Isaiah 1:3 - Rebellious Sons
ISAIAH 1:2-3 -
The Lord lays it right out in the very beginning: our rebellion is the crux of the Lord’s anger and catalyst
for the Lord to fulfill his covenant promises with the house of Israel. It is prophesied hat once
the people of God rebel against the Lord , or “when the
Gentiles shall sin against my Gospel, and shall reject the fulness of my
Gospel,” the Lord will “bring the fulness of my Gospel from among them” (3
Nephi 7 [16:10]) and remember his covenant to “preach good tidings unto the
meek,” and “bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and
the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that
mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion; to give unto them beauty for
ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of
heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of
the Lord, that he might be glorified” (Isaiah 61:1-3).
A Sinful Nation
The children of Israel, though God’s covenant sons and
daughters, rebelled anciently against the Lord. In modern days, the covenant
children follow a similar pattern. The Lord made evidence of this in our day at the very onset of the establishment of his new church: “And
your minds in times past have been darkened because of unbelief and because you
have treated lightly the things you have received, which vanity and unbelief
hath brought the whole church under condemnation. And this condemnation resteth
upon the children of Zion, even all, and they shall remain under this
condemnation until they repent and remember the new covenant, even the book of
Mormon, and the former commandments which I have given them, not only to say
but to do according to that which I have written that they may bring forth
fruit meet for their Father’s kingdom, otherwise there remaineth a scourge and
a judgment to be poured out upon the children of Zion, for shall the children
of the kingdom pollute my holy land? Verily, I say unto you, Nay” (D&C 4:8 [84:54-59]).
Isaiah says, “Ah sinful nation, a people laden with
iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters; they have forsaken
the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone
away backward” (Isaiah 1:4). Avraham Gileadi interpreted this passage as a
generational decline in spiritual devotion. “A regression occurs from his
people’s simply going ‘astray’ to their burdening themselves with ‘sin,’ which,
over time, ends in outright ‘wrongdoing.’ That occurs collectively and
generationally. The ‘offspring of wrongdoers’ turn into ‘perverse children,’
meaning that the rising generation has by now become thoroughly corrupt. ’Forsaking’
Jehovah and ‘spurning’ him finally become conscious and deliberate acts.”[1]
By Ones and Twos
The reference to an ox, or bull, and an ass are symbolic in
suggesting that these animals, clean and unclean, know to whom they belong, but
the Lord’s own children cannot or do not align with their God. The ox, a kosher
animal according to the Law of Moses, is a symbol of a pure or clean individual
who is of a covenant lineage of the house of Israel, a true descendant of
Abraham. Notice how Isaiah only references one bull or ox, and not many. This
is symbolic that one clean or pure Israelite here or another there does know
his or her Owner, or He that bought or purchased (קנהו
) him with His blood, though the covenant people at large are estranged from
the Lord.
This theme is repeated throughout Isaiah that men or women are called
out one by one, “Hearken unto me, ye that follow after righteousness; ye that
seek the Lord, look unto the rock from whence ye were hewn, and to the hole of
the pit from whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto
Sarah that bare you; for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him”
(Isaiah 51:1-2).
Likewise, the ass, or he-ass (חמור ), a non-covenant
individual or unclean because he or she is not of the covenant lineage, will
also know where to take his rest, where the home of his Master is, whom
he will come to know and serve. “Neither let the son of the stranger, that
hath joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated
me from his people…. Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them
joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall
be accepted upon mine altar” (Isaiah 56:3,7). Yet those who should know the
Lord rebel against him, those who have received everything at his hand:
knowledge, power, influence, inheritance, spirit, testimony, wealth, etc.
Contrasting the general apostacy of the Lord’s people that
“have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger,
they are gone away backward” (Isaiah 1:4; emphasis added), one of the
Lord’s servants, his end-time servant, says, “The Lord God hath appointed mine
ears, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back” (Isaiah 50:5;
emphasis added), continuing the theme of how one individually comes to the Lord
and his covenant. In both these scriptures above, Isaiah uses the word back or backward
(אחור
) as imagery of regression or turning away from the Lord. While Israel is
regressing into transgression, this end-time servant, and others like him, move
forward in faith despite the persecution that would come because he follows in
the footsteps of the Lord: “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to
them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting, for
the Lord God will help me” (Isaiah 50:5 [50:6-7]).
Though we may be of the covenant children of Christ, we are
not assured a place in his kingdom because of our lineage or our affiliations.
It is only through obedience to and belief in Jesus Christ that will assure us
a place in that glorious kingdom. John made this point very clearly when to the
Pharisees and Sadducees he said, “O, generation of vipers! Who hath warned you
to flee from the wrath to come? Why is it that ye receive not the preaching of
him whom God hath sent? If ye receive not this in your hearts, ye receive not
me; and if ye receive not me, ye receive not him of whom I am sent to bear
record, and for your sins ye have no cloak. Repent, therefore, and bring forth
fruits meet for repentance, and think not to say within yourselves: We are the
children of Abraham and we only have power to bring seed unto our father
Abraham, for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up
children into Abraham” (Matthew 3:33-36 [3:7-9]).
Note that stones are symbolic of common or uncovenanted people, unlike the precious stones god uses to later build his holy house. “I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones” (Isaiah 54:11-12). This goes back to the very first idea that if we, the precious stones, the gems and jewels of God, do not conform to the will of the Lord but rebel, then we will be replaced by common stones (see above). Even while others may gradually regress or outright forsake or reject the Lord, let us be vigilant in our obedience to Christ.
[1]
Gileadi, Avraham. Isaiah Explained. http://www.isaiahexplained.com/1#commentary.