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.