Lost Way - (Isaiah 1.21-31)
The Bible speaks to us in a very practical way. Some of you may be concerned about studying through such a lengthy Old Testament book, but this book contains terrific and practical insights about God. As we open up tonight’s text in Isaiah, we see that what is going on in Israel during the time of Isaiah greatly resembles what we see in our society today. This text is intended to confront us in our sins and comfort us if we are willing to repent.
The Result of Rebellion
Isaiah 1:21–23 (ESV) — 21 How the faithful city has become a whore, she who was full of justice! Righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers. 22 Your silver has become dross, your best wine mixed with water. 23 Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow’s cause does not come to them.
To start, we see some very striking words that illustrate a relationship that is falling apart for us. When the relationship falls apart, society falls apart. The Israelites don’t see it, but everything goes haywire when they refuse to recognize God and submit to his word. They transform from a city full of justice and peace to a downright evil city. They are devolving and degenerating. The moral standards are ceasing to exist. They murder and steal without a second thought. Their grasp of good and evil is gone.
Can you imagine living in a society where people murder and steal without a care in the world? We are there. It used to be that the wealthy were caught doing this stuff, but they have gotten away with it, and now it is widespread. Immorality is everywhere. Rebelling against God and removing him from society will result in a delusion. God gives them up to their delusion and lets them believe something untrue. They believe that murdering the innocent is justified.
They reject and refuse to care for the widows and those who are orphaned. They take bribes to let the guilty go free. There is no justice or equity. The world is full of evil and injustice. There is imagery in verse, saying, “Your silver has become dross.” God recognizes that they were once valuable and precious, but now they are useless. They are like the trash that needs to be removed to bring out the precious metal. They are like wine mixed with water.
I know it’s easy for us to look out at the world when reading this and think, “It’s just like that!” But consider yourselves? Are we self-aware enough to say for sure that this isn’t what God would say to us? How is our relationship, and are we degenerating toward a state of evil? Is there no hope for us, then? If we are degenerating, we will see in the rest of this text that God promises to help us be what we are called to be. We need only to repent and turn our hearts to him.
Destruction & Restoration
Isaiah 1:24–25 (ESV) — 24 Therefore the Lord declares, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: “Ah, I will get relief from my enemies and avenge myself on my foes. 25 I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy.
Notice in this text, we see what God is going to do about this situation. He will relieve himself of the enemies. He’s going to smelt away the dross and remove the alloy. When you remove the trash, you heat the metal to its melting point. If the dross has a higher melting point, you must separate the liquid from the solid. Then, you can discard the dross.
God wants to restore his precious people. He doesn’t want to make them like Sodom and Gomorrah. He wants them to be a new city that exudes righteousness and justice. This is what God always wanted. This is how the offspring of Abraham became a blessing to the nations.
But how is he going to do this? He’s going to purge away the evil with a refiner’s fire. It’s going to be a painful process. Then, the city will be righteous and faithful again. He tells us more in the next section.
Redeeming Zion
Isaiah 1:27–31 (ESV) — 27 Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness. 28 But rebels and sinners shall be broken together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. 29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks that you desired; and you shall blush for the gardens that you have chosen. 30 For you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without water. 31 And the strong shall become tinder, and his work a spark, and both of them shall burn together, with none to quench them.
Notice that there is a redemption that is going to happen. God is going to repurchase Jerusalem. He’s going to restore them to true justice and righteousness. He will make a city set on a hill above all other cities because it will shine the light of righteousness for all the cities to see and take note of. That is God’s ultimate goal and desire.
He says he will break and consume those who rebel and enjoy sinning against him. He will bring them down like a strong oak with withered leaves or a beautiful garden devoid of water. This is an image of God removing their supply of life-giving water. He’s the one who controls that, and he’s removing what they need. He’s bringing them low and letting them be burned up.
Please also notice that to be on the positive side of this judgment, you must repent, meaning you have to turn away from your selfish living. You must admit your shortfalls and embrace a life pursuing righteousness, even if we don’t always get what we want. God did not change from the Old Testament to the New Testament. He has always desired to have repentant people who change and become what they are created to be.
Lessons Learned
When we study this text, we see God is not pleased with the stubborn, rebellious people who pursue sin and grow increasingly evil. He endures patiently with them for a while, but they are growing increasingly evil. It reminds me of Romans 1, where Paul says God gives them up to believe the lie. They don’t want to know the truth, so God lets them believe what is false. He lets them get wrapped up in the delusion of atheism, paganism, materialism, secularism, and whatever other ism they can come up with.
God sees and knows all about our evil today. It’s not anything new. It’s been happening for thousands of years. This is pride month. People think they are enlightened because they have twisted the words intended to bring freedom and justice for black people and made it so that all kinds of oppression and injustice can be brought against anyone, refusing to acknowledge and accept their perverted way of living.
They don’t understand that God sees that rebellion, and he can remove it like one removes dross from silver. Our society is too far removed from suffering to be concerned about what is true. When God wants to straighten things out, he will turn up the heat and separate the dross from the silver. That’s what he does.
We see in this text something that we will see throughout the prophets we are studying. That is, God wants to establish a city where righteousness dwells. He wants that to be our city. In the New Testament, he calls that city a heavenly Jerusalem, where the redeemed and restored live forever with God. It’s an eternal city for all those who repent and find redemption and restoration.
How Do We Repent?
So, now we must ask ourselves, “How do we repent and find this redemption and restoration?” The text makes this pretty straightforward, doesn’t it?
Shame and Guilt
We need to be ashamed after we see how evil we have become. We need to step out of the delusion of self-justification and recognize how broken we are. We need to feel like a garden without water and an oak with withering leaves. It doesn’t matter how strong we appear. We need the life-giving stream. We need the living water that only God can provide.
Appreciating Redemption
But we need more than guilt and fear. Those things are excellent and appropriate for sinners, but we need more than that to be saved. We need to be redeemed by the redeemer.
1 Peter 1:17–19 (ESV) — 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
Ultimately, our righteousness depends on God’s ability to redeem us in justice and righteousness. He went through the fire of death for us to be refined. He gave his blood to pay the price for our redemption.
Ultimately, if we are going to change, we need an appreciation for what he has done for us. We aren’t going to change out of fear of consequences. How long does it take to convince ourselves that the consequence is not real when it takes time to appear? Real change comes from a heart that wants to change. We have to be motivated by the love of God, and a desire has to be inside of us that says, “I’m not changing because I have to. I’m changing because I want to.” So, we need a passion to become the righteous city of God. We need a love for God that is deeply rooted in our hearts.
We won’t sacrifice for others long if our hearts aren’t motivated by love. Why not? Because people will fail to show our sacrifice the proper appreciation. There won’t be enough reward for us in that sacrifice. So we will stop.
Perhaps you have given up on sacrificing for God because the reward wasn’t great enough. I hope you will assess yourself to see if you are repentant. Are you wanting to change, or are you just trying to change to avoid punishment? There’s a difference.