The call of Isaiah is in chapter 6. And when you look at the events of chapter 1, he’s going to talk about describing the nation as a hut in a cucumber field. Your cities are burned. That wasn’t the situation at the end of Isaiah’s reign. That wasn’t the situation at the end of Joseph’s reign. That was the situation in 701. And so, right here at the beginning, he’s got a broad encompassing statement that probably encompasses Isaiah’s whole career as a prophet.

And he just lays out his charge to the nation as an introduction to the book.

It’s been growing as a power for a long time now. By the time Isaiah comes on the scene, it’s been building for probably a hundred years or more. What prophet went to Nineveh? Jonah. Jonah. Back around 810, 820, somewhere in there. Some 100 years. Before our key date of 722, when Samaria falls, Jonah is going to Nineveh and saying, Wicked city, repent. And they do. Why is that important, David? Think about the Assyrian Empire. It’s building. Time of Jonah. They were repenting before God. Think about Jonah. Remember the last book, the last chapter of Jonah? Jonah protested to God because he knew what was coming. Apparently, God had revealed it to him. God, you want me to have mercy on these people, and what are they going to do to my people?

So that’s perspective. Jonah, in relation to these events. And then David. Yep. A little bit confused.

Where you have Jonah at, that’s not what he prophesied, is it? By the scale on the top of uh. I haven’t put an exact date there, but if you go to 2 Kings 14, 25, you’ll see that. And in our period, really begins in 2 Kings 15. So it’s before our period. In fact, if you look at the world history chart over here and look at Jonah, he’s shown right here, right about like 815. During the reign of King Jeroboam II. That’s where he’s put in 2 Kings 14, 25. I tried to place him on there sort of in that general region.

This is a picture of the Taylor Prism that’s actually in the British Museum. I’ve seen it. Tells the Macrob’s account. It’s one of three known copies of this. And that’s significant because he tells his account of where he attacks Lakish. Hezekiah sues for peace and pays him off. And the accounts in 2 Kings is mirrors what’s on this prism. And then he accounts his victory and talks about he conquered 46 walled cities. Those aren’t small cities, those are walled cities. Innumerable smaller settlements were conquered by the Assyrians. 200,000 people and livestock being deported, conquered territory being dispersed among the three kings of the Philistines instead of being given back. So later on in the chapter, when he talks about you’re laid low like a hut in a cucumber field.

I think that’s what he’s talking about. The events of 701. Now, an interesting thing happens if you read the history in 2 Kings 20, and hopefully you’ve done that. If you haven’t gone back and read 2 Kings 15 through 20, it’s a really good time to read it because it puts his history in perspective. Emissaries come from Babylon. And you might ask, well, why would people come from Babylon all the way to Judah, which is not a world power, it seems. Why would they come? Well, in the in the text, they come immediately after this 185,000 Assyrians are slain. Remember, Babylon is over on the east, the Assyrian Empire is oppressing them. They hear word, apparently, I suspect, of the defeat of the Assyrian army. They want to know who did that and how to ally themselves with that, probably.

1. Hear, O Heavens, and Give Ear, O Earth

Their pretext in the in the history is we heard Hezekiah was sick. We want to send our condolences. So there’s political maneuvering going on, and you see it in the history here. And it centers around that date 701. So it’s a good date to just commit to memory. So let’s get into the text. And as you begin the text and you read what people have written, uh, the ones that I think are truly right on top of the text, they’ll tell you this sounds like an opening scene in the courtroom. First thing you do in the courtroom is you either have your opening arguments or you start producing witnesses. He starts right off by producing a witness. He says, Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth.

Whoa, how do you call the earth as a witness? How can that be? Well, some things to remember. Deuteronomy chapters 28 through 31, talking about the blessings and the cursings. God basically told the Israelites, if you follow me, here are the blessings I will give you. If you rebel against me, here are the cursings. And by the way, assemble with me all the elders, that I may speak these words in their ears, and I call heaven and earth to witness against them. Yes, personification, perhaps. But it’s more than that. You see places like uh Leviticus 18, where he says, You shall keep my statutes and my rules, lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean. So again, the land is like a witness and actually judging them as it vomited out the nation that was before you.

