Isaiah 1:1-18 … a deeper look

Isaiah [Yeshayahu = God is Salvation]

1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah [southern kingdom] and Jerusalem [capital of God] in the days of Uzziah/Azariah (786-758 bc), Jotham (758-742 bc), Ahaz (742-726 bc), and Hezekiah (726-697 bc), kings of Judah.

Uzziah meaning “Yah is my strength”, 786-697 = total years covered. Uzziah took the throne at the age of 16, the first 24 years of his reign were as co-regent with his father, Amaziah. Uzziah was struck with leprosy for disobeying God (2 Kings 15:5, 2 Chronicles 26:19-21)

Amos 1;1 “Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.” Assuming that the prophecy took place after Uzziah became sole regent in 768/767, Amos’ prophecy can be dated to some time after that and some time before Jeroboam’s death in 753 BC, with the earthquake two years after that. The earthquake was at least magnitude 7.8, but likely was 8.2, currently, the stratigraphic evidence at Gezer dates the earthquake at 760 BC.

• 2 Kings 14:21 “And all the people of Judah took Azariah, which was sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah.”
• 2 Chronicles 26:1, 5 “Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the room of his father Amaziah. And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper.”
• 2 Kings 15:3-5 “And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done; Save that the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burnt incense still on the high places. And the Lord smote the king, so that he was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house. And Jotham the king’s son was over the house, judging the people of the land.”

² Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth:[all of creation] for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished (H1431 גָּדַל gadal (gaw-dal’) v. to make large.) and brought up (H7311 רוּם ruwm (room) v. to exalt, enrich) children (H1121  בָּנִים baniym (ba-neem’) [plural] the Hebrew nation), and they have rebelled against me.

• H6586 פָּשַׁע pasha` (paw-shah’) v. to break away, trespass (from just authority), committed a crime.

³ The ox has known his owner,[recognizes authority] and the ass his master’s crib:[a complete understanding] but Israel doth not know, my people* doth not consider.

• (H995 בִּין biyn (bene) v. to separate mentally (or distinguish). 2. (generally) to understand.){God is no longer important to His people}

⁴ Oh! sinful nation,* the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away (H2114 זוּר zuwr (zoor) v. to be a foreigner, strange, profane.) backward.

• Goy – where we get the root of Goyim/Gentile] a people laden with iniquity (H5771 עָוֹן `avon (aw-vone’) n-m. penalty for depravity.), a seed (H2233 זֶרַע zera` (zeh’-rah) n-m. child) of evildoers, children that are corrupters:[blasphemy] they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked (H5006 נָאַץ na’ats (naw-ats’) v. to scorn.
• H268 אָחוֹר ‘achowr (aw-chore’) subv. Become without, empty

⁵ Why should ye be stricken (H5221 נָכָה nakah (naw-kaw’) v. punish) anymore? ye will revolt (H5627 סָרָה carah (saw-raw’) n-f. apostasy, crimes) more and more: the whole head (H7218 רֹאשׁ ro’sh (roshe) n-m. thought process)  is sick, and the whole heart faint. (H1742 דַּוָּי davvay (dav-voy’) adj. diseased, sickness)

• The thought process and the behavior of the people was not what God desired. The same holds true today. The people are complaining about the way God is supposedly treating them, yet, they are oblivious to their part of the bargain. They had promised to love and serve YHVH, much in the same way people today make their claim, and yet, they are not. The people, then and now, have turned to human practices based on the teachings of the fallen/false religions.

⁶ From the sole of the foot (Hebrew idiom for “power of actions”) even unto the head (H7218 רֹאשׁ ro’sh (roshe) n-m. thought process) there is no soundness (H4974 מְתֹם mthom (meth-ohm’) n-m. wholesomeness). in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores (fresh carnage): they have not been closed (suppressed), neither bound up(H2280 חָבַשׁ chabash (chaw-ɓash’) v.made to stop), neither mollified with ointment. (soften the hard heart with the oil of scripture)

⁷ Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers (H2114 זוּר zuwr (zoor) v. to turn aside 2. (hence) to be a foreigner, strange, profane.) devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

• People that refuse YHVH as God are tearing down the faith of the people and teaching them to fulfil sun-god worship.

