Isaiah 2:6 - Meaning and Application

The calling of the Gentiles went along with the rejection of the Jews. Their fall and decline became riches for the Gentiles, and their casting off meant the world was reconciled to God (Romans 11:12-15). These verses seem to point to that truth and to defend God’s justice in it. Yet they were likely first meant to awaken the people of Isaiah’s own day, since the prophets often spoke of present mercy and judgment as pictures of later events.

Here is Israel’s doom, and it is described with two terrible words, one at the start and one at the end of this section. First, their condition is very sad, because the Lord says, “You have forsaken your people” (Isaiah 2:6). It is a miserable thing for God to leave a people, and it must have been a great offense if he left those who had once been his own people. This became the tragic condition of the Jewish church after they rejected Christ. As Jesus said, “Your house is left to you desolate” (Matthew 23:38). When trouble came on the Jews, God could be said to have forsaken them in this sense, that he withdrew his help and protection. But God never leaves people until they first leave him.

Second, their condition is desperate, completely desperate, because the prophet says, “Do not forgive them” (Isaiah 2:9). This prayer-like statement is really a warning that they would not be forgiven, though some think it may also be read as, “and you will not forgive them.” This does not mean every individual person was beyond mercy, since many repented and were pardoned. It means the nation as a whole had received an irreversible sentence, so that the church was to be torn down, dismantled, and never again set up in the same form or given back its old standing.

Now Isaiah shows why this doom was deserved. In general, sin is what brings ruin on a people. Nothing else provokes God to forsake his people. The sins Isaiah names were common in his own day, and he mentions them to convict the people who heard him then. He is not only pointing to the later sin of crucifying Christ and persecuting his followers, though those later sins completed the account. Every age added to that dreadful record. There was also a partial and temporary rejection of the nation in the coming captivity in Babylon, which pointed ahead to their final destruction by the Romans. The sins named here directly opposed God’s kind purpose for them.

God had set Israel apart for himself as a special people, lifted above other nations (Numbers 23:9). But they were filled with influences from the east. They welcomed foreigners who had not joined themselves to the true faith, let them settle among them, and mixed with them (Hosea 7:8). Their land was crowded with Syrians, Chaldeans, Moabites, Ammonites, and others from eastern nations. Along with them, they took in those nations’ habits and customs. They delighted in the children of strangers, liked them, preferred their ways, and thought they were more polished when they copied them. In this way they dishonored both their calling and their covenant. Those who enjoy the company of people far from God are in danger of drifting away from him too, because we quickly learn the ways of those we love to be with.

God had also given them his guidance, so they could ask him for direction through the Scriptures, the prophets, and the breastplate of judgment, the priestly means for seeking God’s will. But they ignored these and became like the Philistines, who were known for diviners (1 Samuel 6:2). They welcomed fortune-tellers and people who claimed to discover hidden things or predict the future by stars, clouds, birds, animal entrails, or other magical tricks. Those who turn away from true religion are often given over to lies of this kind. Anyone who forsakes God and his mercy for false hopes is sure to be abandoned to worthless deceptions.

God had also called them to trust him, promising that he would be their wealth and strength. But they doubted his power and his promises, so they made gold their hope and trusted horses and chariots for safety (Isaiah 2:7). God had clearly forbidden even their kings to multiply horses and pile up silver and gold, because he wanted them to depend on him alone. Yet they did not think their standing with God was enough unless they had as much wealth and military strength as their neighbors. The problem is not simply having silver and gold, horses and chariots. The trouble is craving them without limit, with no end to the riches and no limit to the desire for them. The trouble is also depending on them, as if we cannot be safe or content without them, and as if we surely can be if we have them.

God himself was their God, the only one they were to worship, and he had given them ordinances for that worship. But they ignored both him and his appointments (Isaiah 2:8). Their land was full of idols, and every city had its own god (Jeremiah 11:13). Because their land was fruitful, they made beautiful images too (Hosea 10:1). Those who think one God is not enough will find two are too many, yet they were still not satisfied, because idolaters keep multiplying idols. They were so foolish and deceived that they worshiped the work of their own hands, as if something made by human skill could be a god. That made their idolatry even worse, because God had filled them with silver and gold, and then they used that very silver and gold to make idols. In this way, “Jeshurun” or “the upright one,” a name for Israel, grew fat and kicked, as Hosea says (Hosea 2:8).

God had raised them up and given them honor, but they dragged themselves down in shame (Isaiah 2:9). Even the ordinary man bowed down to his idol, which is lower than the least sensible person should stoop to. Sin brings shame on the poorest person and on people of the lowest rank. It is proper for the lowly man to bow before those above him, but it is shameful for him to bow before a piece of wood (Isaiah 44:19).

It is not only the unlearned and lowly who do this. Even great men forget their own rank, lower themselves to worship idols, treat ordinary men as if they were gods, and set apart stones, which are far beneath themselves. Idolaters are said to sink themselves down even to hell (Isaiah 57:9). How sad it is that powerful people think serving the true God is beneath them and refuse to bow before him, yet will humble themselves to kneel before an idol!

Some take this as a warning that both the lowly and the great will be brought low by God’s judgments when he sends them with authority.