Isaiah Chapter 54: Bible Study for Atheists

Isaiah Chapter 54: Bible Study for Atheists

On this episode of "God's Got Issues," we dive into the wacky world of Isaiah 54, where God's playing the role of a divine husband with a flair for melodrama and empty promises. We send a shout-out to our latest patron saint of skepticism, Kevin P., because nothing says 'holy support' like cash donations. We correct a little biblical boo-boo on Deutero-Isaiah's dating profile, and don't forget our cult... I mean, community meet-up on Discord - it's a hoot!


Prepare to cringe as we dissect the Bible's bizarre fetish for marriage metaphors, where God is apparently the universe's worst spouse, offering bling and emotional whiplash. We take a jab at the scripture's stigmatization of widowhood because, in the good book, a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle - totally unimaginable.


Next, we delve into the theological equivalent of a bad Tinder date, where God love-bombs Israel with grandiose vows that history proves are about as reliable as a chocolate teapot. We discuss whether God's divine promises during the Holocaust were just an 'oopsie,' or if the Big Guy upstairs is a bit of a ghoster.


Finally, we wrap it up with a quick chat about the biblical propaganda machine that was Isaiah's writings. We speculate whether ancient scribes were just spinning tales to keep the faith or if they genuinely believed their own hype. Either way, it's a masterclass in gaslighting. So grab your favorite heathen snack, tune in, and prepare to facepalm - it's going to be a blasphemous ride.


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[00:00:00] Welcome to Sacrilegious Discourse. For this is what the Sovereign Lord says! Why do you need prophets to tell people who you are and what you want? If you can justify everything that the God of the Bible has done, then you can justify any of your behavior. A lot of this mentality is trickling into what is now mainstream right-wing Christianity. I am capable of empathy greater than this God of the Bible. This is a Bible that they tell kids.

[00:00:29] This is the good Lord. This is the good book. He is fantasizing about murder. Mass murder. Head over to SacrilegiousDiscourse.com right now to find out how to leave us a review or support us on Patreon. Hey there sinners and saints! It's your favorite Bible-bashing duo from Sacrilegious Discourse, and we need your help.

[00:00:54] That's right folks, we're raising funds for some heavenly equipment and a studio that doesn't sound like it's in the depths of hell. Our current setup? Let's just say it's more apocalypse than audiophile. So if you want to hear us dissect the Bible without the background noise of demonic squirrels, chip in a few bucks. We're aiming for $5,000 to upgrade our audio and build a studio worthy of blasphemous banter. Donate today and help us spread the good word of atheism.

[00:01:20] You can find a link right on our homepage, SacrilegiousDiscourse.com. Every dollar counts. Even if it's from your collection plate! Welcome to Sacrilegious Discourse. I'm Husband. And I'm Wife. Together we're reading the Bible for the very first time. We grew up without religion and wanted to know what all the fuss was about. Well, what have we learned so far?

[00:01:50] That God is a dick, and apparently some people believe in talking donkeys. We're not trying to pass ourselves off as experts. Nope! We're just reading the Bible for the first time and giving our first take reaction. If you'd like to join us in this venture, you might consider starting in episode one. Otherwise, jump in wherever you like. Alright! Let's go read the Bible! Yeah, let's get to it! Wife! Do you remember what happened yesterday and where the hell we are today? Jesus!

[00:02:20] Jesus Christ! Well, you know, not Jesus, but you know, the servant. The servant. The suffering. Suffering servant. Servant song. Yeah. The song of suffering. Right, right. Yeah. That guy. Serve me a song of slice of... They're gonna pierce him and he's gonna do Jesus-y things. Oh my God. But he's not Jesus, cause... No. Cause whatever. You're right. Yeah. So that happened. And no more songs. No more songs in Isaiah. Right, right, yeah. Yeah. That we know of.

[00:02:49] At least right now. That's true. That's true. They sneak up on ya. Fucking songs in the Bible. Right? Yeah. So that was Isaiah chapter 53. Sure as fuck was. Which means that today we're getting into... Isaiah chapter 54. Okay, and before we get into this, I do have another shout out. You did? Cause we were woefully behind. We were woefully behind. Yeah, and since we're coming back full force now, we're back. We're ready to do this shit.

