Isaiah 1:1-4 - Even the Donkey Knows Better - 272

A prophet opens court and calls the cosmos to the stand. We kick off our Isaiah series with a vivid walk through chapter 1, where God’s case against Judah exposes not only ancient failure but the patterns we repeat today: empty motions, stubborn hearts, and a drift from relationship to ritual. The scene is bracing—oxen and donkeys know their masters, yet people with promises forget the One who raised them.

We lay the groundwork for the whole series by situating Isaiah in real history, from Uzziah to Hezekiah, as empires rise and pressures mount. Then we trace the legal and relational threads: Deuteronomy 30’s choice between life and death, covenant faithfulness as more than law-keeping, and lament as a path to healing rather than despair. Along the way, we unpack core themes—“the Holy One of Israel,” communal and habitual sin, and the irony that creation obeys instinct while humans resist revealed love. The message cuts and consoles at once: justice confronts, mercy invites.

This episode is part exposition, part heart check. Expect clear explanations, cross-references that illuminate the text, and practical takeaways for prayer, repentance, and reordering your loves. If you’ve ever wondered how prophetic books speak to daily life, this opening chapter shows the map: identity, indictment, lament, and the open door to return. Listen in, follow along in the ESV if you can, and consider what “choose life” looks like in your week.

If this helps you think and live with purpose, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review so others can find the series. Your reflections matter—tell us which verse challenged you most and why.

Chapters

• 0:00 Prophets Unplugged Premise
• 1:30 Show Intro And New Series
• 2:43 Format, Resources, And ESV Notes
• 5:20 Historical Setting Of Isaiah
• 7:40 Isaiah 1:1 As Book Heading
• 10:20 Courtroom Scene: Heavens And Earth
• 13:00 Deuteronomy 30: Choose Life Or Death
• 18:10 From Sinai To Today’s Choices
• 20:50 Ox And Donkey: Knowing The Master
• 25:00 Jeremiah’s Mirror And Human Stubbornness
• 28:00 Lament Over A Sinful Nation
• 36:00 Summary And Personal Call To Return
• 37:50 Closing Beliefs And Ministry Sign-Off

Transcript

Daniel Moore: 0:07

Welcome to our first episode of what we're gonna call this week Prophets Unplugged. That's the podcast where ancient wisdom meets modern ears, and every once in a while we're gonna shake our head in dismay at the Israelites because how could they be so stupid? Well, today we're diving into Isaiah chapter 1, where the prophet doesn't exactly ease in with a gentle hello. Nope, Isaiah kicks things off like a divine courtroom drama. And uh spoiler alert here, Israel is definitely on trial. I mean, think of it like this: you know, God is the parent, Israel is the rebellious teenager, and Isaiah is the very frustrated family counselor trying to bring everyone back to the table. There's talk of stubborn donkeys, bruised bodies, burnt cities, and honestly, it's more intense than a season finale of your favorite drama series. But don't worry, it's not all fire and brimstone, there's also a powerful imitation to turn things around. To stop going through the motions and start living with purpose. So grab your coffee and maybe a notepad, and let's start to unpack Isaiah chapter 1, where divine justice meets a call for mercy, and yes, even prophets get a little dramatic. Let's get to it. Welcome to Connecting the Gap. This is a podcast about marriage, public studies, and we interview people that have a story. I'm Daniel Moore, your host. Thank you guys for joining us this week. If not through with our show, check out our website at the www.connectingthegap.net. Our platforms are there, YouTube and Rumble Links. We're also on the Christian Podcasting app at Edifi. And we're also on your Alexa and Google Smart Devices. You can also visit us on social, on Facebook, Instagram, and X at CTGapOnline. If you're a fan of our show, please subscribe. Feel free to leave a comment on our platforms and give us a thumbs up or a five-star review in Apple Podcast. And we'd be thankful to you for doing that. Also, as Minister here, we also have a new book out. It's called Marriage is a Mission, Living Out God's Design for Marriage. You can pick up your copy of the paperback at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. And in addition, you can also get it in a hardback format in Kindle. And we also have a six-session study guide, and those can be purchased exclusively on Amazon. So go pick yours up today and check it out. Maybe if you enjoy that and it helps you out, pass it on to a friend or a family member that could probably use that as well. And we just pray that it'll be a blessing to you. Well, this week we are going to be starting a brand new series. We've got a little bit of new sound to our podcast. We're changing our format up a little bit and gonna kind of do a little bit of a refresh as we start into this new series. The series is going to go for quite a while. Last week we did the intro and I talked a little bit about it, but