Isaiah 1:18
“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. (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Isaiah 1
Isaiah is perhaps the most import prophet in the Old Testament. He is certainly the most quoted prophet by the New Testament authors showing up at least 85 times in 61 different passages. Isaiah’s book contains “the vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah,Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah” (Isa 1:1). And there is a ton to unpack in his 66 chapters. In fact, we will spend most if not all of the summer in the book of Isaiah so let’s settle in!
Isaiah ministered to Israel during the reign of four different kings of Judah for about 40 years around 740-700 BC. Israel was prosperous during this period of time but it was in a deep moral and spiritual decline. God’s people performed the rituals and honored the festivals but their hearts were not in it. Idolatry was also prevalent and social injustice was a common theme.
We know very little about the man Isaiah. We know that he was married and had two sons. It’s likely that he lived in Jerusalem. Isaiah’s style of writing indicates that he was well-educated. He is widely considered the greatest preacher that ever lived. The beauty of his writing is the top of the food chain with no one who is even considered his rival.
Isaiah chapter 1 introduces us to the rest of the book by setting the stage for Isaiah’s message to the people of Judah. They have abandoned God’s ways and are living in sin. They need to turn back to God so he can heal and bless them. But if they don’t, God’s judgement will come down on them.
God speaks through Isaiah to open the book. The Lord says, “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me” (vs. 2). They no longer know God. “They have forsaken the Lord … and turned their backs on him” (vs. 4).
The people continue with their sacrifices and rituals but their hearts are far from God. God says to them, “The multitude of your sacrifices—what are they to me? … Stop bringing meaningless offerings!” (vs. 11, 13). God compares this generation to Sodom and Gomorrah and highlights the extent of their wickedness. Their offerings are meaningless to God because they aren’t genuine. They offer no actual desire to be obedient to God.
So God calls them to true repentance. “Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice” (vs. 16-17). Worship is more than doing the rituals. It’s more than going to church and saying the prayers. God wants our heart and our obedience every moment of every day. True faith produces righteousness and justice. God says to them to “take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow” (vs. 17). Caring for the vulnerable is faith in action.
But then God says, “Come now, let us settle the matter. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool” (vs. 18). The sacrificial system no longer serves its purpose of exposing the people’s need for God and His righteousness. So God is going to settle the matter and fix this once and for all. God wants a relationship with us more than he wants our offerings. He’s going to send Jesus to us.
We often quote Isaiah 1:18 because of its poetic beauty and maybe we don’t realize it came from the prophet Isaiah over 700 years before Jesus came to earth. John the Baptist said of Jesus perhaps with this Scripture in mind, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
The apostle John would write, “If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:6-7). This is the message of Isaiah chapter 1. God desires our heart not our rituals. If we claim to love God then our actions will prove it. If our heart is truly turned to God, then we will walk in God’s light and He will purify us from sin through the redeeming grace of Jesus.
The apostle John would see Isaiah’s vision in verse 18 for himself and he would record it in his book of Revelation:
“Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?”
I answered, “Sir, you know.”
And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev 7:13-14).
Christ in the Old Testament 
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