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Isaiah, Prophet of Salvation, part 21

Link #4: Isaiah 5:20 and Matthew 23:27

In Matthew 23:27, 28 Jesus says,

²⁷ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed sepulchers which on the outside appear beautiful but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. ²⁸ So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness [anomia].

Their outward show of righteousness was designed to hide their inward “uncleanness,” so that they could call evil good and good evil. Elsewhere the scribes and Pharisees were called wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15). Dressed in wool, the wolves were calling themselves good when in fact they were evil.

So Isaiah condemns Jerusalem, saying, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness” (Isaiah 5:20). Likewise, the leaders had either changed the law, reinterpreted it to allow the desires of the flesh to have their way, or simply ignored it altogether.

Link #5: Isaiah 5:21 and Matthew 23:29

Isaiah 5:21 is short and includes no explanation:

²¹ Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.

I explained this earlier by connecting it with Matthew 23:29, 30,

²⁹ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, ³⁰ and say, “If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.”

Their wisdom and cleverness were earthly and soulish, not heavenly and spiritual. Scripture does not doubt their mental intelligence but their ability to hear the word and to interpret it according to the mind and intent of the Lawgiver.

The chief evidence is the fact that many generations of people in Jerusalem had killed the prophets. Their hearts did not change over time. It was only after the prophets were safely dead and buried that they were honored, for then they were able to interpret their writings according to the darkness of their own hearts. The prophets were no longer in the position to correct their misinterpretations.

Hence, when the Messiah came on the scene, most of the scribes and Pharisees were unable to hear His words. The main difference was that after killing Him, they failed to honor Him as they did the earlier prophets. Perhaps this is because they knew that He had been raised from the dead and was an ongoing threat to their belief system. They were unable to adopt Him as one of their own, as they tried to do with the other prophets.

This woe comes with more explanation in Matthew 23:31-33,

³¹ So you testify against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. ³² Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. ³³ You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell [gehenna]?

They were about to fill up the measure of their fathers by killing the Messiah. This was a Hebrew idiom picturing sin as a slow drip into a measuring cup. Divine judgment would come only after the cup was full and overflowing, as with the “Amorites” in Genesis 15:16 KJV.

The destruction of Jerusalem was thus imminent, brought about by their final rejection of the Messiah. Jesus had much to say about the city’s coming destruction, but after being destroyed in 70 A.D., it was later “repaired” and rebuilt. Hence there is yet a greater fulfillment coming, one which will figuratively cast the city into gehenna, where, according to Jeremiah 19:10, 11, it will never again be rebuilt.

Link #6: Isaiah 5:22 and Matthew 23:23

Isaiah 5:22, 23 condemns the people of Jerusalem for perverting justice by taking bribes, drinking on the job, and denying the people their God-given rights. Jesus’ woe in Matthew 23:23, 24 condemned Jerusalem for the same thing, saying,

²³ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. ²⁴ You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.

Those who had planted a few spices around the house were supposed to tithe even that, said the Pharisees. Jesus did not condemn such tithes, but He clearly showed that the religious leaders were nitpicking while abandoning the things that God thought were truly important. Gnats were unclean creatures, and the people were not supposed to eat them, but gnats can be quite persistent, and it can be difficult to keep them out of one’s mouth. To be “righteous,” the people often took pains to cover their mouths to “strain out a gnat,” but they readily swallowed camels (also unclean).

Such was their hypocritical subversion of “justice and mercy and faithfulness.” It is important to know what the law says about both justice and mercy, for there are laws regulating both. The law is not only about justice. The sacrificial laws, for example, were laws of mercy, for they provided a way of absolving sin by transferring the penalty to an innocent animal.

Another example of mercy is seen in the law of restitution. Normal restitution was to pay double that which had been stolen (Exodus 22:4). However, if a person repented and confessed his sin on his own, without first being caught and tried, he only had to return the stolen item and pay one-fifth of its value in restitution (Numbers 5:6, 7). The law is thus merciful to the repentant.

Jesus’ emphasis on faithfulness is not well understood by most people, because they do not know the connection between faith and truth. But the Hebrew word for faith (aman) means “to believe, to have faith, truth.” One’s faith is only an illusion apart from truth, for if a man believes a lie, it is not biblical faith. Hence, when Jesus spoke of faithfulness in connection with justice and mercy, He was referring primarily to truth.

In a court of law, all three are necessary to judge matters. There must be justice, but the judge must also know how mercy can be applied lawfully. And none of these are possible without knowing the truth through the testimony of witnesses. Faith comes by hearing the word of Christ, Paul says in Romans 10:17, because the word of Christ testified of the truth. So it is with all judgment. Testimony under oath is spoken, and when we hear truth, we believe (have faith in) what has been spoken.

Jerusalem had subverted justice, mercy, and faithfulness to the truth, and for this reason, they would soon crucify the Messiah, even as the city had killed the prophets. The fleshly nature of the city, its leaders, and its people, had not changed significantly since the days of Isaiah. For this reason, Paul identified the earthly city as being “Hagar” and its citizens “children of the flesh” (Romans 9:8; Galatians 4:29).

Instead of trying to make Jerusalem’s Ishmaelites into the heirs of the Kingdom, we ought to show them how to become children of Sarah. This involves a renunciation of Hagar. One must “cast out the bondwoman and her son” (Galatians 4:30). This is done by being begotten by the Spirit, so that we may become true sons of God.