Isaiah 1:16-17 English Standard Version

16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.

Several days ago yesterday’s devotional was written. As I prepared to study this morning the two verses prior to Isaiah 1:8 were used for the daily verse in BibleGateway. Because I used Isaiah 1:8 two days in a row, it is fresh on my mind. This causes me to ponder the contents of Isaiah 1 deeper than I had in using quotes from that chapter.

There are several meaningful passages in the opening chapter of Isaiah. Some are quoted later in the bible. If one is a student of the bible, it is easy to recall other places within the bible where parts of our opening verses are paraphrased or quoted in part.

To pay proper homage to this important chapter it is best received in total and see the flow of the language as it moves through the subject matter from human error to God’s intentions toward man. Taking just one line of scripture and using it as I have the past few days omits the contextual flow.

Excerpts will leave us without important elements of understanding. Who is speaking, who is listening, what is the condition or circumstances of the hearer at the time of the writing? All these things bring a deeper meaning to what God is telling us about His plans for all of us.

The opening verse sets the tone of the times. v. 1 “The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.”

Have we studied about these four kings of Judah? Can we understand the circumstances of the people of Judah and Jerusalem without seeing what these kings did while they ruled? Circumstances are repeated over and over again in history, even today.

Isaiah 1:18 English Standard Version (ESV) “Come now, let us reason^[dispute] together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

I removed footnote ^[a] from yesterday’s devotion and reintroduce it here today. A dispute conjures up a different vision than reason. It implies a disagreement and a need to argue. No one should expect to win an argument with the God who is Truth.

In the NT the Greek diakriseis dialogismon literally means “discussions of doubts”.  The Hebrew word yāḵaḥ is translated as reason and carries with it a myriad of methods that God might use to counter us when we question God’s judgments. God will use whatever method necessary to cause us to accept His judgments.

What was said in our youth, before we matured, sounded like this. “Why God why?” Listening to my children often became a battle of “whys”. Every answer was met with “why”. That wears down the parent to the point of exasperation until we inevitably cry out “Because I said so.”

Thank God we cannot wear out God’s patience. He knows best how to remove doubt and end disputes.

Romans 14:1-4 King James Version

¹ Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. ² For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. ³ Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him. ⁴ Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.

Render the issue of eating to spiritual food, the ability to digest the Word of God, i.e. the Bread of Life. It takes a certain level of maturity to understand what matters in another’s theology. What is dangerous and needs to be corrected in the hearing of others and what is best left for God to correct?