I want to discuss Isaiah 1.1-20 today.
I have read this passage many times. I have heard many sermons preached on it. I have no unfamiliarity with this portion of Isaiah.
Starting in verse 10, the LORD begins to declare His disdain for the religious system and protocol that His people had adopted. Whatever that system was set out to be is not at all what it had become. In fact, the 'object' of that system (the LORD) was not at all pleased or impressed with it. He instead declared it shallow and meaningless and then He detailed in verses 16 and 17 what it was He sought from His relationship with His people:
Wash yourselves and be clean! Get your sins out of my sight. Give up your evil ways. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows. [Isaiah 1.16-17]
It was at this point, I was reminded of the person and life of Jesus the Messiah. Quite easily, all of Isaiah 1.1-20 could be the very life and words of Jesus Himself - and many of them were! It is easy to understand the attitude that Jesus seemed to exude when reading Isaiah 1.1-20. Jesus Christ was the manifestation of Isaiah 1.1-20!
It seems logical to me that people, all through history, as recorded in the Bible and elsewhere, have changed very little. Although entire societies and even continents are shaped by certain events (war, oppression, disaster), they still eventually follow a Godless path falling into all sorts of idolistic practices.
Think of all the major events in the history of Israel alone! Yes, they turned to God over and again, but 'tit-for-tat' they fell away again. And, as major religious systems go, from Moses to the time of Isaiah and eventually Jesus, the system of The Law - God's Covenant with Israel, there was a major falling away. Thus, Jesus rebuked the whole system (as it was foretold by Isaiah).
But then, another major religious system began to take shape - Christians call it the Age of Grace. In the early days of this new "Way" there was no lack for fervency and power.
But again, as history and human nature repeat themselves in unison, the Age of Grace, I am afraid, has become largely just as shallow and meaningless today as the system of The Law had become back in Isaiah's and then Jesus' day - sickening in the sight of God.
The obvious conclusion to this dilemma is that God will make a change. We don't need to ask ourselves what that change will be since the Bible so aptly gives us all the data we need! Jesus will again come to earth. This time however, it will not be to bring something, but rather to take something - His own. The Bible tells us that those in bona fide relationship with God through the person of Jesus the Messiah will finally be removed from the cycle of life-and-death (both physically and spiritually) here on earth and be replanted in heaven.
It all sounds so confusing, right? Well, it sounded confusing in Isaiah's day as well. And, mind you, the religious "system" of the day missed it when Jesus came on the scene... And, if, in fact human nature is repetitive, we can have some assurance that the current religious system of our day could well miss the Second Coming of Christ as well.
It is worth thinking about anyway...
Father, I want to be in tune with You. I want to hear Your Spirit above the noise of the religious systems of today. I know the religious systems today have some basic truth - but so did the religious systems in Jesus' day! Help me to trust Your Spirit and not the system!
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