1:15
So instead of hearing their prayers or paying attention to them, God will hide his eyes from them. We should, of course, be aware that God is using anthropomorphic language here. We then start to get the reason for this reaction, their hands were full of blood.
1:16,17
Instead of focusing on their festivals and Sabbaths, they should focus on their hearts and their actions. We see a similar situation in Mark 7. They should make themselves clean by removing their evil deeds and stopping doing evil. Instead they should do good and seek justice, they should deal with oppression. They should help the fatherless and the widows.
1:18
So we have had a diatribe against Israel, but the purpose is not to destroy, for now we get a call from God for them to “reason together”. However, it is vital that we understand the terms of the reasoning. Israel needs to come to terms with God’s thinking. God is right, we are wrong. So much secular thought, and sadly so much thought in the church, takes its premise as “we are right, God is wrong”. Oh, what fools we can be!
The blessing from God is a cleansing of our sins. The colours Crimson and scarlet allude to blood, and death and violence were one of the prime sins of the day. What about our day? Well, many thousands of babies are aborted each year, so maybe things are not so different. So the sin is terrible, but the cleansing will be complete. However, we do need to appreciate that God’s salvation is a saving from our sins. If we do not acknowledge our sin, then Christ has nothing for us. Indeed, He said the same thing when He said it the sick, not the well, who need a doctor.
No comments:
Post a Comment