Isaiah 59:1-8

The first time I was led to this passage was Trump’s first speech to the joint congress. Today it is in response to his first  reelection rally in Oklahoma.

Holy Spirit keeps calling to my mind “Be wise as the serpent but as gentle as the Dove”. Lord help us!

Isaiah 59:1-8 (evil and oppression)

59 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened,

That it cannot save;

Nor His ear heavy,

That it cannot hear.

2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God;

And your sins have hidden His face from you,

So that He will not hear.

3 For your hands are defiled with blood,

And your fingers with iniquity;

Your lips have spoken lies,

Your tongue has muttered perversity.

4 No one calls for justice,

Nor does any plead for truth.

They trust in empty words and speak lies;

They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity.

5 They hatch vipers’ eggs and weave the spider’s web;

He who eats of their eggs dies,

And from that which is crushed a viper breaks out.

6 Their webs will not become garments,

Nor will they cover themselves with their works;

Their works are works of iniquity,

And the act of violence is in their hands.

7 Their feet run to evil,

And they make haste to shed innocent blood;

Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;

Wasting and destruction are in their paths.

8 The way of peace they have not known,

And there is no justice in their ways;

They have made themselves crooked paths;

Whoever takes that way shall not know peace.

Sin strains Israel’s relationship with God to the point of total separation. Israel’s actions required the separation—it was not what God wanted. 

Paul describes separation from God as spiritual death and demonstrates that Christ’s atoning sacrifice provides the bridge over the separation created by sin. Separation from God was a common theological motif used to describe the consequences of sin. The concept there seems indebted to this passage in Isaiah. People hid their faces from the Servant in Isaiah 53:3 as a sign of rejection. Here, Yahweh is forced to turn His face away from them because He cannot look on sin. The most sought-after blessing was for Yahweh’s face to shine upon them, not be turned away. In the Psalms, the poets regularly appeal to God to stop hiding His face and answer them. 

The justice system is corrupt, with people seeking their own gain instead of doing what’s right.

Poisonous serpents signify the severity of the dangerous game the leaders were playing—they were using the justice system to entangle and trap people. Snakes were feared because their venom was deadly in most cases. In the Bible, the snake was the ultimate personification of evil due to the fall narrative of Genesis 3. In this case, wickedness is likened to hatching a plot leading to still greater wickedness. Aqash, denotes twisting and is always used to describe turning away from what is considered good or right. Deviating from righteousness is often described with the metaphor of a twisted path or crooked road. Faithlife Bible.

Calls for justice probably means to help the poor in the law courts. No one would plead the case of the poor fairly. Conceive evil and bring forth iniquity is translated “conceive trouble and bring forth futility”. The wicked power structures would prove worthless. The people run without forethought into evil. Those who deny peace to others will themselves not know peace. NKJ Bible.

Job 8:14 | Whose confidence shall be cut off, and whose trust is a spider’s web.

Job 8:15 | He leans on his house, but it does not stand. He holds it fast, but it does not endure.

Job 15:35 | They conceive trouble and bring forth futility; their womb prepares deceit.”

Isaiah 1:15 | When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.