Isaiah 1:10 - The Show of Our Countenance
ISAIAH 10 - Hear
the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye
people of Gomorrah.
Jehovah compares his covenant children to the wickedness of
Sodom and Gomorrah. “The show of their countenance doth witness against them; and
doth declare their sin to be even as Sodom, they cannot hide it. Woe unto their
souls! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves. Say unto the righteous,
that it is well with them; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings” (Isaiah 3:9-10). Not only is this a telling
statement, but a grave condemnation. Throughout scripture, the destruction of
the wicked has been compared to the Lord’s annihilation of the
inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, and if the Lord is calling us by that
appellation, he is foreshadowing our utter destruction and foretelling our
utterly depraved spiritual state. And save it be for the righteous among us, we
would be utterly destroyed: “Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very
small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto
Gomorrah” (Isaiah 1:9).
Jehovah spoke with Abraham concerning the impending
destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. “But the men of Sodom becoming sinners and
exceedingly wicked before the Lord, the Lord was angry with them.” (Genesis 13:11).
Abraham asked the Lord, “Wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked? Wilt
thou not spare them?” Abraham negotiated with the Lord to spare Sodom and
Gomorrah if there be even just ten righteous people. “And the Lord said, I will
not destroy them for ten’s sake” (Genesis 18:25, 40). Yet ten righteous people were not
found within either city and they were obliterated, none surviving save
only Lot and his daughters, and note how the Lord removed the righteous from
the wicked to perform his judgment. If the Lord is comparing our wickedness to
that of Sodom and Gomorrah, pray that there still be at least a few righteous
among us that we not be annihilated. Pray there are more that survive the fire
than did the flood!
The Lord prophesied of his second coming to the disciples
anciently as they asked when he would come again. Just as Isaiah compares us to
Sodom and Gomorrah, the Lord similarly compared us to those in the days of Noah
before the flood:
“But of that day and hour no one knoweth; no, not the
angels of God in heaven, but my Father only. But as it was in the days of Noah,
so it shall be also at the coming of the Son of man. For it shall be with them
as it was in the days which were before the flood; for until the day that Noah
entered into the ark, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in
marriage, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away; so shall
also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall be fulfilled that which is
written, that, In the last days, Two shall be in the field; the one shall be
taken and the other left. Two shall be grinding at the mill; the one taken and
the other left. And what I say unto one, I say unto all men; Watch, therefore,
for ye know not at what hour your Lord doth come.” (Matthew 24:43-49 [JST
Matthew 1:40-46]).
What is our spiritual state? Are we righteous like Abraham and Lot, or will we be condemned like the people of Solomon and Gomorrah?