The extraordinary blessings of God’s covenant with his people Israel are offset by a series of covenant curses that overtake them when they renege on the conditions they agreed to. Detailed in Deuteronomy 28, the blessings and curses of God’s covenant underscore his desire to bless his people but also to remind them of the consequences of rebelling against him. Isaiah reverses the blessings and curses sequence as God’s end-time people now reject him.
God’s people suffer the consequences of wickedness (Isaiah 1–39)
God’s people enjoy the fruits of righteousness (Isaiah 40–66)
Antecedents of God’s collective covenant with his people Israel and individual covenants with its kings appear in ancient Near Eastern emperor–vassal treaties. Using these as a framework of God’s covenants, Moses and the prophets assigned the role of emperor to Israel’s God and the role of vassals to Israel and its kings. The covenant terms “servant” and “son” typify the role of a vassal to an emperor while the emperor is known as the vassal’s “Lord” and “Father.”
Covenant Curses—a consequence of wickedness
Isaiah 1:2, 5–7Hear, O heavens! Give heed, O earth! Jehovah has spoken: I have reared sons, brought them up, but they have revolted against me…Why be smitten further by adding to your waywardness? The whole head is sick, the whole heart diseased. From the soles of the feet even to the head there is nothing sound, only wounds and bruises and festering sores; they have not been pressed out or bound up, nor soothed with ointment. Your land is ruined, your cities burned with fire; your native soil is devoured by aliens in your presence, laid waste at its takeover by foreigners.
Isaiah 3:1–5Even now, the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, deprives Judea and Jerusalem of both staff and crutch — all food supply and water supply, the valiant man and soldier, the magistrate and prophet, the augur and elder, the officer and dignitary, advisers, skilled craftsmen, and orators. I, [Jehovah,] will make adolescents their rulers; delinquents will lord it over them. People will oppress one another, every man his neighbor. The young will be insolent to the elderly, the vile to the honorable.
Isaiah 32:12–14Beat your breasts for the choice fields and flourishing vines, for my people’s land shall be overgrown with briars and thorns. [Mourn] for all the amusement houses in the city of entertainment, for the palaces shall lie abandoned, the clamorous towns deserted. High rises and panoramic resorts shall become haunts for ever after, the playground of wild animals, a browsing place for flocks.
Isaiah 24:5–6The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants: they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinances, set at nought the ancient covenant. The curse devours the earth, for those who dwell on it have incurred guilt; because of it the population of the earth shall be diminished and little of mankind remain.
Covenant Blessings—the result of righteousness
Isaiah 44:2–3Thus says Jehovah, your Maker, who formed you from the womb and succored you: Be not afraid, O Jacob, my servant, and Jeshurun whom I have chosen. I will pour water on the thirsty [soil], showers upon the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, my blessing upon your posterity.
Isaiah 61:8–9For I Jehovah love just dealings — but I abhor extortion in [those who] sacrifice — and I will appoint them a sure reward; I will make with them an eternal covenant. Their offspring shall be renowned among the nations, their posterity in the midst of the peoples; all who see them will acknowledge that they are of the lineage Jehovah has blessed.
Isaiah 63:16You, O Jehovah, are our Father; Our Redeemer from Eternity is your name.
Isaiah 54:17Whatever weapon is devised against you, it shall not succeed; every tongue that rises to accuse you, you shall refute. This is the heritage of the servants of Jehovah, and such is their righteousness by me, says Jehovah.
Isaiah 65:24–25Before they call I will reply; while they are yet speaking I will respond. The wolf and the lamb will graze alike, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; as for the serpent, dust shall be its food: there shall be no harm or injury done throughout my holy mountain, says Jehovah.