The whole chapter 1 of Isaiah is a powerful prophetic passage in which God criticizes the Israelites for thinking that they can honor Him with sacrifices, incense and offerings while mistreating the most vulnerable of His people. Like all Israel’s prophets, Isaiah was concerned with practical matters, matters like mercy and justice. Isaiah complained against the abuse of the powerless and the lack of concern for the needy. Instead of caring for the widow, the orphan, and the stranger, the leaders in Israel were abusing and neglecting them.
Isaiah 1 is a court scene. The judge is seated. The evidence is presented. The accused stands silent, unable to plead innocence. God, the holy and righteous Judge, calls heaven and earth as witnesses. The defendant? His own nation, Judah and Jerusalem.
For us this passage should not just be history, it should be a mirror. A mirror that shows what happens when religious activity masks a heart far from God. Yet in the middle of judgment, God’s people find hope. God does not discard His people; He calls them back:
Israel believed that they could bargain with God’s commandment and instead of loving and serving Him exclusively and loving and protecting the least among them as God had commanded them to do, they could bring burnt offerings of rams and fat cattle to be sacrifice. Israel thought that God would ignore their behavior if they just showed up at the temple from time to time with a gift. They had fooled themselves into believing that God could not see their self-idolatry and lies. Like all the prophets before and after him, Isaiah told them what God expected, what was right at his eyes.
Like other prophets of the Old Testament, Isaiah could “read the writing on the wall” and delivered God’s message. Therefore, he told the nation that their self-indulgent worship would not be accepted by God. In fact, in words that we would be afraid to use in our time, Isaiah let the leaders, and the people of Israel know that God had had enough! Israel’s self-indulgent leaders and self-righteous people were behaving as if they were Sodom and Gomorrah, and they would surely face the same consequences unless they repented and began to worship God as if He were Lord.
God, through the prophet not just complain about their sin, He also offers the solution to Israel’s spiritual decay. Verse 10 says, “Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah!” So, that was the solution, to hear the word and listen to God. What God wanted from Israel was a repentance driven worship; a worship in which they could reflect their obedience to God alone. This advice from God did not stay in the abstract; He explain what “hear the Word and listen to the instructions of our God” means. Verses 16 and 17 say, “Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong and learn to do right; seek justice, defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”
In other words, the worship God expected from His people was not what he was receiving; the worship He expected was a daily practice of justice in their relationship with their brothers and sisters specially with the most vulnerable. In his mercy, God offers a second chance, verses 18 and 19 say, “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land…”
What a God we have, a God of justice and mercy who points to our sin, explain what the sin is and offers a new opportunity.
Now, what is the message this almost three thousand years old scripture has for us? Are these words only against the Jewish people, or are they also relevant to people who have professed their belief in our Lord Jesus Christ? I believe the Eternal Word of God has a message for all times and the message for today’s church is, “God does not want our religiosity, He wants a relationship.” Religiosity is the empty and meaningless traditional spiritual practices without any kind of commitment. Relationship in our Christian context is to be related to Jesus in such a way that our lives will be transformed by the word of our Lord, and we will show it in everything that we do.
When we have a relationship with God the father and Jesus his son, our Lord, everything changes, our Sunday worship service is not just a moment to fill our souls for the week we have in front of us, no when we have a relationship with God, Sunday worship service is a celebration of what we have received from God and what we have done for him the previous week. Sunday worship becomes a way of life seven days a week. Our worship becomes a matter of obedience and service, not empty and meaningless practices. if we love, serve and worship God with all our hearts we will treat others as if they were Christ. Remember, Church rituals will never replace real worship.
The prophet’s message is a reminder that we are made at God’s image; therefore, God wants his people to imitate His justice, goodness, truth and mercy toward our fellow man and women, rather than just observe religious rituals while our hearts are still wicked and the world around us is still in need of ministry.
Later in the history of salvation the writer of the First Letter of John repeated Isaiah’s message, in chapter 4 verse 20, he wrote, “if someone says”, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? According to Isaiah, the leaders and people of Judah wanted to say they loved God by their practice of empty and meaningless religious ceremonies, but the LORD cared more about how they treated other people, especially the fatherless and the widow.
They presented their sacrifices and offerings, but God wanted more; he wanted their hearts, bodies, strength, and souls. Paul knew that and in his letter to the Romans, he invited the church in Rome to present themselves as offering, not their animals or grains. “Therefore, -he said- I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship.” Contrary to the Jewish people who offered animals as sacrifices, Paul is asking that we, Christian should instead offer ourselves, our bodies, our lives to Him as living sacrifices. In other words, the only rational response to God’s mercy, salvation and eternal life is to give Him our lives as a sacrifice to use for His purposes, honor, and glory.
Paul is asking us to become living and breathing sacrifices, using our lives in service to God as an ongoing act of worship and this not to earn salvation, but as a response for being saved.
God expects us to sing and pray on Sundays; the rest of the week he expects us to love and serve. Let us pray: Lord, we confess our tendency to perform rather than repent, to go through motions rather than pursue You with sincerity. Cleanse us from our sin. Teach us to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with You. We come not in our goodness, but in Your grace. Make our scarlet sins white as snow. Amen.
God bless you all.
Benediction
Go now as people washed by grace. Live justly. Love deeply. Worship with your life. And may the God of justice and mercy be reflected in all you do.
Amen.
