Spiritual Incorrigibility (Part 2)

Pastor Bill Farrow

Isaiah 1:5-7

⁵  Why should you be stricken again?
You will revolt more and more.
The whole head is sick,
And the whole heart faints.

⁶  From the sole of the foot even to the head,
There is no soundness in it,
But wounds and bruises and putrefying sores;
They have not been closed or bound up,
Or soothed with ointment.

⁷  Your country is desolate,
Your cities are burned with fire;
Strangers devour your land in your presence;
And it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

ISAIAH 1:6

From the sole of the foot … - Or is we say, ‘from head to foot,’ that is, in every part of the body. There may be included also the idea that this extended from the lowest to the highest among the people. The Chaldee paraphrase is, ‘from the lowest of the people even to the princes - all are contumacious and rebellious.’

No soundness – A word meaning to be perfect, sound, uninjured. There is no part unaffected; no part that is sound. It is all smitten and sore. Nothing, no part of the Israelite being works as it should.  There is nothing healthy left.

But wounds - The precise shade of difference between this and the two following words may not be apparent. Together, they mean such wounds and contusions as are inflicted upon man by scourging, or beating him. This mode of punishment was common among the Jews; as it is at the East at this time. One writer says that the word rendered here “wounds” (to wound, to mutilate), means an open wound, or a cut from which blood flows. The degree of chastening has been so very extensive that there is literally no plac e on the body where there was not a wound.

Bruises - This word means a contusion, or the effect of a blow where the skin is not broken; such a contusion as to produce a swelling, and livid appearance; or to make it, as we say, black and blue.

Putrefying sores - The Hebrew rather means recent, or fresh wounds; or rather, perhaps, a running wound, which continues fresh and open; which cannot be cicatrized, or dried up. The Septuagint renders it elegantly, a swelling, or tumefying wound. The expression is applied usually to inflammations, as of boils, or to the swelling of the tonsils, etc. The idea is of an ongoing and unhealable wound, one that is chronic and has little prospect for healing.

They have not been closed - That is, the lips had not been pressed together, to remove the blood from the wound. The meaning is, that nothing had been done toward healing the wound. It was an unhealed, undressed, all-pervading sore. The art of medicine, in the East, consisted chiefly in external applications; accordingly the prophet’s images in this place are all taken from surgery. Sir John Chardin, in his note on Prov. 3:8, ‘It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones,’ observes, that the comparison is taken from the plasters, ointments, oils, and frictions, which are made use of in the East in most maladies. ‘In Judea,’ says one writer, ‘they have a certain preparation of oil, and melted grease, which they commonly use for the healing of wounds.’ Compare Isa. 38:21.

Neither mollified with ointment - Neither made soft, or tender, with ointment. Great use was made, in Eastern nations, of oil, and various kinds of unguents, in medicine. Hence, the good Samaritan is represented as pouring in oil and wine into the wounds of the man that fell among thieves (Luke 10:34); and the apostles were directed to anoint with oil those who were sick; (James 5:14; compare Rev. 3:18).

Ointment - Hebrew oil. The oil of olives was used commonly for this purpose. The whole figure in these two verses relates to their being punished for their sins. It is taken from the appearance of a man who is severely, beaten, or scourged for crime; whose wounds had not been dressed, and who was thus a continued bruise, or sore, from his head to his feet. The cause of this the prophet states afterward, (Isa. 1:10 ff). With great skill he first reminds them of what they saw and knew, that they were severely punished; and then states to them the cause of it. Of the calamities to which the prophet refers, they could have no doubt. They were every where visible in all their cities and towns. On these far-spreading desolations, he fixes the eye distinctly first. Had he begun with the statement of their depravity, they would probably have revolted at it. But being presented with a statement of their sufferings, which they all saw and felt, they were prepared for the statement of the cause. To find access to the consciences of sinners, and to convince them of their guilt, it is often necessary to remind them first of the calamities in which they are actually involved; and then to search for the cause. This passage, therefore, has no reference to their moral character. It relates solely to their punishment. It is often indeed adduced to prove the doctrine of depravity; but it has no direct reference to it, and it should not be adduced to prove that people are depraved, or applied as referring to the moral condition of man. The account of their moral character, as the cause of their calamities, is given in Isa. 1:10-14. That statement will fully account for the many woes which had come on the nation. What is in view here is that their character, as discussed in a moment, has resulted in very real and very extensive damage to them as a people, as a nation before God.  All of this is inflicted by God in His attempt to bring them back to faith and back to obedience.