September 1st | Isaiah 1

I have two young children, and they often find themselves bickering and fighting. When I say “often,” I mean every minute of every day! And about twenty times a day, I go to one of them and say, “You need to go and apologize to your sister/brother.” Here is how that apology works. Stomping feet, head down with a scowl on their face, a barely audible “sorry”, and then running away quickly to get back to whatever they were doing. Have any parents experienced this before? On good days when I have energy, I might say these words, “No, that wasn’t a REAL apology, go back in and try it again.” 

Why would I make them go and apologize again? They said the words, but their hearts weren’t in it. For the people of Israel, this was where they were spiritually. At the time of Isaiah’s writing, they had been in the Promised Land for over 700 years (for context, America is almost 250 years old), which meant they had plenty of time to stray from God’s commandments. Isaiah is writing to the nation of Israel, long after the time of King David and Solomon. Years and years of bad kings have come in, and generations of people have strayed from God and have served false gods. 

To make matters worse, they were still pretending to offer sacrifices in the temple in Jerusalem. I say pretending because their hearts were not in it; it was just a religious activity, and their sacrifices to God were mixed into their worship of many other false gods in the temple. Basically, Israel was a mess full of idol worship and half-hearted devotion to Yahweh, the one who had rescued them and brought them into the promised land. 

You can imagine, then, that Yahweh, the one true God, would be upset with them. Therefore, God called Isaiah to be a prophet and to call people to repentance. The first 39 chapters are called the Book of Judgment. Then chapters 40-66 are called the Book of Comfort. Therefore, the first few chapters of Isaiah begin with God calling His people to repent. 

Isaiah 1:11;13, “What are all your sacrifices to me?” asks the Lord. “I have had enough of burnt offerings and rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I have no desire for the blood of bulls, lambs, or male goats. Stop bringing useless offerings.” 

How many times do you bring useless offerings to God? How many times are your apologies like those of my children? Halfhearted at best, and then quickly move on to the next item on your to-do list. As you read through Isaiah, you see a God who desperately wants to commune with His people, but their sin is hindering that beautiful relationship. Would you truly repent from your sin and pursue God today?

Isaiah’s Book of Comfort (chapters 40-66)  includes the passages of the suffering servant, which point to Christ who came to sacrifice himself in our place on the cross. Isaiah is a call for Israel to repent and turn back to God, and as we read it, we can also find that call to turn from sin. For us, we can read it with New Testament eyes and see Christ. We don’t repent to go and make sacrifices again because of what Jesus did on the cross. We repent and trust in Jesus to make us holy and right before God. No more halfhearted sacrifices but a true and abiding relationship with God through Jesus. Would you repent and seek that relationship today?