Guest Blogger! :)

This is from one of my very best friends, Mary. God brought us together freshmen year at Dordt and we've been friends every since. We like to call each other teammates :) I'm uber thankful for who Mary is in my life. Every once in a while, we'll go through books of the Bible together and write each other about what we've learned. I told Mary I was doing this Isaiah thing on my blog and told her she can contribute--so here it is! :) Get excited, folks!

I learned from my big book of commentary that Isaiah lived during the time that Israel was in exile. It said that Isaiah was confronting the king of Israel on ‘ the difficult issue of the choice between a quiet faith and a desperate alliance.’ Basically, Israel was deciding to take the path that God didn’t want them to take… instead of trusting Him, they were deciding to take things into their own hands by aligning with other countries.

God basically says in verse 2 that He raised them, gave them everything— ‘I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me… Israel does not know, my people do not understand.’

V5-‘ Your whole head is infused, your whole heart afflicted.’ God says that their whole selves were affected by this disobedience. I think that’s true in general. When we decide to pursue our own dreams or comforts instead of God’s truth, our whole selves are afflicted.

I also learned from my big commentary book that Isaiah means ‘Yahweh is Salvation.’ I love that in the Bible, their names usually mean something… how fitting for Isaiah, who brought the good news way before his time that Yahweh would be salvation for his people.

So in verses 5-8, it talks about how Judah is nearly wiped out. But then in verse 9, God is still faithful… Zion would have been gone if it weren’t for God being faithful and saving a remnant.

And here’s where I thought it got pretty specific and kind of intense. In verse 12, “Who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?” God, that I may not trample your courts! And then verse 15, “Your hands are full of blood,” Again, God, show me if my hands are full of blood! I don’t want to put eternal lives at stake by my ‘need’ to protect myself, or make myself comfortable.

God gives them a command—wash, and make yourselves clean.

Verse 17, “Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”

God cares so much about the fatherless, the case of the widow, that He is willing to hand over his people to the Babylonians because of it. This is serious stuff. “Your hands are full of blood.” He holds them responsible for those lives that they didn’t stand up for… so really, when you think about it, it’s not about what they DID that was evil, it was about what they DIDN’T DO. They didn’t defend the cause of the fatherless, or encourage the oppressed.

Now this next verse to me sounds more like a reprimand than it did before… “Let us reason together {Let’s argue our case according to the big commentary book.} Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow.”

It’s like God’s saying—"Don’t throw this away, just for your comfort! I have salvation waiting for you. Are you willing to be obedient? Then follow me! Come and have your sins washed away."

Then it continues to go on about how the Faithful City no longer is full of justice.

But God has hope for this city… He wants to renew His people.

V26, “Afterward you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City.” He says, one day you’ll be ashamed of what you’ve done here. You’ll understand what I do… you’ll understand because NONE of this lasts (i.e.; the sacred oaks in which you have delighted—that oak has fading leaves).

So essentially, this scared me a little… because this still goes on now. We still prefer our comforts, our ways of living over God’s decision making. But I think that what we don’t understand sometimes is that those decisions put blood on our hands. This scared me… I know there’s grace for these things, but again, it makes me ask… God, whose blood is on my hands? Whose eternal life is affected because I chose to ignore your voice?

I don’t know. Maybe this is an inaccurate belief, but it at least shows how much it matters to God… to forsake justice and the oppressed is to ignore one of the things that matters most to God.