we're gonna be going through the book of Isaiah, and we're gonna be going as far as we can. I'm gonna try to keep these around 30 minutes or so, maybe a little bit, you know, longer sometimes possibly, but I'm gonna try to keep them a little shorter. And so I don't know how many verses we'll get through because we're gonna try to pack a lot of extra stuff in as we go along in areas where we can. And I just want to make this as educational as possible for all of you that are listeners. I Isaiah is a kind of a difficult book, really, in a lot of ways to try to understand. It has tons of symbolism uh in it and just a lot of language that's figurative and symbolic. And so uh it's kind of hard for some people to understand it. And so I just want to take it nice and slow and easy, just try to explain it the best that I possibly can, and the way that God would have me to do that, and we'll be rabbit trailing off into different areas of the Bible occasionally to kind of pull some things together as we go through Isaiah. Overall, I just hope that you enjoy this series and I hope that you learned something from it. And if you know anybody that's a lover of this book in the Bible, please tell them about this so that they can join in as well and learn with us each and every week as we go through the book of Isaiah here on Connecting the Gap. So as we get started here this week with the first episode here of our new series in Isaiah, we're going to of course start with Isaiah chapter 1, verse 1. And as I get ready to start this, I do want to make you aware that I am a big ESV fan. And so most of my scriptures I'm going to be taking throughout this whole series is going to come from the ESV. I do like uh other translations as well, and sometimes I'll probably use some of those possibly as a backup view of some of the scriptures we may go through. Um but if you're going to follow along with me and take notes and use your Bible, if you don't have an ESV version, then you'll probably need to get into the Bible app or Bible Gateway and utilize their copies of the ESV. And that way you can see the exact verses that I'm reading as I'm reading these as we go through this study. So I just wanted to put that out there that real quick here before we got started. That way you wouldn't be lost here right off the bat as soon as I start reading verse one here in just a second. That way you'll know kind of where I'm coming from on all of this. So we're going to go ahead and get started. We'll see how far we can make it. Like I said, we're going to try to keep these episodes within about a 30-minute time frame, roughly, give or take just a little bit. So we'll go ahead here and get started. So as we open up Isaiah, we turn to chapter 1, verse 1. It starts like this it says, The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. So this verse actually does serve as the opening heading for the entire book of Isaiah. And the term vision here encapsulates not just visual revelations, but also oracles or divine messages, you could say, received by the prophet. So Isaiah's prophecies in Isaiah are directed primarily at Judah and its capital city Jerusalem, rather than the northern kingdom of Israel. And so we're going to be dealing with throughout this first chapter for sure, here as we go, we're going to be dealing with the vision that Isaiah received from God. So as we break up these episodes each week, and we have to stop and then come back the next week to continue this. Always keep in mind, and I'll try to remind you, but to keep in mind as we're going along here that this is a vision that Isaiah is sharing. And you may have to go back and read some of the prior verses on some of the other episodes to try to keep track of all of this as we go through it. Isaiah chapter 1 is a little bit of an extensive, long chapter. So we'll do our best here, though, to keep all of these things locked together. Now, the time frame here is critical as Isaiah ministered during the reigns of Uzziah, which was about 792 to 740 BC. And he also ministered during Jotham's reign of 750 to 735 BC, roughly, and then overlapping with his father. And then Ahaz was reigning from 735 to 715, and Isaiah was also overlapping Hezekiah from about 715 to 686 BC for his kingdom reign. And we of course talked a little bit about that last week in our intro. And during these times, they were tumultuous. They were times that were very politically and spiritually charged. There was just a lot going on. And the Israelites, the you know, Judah, they had just taken their eyes off of God. And God was allowing them to be punished. And as we go through Isaiah, you're going to see how God is pleading with them constantly to try to get them to come back. He's offering that redemption, he's offering payment for their sin if they would just turn back to him. And this is a continuing conversation that goes on between God and the kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem through the prophet Isaiah. So during this time, the Assyrian Empire was on the rise, and this was, of course, taking place during Isaiah's