They
recognize that they had a righteousness which maybe was a false righteousness.
It was their own self-righteousness. They were duped. They bought into a lie.
Somehow they accepted the idea that maybe going to church or going to synagogue
or doing certain things that Christians or Jews did, represented righteousness
and made them acceptable to God. And it wasn’t necessarily so. It says that
they, themselves, are as those defiled, meaning they’re still in a sinful
state. And again, Isaiah’s using imagery from every part of life, even a woman’s
menstrual cycle, from which things are cast off. These people consider
themselves worthy to be cast off.
“Thou
was aroused to anger when we sinned,” implying the consequences of sin or transgression,
some kind of punishment, or covenant curse, but also the fact that the king of
Assyria was given power over them, because he personifies God’s anger. For a
time, this group of people anyway, became subject to the king of Assyria. And
we see that in chapter ten, where it says: “O my people who inhabit Zion, be
not afraid of the Assyrians, though they strike you with the rod or raise their
staff over you, as did the Egyptians, for my anger will very soon come to an
end and my wrath will become their undoing.” So he makes an end of the king of
Assyria at some point. But for a time, the king of Assyria has power over this
particular group of people, not over the holy and valiant ones who are
protected by the Lord in that day, who go on to exodus under the protection of
the cloud of glory. They are not subject to the king of Assyria. Btu this group
is. It’s part of their refining process.
“We
are decaying like leaves, all of us; our sins, like a wind, sweep us away.”
Again, this is imagery from life, about leaves, as in the fall which drop from
the trees onto the ground and start decaying way. And it’s kind of a chaos motif;
these people are going into a state of chaos, but not all the way. They
regenerate. They’re not those who become dust, or chaff and go up in smoke, and
so on. That’s a third group. Those are the ones who don’t make it. They’re the
sinners who will not repent and who, in fact, reject God. “Our sins, like a
wind, sweep us away.” The wind, too, is a word link connecting to the Day of
judgment. They’re swept away, like leaves. They’re like I said, not totally
swept away. This group is getting their act together, they’re hanging on. (Jacob
Nelson, Book of Isaiah Of the Old Testament [Lulu Books, n.d.], 667-68)
