Reflections on Isaiah 57

Isaiah 57 (Contemporary English Version)
1. God's faithful people are dragged off and killed, and no one even cares. Evil sweeps them away,
   
2. but in death they find peace for obeying God.
   
3. You people are unfaithful! You go to fortunetellers, and you worship idols. Now pay close attention!
   
4. Who are you making fun of? Who are you sneering at? Look how your sins have made fools of you.
   
5. All you think about is sex under those green trees where idols are worshiped. You sacrifice your children on altars built in valleys under rocky slopes.
   
6. You have chosen to worship idols made of stone; you have given them offerings of wine and grain. Should I be pleased?
   
7. You have spread out your beds on the tops of high mountains, where you sacrifice to idols.
   
8. Even in your homes you have placed pagan symbols all around your huge beds. Yes, you have rejected me, sold yourselves to your lovers, and gone to bed with them.
   
9. You smear on olive oil and all kinds of perfume to worship the god Molech. You even seek advice from spirits of the dead.
   
10. Though you tired yourself out by running after idols, you refused to stop. Your desires were so strong that they kept you going.
    
11. Did you forget about me and become unfaithful because you were more afraid of someone else? Have I been silent so long that you no longer fear me?
    
12. You think you're so good, but I'll point out the truth.
    
13. Ask your idols to save you when you are in trouble. Be careful though-- it takes only a faint breath to blow them over. But if you come to me for protection, this land and my holy mountain will always belong to you.
    
14. The LORD says, "Clear the road! Get it ready for my people."
    
15. Our holy God lives forever in the highest heavens, and this is what he says: Though I live high above in the holy place, I am here to help those who are humble and depend only on me.
    
16. My people, I won't stay angry and keep on accusing you. After all, I am your Creator. I don't want you to give up in complete despair.
    
17. Your greed made me furious. That's why I punished you and refused to be found, while you kept returning to your old sinful ways.
    
18. I know what you are like! But I will heal you, lead you, and give you comfort, until those who are mourning
    
19. start singing my praises. No matter where you are, I, the LORD, will heal you and give you peace.
    
20. The wicked are a restless sea tossing up mud.
    
21. But I, the LORD, have promised that none who are evil will live in peace.

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Isaiah describes the conditions in Israel during his day. Evil was so rampant that the only escape for the righteous was death. They stood no chance of turning their fellow countrymen away from their evil practices. Was it their evil practices that led them to idolatry or vice versa? Did they turn to idols to legitimize their evil practices pretending that their sexual orgies was a part of their religious observances? Or were the orgies already a part of the worship of idols that led them to convince themselves that such practices were legitimate?

How is it that a person will credit godly attributes to an inanimate object such as an idol of wood or stone? I suspect it has a lot to do with a desire to have a god that one understands, a god that can be manipulated and is predictible. It is not unlike having a genie that is at one's beck and call. But a god whose ways are no greater than man's, who is predictible, and can be manipulated, is a god who himself is no greater than man. God told the Israelites who had turned to such gods that when they got in trouble they should cry out to their idols and "let your collection of idols deliver you!" (57:13) Then they would see how great were their supposed gods.

The Israelites, as is the case with many of us, did not understand that God's expectations of them, which they had grown weary to observe, were actually for their own good and not simply a means of appeasing God. They became unwilling to give their lives over to God, living the life He prescribed, so they might have a better life. Instead, they gave themselves over to religious practices that required the sacrifice of their children to appease a god of man's imagination that was supposedly a wrathful god.

But God is merciful, and promises that those who return to Him and take refuge in Him will again possess "My holy mountain." The result is that those who turn to God will know peace, but "There is no peace for the wicked."