Isaiah 1:15

The Bible says in Isaiah 1:15-18, “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. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Prayers can be hindered because of sin. It says in Psalms 66:18, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” God is holy, and man is sinful. Man’s sinfulness is a big problem. God has a solution to that problem: forgiveness. Jesus came and died on the cross to provide the means to forgiveness. But to obtain forgiveness from Christ, we must truly confess and repent of our sins. We cannot continue on in our sinful ways, and expect that we are pleasing to God. We cannot live in sin, and pretend that we are walking with the Holy One. That is why it says in First John 1:5-6, “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth.”

It is very important that Christians confess their sins in order to stay rightly related to the Lord. The Bible says in First John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” This is one of the most important of all spiritual principles. Once you become saved through faith in Christ, you must stay rightly related to Jesus by confessing your sins daily. It says in First John 1:10, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” In reading the book of Isaiah, we find that the children of Israel had sinned terribly. They had sinned to the point that they had been compared to Sodom and Gomorrah. But God still offered them the chance to repent. God said to them in Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” God’s mercy is greater than anyone’s sins. Anyone and everyone can be forgiven. That’s how great and wonderful was the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. He has grace that is greater than all our sin. No one would be correct in thinking their sins are too great that they could not be forgiven. That just is not the case because God can do all things and God has chosen through Jesus’ sacrifice to give everyone an invitation to salvation. Respond to the invitation, repent, come willingly to the Lord, and Jesus will make your sins “white as snow.”

It says in Isaiah 1:19-20, “If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.” There are two conditions to receive the blessing of God. The first condition is to be “willing.” The second condition is to be “obedient.” God has given every human being a free will. We must look at our own hearts and make sure that we are truly willing to do whatever the Lord wants us to do. All sin comes from human self-will. That is why we must always pray following the example that Jesus gave to us: “Not my will, but thine be done.” The opposite to being willing to follow the Lord is to “refuse” to follow Him. God commands all people everywhere to repent and to believe. The commandments of Jesus are not given only to Christians, but they are also given to everyone in the whole world. The ultimate reason that someone never turns to the Lord is because that person chose to use their own self- will against God and thus refused to serve Him. It says in First Samuel 15:23, “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.”

God said that believers must be “willing,” and that we must also be “obedient.” God’s will is for us to become holy. “Be ye holy, for I am holy, saith the Lord.” It does not do any good to say that you are willing to obey God, if you do not obey Him. And each time that we do not obey God, it means that we have sinned against Him. And God must punish sin, because He is the righteous Judge of the whole earth. Since God treats all people with the same standard, He evaluates every person with the same criteria: His holy Word. If God punished the children of Israel for not being willing and not being obedient, then we can expect the same punishment if we ever become unwilling or disobedient. It says in First Corinthians 10:6-12, “Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”

The Bible says in Isaiah 1:21-31, “How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water: Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them. Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies: And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin: And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellers as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness. And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed. For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen. For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water. And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.” In these verses God continues to tell the children of Israel about how far they have fallen and how great their sins have become. God called Jerusalem a “harlot.” Jerusalem had also become a city of “murderers.” Notice the other sins that made Jerusalem such an ungodly place. The leaders were rebellious against God. The judges were unjust, and took bribes. Those who needed help the most; like the fatherless and the widows, were not helped.

Because of all of these sins, judgment would follow. The power of the Lord is emphasized in order to show that He is more than able to bring punishment. He is called “the Lord of hosts” and “the Mighty One of Israel.” If God decides to do something, nothing will stop Him from doing it. If God decides to bring judgment and punishment because of sin, no one is strong enough to stop Almighty God. But then God stops talking about judgment and begins talking about the wonderful future that God has for Israel. Isaiah chapter one brings forth a teaching that is found in most of the Old Testament prophets. This teaching is the fact that even though God had to punish these people, He would still in the future establish that great country and that great city that God had promised to Abraham. Looking forward to a future kingdom, God said to the people of Israel, “And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellers as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.”

God made great promises to Abraham, and God always keeps His promises even when people fail Him. Some of God’ promises are without conditions. Salvation is like that. Once the Lord Jesus saves our soul through faith in Christ, He never leaves us nor forsakes us. We are saved by grace, and not by works. No one can separate us from the love of Christ. We are in His hands, and no one can take us out of His hands. Even the New Testament reminds us of God’s everlasting care when it talks about the future Kingdom of Israel that God will eventually set up. The Bible says in Romans 11:25-27, “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.”

The Bible says in Isaiah 2:1-5, “The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.”

It is important to notice the last few verses of this passage. God is talking about the great kingdom that He will set up in the last days, and He is telling us how wonderful that kingdom will be. It says about this great future kingdom, “he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.” There is nothing more important than knowing the Word of God, so that we can walk in His paths. If we do not walk in God’s paths, then we will walk in our own paths, and it says in Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Speaking about the future kingdom, it says in Habbakuk 2:14, “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.”

We come closer to understanding and even experiencing what the Kingdom of God will be like as we are blessed through our studies of the Word of the Lord. The knowledge of the Word takes away the worries of the world. Rejoicing in the Lord and not being filled with worry is the way life should be experienced. That is the best life. That is one of the reasons that Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.”

Another thing to notice about the future kingdom of God is that it will be a kingdom of peace. As a matter of fact, the following passage of scripture is often quoted to describe the wonderful event that will end all wars. It says, “and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” If it is a good thing to have no war, and there will be no war in that final great kingdom of God, then it should always be our goal to strive for peace. God’s will is for human beings to live at peace with one another in this world. Jesus said in Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” Jesus Himself is called the “Prince of Peace.”

We can deduce from this truth that the best nations in the world are not war-like nations. War should only be as a last resort and in self-defense. Any leader of any country who aggressively pursues war and who starts a war has done a great evil. Such leaders would be much less likely to engage in war if their own children had to be put into harms way to fight the war. Unfortunately, a few wars are necessary because if one is attacked by an aggressor, there is no choice but to defend one’s country and one’s family. But all wars have terrible consequences: consequences that are not God’s will for this world. Maybe people would be less quick to go to war if they remembered that in every war many innocent people are killed including women and children. In every war soldiers are killed who are the young men of the country, and who otherwise may have lived long and productive lives. Of course, during times of war many more people suffer terrible injuries that plague them for the rest of their lives. What a terrible loss of potential. In war buildings, homes, and communities are destroyed. Vast sums of money are spent on wars: money that could have been spent for better purposes in making the world a better place to live. What a terrible loss of resources. Those are just a few of the many, many terrible consequences of war. Oh the horror, the devastation, and the wastefulness that abounds in every war! It is no wonder that God tells us of a better country whose builder and maker is God, and we are told about this country: “and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

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