School Sabbath

New Personality (Isa. 6:5–7)

At the sanctuary/temple, only the high priest could approach the presence of God in the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement and only with a protective smokescreen of incense, or he would die (Lev. 16:2, 12, 13). Isaiah saw the Lord, even though he was not the high priest, and he was not burning incense! The temple filled with smoke (Isa. 6:4), reminding us of the cloud in which God’s glory appeared on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:2). Awestruck and thinking he was finished (compare Exod. 33:20; Judg. 6:22, 23), Isaiah cried out with an acknowledgment of his sin and the sin of his people (Isa. 6:5), reminiscent of the high priest’s confession on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:21).

“Standing, as it were, in the full light of the divine presence within the
inner sanctuary, he realized that if left to his own imperfection and inefficiency, he would be utterly unable to accomplish the mission to which he had been called.”—Ellen G. White, Prophets and Kings, p. 308.

Why did the seraph use a live, or burning, coal from the altar to cleanse Isaiah’s lips? (Isa. 6:6, 7.)
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The seraph explained that through touching the prophet’s lips his
guilt and sin were removed (Isa. 6:7). The sin is not specified, but
it need not be limited to wrong speech, because lips signify not only
speech but also the entire person who utters it. Having received moral
purification, Isaiah was now able to offer pure praise to God.
Fire is an agent of purification, because it burns away impurity (see
Num. 31:23). But the seraph used a coal from the special, holy fire of
the altar, which God Himself had lighted and which was kept perpetually
burning there (Lev. 6:12). So, the seraph made Isaiah holy, as well
as pure. There is more. In worship at the sanctuary, or temple, the main
reason for taking a coal from the altar was to light incense. Compare
Leviticus 16:12, 13, where the high priest is to take a censer full of coals from the altar and use it to light incense. But in Isaiah 6, the seraph applies the coal to Isaiah rather than to incense.

Whereas Uzziah wanted to offer incense, Isaiah became like incense! Just as holy fire lights incense to fill God’s house with holy fragrance, it lights up the prophet to spread a holy message. It is no accident that in the next verses of Isaiah 6 (Isa. 6:8 and following) God sends Isaiah out to His people.

Read prayerfully Isaiah’s response (Isa. 6:5) to his vision of God.
How do we see in it an expression of the basic problem, that of
a sinful people existing in a universe created by a “ ‘Holy, holy,
holy’ ” God? (Isa. 6:3, NRSV). Why was Christ on the cross the
only possible answer to this problem? What happened at the
cross that solved this problem?

Royal Commission (Isa. 6:8)

“Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send,
and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me” (Isa. 6:8).

Having been purified, Isaiah immediately responded to God’s call
for a representative whom He could send out on His behalf. In New
Testament terms, Isaiah would have been called an apostle; that is, “one who is sent.”

Interestingly enough, the book of Isaiah does not begin, as do some other prophetic books, with the prophet describing his prophetic call (compare Jer. 1:4–10, Ezekiel 1–3). In other words, he must have already been called to be a prophet, even before the events of chapter 6. The Bible does show that a divine encounter can encourage a prophet even after the ministry has begun (Moses: Exodus 34; Elijah: 1 Kings 19). In contrast to other examples, too, where God tells people they are to be prophets, in Isaiah 6 the prophet volunteers for a special mission. It appears that chapters 1–5 of Isaiah represent conditions at the time when Isaiah was first called, after which God jump-started his ministry by encouraging him at the temple and reconfirming his commission as God’s prophetic spokesman.

God encouraged Isaiah at His temple. Is there evidence elsewhere in the Bible that God’s sanctuary is a place of encouragement? (Read Psalm 73 (see Ps. 73:17), Heb. 4:14–16, Heb. 10:19–23, and Revelation 5.) What do these texts tell us?
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Not only does God’s sanctuary throb with awesome power but also
it’s a place where weak and faulty people such as ourselves can find
refuge. We can be reassured by knowing that God is working to rescue
us through Christ, our High Priest.
John also saw Christ represented as a sacrificial lamb that had just
been slaughtered, its throat slit (Rev. 5:6). This was not a pretty sight.
The description makes the point that although Christ was raised from
the dead and has ascended to heaven, He continually carries the Cross
event with Him. He is still lifted up in order to draw all people to
Himself at His altar.
How have you found encouragement by entering God’s heavenly
temple, by faith, in prayer? Hebrews 4:16 invites you to approach
God’s throne boldly to “receive mercy and find grace to help in
time of need” (NRSV). If someone were to ask you how you have
found grace and mercy in your time of need, how would you
respond?