ministry. The northern kingdom of Israel would end up being destroyed, and that was around 722 BC, and that was during the reign of King Ahaz. And then Judah itself faced intense pressure. So Isaiah, who again was the son of Amos, and don't forget, we do have a book in the Bible named Amos, that's AMOS the prophet, that's not the same person. Isaiah's dad was Amos with a Z. He is believed to have come from a nobler, possibly royal background, which would explain his frequent access to kings and political matters. And we talked a little bit about that last week as he was a cousin to Uzziah. So as we start off here in verse 1, basically it's letting us know that this is a vision that Isaiah is receiving, and he's going to be delivering this to Judah and Jerusalem. As we move on to Isaiah chapter 1, verse 2, we see Judah pretty much go on trial. The scripture goes, Hear O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken. Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. So here this verse begins the prophetic oracle with a formal call to witnesses. So it's starting to look like a little bit like a courtroom here in the setting. The heavens and the earth are the witnesses that are being called up in this vision. And Judah will recognize this as this is echoing the covenantal language that's found in Deuteronomy. So by invoking these witnesses, Isaiah positions his message within the legal framework of the covenant that was established between God and Israel at Sinai. And you can see all about that in Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 19. And actually what we're going to do, we're going to go ahead and float over to Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 19, and we're going to take a quick look at that here. So that verse in Deuteronomy says, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live. So this verse here in Deuteronomy chapter 30 is a part of Moses' final address to the Israelites before they enter the promised land. Deuteronomy is essentially a covenant renewal document where Moses reiterates God's laws and urges the people to remain faithful to the covenant made at Mount Sinai. Chapter 30 here in Deuteronomy is a climactic moment in this address where Moses presents a clear choice to the people life and prosperity through obedience, or death and adversity through disobedience. So years before Moses had the Israelites at Mount Sinai, giving them all of these laws, setting these covenants in place between them and God, and even at that time, they had their choice to make, just like we do today. They had a choice of life and prosperity through obedience to God. If they would follow God's precepts, follow his laws, follow the path that God set them on, then they would have life. They would have prosperity in everything around them. And of course, in essence, at the end, they would have eternal life. But if they chose to go their own way and let pride rise up inside of them, let Satan put the blinders on and cause them to uh get distracted from the plan that God had for them in each of their lives, then they were going to make a choice at that point. They were going to be choosing death and adversity because they would at that point being disobedient towards God. And so when Isaiah is bringing this back up here in verse 2 of chapter 1, it's repeated this way about the heaven and earth being a witness because the Israelites would recognize, you know, Judah would recognize what was being said there because of what happened here at Mount Sinai. So the setting of Mount Sinai when they had these covenants given to them was in the plains of Moab, which was just east of the Jordan River. So in Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 19, Israel's on the verge of entering Canaan, just to put the setting here. And Moses, knowing that he will not enter with them, delivers a series of speeches to prepare them for going into the promised land. And if you remember Moses, the reason that he didn't get to go in, God instructed him to do a couple of things to reprimand the Israelites while they were wandering around aimlessly in the desert. Moses had went to Egypt and rescued them out of Egypt with the help of God. And God was taking them through the desert, giving them cloud by day and fire by night to lead them to all the different places, but they were grumbling, they were complaining. They were actually not uh keeping their faith in God like they should have been. And because of that, they were wondering aimlessly which they would end up doing for 40 years because of their disobedience. And Moses, out of anger and desperation a few times, when God would tell him to do some things, like one instance, he told him to uh take his rod and strike a rock once to let the water flow so that they would have water because they were grumbling, they were thirsty, they were hungry. And Moses got mad and pretty much put a beaten on the rock. And uh that with a couple other things, God said, Moses, you know, you're not going into the Canaan land. You're not going to be able to go with them. So Deuteronomy 30 here is part