In Isaiah, chapter fifty-seven, verses three through fourteen, beginning at verse four. “Against whom do ye sport yourselves? Against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? Are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood? When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee; but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them: but he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain.”
The people of Judah forsook the Lord and chose instead to worship the gods of the heathen nations. This idolatrous worship involved immorality, prostitution, sorcery, and human sacrifices. But God would not let one get away with sin; those who broke the covenant with God and transgressed His law would reap what they had sown and lose much more than they had hoped to gain by their wickedness.
The Lord here calls apostates and hypocrites to appear before him. When reproved for their sins and threatened with judgments, they ridiculed the word of God. God’s people were guilty of idolatry before the captivity, but not after that affliction. Their zeal in worship of false gods may shame our indifference in worshipping the true God. The service of sin is disgraceful slavery; those who debase themselves to hell will justly have their portion there.
Men incline to a religion that inflames their unholy passions. They are led to do any evil, however great or vile, if they think it will atone for crimes, or purchase indulgence for some favourite lust. This explains idolatry, whether pagan, Jewish, or antichristian. But those who set up anything instead of God, for their hope and confidence, never will come to a right end. Those who forsake the only right way wander in a thousand by-paths.
The pleasures of sin soon tire, but never satisfy. Those who care not for the word of God and His providences show they have no fear of God. Sin profits not; it ruins and destroys.