Appalling Appeal (Isa. 6:9–13)

When God recommissioned Isaiah, why did He give the prophet such a strange message to take to His people?(Isa. 6:9, 10.)
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Lest we should think that Isaiah heard wrong or that this message
is unimportant, Jesus cited this passage to explain why He taught in
parables (Matt. 13:13–15).
God does not want any to perish (2 Pet. 3:9), which explains why He
sent Isaiah to the people of Judah—and Jesus to the world. God’s desire is not to destroy but to save eternally. But while some people respond positively to His appeals, others become firmer in their resistance.

Nevertheless, God keeps on appealing to them in order to give them more and more opportunities to repent. Yet, the more they resist, the harder they become. So, in that sense, what God does to them results in the hardening of their hearts, even though He would rather that these actions soften them.

God’s love toward us is unchanging; our individual response to His love is the crucial variable.
The role of a minister, such as Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, or even
Christ, is to keep on appealing, even if people reject the message. God said to Ezekiel: “Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them” (Ezek. 2:5, NRSV). God’s role and that of His servants is to give people a fair choice, so that they will have adequate warning (compare Ezek. 3:16–21), even if they end up choosing destruction and exile (Isa. 6:11–13).

With these ideas in mind, how do we understand God’s role in hardening Pharaoh’s heart?

In Exodus 4:21, God says, “ ‘but I will harden his heart’ ” (NRSV).
This is the first of nine times when God said He would harden
Pharaoh’s heart. But there also were nine times when Pharaoh hardened his own heart (for example, see Exod. 8:15, 32; Exod. 9:34).

Clearly Pharaoh possessed some kind of free will, or he would not
have been able to harden his own heart. But the fact that God also hardened Pharaoh’s heart indicates that God initiated the circumstances to which Pharaoh reacted when he made his choices, choices to reject the signs God had given him. Had Pharaoh been open to those signs, his heart would have been softened, not hardened, by them.

In your own experience with the Lord, have you ever felt a
hardening of your heart to the Holy Spirit? Think through what
caused it. If you didn’t find that concept frightening then (after
all, that’s part of what having a hard heart is all about), how do
you view it now? What is the way of escape? (See 1 Cor. 10:13.)

Further Thought: “Iniquitous practices had become so prevalent
among all classes that the few who remained true to God were often
tempted to lose heart and to give way to discouragement and despair.
It seemed as if God’s purposes for Israel were about to fail and that
the rebellious nation was to suffer a fate similar to that of Sodom and
Gomorrah.
“In the face of such conditions it is not surprising that when, during
the last year of Uzziah’s reign, Isaiah was called to bear to Judah God’s
messages of warning and reproof, he shrank from the responsibility. He well knew that he would encounter obstinate resistance. As he realized his own inability to meet the situation and thought of the stubbornness and unbelief of the people for whom he was to labor, his task seemed hopeless. Should he in despair relinquish his mission and leave Judah undisturbed to their idolatry? Were the gods of Nineveh to rule the earth in defiance of the God of heaven?”—Ellen G. White, Prophets and  Kings, pp. 306, 307.

Discussion Questions:

 If a skeptic or an atheist were to challenge you with the question,
“How can you show that your God is in charge?” what would
you answer?
 If God is in charge, why do innocent people suffer? Does Isaiah
1:19, 20 mean that in the present life only good things are supposed
to happen to God’s faithful people and only bad things happen to
those who rebel? (Compare with Job 1, 2, Psalm 37, Psalm 73.) Can
we reconcile our understanding of God’s character with the bad
that happens to people? Do we need to?
 In Isaiah 6, why are there so many connections to the Day of
Atonement? Consider the fact that on this yearly judgment day
God purified His people by cleansing sin from loyal ones (Lev.
16:30) and purging out the disloyal (Lev. 23:29, 30).

Summary: At a time of insecurity, when the weakness of human leadership was painfully obvious, Isaiah was given a grand vision of the
supreme Leader of the universe. Petrified by inadequacy but purified
and empowered by mercy, Isaiah was ready to go forth as God’s ambassador into a hostile world.

Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study: Isa. 1:1–9, Isa. 1:10–17, Isa. 1:18,
Isa. 1:19–31, Isa. 5:1–7.

Memory Text: “ ‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the
Lord, ‘though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as
snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool’ ”
(Isaiah 1:18, NKJV).

Lost in the land of forgetfulness. If you drive in Ireland along a narrow
country lane lined with hedgerows, you may find the way blocked by a herd of cows ambling home after a crunchy meal.
Even if no herdsman is with them, they will go to their owner’s barn.
They will know where, and to whom, they belong.
If a small boy in a store gets separated from his mother and yells,
“I’ve lost my mommy!” he may not know exactly where he is, or where
his mother is, but amid a sea of mothers walking through the store, he
will know the one mother who, alone, is his own.

