The Failure of God’s People to Live Like the Redeemed
22But
O my people, you won’t ask my help; you have grown tired of me! 23You
have not brought me the lambs for burnt offerings; you have not honored me with
sacrifices. Yet my requests for offerings and incense have been very few! I
have not treated you as slaves. 24You have brought me no
sweet-smelling incense nor pleased me with the sacrificial fat. No, you have
presented me only with sins and wearied me with all your faults.
25I, yes, I alone am he who blots away your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again. 26Oh, remind me of this promise of forgiveness, for we must talk about your sins. Plead your case for my forgiving you. 27From the very first your ancestors sinned against me—all your forebears transgressed my law. 28That is why I have deposed your priests and destroyed Israel, leaving her to shame.[1] (Isaiah43:22–28)
The failure of God’s people to live like the redeemed is now discussed. Although God promises to save His people, they in no way deserve to be saved. God’s salvation will be totally by His grace. He will rescue His people from Babylonian captivity because He loves them.
Isaiah levels a very serious charge against God’s people: they are offering up empty prayer and worship. Apparently, many of the Jews were praying and worshipping, but they were not approaching God as He had prescribed (vv. 22–24). They were not seeking Him with pure, righteous hearts. When they prayed and worshipped, they approached God with the stain of sin upon their lives, and they did not seek to be cleansed by the blood of the sacrifice. They did not even offer the occasional special offerings such as fragrant cane or incense or the fat from sacrifices to the Lord (v. 24). Approaching God for the forgiveness of sins was the furthest thing from their minds. They were not obeying God’s commandments but, rather, living immoral and unrighteous lives. They were focused upon the world, and their hearts were full of covetousness and the selfish pursuit of pleasure. As Isaiah charged earlier, they were worshipping the Lord hypocritically (1:11–12). Obviously, the people had no sense of sin, no awareness of having committed wickedness. Their hearts and consciences were hardened against God. Note the strong charge God levels against them: they are burdening Him with their sins and wearying Him with their iniquities. They are breaking His holy commandments (v. 24).
As a result of Israel’s terrible offenses against the Lord, we would expect the hand of God’s judgment to fall upon the people. But instead, His heart reaches out in an appeal to them. He longs to blot out their transgressions and remember their sins no more. Clearly, this is a call for them to repent and seek His forgiveness.
There is no forgiveness apart from repentance. To stress the utter necessity for seeking His forgiveness, the Lord again summons the people to appear at a legal trial (vv. 26–28). He calls upon them to review what they have done and to state the case for their innocence. But before they can speak, the Lord charges them with being just like their father who sinned. This is a reference either to Adam, the father of the human race, or to Abraham, the father of the Jews. Both Adam and Abraham rebelled against the Lord (Ge. 3:1–13; 12:17–20; 20:8–10).
Due to their continued sin, God’s hand of judgment was certain to fall upon the Jews. Because of their false worship and hypocrisy, their religious leaders would be disgraced, the people shamed, and their nation destroyed. Keep in mind that God’s Word was fulfilled when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, including the temple, and scattered the survivors throughout the Babylonian Empire.
Thought 1. Prayer and worship are synonymous, the very same act. When people pray to the Lord, they are worshipping Him; and when people worship, they are praying through their praise, thanksgiving, and requests. Their prayers are also a proclamation of the gospel, of God’s working in the hearts of believers. Through prayer, every act of worship is being performed, and through worship, every act of prayer is being demonstrated. Moreover, worship and prayer are both communication and fellowship with God. When people pray or worship, they commune with the Lord through the various acts of praise, thanksgiving, and presenting their requests.
But the Israelites were not sincere in their approach to the Lord, neither in their prayers nor in their worship. Like most people, the majority of the Jews were not praying or seeking the Lord. And those who were worshipping were uttering empty prayers. Prayerlessness and empty worship were two of the major characteristics of their lives.
(1) Listen
to what God’s Holy Word says about prayerlessness.
V “From whence come wars and fighting’s among you? come they not hence, even
of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and
desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because
ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and
adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever,
therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (Js. 4:1–4, esp. v. 2).
V “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves
together, as the manner of some is
but exhorting one another: and so
much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (He. 10:25).
V “Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge?
who eat up my people as they eat
bread: they have not called upon God” (Ps. 53:4).
V “And there
is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold
of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of
our iniquities” (Is. 64:7).
V “For the pastors are become brutish, and have
not sought the Lord: therefore, they shall not prosper, and all their flocks
shall be scattered” (Je. 10:21).
V “As it
is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we
not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities,
and understand thy truth” (Da.
9:13).
V “They are all hot as an oven, and have
devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me” (Ho. 7:7).
V “I will also stretch out Mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarims with the priests; And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham; And them that are turned back from the Lord; and those that have not sought the Lord, nor enquired for Him” (Zep. 1:4–6, esp.v. 6).
(2) Listen to what God’s Holy Word says
about empty, formal worship.
V “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the
weightier matters of the law,
judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the
other undone” (Mt. 23:23).
V “Ye observe days, and months, and times, and
years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.” (Ga. 4:10–11).
V “Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the
rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to
ordinances” (Col. 2:20).
V “Having a form of godliness, but denying the
power thereof: from such turn away” (2 Ti. 3:5).
V “And another angel came out of the temple
which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle” (Re. 14:17).
V “And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and
sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams” (1 S. 15:22).
V “For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would
I give it: thou delightest not in
burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are
a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Ps. 51:16–17).
V “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house
of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for
they consider not that they do evil” (Ecc. 5:1).
V “Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an
abomination unto Me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I
cannot away with; it is iniquity,
even the solemn meeting” (Is.
1:13).
V “Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this
people draw near Me with their mouth,
and with their lips do honour Me, but have removed their heart far from Me, and
their fear toward Me is taught by the precept of men” (Is. 29:13).
V “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Ho. 6:6).[2]
43:22–24 A sacrifice required both
giving up a valuable animal and pleading with God for forgiveness. But the
people presented God with sins instead of sacrifices. Can you imagine bringing
the best of your sins to God’s altar? This ironic picture shows the depths to
which Israel had sunk. What do you present to God—your sins or a plea for
his forgiveness?
43:25 How tempting it is to remind someone of a past offense! But when God forgives our sins, he totally forgets them. We never have to fear that he will remind us of them later. Because God forgives our sins, we need to forgive others.[3]
[1] Taylor, Kenneth Nathaniel. 1997. The Living Bible,
Paraphrased. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House.
[2] Leadership Ministries Worldwide. 2005. Isaiah: Chapters 36–66. Vol. II. The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible. Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide.
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