Text: Isaiah 1:1-31, Isaiah 2:1-22, Psalm 68:16-18, Luke 24:44-49
Lent is shocking.
Lent reminds us that sin is real, and so is our need for cleansing.
The first two chapters of Isaiah are just as startling. They detail for us the often unwelcome truth of how God views sin and those who nurture sin.
The book of Isaiah is the word from God to the people of Israel through His prophet Isaiah around the 8th century B.C. The nation of Israel had developed a comfortable system with God that was becoming overtly transactional instead of relational. As long as we have goats on hand to sacrifice, we’ve got currency to trade with God for sins. It was like kids with spending money, only their goats were no longer good where they were shopping.
“‘What are all your sacrifices to Me?’ asks the Lord. ‘I have had enough of burnt offerings and rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I have no desire for the blood of bulls, lambs, or male goats… Stop bringing useless offerings’” (Isaiah 1:11-13).
It’s shocking to hear the Lord of Hosts, who prescribed this stop-gap propitiation for sins in the first place, tell His people they’re missing the point at the cost of something so much greater than plump, blemish-free livestock. It’s startling because we prefer to think of God as endlessly patient, a giver of wide margins and benefits of the doubt. But this is not the picture painted in Isaiah 1:15: “When you lift up your hands in prayer, I will refuse to look at you; even if you offer countless prayers, I will not listen.”
I seriously challenge you to find that verse hand-lettered and framed in any home in your neighborhood.
Isaiah can be a tough book to read. So when I read passages like these today, I have a lot of questions, and I imagine you do too.
How does Old Testament prophecy work?
Are these just God’s words to Israel then, or are they also judgment on me now?
How should we read Old Testament prophecy nearly 3000 years after it was written?
And how can I keep this up for the next 46 days and 66 chapters?
I may not have perfect answers to all these questions, but here is what I know: the God of Israel who spoke through Isaiah then is the exact same God today. His character is unchanged. His tolerance for sin has not softened around the edges. And while His only begotten Son has since laid down His life as the ultimate, blemish-free sacrifice for our sins, it does nothing to diminish the directive in this three-word sentence: “Stop doing evil” (1:16).
Stop doing evil.
Don’t take a break from evil. Or fast from evil. Or be sure to clean up after yourself when you’re done.
Stop doing evil.
We read Old Testament prophecy to understand God’s character. We read His warnings to the people He loved who did not love Him back, and we heed those warnings. We come to understand what is important to God and make it important to us. We reject the myth of transactional faith, and enter into relationship with the Lord of Hosts. And when we repent, by the grace of God, we turn our backs on our sin completely. We don’t sin because we can, or because we expect God to relent at the sight of our “I’m sorry” bouquet. We stop doing evil. And we keep reading so that we can keep knowing Him more.
Lent is shocking. But it might be just the shock we need.
Don’t take a break from evil. Or fast from evil. Or be sure to clean up after yourself when you’re done.
Stop doing evil.
Amen
Stop doing evil is so simple yet so profound.
Amen!! Just stop!!
I wish when we accepted Jesus as our Savior He took our free will also so that my Love would only sinlessly grow without the chance of choosing sin, the wrong road,the wrong choice,but only HIS perfect will from the point of receiving HIM.Think of the endless repenting when we could be using that time in endless worship like we will in Heaven…
But we can’t stop doing evil…
With the power of the Holy Spirit in us we can overcome evil. You’re right, not completely, not in this world. We are sinners in broken vessels/bodies. But we can take our thoughts captive and replace sinful thoughts with “whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy.” We can keep our tongue from evil and our lips from speaking lies, turn from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it.
Just because we DO sin is NOT a free-for-all saying we MUST sin!
I’m confused. I finally splurged and bought the book to use for this study. Day one and two have the added bible study commentary but so far 3-5 have nothing with them to help me understand how to apply and to go more in depth.
I ended up buying the plan here on the app to try to catch up.
I wish I had known that these weren’t included.
Is this how all the books are?
While I appreciate the art and recipes I am disappointed that I had to purchase the plan online as well to have a complete study.
I’m in the same point. I loved the commentary for the first two days but then nothing afterwards, I have to come to the website for it? I’m confused as to the purpose for the book then…
Unless something has changed that I’m not aware of, that’s how all the books are. I bought the advent book for 2015 and was very disappointed and haven’t bought a book sense. I’d rather have the commentary than the Word because my entire point in buying the book was to put my phone down :/
Wow! This was eye opening. These chapters help keep in the forefront of my mind the question, “is my relationship with God transactional or relational?” I don’t want to condone my willful sin nature because I know that God is a forgiving God. I never want Him to turn His ear from me because my flesh wants to do what it wants. Lord help me to stop doing evil as your word admonishes is in Isaiah 1:16.
And not to mention the fact that on earth we idolize riches and other humans and ignore the one we should be idolizing which is God!! An eye opener for sure
I was thinking this too – so much of TV idolizes people – so much of politics is putting faith in man to solve our problems. Part of decluttering should be taking a hard look at the idols we may have in our lives & get rid of them!
Reading this today gave me a new perspective… we often think by apologizing to God that we are automatically forgiven and the sin is forgotten about. But what we don’t realize is that when we repent, we are suppose to be turning our backs against that sin and striving to do much better. So many times have we taken God for granted thinking that he will always accept and hear our prayers when many times we aren’t truly repenting because we allow ourselves to continue living in the same sin we just repented for! This is an amazing lesson, one that I will read over again to truly understand Gods grace when we have true willingness to change
Your words are so well written. And true. We do take God for granted and just believe no matter how many times we sin, we know he will always forgive us, always. But what do we do – sin again. So true.