And again, Deuteronomy 29. And the next generation, your children and the foreigner will say, and this is assumed after Israel rebels, when they see the afflictions of the land and the sicknesses which the Lord has made it sick, people will see and say, hey, that’s kind of like Sodom and Gomorrah. Why has the Lord done this to the land? What caused the heat of this great anger? The land will be a witness, and that it will reflect the punishment of the nation, just as the burned out land of Sodom and Gomorrah was a testimony to God’s judgment, so the land of Israel will be a testimony or a witness to the judgments of God. So, yes, it’s going to be a witness. For the Lord has spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they’ve rebelled against me.

2. A Sinful Nation, a People Laden with Iniquity

The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, and my people do not consider. It’s an unnatural thing, right? If you have farm animals and you feed them, the ox knows where to go to get fed. You don’t have to tell him at the end of the day, go home. You don’t have to drive him to the barn. He knows where to go because he knows who takes care of him. He knows where to go to be fed and cared for. And in a similar figure, the people of Israel should know that God cares for them and that God nourishes them. But they have turned their backs on him in an unnatural thing. So he says, the last sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, people laden with iniquity.

You know, it’s interesting. People in the world have a perspective that, you know, life is easier if you don’t have to follow all these rules. Life is easier if you can just lie about things. Isn’t that true? Seems easier. You don’t have to be responsible. Kind of do what you want. Just lie about it. You know, you don’t have to pay for things, you just deal them. It’s interesting. The complaint that God made to Jeremiah and Jeremiah. He said, Everyone deceives his neighbor and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. Lies, they weary themselves committing iniquity. People that love iniquity will weary themselves. It becomes a burden to them because that’s what they desire. And that’s the picture you see here of people laden with iniquity.

And he says, a brood of evildoers. And it reminds me of what Jesus said, O ye brood of vipers. Okay. What exactly does iniquity mean? Wickedness, transgressions, evil doings, transgressing against God. And so this term brood or brood of vipers or brood of evildoers brings up the concept of family. That’s what a brood or breed is. Family. And so when evil has become so characteristic that it seems to be passed down from parent to child and child to parent or child to child. It’s inbred. It’s become nature. Jesus said, You brood of vipers. How can you speak good when you are evil? You see this again when John, when uh John records Jesus saying to those who said, Abraham’s our father. Jesus said, if you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works that Abraham did.

In other words, it’s understood that the children should be behaving in a way that’s consistent with their parents. As their parents instruct them. And so it’s improper to reject the works of Abraham and claim to be his father. And so he says, You’re doing the works of your father, the devil. Here, he’s using the term brew to talk about family. And he’s saying, This is a persistent wickedness. It’s not a problem with this generation only. It’s gone from generation to generation. Children who are corrupters who have forsaken the Lord, they provoked to anger the holy one of Israel, they’ve turned away backwards. And you kind of have this idea of your children, you know, that they don’t want to incur the wrath of the parent, and so they kind of try to go off like this.

But no, they have turned away backwards, means they’ve turned their back on God. They’ve just totally rejected him. And so he says, Why should you be stricken again? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is thick and the whole heart faints, from the sole of the foot even to the head, there’s no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed or bound up or soothed with ornament. And you get this idea of perhaps twofold, perhaps sickness because they turned away from following God, and God has kind of left them on their own, unprotected. But also you get the picture perhaps of bruises because of chastisement. And the chastisement has been so severe because they have been so stubborn that there’s no place left to strike without hitting wounds and bruises that are already there.

