Isaiah 57 explained: Empty Idols and a God Who Heals

The good die unnoticed (vv. 1-2)

Faithful people are dying and no one stops to ask what it means. The prophet says death spares them from trouble that is coming and brings them rest, most likely the quiet rest of the grave.

A harsh accusation (vv. 3-6)

God calls the people children of a sorceress and of adulterers, insults that charge them with being unfaithful to him by worshiping other gods. The charges include rituals under sacred trees and sacrificing children in the valleys, while smooth stones from streambeds were apparently treated as sacred objects and given offerings of drink and grain.

Unfaithfulness pictured as adultery (vv. 7-10)

Altars on hilltops and idols hidden behind the door, the very place God's laws were meant to be written, are described as a wife's open affairs. Verse 9 may mean going to a god named Molek or to a foreign king for help (the Hebrew word can mean king), and scholars are unsure which, but either way the people wore themselves out chasing other powers and would not give up.

Idols cannot save (vv. 11-13)

God asks whom they feared so much that they lied to him, and suggests his long silence made them stop taking him seriously. Their collection of idols will blow away like a breath, while those who take refuge in God will inherit the land and his holy mountain, the temple hill in Jerusalem.

God lives with the crushed (vv. 14-19)

A call goes out to clear the road home for God's people, and God, who lives in the highest holy place, says he also lives with the broken and humble, promising not to stay angry forever but to heal and comfort them. Christians read the promise of peace to people far away and people nearby in light of Jesus, since the New Testament uses it for outsiders and insiders brought together through him.

No peace for the wicked (vv. 20-21)

People who refuse God are pictured as a restless sea that keeps churning up mud. The closing line repeats a refrain also found at the end of chapter 48.

Key verse: Isaiah 57:15

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether the promise that those who trust God will inherit the land and his holy mountain points mainly to a literal future for Israel in its land or to a spiritual inheritance shared by all who trust God.

Something to think about

When have you seen someone keep chasing something that was wearing them out, and what do you think kept them going?