“If that’s what Christianity is about, I’m not interested”. That’s what many people say about the church. Let’s be honest. Look at the way we behave, the way we relate to one another. We’re often not the best ambassadors for Jesus Christ.
It’s not a new problem.
We’re going to be looking at the early chapters of the book of Isaiah for the next few weeks. Isaiah was a prophet in Judah in the 8th Century before Christ. His book is about a contrast. It’s a tale of two cities. A contrast between the present-day city of Jerusalem and what it would become, as God’s plans come to fruition.
Look at the Jerusalem of Isaiah’s day: it’s not the best ambassador for God and his people. But they’re a work in progress. God has a plan for something truly wonderful. And he’s going to get there. And through the prophet Isaiah, God addresses his people, his very mixed people.
We are a pretty mixed bag too. All Christians should have a T-shirt with the slogan: “God hasn’t finished with me yet.” Which means that there’s a lot for us in Isaiah as well.
Today we’re in chapter 1. It’s the introduction to the whole of Isaiah, and God sets out his stall. To help us listen to these wonderful words, I’ve got three headings for us.
A Rebellious People
First, a rebellious people. A rebellious people. That’s the reality on the ground, the people Isaiah is ministering to: A rebellious people.
Look at verse 2. God has charges to bring against his people, and he summons the whole universe to listen: “Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth! For the Lord has spoken: ‘I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me.’”
A rebellious people. Israel is God’s son. And God’s son has turned against him, gone wild.
They’re worse than animals, verse 3: The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand. Even a dog knows whose feet to sit at, who to bring the slippers to, which side it’s bread is buttered. But God’s people, blessed by God beyond their wildest dreams, have no idea.
Their rebellion comes out in their behaviour in various ways: We’ve got murder and assault. Verse 15: Your hands are full of blood! There’s no justice any more. Verse 21 She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her – but now murderers. That’s because the leaders and the judges are in the pocket of the criminal fraternity. They’re corrupt. Verse 23: Your rulers are rebels, partners with thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. And so the poor, the vulnerable, are not cared for: They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them.
What’s God done with his wayward son? He’s disciplined him. He’s tried to show him that things aren’t right. Win him back. But it’s all falling on deaf ears. Verse 5: Why should you be beaten any more? Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted. From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness – only wounds and bruises and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with oil. Your country is desolate, your cities burned with fire; your fields are being stripped by foreigners right before you, laid waste as when overthrown by strangers. Daughter Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a cucumber field, like a city under siege.
Foreign powers have devastated Israel. She’s left like a man slumped in an alley having been beaten black and blue. In a hospital bed with every organ close to failure, wounds from head to toe, each one infected. Desolated. Cities burned. Fields stripped of their crops. All that’s left is a flimsy tent to shelter in.
Israel is not just rebellious but irrationally rebellious. In spite of all this, they plough on, unaffected. A rebellious people.
A Religious People
They weren’t only a rebellious people. They were a religious people. A religious people.
The Old Testament gave God’s people lots of religious practices. Sacrifices to offer. Festivals to gather for. A temple to meet in. Prayers to offer.
And the people of Isaiah’s day loved all this. They were very religious. They did everything on the menu.
They were either ignoring the problem, or trying to solve it.
They might have been ignoring the problem: “God’s still find with us. We’ll just carry on doing all the religious stuff he asks of us, because that’s how we relate to him. Nothing’s amiss here.”
Or they might have even been trying to solve the problem. “We keep hearing that we’re a bit off-beam, not quite the people God’s looking for. Surely that’s nothing that can’t be fixed by a bit of religion.”
Either way, nothing’s further from the truth. God’s not looking for their religion at all.
Verse 11: Their sacrifices mean nothing to God. “The multitude of your sacrifices – what are they to me?” Their sacrifices add nothing to their standing with God. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals.” And they achieve nothing: “I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.”
They keep going to the temple, but they’re just trampling. In fact God looks at their religion and says: “Just stop it!” “Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. … I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.” Stop!! These were festivals, sacrifices, assemblies that God had commanded. But he’d commanded them for his loyal people. As a way to patch up hearts that are far from God, to patch up lives that disown God, they’re worse than nothing.
