Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Isaiah 1

During my sabbatical I'm going to be reading and studying the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah lived between the years of 840 and 420 B.C.  He was the first of the major prophets.  Isaiah's name, yeshayahu means "Jehovah Saves".  Tradition says that Isaiah was sawn in two by Manasseh, the king of Judah who reigned after Hezekiah.

Some of the notes I made in the margins:
>4 kings reigned during the vision that Isaiah saw
      -Uzziah
      -Jotham
      -Ahaz
      -Hezekiah
>Verse 3 points out that sometimes animals can be smarter than we are.
>Israel continued to rebel and continued to be disciplined, over and over
>The result of their rebellion
-cities burned
-fields stripped and food stolen by foreigners
-totally desolate
>V. 9 points out the mercy of God.  "Unless the Lord Almighty had left us some survivors we                                                                      would have become like Sodom, we would have been like                                                                    Gomorrah"
>Sacrifice means nothing when you are not in sync with God (v.11-14)
>God was tired of their religious acts and rituals because their hearts were far from him
>God ignores their prayers because of their rebellion
>Some good things we should do today in the church:
-Stop doing wrong
-learn to do right  (I think it's interesting the word "learn" was used)
-Seek justice
-encourage the oppressed
-Defend the cause of the fatherless
-plead the case of the widow
>We have a choice to make.  We can be obedient and be blessed or resistant and rebellious and be devoured.
>"Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts.  They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow's case does not come before them"  Sound like D.C.?

2 comments:

Noah said...

what version of the Bible do you read?

Andy Lawrenson said...

This would happen to be the NIV

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