[00:03:18] We're doing shout outs. Shout outs. So we just wanna thank a new patron, Kevin P. Okay, Kevin P. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for becoming a patron. We really, really, really appreciate you guys. We, I mean, I can't express how much we really need this help and appreciate it every time we see it because it really does pay for what we're doing and it validates what we're doing. So it really feels good every time we get a new patron.

[00:03:48] It feels good on a personal level. So thank you so much, Kevin, for becoming a patron and we look forward to seeing you around. Very much. That being said, are you ready to go ahead and get into this chapter? I am. Which is chapter 54, right? Yes. Let's do it. Okie dokie. Okie. Okie. Now before we jump into Isaiah chapter 54. Okie.

[00:04:17] I did want to clarify a point that I kind of messed up before when you were right and I was wrong. Yes. Okie. So chapters 40 through 55 of Isaiah are known as Deutero-Isaiah and they do date from the time of the Israelites' exile in Babylon. Right. So that is what you had said. Sorry, thank you, sorry. No, yeah. I just wanted that. I only stuck to my guns because I was, well, because I knew I was right. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:04:47] Like I don't know why you go through this weird apology that you do. I'm like, I literally just conceded to you and you're like- You're my wife. You might get mad at me. So I gotta be like, I'm sorry for being right. No, look, I never mind you being right. Just if you are going to argue with me that hard, you better be right. Right. Yes. Because at the end of the day, I do want the correct information.

[00:05:11] You know, it does worry me sometimes that because I don't, because I, you know, self-preservation, I don't argue with you enough sometimes. Yeah. You should argue with me if you know you're right. Yes. And I generally do. Yeah. I generally do. And you, you usually are like when you stick to your guns, you usually are right. Right. There's been a couple of point times when I was wrong. Yeah. Yeah. But not many. Those felt good. Wives gotta win sometimes. Sometimes. Yeah. Are you saying you let me win every once in a while? No, no. You totally win those.

[00:05:40] I mean, like on merit. Wow. Yeah. Okay. Right. Right. I appreciate that. Yeah. Oh, real, real quick before we actually jump into the meat here. Um, because this is coming out on, uh, Tuesday. Uh huh. And if you're listening before 10 PM on the Tuesday, I just wanted to reiterate real quick here at the beginning of the episode so that you don't forget that we have a live discord event every Tuesday night at 10 PM. We do. And the link is always in the show notes to join our discord server.

[00:06:09] Which you should do because it's so fucking fun. It really is. It really is. We have a blast and, uh, I, I don't know of a better social media outlet that's available than discord. We've had so much fun there. Mm hmm. So that being said, I'm, I'm, we can go ahead and move along to the, the episode here. I just, I have to, I love people on discord because we get to interact with them and it's so fun. Yeah. I just want more of them. I know. So join us and Oh, don't worry about not knowing anything about discord. Right.

[00:06:37] Join anyway, because most of us didn't know shit about it. I still don't know shit about it. Right. No, about three, fourths of the time. I still can't even figure out how to get into the goddamn room or whatever it's called. Right. So yeah. Welcome all. Yeah. All right. Isaiah 54. Ready? I'm ready. Sing. No. I don't want to fucking sing. I thought, I thought this wasn't a song. God damn it. I'm sorry. You told me there's no songs. Well, this isn't a song in so far as. I know. Okay. That's right. But I'm not singing.

[00:07:07] Barren woman. I'm not talking to you. Well, you are barren, but you're not a woman. You who never bore a child burst into song, shout for joy. You who were never in labor because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband, says the Lord. That more are the children of the desolate woman. What? What? Yeah. I think this is the trying to allude to some sort of a metaphor here.

[00:07:37] Yeah. They are definitely. Israel is like a barren woman who has a child. Got it. That gives birth to a child. Okay. Okay. That's enlarge the place of your tent. Stretch your tent curtains wide. Do not hold back. Strengthen your cords. Strengthen your stakes for you will spread out to the right and to the left. Your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities. See? Yeah.

[00:08:07] They weren't completely wrong about that. Because recently Israel did displace a bunch of people. They sure as fuck did, didn't they? And tried to settle in their places. Yeah. Sure. Do not be afraid. You will not be put to shame. Do not fear disgrace. You will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood. Widowhood. Why is widowhood shameful in the first fucking place? Yeah, I don't know. That shouldn't be.

