On giving ear…
1:10-11: Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.
Wash…, make…clean, remove…evil…, cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppresion; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. (1:15-17)
Hope of redemption:
“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: , though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. (1:18)
As for a purpose of church, 2:3 includes the concept of going to the house of God “that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.”
What is man…”of what account is he” (2:22)? “Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!” (5:21)
And even Isaiah knew that he was ‘woe’ because of his sin. Here’s a curious story of his redemptive vision detailed in 6:5-7:
And I said: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
-On the importance of being firm in the faith: “If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all” (7:9b).
-Prophecy about Jesus at the end of 7, and in ch. 9.
-Hope in 12:2: “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.”
-God’s purpose will stand (see 14:24, 27).
-God’s deliverance: “When they cry to the LORD because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them” (19:20b).
-God as refuge: “For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat;” (25:4a)
-And another on hope:
And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (25:7-9)
(all Scripture quotations from the ESV)
Filed under: Old Testament, Redemption