of the third and final speech where Moses speaks of the blessings of obedience and the consequences of rebellion. So the invocation here of heaven and earth as witnesses is a common motif in ancient Near Eastern treaties where natural elements were often called upon to bear witness to covenants. This shows the solemnity of the moment and the seriousness of the choice that's being presented. Moses sets before the people a moral and spiritual choice, life and death, or blessing and curse. The terms are not merely about physical survival, but they encompass the totality of the covenantal faithfulness and that relationship that God was calling them to between him and the Israelites. You know, when they would choose life, it meant that they were choosing to love, obey, and cling to God. As if you move on to verse 20 in chapter 30, there in Deuteronomy, it's expanded and explains that a little bit more, which results in life for them and their descendants. Matthew Henry, who's a well-known commentator, he notes that Moses urges the people to consider the consequences of their actions. He writes that the matter is fairly stated, life and death, good and evil, are set before them. The blessing and the curse are explained and enforced by the most powerful motives. Matthew Henry emphasizes that God's commandments are not burdensome, but they are for the people's good. God has good that's going to come out of that. And Moses was trying to instill in the Israelites at this time that God has your best interest in mind. If you would only just be obedient, he just called them to obedience. John Gill, another well-known commentator, highlights the covenantal nature of the choice. He writes, Heaven and Earth are called to witness as enduring and unchangeable and as being affected by the conduct of men. He also points out that the choice is not merely a passive decision, but an active turning toward God. So heaven and earth, even though the topography might change of what the earth looks like, the the heavens may change according to what clouds are floating by or whatever it may be, they're still a constant. They're there. They don't go away, they don't change. And by calling them to be a witness, that shows that they would be a permanent witness of that covenant between God, so that just to solidify with the Israelites that this is something that's put into place that's not ever going to change. This passage is the conclusion of the exhortation to obedience, the choice between life and death. It's not only a legal formality, but a deeply personal and communal decision. Now they're being called to love the Lord, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments. If they did that, that would mean that they were choosing life, just like we do, when we do those same things that God has called us to. So this verse in Deuteronomy basically encapsulates the covenant theology that runs throughout Deuteronomy, which is this that obedience brings blessing and life, disobedience brings curse and death. It also reflects the heart of the Mosaic Law. It's not merely a legal code, but a call to re to relational fidelity with God. The appeal to choose life, it's not just a command, it's actually an invitation. And what is God inviting them to? This was a promise God was putting upon all of them. And though that that was spoken to ancient Israel back then, as I've kind of stated here a couple of times, that principle remains relevant today. You know, the call to choose life continues to resignate as an invitation to align with God's will, leading to spiritual vitality and blessing. It emphasizes human responsibility and responding to God's revealed will and the impact of our choices on ourselves and future generations. And if you look through even the New Testament, God has many, many promises there that shows that if we just follow the plan that He set before us, that we will be blessed in many ways. And of course, we're not doing this just for a blessing. We're doing it because we love the Lord. That's the whole reason that we follow him like we do. God rewards us for that. And so it's always important to keep that in mind whenever uh Satan comes up against us and starts throwing these options, these whys in the road, these forks in the road, and we have to start deciding which way are we going to go. Well, you can never fail if you follow the path that God has set before you, as he has blessings in store for you and into your generations to come. So here in verse 2, God speaks as a father who has raised his children. And when he says, Children have I reared, he's referencing to Israel and Judah when he's speaking that. And of course, as he's raised them up, he was met with rebellion. The notion of divine parenthood, that highlights both God's love and Judah's ingratitude. And as we go throughout chapter one here, we're going to be elaborating more on that. The rebellion here refers to idolatry, social injustice, and covenant-breaking behavior that characterized Judah during this era. As we move along here a little further into this chapter, they're going to start being