Day: November 30, 2009

  • The Book of Isaiah Chapter 1 V.16-18 Part 1


    Isa 1:16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

    So here now, is the admonishment. Clean up your act. Be pure, be justified. There were several words that came up for “put away.” Among them: turn aside, depart, avoid, to be removed, depose, leave undone, retract, reject, abolish.

    This goes well beyond simply “quit doing the evil you are doing.” This is, completely remove yourself from any trace of it. To leave undone, is like getting up and departing from one city to another, and not packing a thing.

    And again, the command is given a second time with the word “cease.” The meanings here have some similarities: to stop, cease, desist, forego, cease to be, leave undone, forbear, come to an end, leave off. In other words, walk away from it and don’t look back.

    Evil here refers to being displeasing, to be sad, to be injurious, to be wicked, be evil (ethically), to do an injury or hurt, to do evil or wickedly,
    Mischief, to break, shatter. In other words, cease from shattering lives.

    Isa 1:17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

    Learn, teach, be willing to be taught and trained, and then exercise what you learned in being good, being pleasing, being well, being glad. Be joyful and rejoice. Deal well with people, and make things good or right or beautiful. As Spike Lee said, “Do the right thing.”

    Seek (with a demand), demand, require, to investigate, enquire, ask for, practice, study, follow, seek with application, to seek with care, care for justice. Your purpose now is to advance, keep making progress, and go forward to relieve the oppressed, judge, govern, vindicate, and punish the fatherless, and plead for the widow. God is giving a new directive and direction for the life of one who answers the call.

    Isa 1:18 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.

    Here now is your chance at redemption, but first something is required from you. You have to be willing to give up something. You have to be willing to walk away completely from the mess you were involved in. You have to have a desire to progress and move forward. You have to be willing to be taught and to teach others on what is right, and you have to be willing to defend justice.

    Then we can “reason” together. Then I can wipe the slate clean.

    *An interesting footnote is that from the insect ‘coccus ilicis’, the dried body of the female yields a coloring matter from which the dye is made that is used for cloth, to colour it scarlet or crimson.

    “When the female of the scarlet worm species was ready to give birth to her young, she would attach her body to the trunk of a tree, fixing herself so firmly and permanently that she would never leave again. The eggs deposited beneath her body were thus protected until the larvae were hatched and able to enter their own life cycle. As the mother died, the crimson fluid stained her body and the surrounding wood. From the dead bodies of such female scarlet worms, the commercial scarlet dyes of antiquity were extracted. What a picture this gives of Christ, dying on the tree, shedding his precious blood that he might ‘bring many sons unto glory’ (Hbr 2:10)! He died for us, that we might live through him! Psa 22:6 describes such a worm and gives us this picture of Christ. (cf. Isa 1:18)” (Henry Morris. Biblical Basis for Modern Science, Baker Book House, 1985, p. 73)