[00:08:36] I'm here to tell you, just so you know, if your spouse dies and you had no hand in it, you ain't gotta be ashamed of being unmarried and your spouse died. Right, right. Like, you can be aggrieved or you can be like joyous if your marriage was shit. But for that matter, if your husband was an asshole and you left him, you don't have to feel ashamed. That's what I just said. I mean, anything that you choose to do, as long as it's the right thing for you. That's what I'm saying. You know, that's all. That's what I'm saying. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Don't feel shame, though. No shame. No shame.

[00:09:04] For your maker is your husband. Get the fuck out of here. The Lord Almighty is his name. The Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer. He is called the God of all the earth. So God is our husband? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. There will be more of this alluding to God and Israel and faith as a marriage. Yeah.

[00:09:32] There's going to be so much more of that coming up and a lot of it in the New Testament. And it's so irksome. Right. Because it's not just that it's alluding to this marital relationship. It's alluding to a marital relationship where and the man's in charge, though. Right. And the man is either the husband or God. Yeah. Like, period. And they're interchangeable when it comes to as far as how church leaders generally treat

[00:10:00] it in their speeches and stuff. Like at any given moment, the husband is either the actual husband, the church or God. And it really doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. To the Bible. Because if you're a woman, you fucked. Right. You are so fucked. Right. Like, you have nothing. And that feels a little bit like, oh, then I'm not going to do this. Right. Why would I on purpose sign up for this life of not counting in this marriage? No thanks. Yeah.

[00:10:30] The Lord will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit. Because heaven forbid that a woman be happy on her own with no husband or no spouse. Because nobody likes being alone, period the end. It's funny how often, and you just touched on that this is going to happen a lot. But like even previously in the Bible, there have been so many references to like pain being equated to women's childbirth. Mm-hmm. Right. And just.

[00:11:00] Something that the men who are like manly men, men, God, church, father, husband. Right. Has never experienced. Right. And it's written. I mean, obviously we all know that this is written by men. Right. I mean, 100%. Uh-huh. So it's interesting that they are so, they want to compare so many things to women's plights and different things like that. Because they don't understand it, but they want to claim that they understand it.

[00:11:30] I think it's because they don't understand it that they have to have some kind of ownership of it. We recognize that it's painful. Well, and to me. See how we recognize how painful it is? I feel like part of it is that they don't really understand God either. Right. So like them not understanding women is a similar, you know, take. Like they don't understand women as much as they don't understand God. So let's just compare the two. Sure. Let's just put all the marbles in one bag. Sounds good.

[00:11:57] The Lord will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit. A wife who married young only to be rejected, says your God. I see. Yeah. If your husband dies, it's because he rejected you. Well, you're a widow. Right. You know? Yeah. Yeah. That sucks. Okay. Sucks to be you. Right. You're unloved and unwanted and you're doomed now. Yeah. Nobody for you. Right.

[00:12:23] And if you don't like it, that sucks. If you do like it, that also sucks because nobody thinks you should like it. Right. Right. For a brief moment, I abandoned you, but with deep compassion, I will bring you back. Wow. He actually admitted that he abandoned them. Wow. That's amazing. Right? Good on him. Man, there's some growth for God. Can we go to therapy and talk about that? Right. But why did you do that though? But why did you do that? And then why did you deny it for so long?

[00:12:52] And what changed and made you feel like now is the time to share? Yeah. Use your feelings. Unburden yourself. Let's talk. In a surge of anger, I hid my face from you for a moment. Wow. He was mad? He's admitting anger too. Did you have mad? You put on your angry eyes. This is good therapy for God here. Yeah. But with everlasting kindness, I will have compassion on you. I don't trust you that it's everlasting. Right.

[00:13:21] You might get mad again. Yeah. I was going to say, you just got done telling us how you were mad and how you abandoned us. Mm-hmm. So why should we trust that it's going to be different this time? Yeah. You know? Those are the words of, let me think about it, an abuser. Yes. Yes. And a gaslighting motherfucker. Right. He's only admitting it because it behooves him to do so in this moment. Yeah. Like, that's exactly what a gaslighting, abusive motherfucker does. They never admit it. They never did wrong.

