Isaiah Chapter 3
JUDGMENT ON JUDAH AND ISRAEL
The third and fourth prophecies in this series turn from the plight of mankind in general to the situation in Jerusalem in particular. The description of the lack of effective government and the breakdown of law and order in the city are set in the context of a famine (verse 1), and are clearly interpreted as punishment brought upon the city by the sins and wickedness of her leaders (verses 13-15). We see here a society where insolence, greed, injustice, and godlessness prevail.
Isaiah 3:1-4 NAS:
1 For behold, the Lord God of hosts is going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah Both supply and support, the whole supply of bread And the whole supply of water;
2 The mighty man and the warrior, The judge and the prophet, The diviner and the elder,
3 The captain of fifty and the honorable man, The counselor and the expert artisan, And the skillful enchanter.
4 And I will make mere lads their princes, And capricious children will rule over them,
This once holy city had strayed so far from the path of obedience that God would bring about judgment against them by creating a famine and weakening their ability to defend themselves. Soldiers have not yet returned from the battlefields. Judges can’t be relied on to preserve justice and peace. That should certainly ring a familiar note to all of us. Even the skills and charms of false prophets, diviners, soothsayers, and magicians, often a last resort for the frightened and superstitious, have nothing to offer. “Boys their princes, and babes shall rule over them” simply means that their leaders would be like infants unable to control themselves, much less to lead the nation. So disorder and confusion would prevail in the place of orderly government.
When God is forgotten in a society, effective government always breaks down.5 It’s happening right here today with the government of the United States.
Isaiah 3:5-7 NAS:
5 And the people will be oppressed, Each one by another, and each one by his neighbor; The youth will storm against the elder And the inferior against the honorable.
6 When a man lays hold of his brother in his father’s house, saying, “You have a cloak, you shall be our ruler, And these ruins will be under your charge,”
7 He will protest on that day, saying, “I will not be your healer, For in my house there is neither bread nor cloak; You should not appoint me ruler of the people.”
The authority of the elders will be undermined by insolent youth. Those who live a decadent life style will have no respect for honorable people. There’s that familiar note again. In their desperation, people will follow anyone who might seem to be able to provide a way of escape from their misery and bring order out of chaos. But those to whom they turned were just as confused and incompetent as everyone else, and so refused any role of leadership.
Isaiah 3:8-12 NAS:
8 For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen, Because their speech and their actions are against the Lord, To rebel against His glorious presence.
9 The expression of their faces bears witness against them, And they display their sin like Sodom; They do not even conceal it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves.
10 Say to the righteous that it will go well with them, For they will eat the fruit of their actions.
11 Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him, For what he deserves will be done to him.
12 O My people! Their oppressors are children, And women rule over them. O My people! Those who guide you lead you astray And confuse the direction of your paths.
The root cause of all the trouble is found in verse 8, “Jerusalem is ruined and Judah has fallen, because what they say and what they do are against God’s will and therefore defy His role as king over all people.” Thus they have brought judgment upon themselves and the “woes” begin. In verses 9 and 11 God promises to bring judgment on them. However, in verse 10 God promises to care for the righteous. In verse 12, “children are their oppressors, and women rule over them” is possibly, or probably, not literal, but instead suggests the “immature” and “weak” will be their rulers.
Isaiah 3:13-15 NAS:
13 The Lord arises to contend, And stands to judge the people.
14 The Lord enters into judgment with the elders and princes of His people, “It is you who have devoured the vineyard; The plunder of the poor is in your houses.
15 “What do you mean by crushing My people And grinding the face of the poor?” Declares the Lord God of hosts.
This is a trial scene. The Lord rises to judge the defendant, the unrepentant people of Israel. Judah’s leaders have not paid any attention to the needs of the poor. The breakdown of society is a direct result of their criminal behavior. In verses 13-15, Isaiah sees a vision of the heavenly court in which people are confronted with their sins. Psalm 82:1 describes this scene for us as well:
1 God presides over heaven’s court; he pronounces judgment on the judges.
The elders and princes of Judah take their place before the judgment seat of the Lord alongside the leaders of all the other nations of the world. Judah’s greed and inhumanity are no better than that of their Gentile neighbors. The damage they have done to the “vineyard” of the Lord, which is Judah, is inexcusable. The political leadership of the United States, past and present, who have served only their own self-interests rather than the needs of the people, will stand with this assembly.
This direct confrontation between men/women and the judge of all the earth is about the ultimate social and moral responsibility which each one of us has for others.
Then Isaiah directs his condemnation at the women of Israel. Isaiah 3:16-26 NAS:
16 Moreover, the Lord said, “Because the daughters of Zion are proud And walk with heads held high and seductive eyes, And go along with mincing steps And tinkle the bangles on their feet,
17 Therefore the Lord will afflict the scalp of the daughters of Zion with scabs, And the Lord will make their foreheads bare.”
