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Isaiah 1:2- Hear Heavens! Hearken Earth!
Below is a portion of the commentary on Isaiah 1:2. Click here to skip to the full commentary.
Isaiah invokes the heavens and the earth to hear and bear witness of the rebellion of the House of Israel using similar words spoken by Moses more than 500 years earlier. In doing so, he brings to the mind of the Israelites the covenant their fathers made to God before they entered their land of their inheritance. “Gather unto me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers,” Moses told the Levite priests, “that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to record against them,” (Deuteronomy 31:28). Moses was directed by the Lord to “write ye this song…and teach it the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel” (Deuteronomy 31:19). So, Moses gathered the children of Israel together. To that great gathering of the Lord’s covenant children, he began the song of the Lord in these words: “Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth” (Deuteronomy 32:1).
A Prophecy and a Warning
The “song” uttered by Moses in the presence of the tribes of Israel is a prophecy and a warning dictated from the mouth of the Lord to the house of Israel (see Deuteronomy 31:16-21). Jehovah is blunt in his prophetic words and the condemnation upon the Israelites is poignant.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me and break my covenant which I have made with them. Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us?
And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods. Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel. For when I shall have brought them into the land which I sware unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey; and they shall have eaten and filled themselves, and waxen fat; then will they turn unto other gods, and serve them, and provoke me, and break my covenant. And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles are befallen them, that this song shall testify against them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed; for I know their imagination which they go about, even now, before I have brought them into the land which I sware.
Deuteronomy 31:16-21
As Moses called the tribes of Israel together to declare the song of the Lord, he foresaw the state of Israel in the last days and proclaimed, “I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands” (Deuteronomy 31:29). The word-link “latter days” connects this passage to the last days, or in other words, to our day. Moses’ use of the word “latter day” in the twilight of his life confirms that he truly intended to imply our time. He had already seen the vision from beginning to end and had used that term before. Concerning Melchizedek, Moses wrote, “And his people wrought righteousness, and obtained heaven, and sought for the city of Enoch which God had before taken, separating it from the earth, having reserved it unto the latter days, or the end of the world” (Genesis 14:34 [JST Genesis 14:34]).
You may decide to reread the quotation from Deuteronomy above, but this time read it as if the Lord is speaking about us and our people, not some distant culture or people. The Lord’s words are bitter and condemning. How intriguing that Isaiah’s calling upon heaven and earth invokes that ancient covenant and how it testifies against us “as a witness” of our wickedness.
The Broken Covenant
What was the covenant promise the Lord predicted that the house of Israel would break? What had they done (or would they do) to provoke the Lord to anger? The preamble of the Lord’s covenant begins with the following words:
These are the words of the covenant, which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb…. Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water; That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath, which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day; That he may establish thee today for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Deuteronomy 29:1, 11-13
The meat of that covenant promise comes in the next chapter. The Lord gives the following promise to those who walk in his ways and keep his commandments:
See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply; and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
Deuteronomy 30:15-16
What a wonderful and simple covenant promise! We see that promise of blessing the land and posterity throughout scripture in the ancient lands as well as the new world. Along with the covenant promises, however, comes covenant curses for those who are not faithful to the covenant:
But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live; That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him; for he is thy life, and the length of thy days; that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
Deuteronomy 30:17-20
There is a simple chiastic pattern where the covenant curse is encircled by the covenant promise in the preceding quotes… read the rest of the article here.
This is only a portion of the commentary on this verse. Click here to read the full commentary.
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