Tag Archives: righteousness in Isaiah

Righteousness the Second Look

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In this post, I want to focus on a repeating theme and technique. The theme is dark to light, and I will call the technique “what is and what will be”. In Isaiah I have noticed several of these sections, especially in Chapters 1 – 4. I am sure there are others as usual have your Bible open.

“What is” gone is the righteous relationship the people had with their God, this cascades very quickly to a loss of right legal standing before God and the mistreating of people. 1:13 of Isaiah speaks of offerings and incense that mean nothing because they choose to do evil things (vs.16) and neglect the important things found in verse 17. Verse 21, again, states that justice and righteousness have been replaced with murderers. This first “what is” section goes from 1:1 to 1:23. I see the “what will be” starting in vs. 24 and going through 31 or possibly 2:5. For me, verses 1:26 and 27 are the core of this second part, when Jerusalem will be renamed the “City of Righteousness and the Faithful City”.

This thought is fenced in with vs.24 and what is labeled 2:1. At times it is easy to overlook the “declares, and the Lord says” parts of the text because they may not fall at the beginning of a chapter. These declarations and introductions were added by the Holy Spirit to indicate units of thought from the Father and how they were given to the prophets. They should not be overlooked.

Ah, Chapter 2! To finish this post and show another example of dark to light, I need to work from Chapter 2 to 4. I see 2:1 to 3:15 as being a unit because of “declares the Lord”, then 3:16 to 4:1 as a “dark” unit and “4:2 to 6 as a light unit. Did Isaiah do some editing and strategic planning? 2:1-5 is very much a “will be” section. Starting in verse 6 it sounds like Isaiah is talking to God about Israel. Notice the thought is “their” land. Verse 12 starts a repeated idea that is found in the rest of Isaiah and many other prophetic books – “The Day”. This “dark” section of 2:6 to 4:1 ends with the coming of the “Branch of the Lord”. 4:5 and 6 is the recreation of the Pillar of Cloud and Fire that covered Israel for forty years.

In the dark, right relations with God and man break down and it becomes a judicial matter for God.

When light comes so does proper judicial conduct and proper relationships with God and our fellow man. This is the righteousness that God wants.

Here is a study help. The “H” numbers are from the Strong’s Concordance.

Isaiah 1:26 Hebrew Text Analysis (biblehub.com)