Isaiah 1-5… After writing about Hezekiah, I was thinking about the good old USA. “UNITED WE STAND.” This was the motto for our nation after the 9/11 attacks. The word “united” means “to bring together so as to form a whole, to combine (people) in attitude or action, to be built or combined into a unit, to join and act together in a common purpose or endeavor, fused together as of one mind.”
Listening to news commentators and interviewers, I find that the nation seems to be more divided than ever. I do not believe that America is doomed and marked for immediate destruction, but I do see fearful times facing our nation. The Old Testament prophets do describe corrupt societies, and what faces them when there is no repentance. The prophets also tell how God appeals to nations to return to Him. There are solutions to our problems. Godly principles founded America and made it a great nation. There must be a return to those principles.
The first five chapters of Isaiah tell of a nation in trouble and rebellion, and this is also a picture of what is going on in America. Judah, in Isaiah’s time period, was in rebellion against God. It was a pleasure-seeking and materialistic society, and it was idolatrous and morally corrupt. Let’s look at the signs of “a nation in trouble.”
Isaiah 1:1-15… a nation in trouble and rebellion, and a nation filled with empty religion…
Isaiah 1:16-20… a nation that needs to repent…
Isaiah 1:21-23… a nation with a corrupt seat of government…
Isaiah 1:24-2:5… a nation that can yet be restored…
Isaiah 2:6-7… a nation filled with eastern and foreign religions and a nation with materialistic designs and militarism…
Isaiah 2:10-22… a nation with strange philosophies…
Isaiah 3:1-15… a nation with blind and vain leadership, and a nation that abuses its poor…
Isaiah 3:16-4:1… a nation with self-oriented women…
Isaiah 4:2-6… a nation that seeks hope in the house of the Lord….
Isaiah 5:1-6… a nation that gets God’s warnings…
Isaiah 5:7-10… a nation whose mentality is that of making enormous profits, often at the expense of others…
Isaiah 5:11-12… a nation with high alcohol consumption and partying without any regard to God…
Isaiah 5:13-17… a nation who will yet see the results of its rebellion…
Isaiah 5:18-23… a nation whose thinking has been corrupted…
Isaiah 5:24-30… a nation whose judgment is coming…
After Isaiah sees all this prophetically, he goes into the temple in chapter 6 and sees God in all His glory and holiness. Isaiah repents, comes out touched by God, with a message of healing.
It’s the Christians that are to blame for the troubles of our nation, and it’s the Christians who need to repent (2 Chronicles 7:12-22), not the sinners… those will repent in due time.
Pastor George Belobaba
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