The Book Of Isaiah. Day 11, The Lord's Courtroom, Part Two

The Lord has metaphorically called the people of Judah and Jerusalem into His courtroom to hear His charges against them. In our last study session He spoke of the way many of them were oppressing and taking advantage of the poor and needy. He talked about how prideful they were and about how they felt no shame for their sins. He chastised them for putting ungodly, inexperienced leaders in charge instead of the elders "manning up" to speak out for what was right. 

The previous charges mainly involved the men doing wrong things. In today's text the Lord says the women have lost their care and concern for the people around them. As we stated in Friday's study session, historians have often said that women tend to have a civilizing effect on the people around them. For example, when our nation was new and the western territories were being settled and the era of the gold rush was going on, it wasn't until women began moving to the towns that an actual society began to form. Men married the women and settled down and raised families. The women were instrumental in setting up churches and schools so their children could receive religious instruction and educational instruction. The women had a calming effect on the area once known as "the wild west". 

The fact that the women of Judah and Jerusalem have become vain and prideful and hardhearted proves to us just how much the nation has fallen from the principles with which it was founded. It's not that women were created morally superior to men or that we should expect a different standard of living from women, but traditionally it has been women who have been tasked with looking out for the young, for the elderly, and for the infirm. A majority of the women of Hosea's day have begun looking out only for themselves.

"The Lord says, 'The women of Zion are haughty, walking along with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes, strutting along with swaying hips, with ornaments jingling on their ankles.'" (Isaiah 3:16) Walking along with "outstretched necks" sounds like another way of saying they are walking along "with their noses in the air". He says they are "haughty" and the synonyms for that word include things such as "vain, snooty, conceited, superior, callous, arrogant, self-important" and so on. No synonym for the word "haughty" is a good thing. 

The Lord's description of the way these women comport themselves suggests they are making a great deal of effort to look sexually alluring. They flirt with their eyes. They sway their hips. They wear charm bracelets on their ankles so people will hear them coming and turn to look at them. I want to point out that I don't think the Lord has anything against a person taking care of themselves with good hygiene and grooming. I don't think there's anything sinful about a person putting themselves together neatly and modestly and respectfully when going out in public. We wear clothing appropriate for work or for church services, for example, and it would actually be disrespectful not to look presentable when going to those places. Being well-groomed is not the type of thing the Bible is condemning when it talks about the way these women have made themselves up. What's happening here is that they've concentrated only on what's on the outside (and in some cases have gone to extremes with that) while completely neglecting what's on the inside. They have no relationship with the Lord and have little concern for their fellow man. They have a superficial beauty on the outside but on the inside their hearts are withered and ugly.

Because they care only about what's on the outside, the Lord is going to allow the outside to look as bad as their hearts look on the inside. "Therefore the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the women of Zion; the Lord will make their scalps bald. In that day the Lord will snatch away their finery: the bangles and headbands and crescent necklaces, the earrings and bracelets and veils, the headdresses and anklets and sashes, the perfume bottles and charms, the signet rings and nose rings, the fine robes and the capes and cloaks, the purses and mirrors, and the linen garments and tiaras and shawls. Instead of fragrance there will be a stench; instead of a sash, a rope; instead of well-dressed hair, baldness; instead of fine clothing, sackcloth; instead of beauty, branding. Your men will fall by the sword, your warriors in battle. The gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground." (Isaiah 3:17-26)

Defeat and captivity are coming. Enemy armies often shaved the heads of their captives and even branded captives. They took away all their worldly goods and divided the spoils, either for resale or to give as gifts to their family members and friends back home. A soldier, for example, might take a beautiful cloak or fine perfume back to his wife. But the point that is being made here at the end of Chapter 3 is that if the people had cared about the condition of their hearts rather than about their outward appearance, their social status, their financial status, and the state of the economy and the military, the nation would not be on the verge of falling. If their spiritual condition had been right, the Lord would have protected their nation, for that is exactly what He promised prior to giving them the land centuries earlier.