Strongly rebellious. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land in your presence, and it is desolate. As overthrown by strangers. So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth and a vineyard, as a hut and a garden of cucumbers as a besieged city. So a garden of cucumbers would be a very low crop. Kind of cling on the ground, low, and then a hut would be just something that stands out in the middle of the field. And that’s kind of the way Jerusalem’s going to be after Sarah Sennachrib’s invasion. He’s taken all these walled cities. What’s left? Jerusalem. And that’s about it. And it stands alone like a hut in a cucumber field. Unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom and we would have become made like Gomorrah.

Gouch. That’s Marts. The Jew would certainly think himself better than Sodom and Gomorrah. Those were sinful people. God rained down the fire from heaven, and it was justified. But you’re saying we would be made like Sodom and Gomorrah? Except for the remnant, the mercy of God, that’s right. You see that also reflected in Romans 9. When Paul talks about the Jews who had rejected Christ as a nation, and he says, this is just like Isaiah predicted. If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we should have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah. Did Isaiah predict that? There’s nothing in the text here that would indicate Isaiah is talking about anything other than the history during his time period. But I think what he’s saying is that when people rebel against God, this is their situation.

3. To What Purpose Is the Multitude of Your Sacrifices?

And so to apply that, Paul says Isaiah predicted this. Just as he saw it then, so it is then, in the time of Christ. Those that reject God, this is their destiny. Unless God has been merciful, they will be like Sodom and Gomorrah. Suffer the punishment and wrath of God. So hear the word of the Lord, rulers of Sodom. So it’s not just like Sodom, he calls them Sodom. Okay, that’s got to be a little bit offensive. Give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. Why? Because their sin is grievous like Sodom and Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me, says the Lord. I’ve had enough of burnt offerings of rams and bad of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats.

Wait just a minute. Lord, who asked for the blood of the bulls of goats? He did, didn’t he? How can he ask for it and then come back and say, I don’t want that? Motivation and passion. It is not the sacrifice itself, it’s the state of heart. It’s faith. And of course, uh, they had rejected him, and uh therefore that’s called that ritual. That ritual actually had no meaning. It was the heart behind it that gave it meaning. I think that’s absolutely right, Kathy. Um, you know, Jesus teaches about that in the Sermon on the Mount with the fasting and the giving of alms and of prayer, that you can do good things that still not be pleasing to God, because it’s the matter of the heart behind it.

Absolutely. Parents know that all too well. Children can obey their parents to the letter, but do so with a stiff neck and a proud heart, not pleasing. Because a parent wants obedience. God wants the same thing. He wants obedience from the heart. Clearly, that’s not what they were doing. And so the intent is that God wanted their hearts to be in submission. When you come to appear before me, who has required this from your hand to trample my courts? And bring no more fun sacrifices. Incense is an abomination to me. The new moons, the Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure iniquity. Well, it’s a pretty sad situation. If you look back in the history, as we get to the time of Ahaz, really, the problem is building.

It’ll come to a head in 701, but it’s building during the time of Ahaz. If you go back and you read 2 Chronicles, Ahaz was 20 years old when he began to reign. He reigned 16 years in Jerusalem, and he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done. He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even made metal images for the bales. He made offerings in the valley of the Son of Henam, burned his own sons as an offering. According to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.

Therefore the Lord his God gave him into the hand of the king of Assyria, uh Assyria, who defeated him and took captive a large number of his people and brought them to Damascus. He was also given into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with great force, for Pikah, the son of Remaliah, killed 120,000 from Judah in one day. All of them men of valor, because they forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers. So when you look at this, it’s not as just their heart wasn’t quite in it. Their heart was turned away, like it says they turned away backwards. They were involved in sins that were an abomination. They were totally rebelling. And then at the same time coming with great hypocrisy to worship God.

4. Cease to Do Evil, Learn to Do Good

And so God says, My soul hates, they are a trouble to me, and I’m weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even though you make many prayers that I will not hear, your hands are full of blood. We might ask, what kind of blood? Well, at least the blood of their children sacrifices, sacrificing their children to the idols. He makes an interesting statement. He says, Wash yourself and make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes, cease to do evil, and learn to do good. Everybody knows to do good, you would think. But those that are so practiced in evil don’t really know how. They need to learn to do good.