Sad to say, unlike even those Irish cows (much less the little lost
boy), the Judaeans forgot that they belonged to the Lord, their heavenly Lord, and thus lost their true identity as the covenant people. “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people do not understand” (Isa. 1:2, 3, NRSV).

This week we’ll take a look at God’s work to restore His people to
Himself.

“Hear, O Heavens!” (Isa. 1:1–9)

The book of Isaiah briefly introduces itself by identifying the author
(“son of Amoz”), the source of his message (a “vision”), and his topic
(Judah and its capital, Jerusalem, during the reign of four kings). The
topic also identifies Isaiah’s primary audience as the people of his own
country during the time in which he lived. The prophet spoke to them
concerning their own condition and destiny.
By mentioning the kings during whose reigns he was active, Isaiah
narrows down the audience and ties the book to the historical, political
events of a certain period. This time frame directs us to the accounts of
2 Kings 15–20 and 2 Chronicles 26–32.

Read Isaiah 1:2. What is the essence of the message here? What is the Lord saying? How has this same idea been seen all through sacred history? Could it be said of the Christian church today, as well? Explain your answer.
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Notice how Isaiah’s message begins with the words “Hear, O heavens,
and listen, O earth” (NRSV; compare Deut. 30:19, Deut. 31:28).
The Lord isn’t implying that heaven and earth, themselves, can hear
and understand. Instead, He does it for emphasis.
When an ancient Near Eastern king, such as a Hittite emperor,
made a political treaty with a lesser ruler, he invoked his gods as
witnesses to emphasize that any violation of the agreement would
surely be noticed and punished. However, when the divine King of
kings made a covenant with the Israelites in the days of Moses, He
did not refer to other gods as witnesses. As the only true God, He
called, instead, for the heavens and earth to fulfill this role (see also
Deut. 4:26).

Read carefully Isaiah 1:1–9. Summarize on the lines below what
the sins of Judah were. Take special note, also, of the results
of those sins. What was Judah guilty of, and what happened
because of her guilt? At the same time, what hope is presented
in Isaiah 1:9?
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Rotten Ritualism (Isa. 1:10–17)

Read Isaiah 1:10. Why do you think he was using the imagery of
Sodom and Gomorrah? What point was the Lord making?
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Read Isaiah 1:11–15. What is the Lord telling the people there? Why
did the Lord reject the worship that His people were offering Him?
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The same hands that offered sacrifices and were lifted up in
prayer were “full of blood”; that is, guilty of violence and oppression
of others (Isa. 1:15; Isa. 58:3, 4). By mistreating other members
of the covenant community, they were showing contempt for
the Protector of all Israelites. Sins against other people were sins
against the Lord.
Of course, God Himself had instituted the ritual worship system
(Leviticus 1–16) and designated the Jerusalem temple as the appropriate
place for it (1 Kings 8:10, 11). But the rituals were intended
to function within the context of the covenant God had made with
these people. It was God’s covenant with Israel that made it possible
for Him to dwell among them at the sanctuary/temple. So, rituals
and prayers performed there were valid only if they expressed
faithfulness to Him and His covenant. People who offered sacrifices
without repenting from unjust actions toward other members of the
covenant community were performing ritual lies. Thus, their sacrifices
were not only invalid—but they also were sins! Their ritual
actions said they were loyal, but their behavior proved they had
broken the covenant.
Read Isaiah 1:16, 17. What is the Lord commanding that His
people do? How do these verses, in this context, parallel what
Jesus said in Matthew 23:23–28? What message can we find for
ourselves today in these texts and in the context in which they
are given?
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The Argument of Forgiveness (Isa. 1:18)

Read Isaiah 1:18. After going over it numerous times, write what you
believe the Lord is saying here (read a few verses beyond it to get
the whole context).
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God has provided powerful evidence that the Judaeans, the accused,
are guilty of breach of contract (Isa. 1:2–15), and He has appealed
to them to reform (Isa. 1:16, 17). This appeal suggests there is hope.
After all, why urge a criminal deserving execution to change his
ways? How could a prisoner on death row “rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan, plead for the widow” (NRSV)? But when God says
“Come now, let us argue it out” (Isa. 1:18, NRSV), we can see the
Lord still seeking to reason with His people, still seeking to get them
to repent and turn from their evil ways, no matter how degenerate
they have become.
The Lord says to them that “Your red sins shall become white.” Why
are sins red? Because red is the color of the “blood” (blood guilt) that
covers the hands of the people (Isa. 1:15). White, by contrast, is the
color of purity, the absence of blood guilt. Here, God is offering to
change them. This is the kind of language King David used when he
cried out to God for forgiveness for his sin of taking Bathsheba and
destroying her husband (read Ps. 51:7, 14). In Isaiah 1:18, God’s argument is an offer to forgive His people!