18 In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, headbands, crescent ornaments,
19 dangling earrings, bracelets, veils,
20 headdresses, ankle chains, sashes, perfume boxes, amulets,
21 finger rings, nose rings,
22 festal robes, outer tunics, cloaks, money purses,
23 hand mirrors, undergarments, turbans and veils.
24 Now it will come about that instead of sweet perfume there will be putrefaction; Instead of a belt, a rope; Instead of well-set hair, a plucked-out scalp; Instead of fine clothes, a donning of sackcloth; And branding instead of beauty.
25 Your men will fall by the sword And your mighty ones in battle.
26 And her gates will lament and mourn, And deserted she will sit on the ground.
When women desire beauty just for the sake of gratifying their own desire to make others drool over them, they reflect the moral decay of the nation and detract from the glory of God. We see such behavior everywhere we look today and according to these verses such behavior existed in Judah as well in the eighth century BC. Instead of emphasizing outward beauty, women should develop beauty on the inside.[fn] “ Mincing along as they go, tinkling with their feet, was a description of women who put ornamental chains around their ankles requiring shorter steps which produced tinkling sounds thus attracting attention. I hope that bit of information doesn’t become common knowledge or the very next fashion statement we’ll see will be tinkling chains on women’s ankles.
Women today, however, have their own method of attracting attention. They wear very tight tops to reflect how they would look topless. Others wear as little as possible to reveal as much bare chest as possible. They also wear skin-tight pants that leave very little to the imagination about what’s underneath, and to top it all off they expose a very generous portion of bare skin below their naval.
Am I such a prude that I’m not attracted by the nakedness of women? To the contrary. I have to fight every natural impulse not to stop and stare. But I question the wisdom of their dressing like that. It seems like poor judgment but I think I know what drives them to do it. Does it make a woman feel good when she’s attractive to men and when men obviously glance her way? I’m sure that it does. Does it make her feel like she’s going to attract the perfect man of her dreams by being so sexually provocative? I think that could very well be true as well. But I can tell you from a lifetime of girl watching, until of course I married Betty, there is only one thing a boy or man is attracted to when he sees a girl or a woman half-naked. His first thought is not one of respect and a desire to establish a lifelong relationship. His first thought is sexual and he will develop that thought in any number of ways. That which the girl or woman wants most is the last thing that she will get by appealing only to a man’s sexual interests.
The chances are that such a girl or woman will attract all kinds of men and allow herself to become sexually involved, thinking that is what love is all about. But all she’ll get is disappointment, hurt, and a feeling of despair and depression. And with each new sexual encounter she will give a little bit of her precious self away and before long she’ll have very little or nothing of herself to give when Mr. Right does come along. That relationship too will then probably fail, or at least have big problems. The same thing happens to a man in multiple sexual relationships. That’s a big reason why half the married people in our country get divorced and a good percentage of the other half don’t get along. We live in a country that requires extensive training in order to get a driver’s license, a pilot’s license, or a license to practice medicine, but we don’t even require a single hour of counseling for people who want to get married and become wives and mothers, husbands and fathers—who want to take on the most important job in the world, that of rearing the next generation.
In these verses such vain women come in for a stern rebuke. In their pride and empty-headedness, their primary concern was personal appearance. They sought after every possible device known to humankind to add to it. But God was about to punish them with diseases that would disfigure them and make them repulsive to former admirers. You might be amazed at how glamorous Hollywood stars end up when age robs them of beauty and sexuality. That is not what life is all about and it’s certainly not what provides real happiness in life. It simply, as it did in Judah, reflects the moral decay of the nation and detracts from the glory of God. So the exotic luxurious lifestyle of Judah came to a swift and final end.
In addition, many of the eligible men will be killed in battle so that women will be fighting over the few available ones left. Verse 1 of chapter 4 tells us that these women will be so desperate that they will beg the men to marry seven of them at once. These women will be willing to be participants in polygamy just to say that they are married. How sad.
While the overall tone of the chapter is warning and a promise of judgment, God provides a way to avoid the judgment. He always does if we listen to Him and obey Him.
So let’s not lose sight of the fact that God says, “It will go well with the godly.” Their actions will bring them blessing. So that causes us to wonder, “what does it mean to be godly?” and “what actions bring this reward or blessing?”
A godly person is one who has given the Lord God Jehovah his or her whole heart. And we give our whole heart by realizing that God’s Son, Jesus Christ, died to take the judgment or punishment we deserve for our sins. Then He came back to life, returned to Heaven, and lives today to help you and me and to forgive us. The actions that bring blessing are those that reflect living a life of faith and obedience to all Christ asks of us. This is what constitutes making Christ the Lord of our life, basically putting Him in charge of all that we think and do. We let God call the shots in our lives and live to please Him.
That brings blessing in this life and assures us of a place in Heaven in the next life. Don’t allow yourself to go on any longer without making sure you are actively pursuing a personal relationship with Jesus. If you are unable to believe in Him this very moment, you will come to do so if you sincerely ask Him every day to show you the truth.
5 Ironside, H. A., Isaiah.
[fn] 1 Timothy 2:9,10; 1 Peter 3:3,4.