And he gives three things that are pretty impressive, I think. I’m going to skip through this. Reprove the oppressor, defend the fatherless, and plead for the widow. These are kind of echoed several times throughout the prophets. Reprove the oppressor, defend the fatherless, and plead for the widow. We sing a song. Abide with me, number 74. And the last section of verse 1 says, Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me. Why is God described as the help of the helpless? Because he is the one who cares for the widows. He is the one that cares for the followless. He calls you and I to be like Him. You go out on a job, and your boss tells you, This is something that’s important to me, and you don’t show any care or concern about it, boss is going to be unhappy.

And God has told us these are things that are important to me. So while we can come and talk and argue about supporting widows or orphans from the church treasury and say that’s not part of the work of the church, God says to his people, this is your work. So that’s a charge to me personally.

The orphans and the widows. I need to personally be involved in God’cause cause.

5. Come Now, Let Us Reason Together

Come now. Let us reason together. He’s made his argument. He’s called the court together, he’s brought witnesses, he’s made charges, and they’re atrocious. He could easily say, You are sentenced away with you. But he says, Come, let us reason together. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Even though you’ve done the worst, so that your garments are like filled with blood, no matter how bad you have been, God has mercy. You can be white as snow. Though they’re a red like crimson, they are shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, then you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel, you’ll be devoured by the sword. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

The judge is offering mercy. Show remorse. Turn. Mercy can be shown to you. How the faithful city has become a harlot. It was full of justice, righteousness logged in it, but now murderers. Your silver has become dross. Dross is what’s left over after you’ve heated up silver and tried to purify it. It’s what nobody wants. Your wine has been mixed with water, watered down wine is no good. Your princes are rebellious and companions of thieves. And this seems to be something that’s kind of just indigenous, you know, to the people.

Some of you will remember that.

And so the government got involved and baited some of course, the TV cameras were full offered them money, you know, to buy their favor. They showed congressmen with stuffing cash in their uh soup jacket pockets, you know, and it’s just it just seemed to be widespread. It wasn’t just one or two, I mean there were a number. That’s the kind of situation he’s pointing to here. Your princes are rebellious, companions of thieves, everyone loves bribes and follows after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, nor does the cause of the widow come before them. So it’s not only something that’s important to God, but he lays it as a charge. You haven’t done this. Therefore, the Lord says, the Lord of hosts, the mighty one of Israel, I will rid myself of my adversaries and take vengeance on my enemies.

6. I Will Purge Away Your Dross

I will turn my hand against you and thoroughly purge away your dross. Now it’s easy to think. God has made this offer of mercy. It has apparently been rejected. It’s easy for God to seem harsh in judgments, but yet what he lays out is a future picture. Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to take what was dross. And I’m going to make it better. I’m going to purge it away. Take away all your alloy. Alloy is just two things mixed together. So I’m going to take away the impurity. I will restore your judges at the first and your counselors at the beginning. Here’s a picture of what God wants for his people. You’ll be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion will be redeemed with justice, or penitence with righteousness.

The destructions of transgressors and of sinners shall be together. Those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed, and they shall be ashamed of the cherubim trees.

It’s a strong tree, maybe not as tall as some of the oaks that we have, but certainly a strong tree. It’s a tree that might be used to cut up and make an idol with. And I think that’s clearly what he has in mind here. They will be ashamed of the Terebidth trees. They had trusted in idols, things that they had carved out of the trees. And they had created shrines and gardens where they would, the high places where they would worship the idols. God says, You will be ashamed of that which you have placed your trust in, which you have desired, and you will be embarrassed because of the gardens which you have chosen. For you shall be as a terabyth whose leaf fades, and as a garden that has no water.

