A Seven-fold Condemnation

Pastor Bill Farrow

Isaiah 1:4 –

Alas, sinful nation,
A people laden with iniquity,
A brood of evildoers,
Children who are corrupters!
They have forsaken the LORD,
They have provoked to anger
The Holy One of Israel,
They have turned away backward.

1. They are Sinful Corporately

2. They are heavily and profoundly laden with Iniquity

3. The have passed that iniquitous nature on to their children

4. Their children have enlarged on and carry on their sins.

5. They have forsaken God

6. They have ignored His holy nature and have provoked Him to wrath

7. They have gone in directions opposite of what He intended and in which they ought have gone.

Ah! sinful nation - The word rendered ‘ah!’ is not a mere exclamation, expressing astonishment. It is rather an interjection denouncing threatening, or punishment. ‘Woe to the sinful nation.’ The Vulgate, the Latin version of the Bible says: ‘Vae genti peccatrici.’ underscoring the sinfulness of the condition and the coming punishment that is due because of it. The corruption pertained to the nation, and not merely to a part. It had become general. This is no longer the fault of the leadership, or of the Priests and Rabbis, it is the fault of the entire nation.  It is true that the people on go as the leadership leads, but there comes a time, when leadership is so very corrupted, that their sin becomes so obvious and clear that the “average” person is more than able to spot it and when the common person becomes responsible before God for their own condition.  Of course, people are responsible for their own condition, ultimately, before God at all times, but we are speaking of a more general, corporate situation here and thus we see that the leadership bears a huge responsibility before God, but that a given point, the corruption ceases to be a matter of the leadership only, becomes an affliction of the entire nation.  Of course there is an application to our own nation here.  Have we gotten to this point?  Is the “average person” in America so corrupted by the vices our leaders have led us into that we are now approaching the kind of national guilt that Israel was guilty of at the time of Isaiah?  It is certainly worth pondering!

Laden with iniquity - The word translated “laden” denotes properly anything “heavy,” or burdensome; it is from a word that means “to be heavy.” It means that they were oppressed, and borne down with the “weight” of their sins. Thus we say, Sin sits “heavy” on the conscience. Thus Cain said, ‘My punishment is greater than I can bear;’ (Gen. 4:13). The word is applied to an “employment” as being burdensome; (Exo. 18:18): ‘This thing is too “heavy” for thee.’ (Num. 11:14): ‘I am not able to bear this people alone; it is too “heavy” for me.’ It is applied also to a “famine,” as being heavy, severe, distressing. (Gen. 12:10): ‘For the famine was “grievous” in the land;’ (Gen. 41:31). It is also applied to “speech,” as being heavy, dull, unintelligible. (Exo. 4:10): ‘I am “slow (heavy)” of speech, and of a slow (heavy) tongue.’ It is not applied to sin in the Scriptures, except in this place, or except in the sense of making atonement for it. The idea however, is very striking - that of a nation - an entire people, bowed and crushed under the enormous weight of accumulated crimes.

To pardon iniquity, or to atone for it, is represented by bearing it, as if it were a heavy burden. (Exo. 28:38, 43), ‘That Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things.’ (Lev. 10:17): ‘God hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the congregation.’ (Lev. 22:9; 16:22; Num. 18:1; Isa. 53:6): ‘Jehovah hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.’ (Isa. 53:11): ‘He shall bear their iniquities.’ (1 Pet. 2:24): ‘Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.’

A seed – From a word meaning to sow, to scatter, or to disperse. It is applied to seed sown in a field; (Judg. 6:3; Gen. 1:11-12; 47:23); to plants set out, or engrafted; or to planting, or transplanting a nation. Isa. 17:10: ‘And thou shalt set it (shalt sow, or plant it) with strange slips.’ Hence, it is applied to children, posterity, descendants, from the resemblance to seed sown, and to a harvest springing up, and spreading. The word is applied by way of eminence to the Jews, as being the seed or posterity of Abraham, according to the promise that his seed should be as the stars of heaven; (Gen. 12:7; 13:15-16; 15:5, 18; 17:7, … )

Children - Hebrew sons - the same word that is used in Isa. 1:2. They were the adopted people or sons of God, but they had now become corrupt.

That are corrupters – From a word meaning to destroy, to lay waste, as an invading army does a city or country; (Josh. 22:33; Gen. 19:13). To destroy a vineyard; (Jer. 12:10). To break down walls; (*Ezek. 26:4). Applied to conduct, it means to destroy, or lay waste virtuous principles; to break down the barriers to vice; to corrupt the morals. (Gen. 6:12): ‘And God looked upon the earth, and it was “corrupt” - for all flesh had “corrupted” his way - upon the earth;’ (Deut. 4:16; 31:29; Judg. 2:19). They were not merely corrupt themselves, but they corrupted others by their example. This is always the case. When people become infidels and profligates themselves, they seek to make as many more as possible. The Jews did this by their wicked lives. The same charge is often brought against them; (see Judg. 2:12; Zeph. 3:7).

They have provoked - They have despised the Holy One;’ (compare Prov. 1:30; 5:12; 15:5). The Vulgate says: ‘They have blasphemed.’ The Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament says: ‘You have provoked him to anger.’ The meaning is, that they had so despised him, as to excite his indignation.

The Holy One of Israel - God; called the Holy One of Israel because he was revealed to them as their God, or they were taught to regard him as the sacred object of their worship.

They are gone away backward - ‘They have turned their backs upon him.’ The word rendered “they are gone away,” means properly, to become estranged; to be alienated. (Job. 19:13): ‘Mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.’ It means especially that declining from God, or that alienation, which takes place when people commit sin; (Ps. 78:30).