Sick in the Head, Sick in the Heart

 Sick in the Head, Sick in the Heart

"…They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they have gone away backward. Why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores — they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.…" (RE Isaiah 1:1) 

Illness and disease become rampant reflecting a society sick in mind and body.  Allegorically, the people's "head" or leadership, and their "heart" or core institutions--in short, their entire establishment, political and religious (Isa 7:8-9 : 14-16)--has degenerated to a pathological state.   Like the wounds, bruises, and sores of an enemy slave—one who receives no chance of being ministered to—Jehovah’s alienated people find themselves in pitiful circumstances. When someone in a gulag becomes ill, that is his problem; he is dispensable. That is the condition to which Jehovah’s people are reduced in his Day of Judgment. Like the Prodigal Son, they have rebelled against Jehovah and squandered their inheritance. Then, when their entire society breaks down, their curse becomes irrevocable. Nevertheless, although a majority suffers misery, there remains hope for some who repent. (AC-AG)

Nor soothed with ointment. The idea of being “soothed with ointment,” which is denied the wicked, Jehovah doesn’t deny the righteous. We observe his healing and anointing his repentant people later in the Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 30:26; 57:18-19; 58:8; 61:3). It is for the reader to discover such antitheses by searching Isaiah’s terms and concepts. In other words, although Isaiah has us wade through the judgmental parts of his prophecy before he presents Jehovah’s glorious promises, all doesn’t end in gloom and doom. If Jehovah’s people repent in time, they may yet qualify for his divine blessings.  (AC-AG)

Told-ya-so -- Isaiah said that would happen!  

Signed

John The-Not-So-Beloved


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