Bible Study on Isaiah 1, verses 16 to 20, let us reason together

 

Isaiah 1:16 ¶  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 judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. 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. 19  If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 20  But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

Here is a metaphor for taking a bath in cleansing oneself from wickedness, not a reference to baptism as a saving act in itself. He admonishes the Jews of Judah to stop doing evil in front of God, to stop doing the evil they have been doing, to cease from it.

Isaiah then goes on speaking for God as he tells them in verse 17 to perform the acts of true religion as defined later by James.

James 1:27  Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Connect these verses to Micah.

Micah 6:8  He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

And we are called to this as Christians.

Ephesians 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Verse 18 is a remarkable verse that stands out in our minds even if we haven’t memorized it. Notice the contrast is between the blood scarlet of our sins and the whiteness of snow representing purity. Racists on the right and race communists on the Left have sometimes tried to make this about black and white but it has nothing to do with their political ideology but all mankind’s rebellion against a holy God. Please read Psalm 51

Psalm 51:1 ¶  «To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.» Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. 2  Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 3  For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. 4  Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. 5  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6  Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

    7 ¶  Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8  Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. 9  Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. 10  Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. 11  Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. 12  Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. 13  Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

 

    14 ¶  Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. 15  O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. 16  For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. 17  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. 18  Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. 19  Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

Clearly the context in verse 19 suggests obedience to God’s word and that is how the Jews of Christ’s time would understand it as a Targum actually adds, “to my word.” Isaiah, speaking for God, gives a blessing and a warning. Obey and enjoy the fruits of the promised land or disobey and die.