[00:13:50] If they did something wrong, you deserved it anyway. And what is wrong with what they did anyway? Yeah. And yeah, they did it, but fuck you for it. Right. And you should have done it too. Who do I sound like? I don't know. Okay. I sound like Trump. Got it. Sorry. I was not on the same page as you there. I sound like Trump. I didn't want to try to guess. But I also sound like my ex, but mostly I sound like Trump. They are kind of interchangeable in some ways. They are. Honestly. Yes.

[00:14:19] It's called narcissism. Right. The medical term, not the looking at yourself in the mirror because you love yourself. The fact of the matter is, clinically, the narcissist actually does not love himself in any way whatsoever. Right. I think God is definitely a classic narcissist. Oh yeah. Definitely. Most gaslighting, abusive motherfuckers are. Among other things. Psychopath would be another thing. So yeah. Yeah. To me, this is like the days of Noah.

[00:14:45] When I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again. What? I just sent you away to be enslaved for 400 years, for 200 years, whatever the hell it was. Yeah. And I'm just trust me. I screwed up once back then with the flood and then I did it again. But this time, guys, this time is not gonna, I'm totally, I totally mean it this time.

[00:15:13] I drowned all of you motherfuckers and then I murdered all of you motherfuckers and then I put the rest of you into slavery. Right. But I promise we're good this time. It'll never happen again. Don't you love me? I'm going to love bomb you. Right. That's what it's called. Yeah. I'm going to love bomb you with gifts and, and words of affection and tell you how much, Oh my God, this guy's a narcissist and I hate him so much. Ugh. Okay. So Noah, blah, blah, blah.

[00:15:40] Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed. Yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken, nor my covenant of peace be removed. You know, unless I do it. Right. Yeah. I will give and take it away cause I am Lord God, Alpha Omega and beginning. My name is I am and boy, am I. Terms and conditions apply. Right? Says the Lord who has compassion on you.

[00:16:08] Afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted. I will rebuild you with stones of turquoise, your foundation with lapis lazuli. Wow. Because. I want to see this city. Because in God's world. Yeah. Material objects matter. Right. Well, even back in Garden of Eden when he was like, and gold. Yes. There's gold there. No, that was exactly what I was going to bring up. That's so funny. When we were reading Genesis for the first time, gold comes up and I'm like, what? Why did they care?

[00:16:37] Why do we care about gold? What did, what did Adam need gold for? This is the perfect, it's a perfect garden for humanity. And there is no bad. There is no need for anything. You don't want for anything. And they were naked, so they didn't need it to decorate their bodies. Right. But there was gold. There was gold. Pure gold. Very pure gold. Important enough that we mentioned that, and they were rich. Yeah. With gold. Right. Look how rich they were with all that gold that they didn't fucking need. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:17:06] I will make your battlements of rubies, your gates of sparkling jewels, and all your walls of precious stones. I call it bullshit. So what? I don't think this actually happened. I don't either. Yeah. Well, I don't think he said it, and then I don't think he did it. Right. Well, I mean, I, you, you would think that, so we're talking like 2,000 years ago, right? Mm-hmm. 2,300 years ago. Sure. Whatever. Sure. Somewhere in that timeframe. Yeah. If, if God built, God, if God built a city with fucking-

[00:17:35] He built this city. ... gemstones for the, the, the walls and the whatever, and the battlements, we would find remnants of that. That would not have, that, I mean, okay. Okay. I guess you could say maybe people was plundered it all, I guess. Yeah, it got, if the city got sacked. All right, all right. Fair enough. All your children will be taught by the Lord, and great will be their peace. In righteousness you will be established.

[00:18:04] Tyranny will be far from you. Oh, okay. You will have nothing to fear. Pfft. Bullshit. Except for me. Except for like, wait, wasn't there a whole holocaust? Yes. I would say that is something to fear. Right. Those people seemed very afeard, and rightfully so. Yeah, and I would, I would say in the grand scheme of things, this, this covenant that he's making again did not hold up for all of history. It did not. No.

[00:18:32] And I think that it's bullshit that he says these things when we know what happened later. Like, to me that hurts my feelings on behalf of the Jewish people. We know reading this, he's a fucking liar. Right. You, you lied. You, you lied just now. Yeah. That is incorrect. Because you know how we know that you are a liar because you know everything. Right. And so, since you know everything, what you are saying here is false.

