1.
The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
2.
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
3.
The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
4.
Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
5.
Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
6.
From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
7.
Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
8.
And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
9.
Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
10.
Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
11.
To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
12.
When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
13.
Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
14.
Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
15.
And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
16.
Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
17.
Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
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.
A WONDERFUL CLEANSING
‘Sins … as scarlet … white as snow.’
Isaiah 1:18
A florist told me that the flowers for which he had the largest sales were white flowers, as these were very fashionable. Have we not had a winter which harmonises with the prevailing fashion? For weeks the snowflakes have been going and returning.
I. If you want to realise the whiteness of the snow, try and paint it.—Take a few flakes, and make of them a snow-study and then open your paint-box. You will find you have no paint white enough to perfectly represent the purity of the snow.
II. Why is snow white?—Snow is composed of a number of tiny points of ice, which are transparent, but when these are united together to form snow, though each particle may be transparent, the mass is opaque (not transparent) and reflects the light instead of allowing it to pass through. For instance, a pane of glass is transparent like a slab of ice; but pound the glass and you will have a white powder which is not transparent. If you take one of the tiny particles of glass you will find it is transparent, while the little mass together is, like the snow, not transparent.
III. Snow is an emblem of pardon.—Scarlet is one of the colours of deepest dye and is called a fast colour. I asked a friend if he had ever dyed a piece of scarlet cloth white; as you can imagine, he looked astonished at such a question; presently he admitted that the scarlet dye might be extracted from the cloth, but that in the process the cloth would be destroyed.
Now, sin is in our hearts, and is corrupting our entire lives. Sin has become a part of us just as a fast colour has become part of a piece of cloth. My text says that our nature, which has been dyed with sin, can become perfectly pure. God can remove sin without injuring us. God can change the crimson of sin into the purest white. There is nothing more wonderful in the world than the transforming grace of God.
If we would lose sin, with which we are dyed, and be clothed with purity, we must by faith accept the great sacrifice of Christ’s blood, and live by the Lord Jesus Christ.
19.
If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
20.
But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
21.
How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
22.
Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:
23.
Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.
24.
Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:
25.
And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin:
26.
And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellers as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.
27.
Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.
28.
And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed.
29.
For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.
30.
For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.
31.
And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.
THE SINNER AND HIS WORKS DESTROYED
‘And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it’ [his work] ‘as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.’
Isaiah 1:31
There are those who glory in outward greatness. They are (they think) ‘strong as the oaks,’ but that strength, when not supported by righteousness, is only like the coarse, unwoven flax, easily broken and easily consumed. Wickedness shall perish, though it sit on thrones. ‘An empire based upon the wrong is rotten through and through.’ The lesson of the text is, that the sin of the evil-doer becomes his scourge. The work of the strong shall be as a spark of fire to him, and both shall burn, and burn inextinguishably. The words look at the Advent of the Lord purely on the side of judgment.
I. It is God’s law that wickedness shall be destroyed.—(1) History of nations proves this, and all such history is a prophecy of the Great Judgment. The Jewish nation has been effaced from history as a nation. See the fate of the empires of all the past—Egypt, Nineveh, Babylon, Greece, Rome. Think of Napoleon I, and his successor in the empire. (2) History of individual men. Have you ever seen it? Say not ‘Where is the promise of His coming?’ for every such instance is a promise.
II. It is God’s law that a man’s own sin shall be his destruction.—‘His work is as a spark.’ Ambition lights up the penal retribution of one man; sensuality is the spark to the tow of another; and avarice works the ruin of a third. Our pleasant vices are made our scourges ( Psalms 9:16; Psalms 28:4).
III. It is God’s law that this destruction shall be irretrievable.—‘They shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.’ There is a time when even tears and penitence would seem to be vain.
Illustration
‘The principle in this passage teaches us the following things: (1) That the wicked, however mighty, shall be destroyed. (2) That their works shall be the cause of their ruin—a cause necessarily leading to it. (3) That the works of the wicked—all that they do and all on which they depend—shall be destroyed. (4) That this destruction shall be final. Nothing shall stay the flame. No tears of penitence, no power of men or devils shall put out the fires which the works of the wicked shall enkindle.’