Over two consecutive mornings last week, I had, before leaving for work, come across the same passage from the first chapter of the book of Isaiah during my devotion. The verses which caught my attention on both occasions were v. 16-17:
Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes.
Cease to do evil,
Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Rebuke the oppressor;
Defend the fatherless,
Plead for the widow.
In all my thirty-five years of Christian faith, I had often been told that only God washes us clean from sin and evil. For example, 1 John 1:9 tells us that God is faithful and just, and He will forgive us of our sin and will purify us from our wrongdoings when we confess our sins to Him.
Again, in Titus 3:5, we are told that God saved us through His Spirit by the washing of regeneration, i.e. by baptism. Likewise, in the passage that I read this morning, in Isaiah 1:18, YHWH says that He will make us as clean as snow, and as white as wool.
In such manner, for more than three decades of my Christian faith, I have been reminded by preachers and teachers through bible studies and discussions, that we cannot remove our own sins: that there is nothing we can do about our unrighteousness before YHWH God, that only God can wash us clean.
This week's encounter with Isaiah chapter 1, however has opened my eyes to a verse which commands us to remove our own sins. "Wash yourselves clean . . ." verse 16 tells us. Indeed, here in this passage it is recorded by Isaiah that YHWH has a command for the people of Jerusalem, with whose sacrifices YHWH had become tired (v.19) and whose prayers YHWH would not listen, even when they lifted their hands to Him (v.15).
And this command is, "Wash, make yourselves clean"!
This surprised me somewhat. It tells me that I had mistakenly held the belief that we Christians cannot do anything at all about our sins. It alerts me to the error of feeling helpless about my wrongdoings. Instead, I am awakened to God's command to His people in Jerusalem: that we, among ourselves, a nation belonging to YHWH , must do something about our sins - sins which may even be "red as scarlet and as crimson". I am awakened that God's command to me today is that we wash ourselves and make ourselves clean.
How shall we obey this command of YHWH , our God? The answer is found immediately in the next statement in verse 16, through verse 17:
". . . Stop all this evil that I see you doing. Yes, stop doing evil and learn to do right." (TEV)
That is how we wash ourselves. That's how we make ourselves clean - by ceasing to do evil and learning to do right. Verse 17 goes on to elaborate more on what we must do among the people of YHWH :
"See that justice is done. Help the oppressed, give orphans their rights, and defend the widows."
Note that YHWH 's command to his people in Jerusalem at that time was to help the oppressed, defend the fatherless and the widows who were in their midst. This was the sin of Israel. This was the matter. In the sight of YHWH, they should cease to do evil to their own people, and learn to do good, again to their own people.
Surely, that was the nature of the evil that YHWH 's people in Isaiah chapter 1 had to wash themselves of. Their hands were covered with the blood, verse 15 says. And it was the blood of their own people.
Dear Christians, let us look at ourselves, in our churches today. Let us ask YHWH Almighty, our God and Father to help us search our hearts. Like the people of YHWH in Jerusalem, let us remove all oppression of our own people from among our midst.
The sin of Israel then, may be our sin today too. Have we neglected to do good? Have we forgotten about the rights of the fatherless in our midst? And have we failed to defend widows and orphans among us? Perhaps, like the people of Israel, these are the "scarlet" and "crimson" sins in our Churches today. Our God, YHWH, our Father in heaven wants to make us clean as snow, and white as wool. (v.18)
By the blood of the sacrifice of His son, whom He raised from the dead, God our Father can cleanse us from all our righteousness (1 John 1:9). There remains, but one thing for all of us to do in our Churches today - to wash ourselves and make ourselves clean of any ongoing oppression and injustice among us.
"If you will only obey me, you will eat the good things the land produces. But if you defy me, you are doomed to die." (Isaiah 1:19)
