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Isa 1:1-6:13 JUDAH AN UNCLEAN PEOPLE

God judges Judah (Isa 1:1-9)

The opening chapter introduces most of the main issues that the prophet is to deal with, and therefore is a summary of the overall message of the book. The scene is one of judgment. God is the judge, his people the accused, heaven and earth the witnesses. The charge is that Judah has rebelled against God.

Even animals are grateful for what their masters do for them, but the people of Judah show no gratitude to their heavenly Father (Isa 1:1-3).

Isaiah declares that the sinful people are more than ungrateful to God; they despise him (Isa 1:4). God has punished them repeatedly by sending enemy armies to attack them, with the aim that they see their sin and return to him.

His punishment has been so consistent that Judah is likened to a person who has been beaten and flogged till he is bruised and cut from head to toe. But Judah is still stubbornly unrepentant (Isa 1:5-8).

It would have been destroyed long ago, had not God shown mercy on account of the few faithful believers scattered throughout the nation (Isa 1:9).