They do everything according to the book in the right order, the right way, the right form but their hearts are far from God. God has no interest in sacrifices (v. 11a-d). Their presence in the earthly sanctuary is “trampling of My courts” (v. 12b). “Bring your worthless offerings no longer, incense is an abomination to Me” (v. 13a-b). New Moon time services, Sabbath services, the calling of assemblies for worship “I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly” (v. 13c-d). God dislike their new moon and appointed feasts “they have become a burden to Me” (v. 14a-b). “I am weary of bearing” (v. 14c). Because their hearts are not right the Lord says about their prayer: “when you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you, yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen” (v. 15a-d). The reason is that their hands are covered with blood for they are violent. The list of their sins is mentioned. They are to wash themselves, clean themselves, removes evil, ceases to do evil (v. 16a-b). Isaiah then go through a list of sins that is also dealt with later in 58:6-7 “learn to do good; seek justice; defend the orphan; plead for the widow” (v. 17) which is what they did not do. Isaiah was a visionary more than a comparative semitic historian. He wrote Heilsgeschichte or Redemption history. He wrote half of the books of Kings and Chronicles as well and after every king he evaluated them if they were faithful in their relation to God or not. The exile in 723 BCE was a wakeup call in the ministry of Isaiah. He had to reboot his thinking about the earthly remnant, about the meaning of spiritual Israel for God and the role of eschatology became a living reality for him. Through the destruction and pain of those years, it was eschatology that held out the best solution for this earth and its history. It did for Jesus, for Paul, for John in Revelation and for Ellen White in her day and for us in our day. No difference. It was the same to Adam and all until Isaiah. There is a scholar Walther Eichrodt who is trying to say that eschatology was plagiarized in the Old Testament from the Persians and Zoroastrianism. What a boring scholar. Did he not read Hebrews 11 saying all of them expected a city that was not on this earth? Eschatology is even in the works of Moses. Look carefully at the nuances. This is the problem with Preterists and those who overlook Adventism which is looking with historicism to the Bible. God made his final plan known in every single generation since Adam. Put away Eerdmans, Moody, Kregel, Fortress Press and other bog-down literature.

Read Isaiah 1:16, 17. What is the Lord commanding that His people do? How do these verses, in this context, parallel what Jesus said in Matthew 23:23-28? What message can we find for ourselves today in these texts and in the context in which they are given?