Even their prayers. Verse 15: “When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening.” The people pray. And God has his fingers in his ears. He’s so busy chanting “La, la, la: I’m not listening” that he doesn’t hear a thing they say.
They’re a rebellious people. And a religious people. But religion is not what God wants from people whose hearts are far from him.
So what does he want?
A Repentant People
Well that’s our third heading. He wants a repentant people. A repentant people.
There are 3 stages to the right response God is looking for.
Firstly, wash. That’s in verse 16, where God tells them to “Wash and make yourselves clean.” Earlier in the Old Testament, God provided certain sacrifices that would symbolise the people having their sins washed away. God wanted to make his people clean. The people need to recognise their guilt, and take up God’s offer of forgiveness.
Second, change. Verse 16 goes on: Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right. The New Testament word for this is repentance. We stop doing what we know to be wrong, and we start doing what we know to be right. We stop running away from God, and we start walking in step with him.
And then thirdly, be clean. Verse 18 uses legal language. It imagines God bringing his people into court. He’s going to set the record straight, lay out the charges against them. “Come now, let us settle the matter.” And yet what he says is the opposite of what they’d expect to hear.
They’ve got so many sins. They’ve done so many things wrong. They’re like blood-red stains all over them, from head to toe. You’d expect God to demand full payment for every blot and blemish. Instead this: “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”
The Bible is the true story of Snow White. We come to God, stained red by the many things we do that are not good. He invites us to come. Wash. Change. And then he’ll do what we could never do ourselves, and bleach everything so white it’s like snow. It’s not even magnolia. Snow white.
All of this is only possible because of Jesus. Isaiah will get to that later in his book. But we know the story of the one who walked beside the sea of Galilee. Here was his message: “The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe the good news.” We know the one who died on a hill outside Jerusalem, the perfect sacrifice for sin, so that his people can be washed clean.
8 centuries earlier, God can still issue his invitation, and make his promise. Come. Wash. Repent. Change. And be clean.
A repentant people.
A Choice
They’re a rebellious people. They’re a religious people. But God wants them to be a repentant people.
All of this leaves the people with a choice.
God still has a plan. He hasn’t finished with his people yet. Here’s where things are going – verse 26: I will restore your leaders as in days of old, your rulers as at the beginning. Afterwards you will be called The City of Righteousness, the Faithful City. God’s going to restore Jerusalem to her place of old, the Faithful City. God’s going to raise up good leaders. God’s people are going to be the shining beacon they were always meant to be.
He’ll do it by purging. When you have the raw material of a precious metal, like Silver, it will have many impurities. You need to melt it down. The impurities float or sink. You can skim them off, or drain them. Throw away the dross, and you’re left with the pure silver.
God will purge from his people all that is wrong. He’ll get rid of all the dross, all the corruption. The people who remain rebellious. And by doing that, those who have turned back to him will be cleansed and restored. His people will be pure once again.
The choice is clearly set out in verses 19 and 20: If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword. If they turn back to God, they’ll get to enjoy the good things God’s promised. They’ll feast. But if they persist in their rebellion, the God will finish the job. So far, it’s just been discipline at the hand of foreign powers. Resist and rebel, the sword will finish them off.
It’s a simple choice. Either eat of God’s goodness. Or be eaten up by his justice. Eat. Or be eaten.
And so each individual Israelite, living in the time of Isaiah, has a choice. Will they return to God, and be part of what God is doing with his people. Or will they carry on in rebellion, and face the culmination of God’s judgement.
A Choice for Us
And we, today, face the same choice.
God still hasn’t finished with his people. His plan is still underway. It will be until Jesus Christ returns. But the future is certain. God is building a new society, made up of his cleansed, forgiven, righteous, Christ-like people. Those who are a part of this will one day be fully righteous, and will feast on God’s goodness.
The question is: Where do we feature? Will we persist in our rebellion against God? Will we paper over the cracks with religion? Or will we turn to the Lord in repentance, receive his washing, and be part of his plan?