"A Warning to the Religious"

As we continue our overview of the book of Isaiah we come to the second piece of the meta-narrative: the fall. Isaiah was written to a people who were very comfortable in their religiosity. They were happy with the temple, happy with the status quo, and felt that their religious behavior before God was the thing that set them apart. They were a people who were unjust, socially, economically, they put their trust in political power and intrigue, primarily that of the nations surrounding them to whom they were called to be different. They couldn’t imagine it crashing down, and then Isaiah showed up on the scene. Isaiah preached a message of coming judgment to the religious ,to the powerful ,he preached a righting of wrongs to the downcast and the humble. He promised that God was not satisfied in outward show but in inward heart change and that the scales of justice would be made right. And no one listened. His message was not going to be received. The people would not hear him. They would not see their hypocrisy and turn and be healed. A remnant would be saved, yet the vast majority would reject his message of judgement and repentance and trust in their pride and religious institutions. And this is why Isaiah is so timely for us today.