Isaiah 59: The Failings of Man: Chapter 17: Man’s Unrighteousness

Isaiah 59:1, 2 says,

¹ Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short that it cannot save; nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear. ² But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.

The prophet thus reminds us of the sovereignty of God. As we see when Jesus reached out to save Peter when he was sinking in the storm, God’s hand is not short. He is not dull of hearing, even though men may think they need to shout louder to get His attention. The problem is not with God but with men.

Iniquities Cause Separation

As we saw in Isaiah 58, men often pray and fast with wrong motives that spring from carnal desires. What separates God and man is “your iniquities” and “your sins.” This has been the problem since Adam, of course. Man falls short; but God is able.

This is the fundamental problem which cannot be solved by the Old Covenant. No matter how sincere a man is, his iniquity prevents him from achieving the high standard of the law which he vowed to keep in Exodus 19:8. He is therefore in need of a better Covenant, one that God makes, one that God alone is responsible to keep.

God’s New Covenant vow is to make us His people and to be our God (Deut. 29:12, 13). It is not that God saves us by ignoring our sin but that He takes the initiative to turn our hearts and to train us in His ways as a man trains His children. Man cannot generate faith in his own heart. Faith comes by hearing, and so faith depends on God speaking. If God does not speak, men cannot hear. Thus, faith is a gift of God (Eph. 2:8) and its result is a fruit of the Spirit.

Isaiah’s prophecy of universal salvation is based fully on the sovereignty of God, for if man were held accountable to be saved by the power of his own will, all men would fail. Jesus was sent into the world by divine initiative. He spoke the truth by divine initiative (John 8:28). The Holy Spirit does the same in us today by divine initiative.

The fact that some hear and respond, while others do not, causes many to think that man’s response is attributed to his own free will (or initiative). Such thinking turns the New Covenant back into the Old Covenant, where men made decisions to be obedient and then prayed that God would help them keep their vows.

Most people today think their salvation is based on their own free will by which they decided to follow Jesus. The truth is that if their hearts were turned to God and they genuinely decided to follow God, it was because God took the initiative to call them and to touch their hearts and to speak to them by His Spirit. If God had not taken that initiative, no man would repent, and no man would have the desire to serve Him. “Turn us” was the psalmist’s prayer (Ps. 80:3, 7)

Hence, no man has reason to boast (Eph. 2:8). Salvation is not by works brought about by one’s own will (John 1:13).

Separation and Reconciliation

The problem of separation is caused by iniquity and sin, as the prophet tells us. This problem is very real, and it must be overcome in order to achieve reconciliation, unity, and peace (shalom). God’s initiative brought about something called katallasso (“conciliation”), which is the word Paul uses to describe the one-sided act of God. Men were conciliated to God through Christ’s death on the cross.

We are ambassadors to the world, seeking a response from those who are able to hear the gospel, so that there may be apokatallasso (“reconciliation”). God’s initiative is thus matched by a response. The goal is reconciliation, and His power and ability to make that happen is on the line. He is the One who vowed to make us His people and to save the world through Abraham and his seed.

He did not vow to give men the opportunity to become His people. Nowhere does the Scripture say that—except when speaking of the Old Covenant way of salvation. The New Covenant always puts the responsibility fully upon God alone to make it happen. If men fail to hear His voice, it is because God has not yet given them ears to hear (Deut. 29:4). In fact, God’s voice speaks continuously, day and night (Psalm 19:1-3), but most men’s ears are not yet healed.

Nonetheless, because God is the One who makes men blind and deaf (Exodus 4:11), only He can heal them in His own time and according to His own will. Men may resent this and think that God is unjust (Rom. 9:14), but this is because men do not know the law. God is the Creator and owns what He creates (Lev. 25:23). Ownership has its privileges. If He wishes to be unfair, He has that right. Being unfair is not the same as being unjust.

While one lump of clay may complain that it was made into a toilet instead of a water pot, the Potter is not compelled by the law to consult the opinion of the clay. The law establishes rights, and in this case the clay is given no right of creation. Nonetheless, we are fortunate that our Owner also loves all that He created. Therefore, all things will work together for good in the end, and all will rejoice when they finally understand their place in His plan.

In the end, man’s belief that he has a right to complain about the type of vessel that God shaped him to be is based on his mistaken view of free will. Only God has free will, for the law affirms that one owns his labor. God labored to create the heavens and the earth. That makes Him sovereign. His right of sovereignty also gives Him the right to delegate authority. Hence, man has authority, but not free will. His authority is limited by the higher Power that set boundaries upon his authority.

Knowing this, we can understand Isaiah’s flow of revelation. It is certain that sin and iniquity has driven a wedge between God and man. That is the root problem. The question is how to resolve this problem and restore the lost unity in a lawful manner. The answer is not based on Old Covenant understanding. Man’s will cannot provide the solution. The New Covenant makes God responsible to take the initiative, and man’s will is then a simple response to God’s will.

The problem comes only when men give their own will too much credit for their salvation.

The Helplessness of Man

Isaiah then launches into a lengthy exposure of the heart of man. It is similar to Paul’s pessimistic view of man’s mortal and corruptible nature in Rom. 3:10-18. In fact, Paul quotes some of Isaiah’s words. Paul’s purpose was to show that sin and iniquity are not limited to one nationality or another but are universal. Isaiah certainly would agree with this, but the scope of his condemnation is not set forth as clearly as in Paul’s explanation.

Isaiah 59:3-6 says,

³ For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken falsehood, your tongue mutters wickedness. ⁴ No one sues righteously, and no one pleads honestly. They trust in confusion and speak lies; they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. ⁵ They hatch adders’ eggs and weave the spider’s web; he who eats of their eggs dies, and from that which is crushed a snake breaks forth. ⁶ Their webs will not become clothing, nor will they cover themselves with their works; their works are works of iniquity, and an act of violence is in their hands.

Since many prophecies are stimulated by local situations, we have to wonder if Isaiah was having a bad day when he wrote this. Had he seen firsthand evidence of wickedness in Jerusalem? Did someone prove to be a deliberate liar? We are not told. But the word of the Lord rips the veil from the hearts of men and exposes the utter iniquity that religion and culture had tried to hide.

Spider webs cannot be used to make thread for clothing. Webs of self-justification cannot cover or hide the works of iniquity that spring from men’s hearts.

Isaiah 59:7, 8 continues,

⁷ Their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Devastation and destruction are in their highways. ⁸ They do not know the way of peace, and there is no justice in their tracks; they have made their paths crooked. Whoever treads on them does not know peace.

This is, in part, quoted by the Apostle Paul in Rom. 3:15-17,

¹⁵ Their feet are swift to shed blood, ¹⁶ destruction and misery are in their paths, ¹⁷ and the path of peace they have not known.

All of this is an exposure of the Adamic man and his death-ridden nature ever since the original sin. Paul’s purpose was to show the impossibility of man saving himself. This was Isaiah’s purpose as well. Man’s good intentions always fall short. Man’s vows only prove that men are liars in the end. We are left with the stark reality that man’s nature is the wellspring of all his well-intentioned vows.

If salvation were left to him, he could never find peace with God.

In spite of such great pessimism, however, our great comfort is in knowing the sovereignty of God. We can rejoice that He did not leave it to man to be saved by his own will. Just as the iniquity of man’s heart makes him helpless to save himself, so also the righteousness of God makes Him well able to save all mankind.

Our confidence is in Him, not in ourselves.