1 Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
God hears us. We can count on it.
2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear.
Sin separates us from God. Sin cannot be in His presence so as long as we have sin, neither can we.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perverseness.
4 None calls for justice, nor any pleads for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
Everyone is trying every way but the right way to solve their problems.
5 They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eats of their eggs dies, and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.
“A cockatrice is a mythical beast, essentially a two-legged dragon with a rooster's head. Described by Laurence Breiner as "an ornament in the drama and poetry of the Elizabethans", it was featured prominently in English thought and myth for centuries.” –Wikipedia
The Bible does not present this as a mythical animal and in context we would take it to be as common as spiders and snakes.
I see no reason to not believe this is talking about a pterodactyl.
So: “They hatch pterodactyl eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he that eats the pterodactyl eggs dies, and those eggs that are crushed produce poisonous snakes.”
These Jews were killing themselves off with their own disobedience and refusal to follow God.
6 Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.
If you try to weave spider’s webs, the resulting clothes are not good for anything.
If you try to solve your problems without God, it will be about as productive.
7 Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.
When a nation chooses to rebel against God it always ends up with violence.
8 The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goes therein shall not know peace.
At some point, these people won’t even know how to do anything different. They see no option other than force and violence.
Our current rash of cop killings is the only solutions some see for the problems in the inner city, yet the violence began long before.
When our country left the foundation of the Bible it didn’t take long for people to turn to Uncle Sam instead of God and the church to solve their problems. But since the government doesn’t actually produce anything, the only way for them to help anyone is to take someone else's property- at threat of the force of the tax-man’s gun- to give to those they want to help.
So resorting to violence to solve our problems (first, biggest government program, Public Schools, began in 1853, a system that denies the existence of God, pursues knowledge without Him like the snake told Eve to do, and sets itself and the government up as the arbitrator of all morals and justice.) began immediately after abandoning the Bible in our courts (1850).
9 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither does justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
This certainly describes the trends of the courts in this country. We keep waiting for them to rule right but they keep getting worse.
10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.
When we remove the Bible as our foundation, we remove the light to make decisions by. We have no standard to base our lives on, so all decisions become arbitrary human opinion.
11 We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.
This certainly describes the mood in America. Everyone is looking for justice and it just isn’t being found in any aspect of our culture.
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;
We sin, that brings confusion.
13 In transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
It could easily be argued that most of the decisions since the removal of the Bible from our courts, and at an ever increasing rate, bring oppression and revolt.
14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice stands afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.
We will never have equality as long as we are searching for equality. Searching for equality for itself only brings oppression to one group or another. What we need to do in every area of our culture is to search for righteousness. This WILL bring equality.
15 Yea, truth fails; and he that departs from evil makes himself a prey: and the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment.
Those who try to serve God often leave themselves open to oppression by those in rebellion. This is just the nature of things. Its’ always the Christians who are oppressed first.
16 And He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore His arm brought salvation unto him; and His righteousness, it sustained him.
God will take care of His people even in the midst of persecution. He will use that persecution to bring corrections on society and the Church.
17 For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.
We need to cloth ourselves in God and His ways. That will protect us from the real enemy- Hell.
18 According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay, fury to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; to the islands He will repay recompense.
God will bring justice. Not always in this life, but He will bring it.
19 So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.
God will fight against the unrighteous.
20 And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, says the Lord.
21 As for Me, this is My covenant with them, says the Lord; My spirit that is upon thee, and My words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, says the Lord, from henceforth and for ever.
God stays with His people no matter what and He gives special deference to their children.