Verse for Today - Isaiah 1:16-17

Isaiah 1:16-17

"Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow."

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Read all of Isaiah 1

Isaiah 1 is an interesting chapter.  I would recommend reading it.  I have a memory from my early childhood of a minister reading the first verses about how a oxen and donkeys have more sense than God's covenant people.   I think there's supposed to be something appalling about it.  People should pay proper respect to the One who brought the forth, clothed and cared for them.  The prophet goes so far as to say that the people of Israel would have become like Sodom and Gomorrah (completely destroyed and consumed by the anger of the Lord), except the LORD had left a remnant among them... a few examples of His grace and mercy.

As painful and sore as this is, the most remarkable part of the chapter is found in and after the verses we're looking at today.  Our verses today are a call to repent, turn from sin, and do what God commands.  Pretty tough call for spiritually dead, sinful people.  But there is hope.  Jesus said that His people will hear His voice and follow Him.  It is His voice that we hear in these verses.  They awaken and bestow spiritual life to those who hear. 

In fact, they form the premise to the wonderful Gospel call in verses 18 and following.    Hear and heed God's voice!

“ Come now, and let us reason together,” 
      Says the LORD, 
      “ Though your sins are like scarlet, 
      They shall be as white as snow; 
      Though they are red like crimson, 
      They shall be as wool. 
      If you are willing and obedient, 
      You shall eat the good of the land; 
      But if you refuse and rebel, 
      You shall be devoured by the sword”; 
      For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.