compared to Sodom and Gomorrah. I mean, the things that they were doing was completely evil at this time of Isaiah. And God was very disappointed. He was very sad with a broken heart, basically, if you see, uh try to understand the way that God felt towards this whole situation. So that's kind of the essence and the background there of using Deuteronomy chapter 32, uh, where it was stated to for the heavens to give ear, and God would speak, and let the earth hear the words of his mouth, that those are unchanging words that God was speaking. And if you go to Hosea chapter 11, verses 1 and 2, it also shows a similar father-child theme, and of course, Israel's rebellion. As we talked last week, Hosea is another prophet that was actually speaking, you know, against Israel's rebellion and things that they were partaking in. And if you look at Exodus 4, verse 22, uh, that's another place that solidifies Israel and refers to them as God's firstborn son. These people were very close and very dear to God's heart. And the things that they were doing, was he was not happy with them at all because of that rebellion that they had introduced into the kingdom there of Israel. As we move on to verse three, it says, The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand. So this verse here is very interesting. It offers a powerful illustration through a little bit of irony. You know, Isaiah uses common domesticated animals, the ox and the donkey, to shame Israel. Even these lowly animals recognize and respond to their master's care, but God's chosen people have failed to acknowledge him. You know, if if you are on a farm or if you've ever worked on a farm or own a farm, you'll know that the ox and the donkey, they're probably two of the most stubborn animals that you could own. Now, a lot of animals will have stubborn streaks in them, there's no doubt about that. But when you think of the ox and the donkey, the first thing that usually comes to mind is the fact that they're stubborn and they're rebellious. But those two animals, they still know who their owners are, and their owners can still get them to do the things that they ask them to do. They might be stubborn for a little bit and they might have to tap them a little with, you know, the stick or whatever it may take to get them moving right along. But even those animals recognize and respond to their master's care. But on the flip side of that, here we have human beings that God has created in his image. He's given them this promise of blessings, and at this point in their lives, they are not even acknowledging God. It's like they don't even know him. The term know here in the scripture conveys more than cognitive awareness. It implies a relational understanding, it implies loyalty and recognition. You know, Israel's failure is not ignorance, it's not that they don't know who God is, they've never been told. It's not that they're not fully aware of what these covenants were and that they were supposed to be keeping them, it has nothing to do with that. What it comes down to is Israel is there, they have a willful rejection here. And this theme is going to recur throughout Isaiah. As we move through chapter to chapter, you're going to see how no matter how much they get talked to by Isaiah, they continue to willfully reject God and to choose to not acknowledge Him. So the implication here, when it's talking about how stubborn and rebellious they are, it's very stark. The people that God nurtured and loved, they in essence are behaving worse than animals. Another cross-reference here that we can go to to kind of to dig this just a little bit deeper for you guys and give you a little bit more context is in Jeremiah chapter 8, verse 7. You know, in Jeremiah, when he was going after Israel, he said this even the stork in the heavens knows her times, and the turtle dove, the swallow and the crane, they keep the time of their coming. But my people, they know not the rules of the Lord. So here, this verse is part of a prophetic lament, and as you know, Jeremiah was the weeping prophet, and he actually wrote the book of Lamentations, which is just full of laments. But here it's part of a prophetic lament where God, through the prophet Jeremiah, rebukes the people of Judah for their spiritual ignorance and the rebellion. So now not only is did Isaiah do it, but Jeremiah, another prophet, was also hammering on them as well. And this verse uses a comparison from nature to highlight the irrational behavior of God's people. Here Jeremiah contrasts the instinctual obedience of migratory birds with the disobedience of the people of Judah. You know, birds like the stork, the turtle dove, the swallow, and the crane, they instinctively follow the seasons and know when to migrate. You know, when it starts getting cold out and it's start, especially here in the Midwest where I live, you'll start seeing the Canadian geese fly over. They'll start flying south for the winter when it's starting to get cold. They know when the winter's coming. These are animals. I mean, they don't have a mind like we do, they don't have the education