⁸ And the daughter of Zion (one to become the Bride of Yeshua) is left as a cottage (H5521 סֻכָּה cukkah (sook-kaw’) n-f. tabernacle) in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers*, as a besieged city. (*H7180 קִשֻּׁא qishshu’ (kish-shoo’) n-f. a cucumber (from the difficulty of digestion). [from an unused root (meaning to be hard)]

• The behavior of the people, in the eyes of God, has now become hard to stomach.

⁹ Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. [utterly destroyed]

¹⁰ Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear [pay extra attention] unto the law [Torah] of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.(people headed for destruction)

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.

• YHVH is tired of the rote rituals performed by unrepentant people
• 1 Peter 2:5 “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.”

¹² When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?

• Hebrew idiom ‘tread my courts’ means to be oppressive to the city and its inhabitants. The people are coming to the temple without a repentant heart. They are coming to be seen or out of expectation of other people.

¹³ Bring no more vain (useless) oblations (sacrifices); incense is an abomination (H8441 תּוֹעֵבַה tow`ebah (to-ay-ɓaw’) n-f. something disgusting.)  unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with (overcome); it is iniquity (wickedness), even the solemn meeting.

• H6116 עֲצָרָה `atsarah (ats-aw-raw’) n-f. an assembly, especially on a festival or holiday.
• Is this the denouncing of rituals like Christmas and Easter that have been mixed into the faith? Absolutely!

¹⁴ Your new moons and your appointed feasts (H4150 מוֹעֵד mow`ed (mo-ade’) n-m. an appointment, the freasts) my soul hateth: they are a trouble (burden) unto me; I am weary (tired) to bear them.

• These are NOT Gods appointed feasts as he labels them YOUR festivals.

¹⁵ And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

• YHVH is turning away from the people because of their mixed religious practices.

¹⁶ Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings (stop doing these immoral actions) from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

• 1 John 3:4 “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.”

¹⁷ Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve (H833 אָשַׁר ‘ashar (aw-shar’) v. to be straight) the oppressed (H2541 חָמוֹץ chamowts (chaw-motse’) n-m. the cruel man.), judge (H8199 שָׁפַט shaphat (shaw-fat’) v.avenge) the fatherless (orphans, the bereaved person), plead for the widow.

• no husband: in context to Christ as the Bridegroom
• James 1:27 “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

¹⁸ Come now, and let us reason (H3198 יָכחַ yakach (yaw-kach’) v. to decide, justify or convict.) together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Notice the completion of Scripture… Jesus says to the Disciples that he came to live out everything spoken about him in the Torah and the Prophets. [Luke 24:44] Here we see the promise given in Genesis 1:1… Prophesied here in Isaiah… Confirmed in the Psalm …and delivered in the life of Yeshua.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning* God created the heaven and the earth.

The word “beginning” or Be-re’shyit contains the Hebrew letters Bet, Resh, Aleph, Shin, Yod and Tav. These were originally pictographic letters {paleo} with each creating their own word. Bet is Tent/house, Resh is head/father, Aleph means leader, Shin is a set of fangs/teeth meaning piercing, Yod is a hand/arm and Tav is a set of Crossed sticks.

The full understanding of the word ‘beginning’ is now, “The head of the house of the Father, pierced by the hand, on a cross, to bring the covenant.”

This is explained to us again in Isaiah 46:10 “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.”

Psalm 22:1-6 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

• Mark 15:34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded. But I am a worm*, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

*H8438 תּוֹלָע towla` (to-law’) n-m. the crimson-grub, but used only {in this connection} of the color from it, and cloths dyed therewith. Usually in the Bible, the Hebrew word for a worm is “rimmah”, which means a maggot – but the Hebrew word Jesus used here for worm, is Towla.

The Crimson worm [coccus ilicis] is a very special worm that looks more like a grub than a worm. When it is time for the female to have babies, which she does only once in her life, she willingly climbs the trunk of a Kermes Oak tree and attaches her body.

The worm then secretes a crimson, or deep red fluid which creates a hard shell of protection for the babies. This fluid will leave a permanent stain on the tree. After the worm has attached herself and laid her eggs there is a 3 day period in which the head and the tail of the mother worm encompass the eggs forming the shape of a heart.

In order for the offspring to escape the shell becomes white like snow and softens. This is a natural shellac that now preserves the tree.

In the same way Yeshua willingly took up the cross, once for our salvation, and producing an offspring for the Father, leaving for us the protection of the Holy Spirit.