So you think of this mighty tree in a drought, and it’s all shriveled up. The strength is gone. When the moisture is gone, when the nourishment is gone, it shrivels up and its strength goes away. It’s like a garden that has no water, it’s all shriveled up. Says, the strong shall be as tender, the work of it as a spark, both will burn together and no one will quench them. Jeremiah gives a picture of the man who rebels against God, and he says, He’s like a shrub in the desert. A place where there’s not much moisture. It can’t grow. Its growth is stunted. It’s barely surviving. That’s the picture of the one who rejects God. Whereas the one who obeys God is pictured as like a tree planted by the waters.

And so the choices are held up here. Life versus death. Just as Moses said to the children of Israel when he proclaimed the law, he said, I offer you day, life and death. Choose life. Obey God. Life comes. Reject God. Death comes. Trust in Terabath trees, your idols, the groves, the high places. You will be ashamed of them because they will disappoint you. They will not be able to redeem you in the day of God’s wrath and his judgment. They will be like a dried up tree. A little bit of spark, and it’ll all go up in flames. Now it’s easy for us to sit back and look at that and think, oh, those people are so wicked. Right?

Conclusion

Same thing’s happening today, isn’t it?

There are people that are going through the motions with worship, with hypocrisy in their hearts. There are people that are trusting in things other than God to provide them salvation. It’ll be like a dried up tree. Or the thorns, it’ll burn. Trust in God, and you can be redeemed and be saved. But trust in these other things? No. They will not save you in the day of wrath. Are we doing the things of God? Are we reproving the oppressor, defending the fatherless, pleading for the widows? Are we worshiping with a pure heart so that God will hear us? You know, there’s a concept in the world that God hears prayers. Everyone.

Somebody was saying, God is not angry with you no matter what you’ve done. The Bible says God is angry with the wicked every day. Who are you going to listen to? The words of man, the words of God. Are we worshiping with a pure heart? Are we caring for the things of God?

This is really a challenge for each one of us personally. We can apply it to our nation and say, well, yeah, we’ve got a problem in our nation. There are a lot of people that are just they’ve been corrupted, they’re taking bribes. There’s a real corruption problem. Yeah. True. I think that’s true in the United States. We pride ourselves and say, oh, we’re not like some other nation, but guess what? We’ve still got the same types of problems. Maybe they’re not quite as problem, but they’re still there. And we could easily apply this to our nation, but we ought to apply it to ourselves. Do we fit the profile of one who turns their back on God? Do we fit the profile of uh of the earth being a witness against us because our deeds cannot be hidden?

We think God doesn’t see, God doesn’t know. That’s what the wicked say. Is that what we’re saying? Is that what we say in our hearts when we want to do something? And well, God won’t see. The earth sees, the earth can be a witness. God can call the witness. So look ahead in chapter two. We’ll cover the questions on Sunday, I hope. If you look at the end of this lesson, I want you to impress Robert now. He’s going to come back and he’s probably going to go over the questions. There’s a research question there. Whereas Isaiah 1 9 quoted in the New Testament, I gave you the answer, Romans 9 29. Go back and read that. Read it in the context so that you understand what he’s saying there.

Anybody go through any of the questions, have any any uh concerns about answers? Go over them. But if you haven’t done the questions, do them for Sunday. I have a question about the um when you made this statement about the uh the church helping the um widows and the orphans and uh were you saying that’s uh a church responsibility or an individual responsibility or both? No. What I said was we may argue that it’s not the responsibility of the church, and I believe that’s rightly argued. But I think sometimes we tend to relieve ourselves personally because we’re giving to the church, and the church does not have that responsibility. But God said, This is what I want. So it’s an individual responsibility? I believe it is, yeah.

Just like benevolence in general. It’s not the church’s responsibility to be benevolent toward all men. Yet we know in the New Testament was benevolent toward members of the church. But does that relieve us of our personal responsibility to be benevolent? No, I don’t think so. I can’t point to a command that says God says you shall support the widows, but I can point you to something that God says this is important to me. And if it’s important to him, I think it ought to be important to me.