How does God’s offer of forgiveness serve as an argument for them to
change their ways? (Compare Isaiah 1:18 to Isaiah 44:22.)
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Now we see the purpose of God’s sharp words of warning against
His people. They are not to reject His people but to bring them back to
Him. His offer of forgiveness is the mighty argument supporting His
appeal for the people to purify themselves morally (Isa. 1:16, 17). His
forgiveness makes it possible for them to be transformed by His power.
Here we see the seeds of the “new covenant,” prophesied in Jeremiah
31:31–34, in which forgiveness is the basis of a new-heart relationship
with God. We start off “in the red,” owing a debt we can never repay.
From the humble position of acknowledging our need for forgiveness,
we are ready to accept everything God has to give.

To Eat or Be Eaten (Isa. 1:19–31)

Read Isaiah 1:19–31. What theme appears here that is seen all through
the Bible?
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Notice the logical structure in Isaiah 1:19, 20: If the people choose to be willing and obedient to God, they will eat the good of the land (Isa. 1:19).
By contrast, if they refuse His offer of forgiveness and restoration and rebel against Him, they will be eaten by the sword (Isa. 1:20). The choice is theirs. These verses, then, contain a conditional blessing and curse.
Isaiah 1 reiterates and applies the words of Moses recorded in Deuteronomy 30:19, 20 at the time when the covenant with the nation of Israel was set up: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses” (NRSV).

Look at those words from Moses. Notice, there is no middle ground. It is either life or death, blessings or curses. Why do you think there is only one of two choices for us? Why can’t there be some sort of compromise?
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These words of Moses summarize the series of warnings, blessings, and
curses that conclude the formation of the covenant in Deuteronomy 27–30 (compare Leviticus 26). Elements of this covenant include (1) the recounting of what God had done for them, (2)  Conditions/stipulations (commandments) to be observed in order for the covenant to be maintained, (3) reference to witnesses, and (4) blessings and curses to warn people what would happen if they violated the covenant conditions.

Scholars have found that these elements appear in the same order in
political treaties involving non-Israelite peoples, such as the Hittites. So,
for establishing God’s covenant with the Israelites, He used a form they would understand and would impress upon them as forcefully as possible the nature and consequences of the mutually binding relationship into which they were choosing to enter. The potential benefits of the covenant were staggering, but if Israel broke their agreement, they would be worse off than ever.

In your own Christian walk, how have you experienced the principle
of blessings and curses as seen above?
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Ominous Love Song (Isa. 5:1–7)

Read the song in the above verses. What is the meaning of this parable?
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God explains the meaning of the parable only at the end, in Isaiah
5:7. By using a parable, He helps the people to look at themselves
objectively in order to admit their true condition. God effectively used
this approach with King David (see 2 Sam. 12:1–13). By calling this
a “love-song” (NRSV), God reveals at the outset His motive toward
His people. His relationship with them originates from His character,
which is love (1 John 4:8). He expects a response of love in return. But
instead of “grapes,” He gets “wild grapes,” which means, in the Hebrew, “stinking things.”
What does the Lord mean when He says in Isaiah 5:4, “What more
was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?” (NRSV).
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God says in the next verses: “And now I will tell you what I will do
to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will
break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a
waste” (Isa. 5:5, 6, NRSV).
When we sin, God does not immediately cut us off from Himself by
removing His protection and destroying us. He patiently gives us an opportunity
to receive forgiveness (see 2 Pet. 3:9). He does not cut off anyone
who responds to Him. He appeals as long as there is hope for a response.
He does not immediately take no for an answer, because He knows we
are ignorant and deceived by sin. But if He gets nowhere with us, He
ultimately acknowledges our choice and lets us remain the way we have
chosen to be (see Rev. 22:11).
If we persistently reject God’s appeals through His Spirit, we can
eventually pass the point of no return (Matt. 12:31, 32). Turning away
from Christ is dangerous (Heb. 6:4–6). There is only so much God can
do, because He respects our free choice.

Take the concept found in Isaiah 5:4, about “What more could
have been done to My vineyard” (NKJV), and look at that in light
of the Cross, where God offered Himself as a sacrifice for our sins,
paying with His flesh for our violation of His law. What more could
have been done for us than what He did there? How does dwelling
on the Cross give us assurance of salvation and motivate us to
repent and change our ways?