1 The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
10 Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
11 “The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me?” says the Lord. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
12 When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?
13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations— I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.
14 Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening.
Your hands are full of blood!
16 Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong.
17 Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.
18 “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.
19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land;
20 but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
I have noticed cleaning technology has changed. I remember growing up and washing dishes by hand; now, I enjoy the benefits of a dishwasher and a washer machine that I don't have to run and add fabric softener in at the right time. In dealing with the pandemic, I have seen all kinds of new devices that keep people and things clean to prevent us from spreading germs.
Today you have washing machines you can program and connect to the internet and robotic vacuum cleaners that sweep floors without you even getting off the couch. Some computers and applications will tell you the status of the cleaning device and if any parts need repair. We have come a long way from scrubbing clothes on washboards and running them through a wringer. No matter how much cleaning technology has changed, we still need to clean things.
Speaking through Isaiah, God has opinions about his people and how they need cleaning. Isaiah's name means Yahweh is deliverance, Yahweh will save, or Yahweh has saved. Isaiah is considered a major prophet and the first book of the major prophets because Isaiah lived around 150 years before Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Isaiah had a vision from God. Isaiah wrote to a people around a political expansion, the cities became more urban, and the gap between the wealthy and the poor increased.
People turned from God, things got bad, then things got worse, and Isaiah is begging the people to turn back toward God, truly turn back toward him and not for play. Israel was conquered and oppressed during this time, and even though people were oppressed, they still found a way to oppress others. When I say they turned from God, it did not look like they turned away to an outsider. These people still gathered for worship and did all the ceremonial tasks of a believer; they just didn't live a life for God outside of the church. They came to church, could recite all the liturgy in the hymnal, and sing the songs without cracking open the book. They could recite scripture at the drop of a dime and go as long as you wanted them to. The people had the right actions, just not the right intention. If you take those same people out of the church, you would not even know they were saved.
The people had empty worship, and God hated it. God said they were like Sodom and Gomorrah; this phrase was synonymous with destruction back then. Mentioning those cities by name became another word for disaster. For example, if someone were to say a town got Hurricane Harvey'd, now most of us in the Gulf Coast of Texas wouldn't need further explanation.
People like to think that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed for a specific sin and that sin was around sexuality; however (Ezekiel 16:49) tells us that the cities were not destroyed because of sexuality; they were destroyed for greed and injustice.
49 "'Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.
When these sacrifices were made, the person making the sacrifice was supposed to do the action with faith, believing that through their obedience, the wrath of God against sin would be mitigated. One of the problems was that people got more focused on the ritual and the patterns than the relationship with God. God is tired of the emptiness of rituals, sacrifices, and burnt offerings. God told the people don't act like you genuinely love or obey me; you just go through the motions. I hate it and don't want it anymore. We have to do more than talk about it. Isaiah is telling us to take action. We cannot just sit around and talk about what needs to be cleaned; we have to clean it.
STOP doing evil
Isaiah tells the people to wash, make themselves clean, remove the evil doings, and stop doing evil. What does it mean to stop doing evil? I think it starts with caring about more than yourself. I would learn in history classes about the evil things people would do to others, enslave people, pillage, and take whatever and whoever they wanted. One common thread with all that behavior was that the oppressors didn't see the people they oppressed as human. They only cared about themselves and nothing else. We are all created in God's image, and if we want to stop treating people horribly, we first have to think about more than ourselves and see the other side as someone created in God's image.
LEARN to do good
It is never too late to learn to do good. No matter your age or academic aptitude, there is always time to learn to do good things. The adage says the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best time is now. We can always find time to do something new. You learn new things by getting exposure to new things and new people. If we hang around the same people, doing the same thing, we will get the same results. God wants us to learn how to do the good stuff, not just do the same things.
SEEK justice, DEFEND others
Theologian James Cone said that God is on the side of the oppressed. We cannot be Christians outside of community, and we cannot take social justice out of the Bible. The Bible is full of instructions to defend the widow and the orphan, to welcome the stranger, and to take care of people who need help taking care of themselves. If you can't see that in the Bible, it might be because you have lived your life as pharaoh instead of the people calling for freedom, you have been the Babylonians instead of the people in captivity, or the Roman empire instead of the people following the way. God has been there with the people at their lowest, helping them to get out, and that is what we are called to do as believers.
The good news is that even though we are dirty now, Isaiah tells us how to get clean; it's not too late to get clean. The text says that they will be like the snow. The people have been handling bloody things, and God wants to make them like the snow. They shall be like wool. We get wool from sheep and young sheep, lambs.
Isaiah 9:6
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
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