Isaiah 1:10-17

b. JEHOVAH'S CORRECTION

TEXT: Isaiah 1:10-17

10

Hear the word of Jehovah, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

11

What unto me is the multitude of your sacrifices? saith Jehovah: I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats.

12

When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to trample my courts?

13

Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; new moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies,I cannot away with; it is iniquity and the solemn meeting.

14

Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble unto me; I am weary of bearing them.

15

And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

16

Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

17

Learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

QUERIES

a.

Is God here contradicting His commandments to make sacrifices?

b.

Does God really refuse to hear anyone's prayer?

c.

How were the people to wash themselves clean?

PARAPHRASE

An apt comparison! Listen, you leaders of Israel, you men of Sodom and Gomorrah, as I call you now. Listen to the Lord. Hear what he is telling you! I am sick of your sacrifices. Don-'t bring Me any more of them. I don-'t want your fat rams; I don-'t want to see the blood from your offerings. Who wants your sacrifices when you have no sorrow for your sins? The incense you bring Me is a stench in my nostrils. Your holy celebrations of the new moon and sabbath, and your special days for fastingeven your most pious meetingsall are frauds! I want nothing more to do with them. I hate them all; I can-'t stand the sight of them.
From now on, when you pray with your hands stretched out to heaven, I won-'t look or listen. Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear, for your hands are those of murderers; they are covered with the blood of your innocent victims.
O, wash yourselves! Be clean! Let Me no longer see you doing all these wicked things; quit your evil ways. Learn to do good, to be fair and to help the poor, the fatherless and widows.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 1:10 THE CALL TO CONSIDER: Be still and give attention for it is Jehovah who speaks. One does not truly hear God's Word unless he obeys that word (Cf. James 1:22). Until a person is in an attitude of willingness to do the Lord's will, he cannot know it (Cf. John 17:17). If one does not obey, it is as though he had not even heard.

Isaiah 1:11-15 THE FALSE APPROACH: Sacrifices without their heart in them. Sacrifices without faith in the One (God) to whom they were supposedly being offered. Ceremony without obedience (Cf. 1 Samuel 15:22; Jeremiah 6:16-20; Amos 5:21-24). To worship without doing God's commandments in the rest of life is no true worship, and any ritual of worship without faith is a hollow mockery. All that is done in a religious way if it is not accompanied with faith in the Person of God is vain and offensive to God (Cf. Matthew 15:1-20; Mark 7:1-23). Without faith it is impossible to please God! And, of course, worshipping Him in violation of any expressed commandment is to make void the Word of God. Worship and sacrifice and solemn assembly, without faith, becomes a weariness to Godit vexes His innermost soulit disgusts Him. Who required of them such a steady stream of traffic in faithless sacrifices? Not God! They willfully forced these rituals upon Him. He loathed them. Their worship and their living were incongruousthey did not go togetherbecause iniquity and solemn assembly are totally incompatible. God was fed up with them, sick of them, tired of them and would spew them out of His mouth (Cf. Revelation 3:16). They were there in bodily presence but their hearts were far from Him. This is totally unacceptable to God. Goodness, love and faith begins in the mind and heartthis is what God wants!

Isaiah 1:16-17 THE TRUE APPROACH: Get your heart right! Wash, cleanse, repent! The O.T. abounds in the use of the figure of washing to refer to repentance (Cf. Psalms 51:2; Psalms 51:7; Jeremiah 4:14; Ezekiel 36:24-26; Zechariah 13:1). Repentance is the condition which God demands in order to work His cleansing in man, (Cf. 1 Peter 1:22-23). Repentance is: ceasing to do evillearning (become skilled in) to do well. Doing well is: being just and seeing that justice is given; correcting and chastening the oppressor; championing the orphans-' cause and that of the widow. God cannot even be approached by man unless man is in an attitude of repentance (change of mind). Wm. Chamberlain, in his book, The Meaning Of Repentance, defines repentance: A pilgrimage from the mind of the flesh to the mind of Christ. Repentance is surrender; a change of thinking, willing, acting; a life directed toward the will of God as revealed in His Word.

QUIZ

1.

When does one hear the Word of God?

2.

Why is worship without faith unacceptable to God?

3.

What is God's attitude toward faithless sacrifice?

4.

Why must worship and manner of life go together?

5.

When does God cleanse us?

6.

What is repentance?

7.

How is repentance manifested in one's life?