The Heavens Hear

The current National Security Advisor to the President of the United States, HR McMaster, knows something of the dangers of Isaiah 1:23 and the parallel restoration God offers three verses later. He doesn't use the biblical cadence, and neither does Patrick Radden Keefe profiling McMaster in this week's New Yorker , but the same tension pulls taunt both pages. McMaster knows what distorts the advice of counselors to the nation's highest leader. As an academic, McMaster warned in his book Dereliction of Duty of the pull to tell President Lyndon Johnson only what he wants to hear and of the dangers to a nation that can result. If rebellion and bribes tempt the princes of Isaiah 1:23 and wine addict and distract the nation's leaders in Isaiah 28:7 and Daniel 5:1-4, surely the lure of approval can be just as intoxicating. Leaders from the days of Isaiah and Daniel, and including more recent examples the 1960s to the present are capable of overemphasizing what is important...

Isaiah 1:26 English Standard Version (ESV) 26 And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.” And now we come to what all of the judgment towards the unfaithful city of Jerusalem is leading to. After God has done his work of purification through harsh scrubbing and the high heat of the smelting process, He will bring the seemingly ruined city to its intended purpose. After this the city shall be called righteousness and faithful. These attributes will shine out from it in a way that it will not be only God and his angelic host that see and speak these words, but the nations of the world will notice and see it to be true. There will be a restoration that shows in the hearts of those who hand out the judgment and wisdom to the peoples, showing the wisdom of God and making decisions based on the all the revealed attributes of God and not jus...

Isaiah 1:24-25 English Standard Version (ESV) 24 Therefore the Lord declares, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: “Ah, I will get relief from my enemies and avenge myself on my foes. 25 I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy. Isaiah, in declaring that he has a word directly from the Lord, throws more weight behind what is being said, while at the same time distancing himself from the words so that we know they are not the words of a mere man. Taking it from a typical “Thus saith the Lord” type of statement, he invokes titles that should put to rest any doubts as to where the words were coming from. Not only does he use the title Lord of hosts, showing that He holds a an army of spiritual power that is unsurpassed by all the hosts of the earth combined, but he uses the phrase “The Mighty One of Israel.” This should be an instant reminder of why Israel even exists, for apart from Go...

On The West Wing , newly elected President Josiah Bartlett faces the use of force as an abstract concept. He knows America has enemies but doesn't feel any personal animosity toward them. When an aid plane filled with actual Americans including a doctor he has met is shot down, the president wants to meet those enemies with the fury of God's own thunder. Isaiah 1 has been building to this. If there were music, it would be increasing in tempo and depth. Your sacrifices are offered halfheartedly, God charges. You show no reverence for Me, the confrontation continues, in the way you handle the human needs in front of you. You use and murder one another made in MY image. Even the highest levels of your society are rotten. Verse 24 thunders, "Therefore the Lord says, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, "Ah, I will rid Myself of My adversaries and take vengeance on My enemies." The point of human-like release of wrath has been reached. Or has it?  ...

John Gardner admitted, "All too often, on the long road up, young leaders become 'servants of what is 'rather than 'shapers of what might be.' In the long process of learning how the system works, they are rewarded within the intricate structure of existing roles. By the time they reach the top, they are very likely to be trained prisoners of the structure." The first 22 verses of Isaiah proclaim a vivid, disturbing indictment of the "what is" in Israel's culture. The problems don't start with the princes. Corruption begins in proud human hearts at every level of society. Wherever people’s offerings convince them all is well while their brothers and sisters suffer, the culture rots. The miasma flowing from this swamp is even murderous. Royalty is nearly an afterthought. This is the culture in which princes have grown up, so we aren’t shocked. With the culture's influence embodied personally by friends like thieves, can we real...

Isaiah 1:23 English Standard Version (ESV) 23 Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow's cause does not come to them. Last week I jumped the gun a bit and threw in verse 23 into my posting, putting myself ahead of my companion-in-writing. At a loss for how to spend more time on this verse it was suggested to spend some time on the phrase I used last week “the wisdom of corruption.” It was used in the context of rebelling against God and so they were seeking things from another place. When we seek wisdom from God we are exposing ourselves to guidance that often doesn't make sense. Many times it goes against what we “feel” to be right, or what we think would be best for us or our situation. Isaiah's rebellious princes have come from a long line of rulers who would seem to back and forth on where they would seek counsel or friendship. When we ...

Isaiah 1:21-23 English Standard Version (ESV) 21 How the faithful city has become a whore, she who was full of justice! Righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers. 22 Your silver has become dross, your best wine mixed with water. 23 Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow's cause does not come to them. Jerusalem, once a faithful city, built for your glory by your servant David, has through successive generations, become an unfaithful city. Once a place showing God's righteousness to the Nation of Israel and those surrounding her, has now become a spiritual ruin. The picture given of the silver and the wine show that while to appearances the city and its practices are pure and righteous, in reality they have become base, full of impurities, mixed with the water of the world. It sounds much like what Christ...

From Isaiah 1 ( New King James Version ) – 21 How the faithful city had become a harlot! It was full of justice; righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers. 22 your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water. Two of the lenses through which I tend to interpret Scripture are as thick as Coke bottle glasses, and my prescription from the Divine Optometrist may or may not be helpful to other interested parties. I am especially likely to hunt for continuity in any biblical list, or between any verse and the next, or any topic and the next. Second, I am finding that my training and work as a counselor tends to provide much of the mental furniture I move around in order to approximate ultimate meaning. Admitting this perhaps unusual disposition, I'm fascinated by Isaiah 1:21-22. Constitutionally, I'm unable to see this as simply a list of indictments, serious as sexual sin, murder, and mercantile chicanery might be. The word "attachment" lends a lurid glow from o...