[00:19:01] And since you know it's false, cause you do know everything per your own words. Yeah. You're a liar. Right. Either that, or you don't know everything and you're stupid. Right. And you're just as clueless as we are. Yeah. So which is it? Are you a liar or are you stupid? Right. I mean, I don't, I mean, I don't have a answer. Non-existent. Yeah, non-existent is definitely the one. Which means that man did it, which means stupid. Yes. And liar. Correct. But mostly stupid. I mean, you can't lie about what you don't actually know.

[00:19:28] No, but they lied a lot by saying God wrote it. Sure. Yes, that is true. And they just lied a bunch of other times too. Yeah. I just know they did. No. Because humans lie. Right. Right. But yeah, man is stupid. Yes. Terror will be far removed. It will not come near you except in the Holocaust later. If anyone does attack you, it'll not be my doing. Whoever attacks you will surrender to you. Did that happen? No. I don't think that happened. No, that did not happen. See?

[00:19:58] It is I who created the blacksmith who fans the coals into the flame and forges a weapon fit for its work. Okay. And it is I who have created the destroyer to wreak havoc. No weapon forged against you will prevail and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and this is their vindication from me, declares the Lord at the end. I see. I see.

[00:20:26] These things were written by people who were feeling good about their current situation and how how Israel was coming back to full strength. And they were also trying to rebuild the sense of community and encourage the whole of all of the Israelites. Yeah. Come back. Come back. Let's see. It's fucking propaganda. Propaganda. Yeah, it is exactly propaganda. And they know exactly what they're doing.

[00:20:53] I I'm not going to discount maybe maybe they do have some belief in God. Maybe they do actually believe what they're writing in these books, but they also have at the same time know that they are lying with the words that they're writing. Yeah, because they're literally making them up. Yeah. So it's it's kind of I don't know. I don't feel I don't feel great about it. No, no, I'm not proud as a human for humankind. It's not a strong point. Not a strong moment.

[00:21:22] No, no, not our best. Right. All right. Well, that was Isaiah chapter fifty four. Sure as fuck was, which means that tomorrow on our discord. Well, tonight on our discord, we'll be back with our discord, which will be reading. Oh, Isaiah chapter fifty five. There we go. Sorry. I was like, I don't I don't have a jingle for that. What's happening? No, I was looking for the one we're reading. Yeah. Sorry.

[00:21:50] That's like it gets posted tomorrow. So I'm like used to saying tomorrow. But no, we will record it on our live discord the same day that you hear this, assuming that you hear it the day it's posted. If you join us. Yeah, right. Yeah, it'll be tonight if you join us. It'll be tomorrow if you don't. And that episode will be chapter fifty five. Yeah. Right. And if you are hearing this in the future, none of it applies. Yeah. So just ignore all that. Yep. All right. Thanks, guys. Bye.

[00:22:19] Hey, wife, I guess that's the end. But husband, that's just sad. It doesn't have to be. We are on lots of social media platforms like Twitter. Our handle there is sacrilegious underscore D for these nuts. Oh, my God. Stop doing that. Anyway, we're also on Facebook, Instagram and Facebook. And Pinterest. There's a link to all of our social media sites at our website. Oh, we have a website.

[00:22:48] Yeah, it's sacrilegious discourse dot com where you can also find a link to our merch shop. We have a merch shop. Yep. We have podcast themed clothing, mugs, notebooks and more as well as an atheist and science themed products. Wow. I know our fans should really go check that out right now. Definitely. They can get in touch with us by sending an email to sacrilegious discourse at gmail dot com. But before they do that, we could really use some help. Oh, yeah. With what? Well, it's not free running the podcast and we need some financial support in order to

[00:23:14] get better equipment, which will free up time so we can concentrate on our podcast and our fans. OK, so what should they do? Head over to patreon dot com forward slash sacrilegious discourse and sign up as a contributor on our podcast. Supporters there receive additional biweekly episodes that we record just for our Patreon members for as little as $2 a month. Also, we'd really appreciate it if you would like and subscribe on whatever platform you're using. And Apple podcast reviews help us out tremendously. Like and subscribe. Leave an Apple review. Join us on Twitter.

[00:23:44] Support us on Patreon. That's a lot of instructions. Don't forget to say thanks. Thanks. K bye.

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