Jehovah Revives the Spirit of the Lowly Ones, Chapter Eighteen

"THIS is what the High and Lofty One, who is residing forever and whose name is holy, has said: "In the height and in the holy place is where I reside, also with the one crushed and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly ones and to revive the heart of the ones being crushed.' " (Isaiah 57:15) So wrote the prophet Isaiah in the eighth century B.C.E. What was happening in Judah that made the message so encouraging?  How do these inspired words  help Christians today? A consideration of Isaiah chapter 57 will  help us answer those questions.

"You Men, Come up Close Here"

This part of Isaiah's prophecy seems to apply in Isaiah's own day.  Consider how entrenched wickedness has now become:  "The righteous one himself has perished, but there is no one taking it to heart. And men of loving-kindness are being gathered  to the dead, while no one discerns that it is because of the  calamity that the righteous one has been gathered away.  He enters into peace; they take rest  upon their beds, each one that is walking straightforwardly." (Isaiah 587:1,2)  If a righteous man  falls, no one cares.  His untimely death goes unnoticed.  Falling asleep in death brings him peace, release from the suffering inflicted by  the ungodly, and escape from calamity.  God's chosen nation has sunk to a deplorable state.  But how  those who remain faithful must be encouraged to know that Jehovah not only sees what is going on but will support them!

Jehovah summons the wicked generation of Judah saying:  "As for you men, come up close here, you sons of a soothsaying woman, the seed of an adulterous person and of a woman that commits prostitution."  (Isaiah 57:3)   They have well earned such shameful descriptions as sons of soothsayer and offspring of an adulterer and of a prostitute.  The false worship  to which they have turned includes disgusting acts of idolatry and spiritism as well as  immoral sexual practices.  Hence, Jehovah asks these sinners:  "Over whom is it that you have a jolly good time? Against whom do you  keep opening wide the mouth, keep sticking out the tongue? Are you not the children of transgression, the seed of falsehood, those who working up passion among big trees, under every luxuriant tree, slaughtering the children in the torrent valleys under the clefts of the crags?" -Isaiah 57:4, 5.

The wicked ones  of Judah practice their shocking pagan worship openly having "a jolly good time."  They scornfully mock God's prophets who have been sent to  correct them, sticking out their tongues in a shameless disrespectful gesture. Although they are children of Abraham, their rebellious ways make them children of transgression and the seed of falsehood.  (Isaiah 1:4; 30:9; John 8:39, 44)  Out among the big trees in the countryside, they stir up religious   fervor in their idolatrous  worship. And what cruel worship!  Why, they even slaughter their own children, lie the nations whose detestable ways led to their being driven off the land by Jehovah! -1 Kings 14:23; 2 Kings 16:3, 4; Isaiah 1:29. 

Next time: Pouring Out a Drink Offering to Stones

From the Book Isaiah's Prophecy Light for all Mankind, Volume II, 2001