What is the meaning of Isaiah 57:4? Whom are you mocking? Israel’s leaders and people had taken to ridiculing the very God who rescued them. Mockery was aimed at the prophets who delivered His word (2 Chronicles 36:15–16: “they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising His words”). Such scorn exposed a heart posture that was: • Proud—refusing correction (Proverbs 3:34). • Ungrateful—forgetting past deliverance (Deuteronomy 32:18). • Self-deceptive—imagining God would overlook sin (Isaiah 28:15). By asking, “Whom are you mocking?” the Lord confronts the absurdity of creatures taunting their Creator. At whom do you sneer and stick out your tongue? The sneer is an outward sign of inward rebellion. Psalm 22:7 pictures the same gesture toward the suffering Messiah: “All who see Me mock Me; they sneer and shake their heads.” The act communicates: • Open contempt for holiness. • Solidarity with the world’s hostility toward God’s servants (Matthew 27:39–40). • A heart hardened beyond mere indifference, moving into active derision (Proverbs 14:9). God exposes the disrespect to show how far His people have drifted from covenant reverence. Are you not children of transgression The question unmasks their lineage. Isaiah 1:4 already declared, “Woe to a sinful nation… children of corruption!” To be a “child” of something is to embody its character: • They inherited and embraced habitual sin (John 8:34). • They resembled the first transgressor, Adam, rather than the promised Seed (Romans 5:12). • They forfeited covenant blessings for curses (Deuteronomy 28:45). The Lord’s tone is not mere accusation; it is a call to recognize a desperately needed new birth (John 3:3). offspring of deceit Their family resemblance includes lying and idolatry. Jeremiah 7:8 charges, “Look, you are trusting in deceptive words that cannot profit.” Deceit shows up in: • False worship—setting up pagan altars while pretending loyalty to Yahweh (Isaiah 57:7–8). • False security—believing alliances or rituals can save them (Isaiah 30:1–2). • False speech—prophets for hire telling people what they want to hear (Micah 3:11). Like their father the devil, “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44), they traded truth for pleasant fiction. summary Isaiah 57:4 exposes a people who mock God, sneer at His correction, and reveal their true lineage—habitual sinners birthed in deception. The verse strips away every pretense, showing that outward contempt flows from an inward nature that must be transformed. God’s penetrating questions invite repentance and point toward the only remedy: a humble return to the LORD who alone can replace mocking tongues with worshipful lips and turn deceitful hearts into children of truth. |
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