that we have, but yet the way that God has created them, they know when they're supposed to do what they do. They act according to their natural order and the timing that God has built into creation. But here again, in contrast, God's own people of Judah, who have been given his law and instruction, who are supposed to be fully aware of what God's expecting of them, fail to recognize or follow his guidance. The phrase in this verse, knows not the rules of the Lord, refers to their ignorance or willful neglect of God's law or the Torah. Despite having divine revelation, the people act more foolishly than animals that operate by instinct. It is a powerful indictment of Judah's spiritual condition. Here again, Matthew notes that animals follow the order God has set for them, while humans who have reason and revelation, well, they often don't. He writes that this shows the perverseness of human nature when it turns away from God. It's almost like we just lose all of our marbles and we just don't know what we're doing or where we're headed. We just seem to lose just all sense of direction and just become, you know, very stupid individuals. John Gill also explains that the birds mentioned are known for their migration habits and that the people of Judah they should have been more discerning. After all, they received the law of the prophets. Their failure to understand and obey is pretty much it's unexcusable. There is no excuse whatsoever for the way that they were acting. You know, they emphasize the irony in the verse that the irrational animals are more faithful to their God given instincts than Israel is to its covenant obligations. And remember, the Israelites and Judah they had promises of blessings if they followed these things. So this here reveals the depth of Judah's apostasy. As we've looked here at Jeremiah 8, verse 7, you know, there's imagery used here from nature that's being used as an irony on purpose to make fun of and shame Judah for its failure to follow God's law. So while even birds obey natural order, God's people ignore his commandments. You know, this verse highlights the irrationality and the tragedy of spiritual rebellion, especially among those who have been given divine truth. It shows just how low we can go. If Satan comes in and he tries to destroy us from the inside out, tries to destroy to destroy our families, we have a choice that we have to make. And Satan can drag us to the lowest of the of the lows into the depths of despair. He can drag us through all kinds of places that we would never want to go. And it's all by our choice. We're the ones that make up that decision in which way that we're going to go whenever those uh options and those decisions are thrown our way. So so here in uh verse three, oh Judah's not looking too well. They're they're looking pretty stupid at this point. I'm sure glad that I've I was I am not Judah, although there's a time in my life that I was pretty stupid too. I've not always walked with God, I've had my moments, so I totally understand how that can happen. Uh, but the Israelites, they're in deep. And and Isaiah is really trying to work on them here. So as we wrap up today here with with verse four, in Isaiah chapter one, it says, Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly. They have forsaken the Lord. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are utterly estranged. So this verse here, as we were talking here just a while ago, this is a lament. And what is a lament? Well, a lament is a passionate expression of grief or sorrow, and it's often articulated through music, poetry, or song. It can also refer to a formal expression of mourning, such as an elegy or a dirge. In essence, a lament conveys deep feelings of regret or mourning for something that is lost. So as we look at this lament here in verse 4, the word awe, which starts off that verse, the Hebrew word for that is hoy, H O Y. That word actually in Hebrew expresses grief and sorrow. And Isaiah uses strong covenantal language to accuse Judah. As we read on in two that verse, it mentions a sinful nation and people laden with iniquity. Those two little phrases indicate that sin is both communal and habitual. It's not only widespread throughout the whole kingdom of Judah, but this is also one of those situations where it's habitual sin. They do it, they don't learn their lesson, and then they do it all over again. And there's scripture in the Bible about habitual sins. And that's something that we have to break. Those end up becoming addictions and life-controlling issues if we're not careful. As we go on into this verse, it says, offspring of evildoers. That little line emphasizes generational degradation, suggests a legacy of rebellion. So not only is God calling out Judah themselves, but he's also going to be calling out the offspring, because the offspring are taking on the attributes of their families and where they're coming from. The term holy one of Israel in this verse is uniquely Isaiah, as it appears more than two dozen times throughout the book of Isaiah. This term emphasizes God's absolute purity and