An Anguished Father Deals with Rebellious Children

Isaiah 1:10-15

In verses 10-15 God cries out against the religious machinery that was constantly running in this wicked nation. They were absolute hypocrites, trampling his temple courts with a seemingly endless parade of animal sacrifices. Year after year this mindless machine of meaningless religious exercises continued. But all this religion was being done by people who were living the wicked lives described in Isaiah 1. This chapter stuns us by telling us that God hated their religion.

In these verses God reveals his heart about religious formalism and hypocrisy. He detested their incense (v. 13) and hated their festivals (v. 14). Their constant sacrifices, however costly and of high quality, he called “useless” (v. 13). Even their prayers were offensive to God; he considered them a burden he was weary of bearing, and he vowed to refuse even to look at them when they prayed. What’s amazing about all this is that God had commanded all these things to be done. But God cares about the heart attitude behind all of these actions. Later in Isaiah, God will say of them, “These people approach me with their speeches to honor me with lip-service—yet their hearts are far from me” (29:13).

This insight is vital for us in the twenty-first century as well. It is so easy to get into a pattern of religious observance and have our hearts grow increasingly hard toward God because of our sinfulness throughout the week. Many people go to church every Sunday and then live like complete unbelievers the rest of the week. God despises religion that is a mere external machine, that never draws the worshipers into a clear understanding of the holiness of God and their own need for Jesus Christ as Savior.

Isaiah 1:16-20

Even more amazing than God’s utter disdain for mindless religion is his willingness to save sinners from the judgment they so richly deserve. In verses 16-20 is one of the most famous calls to repentance and salvation found anywhere in Scripture. Here the holy God is calling on filthy, corrupted sinners to come to him. In verse 18 is the command to “Come,” to draw near to God. Their sins have made them distant from him, but now God beckons them to come close to him. Along with this is a call to “settle” the issue. The Hebrew word is rich, as though God were opening up a line of communication, urging them to use the reasoning powers with which he endowed them at creation. At its essential nature, sin is unreasonable, irrational, insane. It produces corruption and misery; it results in estrangement from God and enslavement to ever-increasing wickedness; it stores up an ever-increasing wrath on judgment day. Sin is the ultimate tyrant, seeking to destroy our very lives. Conversely, God is the most delightful being in the universe; in his presence is the fullness of joy (Ps 16:11). “Come, let us settle this” means, “Let us talk about all this, let me reason with you to forsake your sins, come to your senses, and come home to the God who loves you.”

At the core of this is a call to repentance. It is not a call to more religious activities, sacrifices, and empty prayers. Rather, it is a call to wash the filth of sin from your hands, to put away sins from God’s sight, to stop violating God’s laws. It is a call to live a righteous, morally pure life, one that is filled with compassion for the poor, the needy, the oppressed, and the widow. Genuine repentance will result in a sacrificial life of concern for others, even a costly concern that spends oneself for the most destitute in society. This is a call to complete and radical transformation. The question is, Is it possible for a sinner to do this?

Verses 18-19 contain some of the richest promises of cleansing and total forgiveness in the Bible. Sin had left the deepest stain, indelible in the sight of a holy God who sees all and forgets nothing. God is able to wash away the scarlet stain and make sinners white as snow. At the core of this forgiveness is a transformation of the hearts of sinners; formerly rebellious and unyielding, they are now made “willing and obedient.” And having been so transformed, they will eat all the good things of the promised land, as if they had never sinned at all. But once again the question stands before us: Can we make our own hearts willing and obedient?

On the other side of this lavish promise of forgiveness and rich restoration is a terrifying warning of total destruction (v. 20). This is nothing different from the original blessings-and-curses aspect of the Mosaic covenant by which the people of Israel had inherited the promised land to begin with. This same dual outcome is repeated in verses 27-28: The repentant sinners will be redeemed, but rebels who abandon God will perish. God clearly threatens the destruction of all sinners who refuse his offer of forgiveness and restoration. In Isaiah’s day this most likely would come by being devoured by the sword of some invading army.

Isaiah 1:21-31

The people are pictured as completely sinful and completely defiled, dripping with blood. They are told to wash and cleanse themselves (v. 16). They are told to become as pure as snow and clean wool (v. 18). But how can this be done? Jeremiah asked rightly, “Can the Cushite change his skin, or a leopard his spots? If so, you might be able to do what is good, you who are instructed in evil” (Jer 13:23). It seems like an impossible command for sinners like us to obey. These verses speak of a terrifying judgment that God will bring on all who do not repent: rebels and sinners (Isa 1:28) will perish in the flames (v. 31).

In verses 26-27 Isaiah predicts the day when “Zion” (the city where God and humanity dwell together, pictured by Jerusalem) will be restored to perfect righteousness. But how can sinners like these ever be “redeemed by justice”? Justice stands against such sinners, accusing them and condemning them to destruction. But still, the prediction stands that Zion will someday be righteous in God’s sight. The issues of Isaiah 1 couldn’t be more poignant, and the desperate question stands again and again: How can sinners like us be redeemed with justice and be seen as perfectly righteous in God’s sight?

The answer of the entire book of Isaiah, indeed of the whole Bible, is clear: in Christ alone can sinners be washed, be transformed, be redeemed with justice, and stand righteous in God’s sight. Christ is the perfect sacrifice whose blood actually can cleanse the guilty, defiled conscience and make it whole again. Isaiah 53 will clearly predict the sacrifice of Jesus in the place of sinners, the one who was “pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds” (v. 5). By this “righteous servant” many wicked people will be justified (v. 11), which means “redeemed by justice [and] righteousness” (1:27). In the cleansing fountain of Christ’s redeeming blood alone, our filth and sinful wickedness can be cleansed. In Christ alone we can stop doing wrong and learn to do right. In Christ alone we can stop bringing meaningless sacrifices. In Christ alone we can learn genuine concern for the poor, the widow, the orphan. In Christ alone even though our sins are like scarlet they will be as white as snow and as pure as wool. In Christ alone can God make wicked sinners like us righteous in his sight; and through his death on the cross the penitent ones will be redeemed with justice. Written seven centuries before Christ, this entire chapter yearns for Jesus to come and make it a reality.

Though this chapter was written to Israel more than twenty-seven centuries ago, by it God still is speaking to us today. We are every bit as sinful as that nation ever was. We still struggle with violence, sexual immorality, and injustice on the part of our leaders, flowing from deeply rooted idolatry. We are just as apt to make machinery out of religion—to go to church Sunday after Sunday while living corrupted lives during the week. God has never changed: He still searches hearts and hates hypocrisy. He still brings severe judgments on his people for sins. He still threatens the unrepentant with destruction in the eternal fires of his judgment. He still summons senseless rebels to settle the issue of their sins. And he still offers one Savior—Jesus Christ—by whom alone can all the sweet promises of Isaiah 1 come true. It is for us to acknowledge our sins, to reject any hope of moral reformation apart from God’s grace in Christ, and to flee to Jesus, so we can eat the best of the land eternally. And having come to Christ, it is our responsibility to stand as though God were making his appeal to us and to call on sinners from every nation to repent and trust in Christ alone for the cleansing only his blood can give and the transformation of heart only his Spirit can work.