The book of Isaiah was written some 2700 years ago to the Jewish people, during a time when the Jewish people had begun to question God’s presence. You see, this generation of Jewish people had heard of the stories of God presence as He delivered the Jewish people from slavery at the hands of the nation of Egypt. This generation of Jewish people had heard the stories of God’s presence as He led the Jewish people into the land that He had promised to give them. This generation had heard the stories of God’s presence with King David as the Jewish people had become the most powerful and prosperous nation on the planet. This generation had heard the stories of when King Solomon had built the temple and God’s presence so filled the temple that no one was able to even enter it.
However, the generation of Jewish people in Isaiah’s day was not experiencing God’s presence in their lives. To this generation, God seemed to be distant and disinterested. This generation was not seeing God’s presence and activity in their lives. There were unanswered prayers. There was a decline in the health and the wealth of the nation. There was a sense that the nation was on the decline and that God was nowhere to be found. And it is in this context that we enter into this section of this letter. And it is in this section of this letter that we will discover why God’s presence is so desperately elusive and so desperately needed. So let’s look at this section of this letter together, beginning in Isaiah 59:1:
Behold, the LORD'S hand is not so short That it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear.Here we see the prophet Isaiah responding to the cries and frustrations of the Jewish people of his day. The Jewish people had recognized that God’s presence was not longer present. And the Jewish people responded to the fact that God’s presence was no longer present by questioning God’s nature and character. The Jewish people were questioning whether or not God was able to deliver and rescue them from the difficulties and challenges that they were beginning to experience. The Jewish people were questioning whether or not God was even paying attention to their situation. The Jewish people were questioning and beginning to think that God had changed; that God was the problem.
Maybe you can relate to these questions. Maybe you find yourself asking whether God is real and active. Maybe you find yourself in a place where God is not present. Or maybe God has never felt present in your life. Isaiah responds to the Jewish people questioning the nature and character of God in this verse by stating “God has not changed and God has not moved. God was the same God that was present and active throughout the history of the Jewish people. God was still able to rescue and deliver. God was still paying attention to the Jewish people. And today, God is still the same. God is still fully aware and fully capable of engaging and acting. The problem was not and is not with God. Now your initial reaction to what I just said is this: “Well, if that is the case, then what is the problem”? Isaiah reveals the problem in the very next verse:
But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.Isaiah simply and clearly replies that God is not the one with the problem; no, Jewish people you are the ones with the problem. And the problem is your selfishness and rebellion. You see, after King Solomon had built the temple and finished his reign as king, the Jewish people and culture began to slide further and further away from God. Instead of living in relationship with God, the Jewish people selfishly rebelled against God. Over time the Jewish people increasingly were involved in actions and attitudes of omission and commission that flowed from selfishness and rebellion and that hurt God and others. And that is what Isaiah and the Bible refers to as iniquity and sin.
And as a result of the selfishness and rebellion of the Jewish people, the Jewish people were guilty of having a problem with God. A problem that Isaiah states resulted in separation between the Jewish people and God. God’s presence was not longer present because selfishness and rebellion had created a division and void. Notice Isaiah’s words: “your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear”. In other words, Isaiah is saying “don’t blame God; because God is not the one who moved. You Jewish people have moved. God is not playing hide and seek; you are playing hide and seek. God is not paying attention to you and God’s presence is no longer present because you are too busy running from God and running to selfishness and rebellion.
And in the same way today, the reason why God’s presence is not present is not because God has changed or moved. The reason why God’s presence is not present is because we have moved; we have rejected the relationship with God that we were created for and instead chosen to run from God and run to selfishness and rebellion. Now a potential objection that might be raised here is “how am I running from God and running to selfishness and rebellion? How is it my fault that God’s presence is not present in my life?” Isaiah, anticipating this objection from the Jewish people of his day, provides the answer in Isaiah 59:3-8:
For your hands are defiled with blood And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken falsehood, Your tongue mutters wickedness. No one sues righteously and no one pleads honestly. They trust in confusion and speak lies; They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. They hatch adders' eggs and weave the spider's web; He who eats of their eggs dies, And from that which is crushed a snake breaks forth. Their webs will not become clothing, Nor will they cover themselves with their works; Their works are works of iniquity, And an act of violence is in their hands. Their feet run to evil, And they hasten to shed innocent blood; Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, Devastation and destruction are in their highways. They do not know the way of peace, And there is no justice in their tracks; They have made their paths crooked, Whoever treads on them does not know peace.In these verses, see Isaiah reveal to the Jewish people that the reason that they were to blame for the fact that God’s presence was not present was because the actions of their hands, the attitudes of their heads, and the desires of their hearts were consumed by their selfishness and rebellion. And the product of the Jewish people’s selfishness and rebellion was trouble, wickedness and sorrow. Isaiah paints a word picture of an adder and a spider web to drive this point home.
Now an adder is an extremely poisonous snake that inhabits the region that the Jewish people resided. And regardless of the age or stage of life, any encounter with an adder usually resulted in death. Here Isaiah is revealing for us the reality that just like an adder, the selfishness and rebellion of the Jewish people gave birth, or produced the death or separation of the Jewish people from the presence of God.
Isaiah then paints a word picture of a coat made of spider web. Now, putting on a coat made from spider web may initially provide a snug fit that would never lose its clinginess. The problem, however, is that such a coat would never lose its clinginess. In other words, once you have clothed yourself in a spider web coat, it is difficult to take off that coat. And in the same way, if you try to clothe yourself in selfishness and rebellion, it is difficult to be freed from its grasp.
And that is exactly what the Jewish people had done. The Jewish people had embraced and were now ensnared in a life and a lifestyle of selfishness and rebellion that hurt God and others and separated them from God’s presence being present in their lives.
Tomorrow, we will see the prophet reminds the Jewish people of the impact of their selfishness and rebellion and reveal for us a timeless principle when it comes to Christmas.
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