Scripture Daily

Context No. 899 of 4322 · Isaiah

Context · Reflection

Isaiah 1:17-31: in context

17Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow.” 18“Come now, and let’s reason together,” says the LORD: “Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 19If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land; 20but if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured with the sword; for the LORD’s mouth has spoken it.” 21How the faithful city has become a prostitute! She was full of justice. Righteousness lodged in her, but now there are murderers. 22Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water. 23Your princes are rebellious and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes and follows after rewards. They don’t defend the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them. 24Therefore the Lord, GOD of Armies, the Mighty One of Israel, says: “Ah, I will get relief from my adversaries, and avenge myself on my enemies. 25I will turn my hand on you, thoroughly purge away your dross, and will take away all your tin. 26I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called ‘The city of righteousness, a faithful town.’ 27Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her converts with righteousness. 28But the destruction of transgressors and sinners shall be together, and those who forsake the LORD shall be consumed. 29For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, and you shall be confounded for the gardens that you have chosen. 30For you shall be as an oak whose leaf fades, and as a garden that has no water. 31The strong will be like tinder, and his work like a spark. They will both burn together, and no one will quench them.”

Isaiah opens his book with a courtroom scene against Judah. God has just said he is sick of their sacrifices while their hands are full of blood, and here comes the summons: learn to do good, seek justice, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. Then the famous invitation: come now, let us reason together, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. But the chapter does not stay gentle; it laments that the faithful city has become a harlot, its silver turned to dross, its princes companions of thieves who love bribes and ignore the widow, and it promises God will smelt the city in judgment until it is a city of righteousness again.

The heart of the indictment is that worship and injustice were coexisting comfortably. Judah kept up the sacrifices and the feasts while the orphan went undefended and the officials took bribes, and God says the religion is worthless, even offensive, as long as the widow's case never reaches the court. What he wants is not more incense but justice done to the defenseless. And into that indictment drops the astonishing offer, come let us reason together, sins like scarlet made white as snow, mercy held out to the very people he is convicting. But the mercy is not sentimental. The same God who offers to wash them white also promises to melt them down, to burn away the dross, because he intends to actually restore justice, not just forgive its absence. Grace and the refiner's fire are the same love aimed at the same corrupt city.

Is my worship running alongside an injustice I have learned not to see, some widow or orphan whose case I could take up and do not?

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