covenantal faithfulness. Judah's forsaking and despising indicate a total breakdown of the covenant relationship. And in this verse where it says that they're utterly estranged, that's a term of alienation, showing how far the people have removed themselves from their divine father. If you've ever been in a situation with a relative, maybe it's a parent, a mom and dad, or some grandparents, maybe it's your siblings, when you use that word that you are estranged from them, you typically have no relationship. It's one of those situations where maybe you haven't talked to your dad in 20 or 30 years, maybe you haven't spoken to your mother in 10 to 15 years, or your siblings in eight to ten years. You'll start using that term estranged. And here in this scripture, Isaiah is doing just that. He's referring to Judah and Jerusalem as they are utterly estranged. They have no relationship with God, they have totally rejected him and the covenants that he set before them. You know, in Exodus 19:6, Israel was meant to be a holy nation, and this is what's making this current condition that they're in even more tragic. Amos 9 10 and Ezekiel chapter 16 describe the moral decay of the people. Hebrews chapter 3, verse 12 warns against an evil, unbelieving heart, which leads you to fall away from the living God. So, in essence, the Israelites here God had chosen them. They were his chosen people. And the fact that he had chosen them to be a holy nation, to give them the blessings that he was going to, that makes their condition trag tragic in the situation that they are in. But they are there because of their evilness and their unbelieving hearts. It has caused them to fall away from the living God that created them. Here in these first four verses, as we start off in Isaiah, it begins with the courtroom scene in which God indicts his people for covenant unfaithfulness. The tone in this these few verses is deeply emotional. It's portraying God as both a judge and a loving father who has been rejected by his children. These foundational verses here in the beginning of Isaiah, they set the tones for the things of judgment, purification, and eventual redemption that we're going to see run throughout the rest of this book of Isaiah. So, in summary, as we close today, as we've made it through Isaiah chapter 1, verses 1 through 4, these scriptures open the book of Isaiah with a powerful and sobering introduction. These verses, they set the tone for the entire prophetic message by presenting God's deep disappointment with his people. The passage begins by identifying Isaiah the son of Amos, and we learn the time and the period of his ministry, which was during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotha, Mahaz, and Hezekiah, the kings of Judah. This situates Isaiah's message in a time of political instability and a major moral decline in the kingdom of Judah. The Lord here speaks through Isaiah, calling heaven and earth as witnesses to his complaint against Israel. God uses the imagery of a parent raising children who have rebelled, highlighting the pain and the betrayal that he is feeling. Despite all of that that God has done for them, the people of Israel have turned away. They are described as a sinful nation, laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers and corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord, despise the Holy One of Israel, and are utterly estranged. This passage, though, it's not just a condemnation. It's also a call to recognize the broken relationship between God and his people. It reveals the heart of a loving father who is grieved by the rebellion of his children. The imagery of an ox knowing its owner and a donkey its master's crib. While Israel does not know or understand, this emphasizes the unnaturalness of their rebellion. Even animals show more loyalty than God's own people. As we look at this for today, we need to reflect on our own relationship with God. Are there areas in your lives where you've turned away, where you've taken his blessings for granted or ignored his guidance? You know, we can sit here and say, well, that's not me. I'm so glad I'm not Israel. But you know, just like Israel, we are prone to spiritual forgetfulness and rebellion. But this passage also invites us to return to a God who is deeply invested in us, who longs for restored relationship rather than judgment. So as we end today's episode, I'm encouraging you to take a moment of honest self-examination. Ask yourself, am I living in a way that honors the one who has given me everything? Am I aware of his presence and lordship in my daily life? We need to let these few verses here in the first of Isaiah be a wake-up call, not just a judgment, but of love. God is not indifferent, he cares deeply and desires our hearts to turn back to him. Well, that's going to be all for this week. And as we go, we believe that God's word never fails us. God's word has stood the test of time, and through Jesus' death on the cross, he has connected the gap. This is an extension of Connecting the Gap Ministries, and we pray that you have a blessed week.