Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
A new “Adult Sabbath School Study Guide” lesson quarterly for our first quarter of 2021 titled “Isaiah”. A most important “book” of the Bible. In the whole Bible we see principles at work that apply to all time. Especially in the Bible prophets we see the principles that apply to our modern culture. And now, specifically in Isaiah, we see the principles that apply to us today. To you and me. The counsel from God through Isaiah is pointed and profitable. It is truthful and merciful. Counsel from God to a world lost, so lost, in sin and self. Let us read to hear. Let us read to understand. Let us read to follow and obey. Our God speaks to us today through his faithful servant Isaiah. Spoken long ago, but heard today by those who wish to hear. To paraphrase a 1546 quote from John Heywood, “there are none so deaf than those who will not hear”. Let us hear.
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “Crisis of Identity”. And our weekly memory text, “’Come now let us reason together,’ says the Lord, ‘though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool’” (Isaiah 1:18). Isn’t this so like our God? After telling us the truth in the previous verses, he holds out an offer of grace. And the truth about us in the previous verses are pretty “scarlet” and “crimson” to be sure. So sinful are we. And yet, to those very ones, the offer of grace is given. The offer to “reason together”. The Lord tells us all that “the whole head is sick and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores” (Isaiah 1: 5-6). And yet, He still bids us “reason together” with Him. Reason. Yes, despite the lack of soundness in our minds, God still bids us to “reason together”. How can this be? Are not we beyond the ability to “reason”?
But if we read this carefully we see that God counsels us to do something before we “reason together”. He says that we are to “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” (Isaiah 1: 16-17). You see, a prerequisite for being able to “reason” effectively is to actually start doing the things of God. To actually try those things “and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2). Renewing our mind is tied to proving (trying-on for size) the things of God. And until we do try, we will not have a basis for understanding God at all. No basis to “reason together” with Him.
This flies in the face of conventional Christianity which says you must believe, trust, have faith before any “works” are acceptable to God. That we must understand and have a right motive before we “work”. But God tells us we must first try the things of God in order to be able to even understand the truth of anything. We cannot even begin to understand (or to reason) until we start to obey. Now we now that we cannot do the works of God by ourselves. An un-renewed heart cannot do the works of God. But we must first try to do them in order to understand what those works really are and to understand that we cannot do them on our own. And until we try, we will not know the magnitude of our high calling, not know the magnitude of His love and support, nor have any basis to “reason together” with Him.
Sad to say, much of Christianity appeals to our juvenile nature. A nature that shirks responsibility, wants only to appease and gratify self, and wants a free ticket into heavenly retirement where we get to do fun things with no worries or consequences. No wonder when this juvenile “gospel” is proclaimed it always receives a hearty “amen”. We do not want to grow-up into Christ. We want to stay adolescent. No wonder the non-Christian world holds Christianity in disdain.
As we read Isaiah this quarter, remember it is written to God’s self-centered children… us. Let us hear the words and seek to understand them. But more, let us seek to obey Him so we have a basis of understanding. Understanding Him, understanding ourselves, understanding sin, and to have a platform upon which to “reason”. Without this, we have a sick mind with no soundness in it.
With brotherly love,
Jim