Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 1:16
Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
16, 17. In opposition to this false service of God, Jehovah calls for moral reformation and enunciates the true conditions on which the restoration of His favour depends.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Wash you – This is, of course, to be understood in a moral sense; meaning that they should put away their sins. Sin is represented in the Scriptures as defiling or polluting the soul Eze 20:31; Eze 23:30; Hos 5:8; Hos 9:4; and the removal of it is represented by the act of washing; Psa 51:2 : Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin; Jer 4:14 : O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved; Job 9:30; 1Co 6:11; Heb 10:22; 2Pe 2:22; Rev 1:5; Rev 7:14. It is used here in close connection with the previous verse, where the prophet says that their hands were flied with blood. He now admonishes them to wash away that blood, with the implied understanding, that then their prayers would be heard. It is worthy of remark, also, that the prophet directs them to do this themselves. He addresses them as moral agents, and as having ability to do it. This is the uniform manner in which God addresses sinners in the Bible, requiring them to put away their sins, and to make themselves a new heart. Compare Eze 18:31-32.
The evil of your doings – This is a Hebraism, to denote your evil doings.
From before mine eyes – As God is omniscient, to put them away from before his eyes, is to put them away altogether. To pardon or forgive sin, is often expressed by hiding it; Psa 51:9 :
Hide thy face from my sins.
Cease to do evil – Compare 1Pe 3:10-11. The prophet is specifying what was necessary in order that their prayers might be heard, and that they might find acceptance with God. What he states here is a universal truth. If sinners wish to find acceptance with God, they must come renouncing all sin; resolving to put away everything that God hates, however dear it may be to the heart. Compare Mar 9:43-47.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 1:16
Wash you, make you clean
Repentance necessary and possible
Two things are necessarily to be acknowledged to encourage endeavours after piety.
1. To be assured that God will not be wanting to afford the assistance of His grace and Spirit.
2. That by this assistance we are enabled to do our duty. There are two things which no wise man doth submit to his care or thought, namely, necessaries and impossibles. For things necessary, he needs not to charge himself with them, for they will be done of course; and for things impossible, it is a vain thing for him to undertake. We are not to consider ourselves to be in a state of impossibility, therefore we must suppose that God is with us by His grace and assistance; and while God is with us that we are able to do those things that He requires of us–to wash and make us clean, etc., which words are to be considered according to their form and according to their matter.
1. According to their form, they are an exhortation, and so it is not in vain that we are exhorted to duty.
2. In respect of their matter, they afford these two observations–
(1) That sin is in itself a thing of defilement and pollution.
(2) That religion is a motion of restoration.
Ill habits do strangely bias our faculties; but though they do this, yet they do not absolutely determine our faculties or sink them, for these faculties are of the essence of the soul. It is with much difficulty they are overcome Jer 13:23); but the faculty is free notwithstanding any habit acquired; otherwise it were impossible ever to recover any habitual sinner.
I. GOD DOTH PRIMARILY DESIRE THE GOOD OF ALL HIS CREATURES (1Ti 2:4; Isa 5:4).
II. GOD DOTH NOT DESIRE MANS SALVATION WITHOUT HIS RETURN. For it is impossible that any man should be happy in a way of obstinacy and rebellion against God,
III. GOD DOTH NOT DESIRE MANS RETURN WITHOUT HIS OWN CONSENT. For if He should desire this, He should desire that which cannot be: for being intelligent and voluntary agents, we cannot truly be said to do that which we do against our minds. For to a human act two things are necessary; that there be the judgment of reason in the understanding, and the choice of the will If the mind do not consent, it is not a free act; and if not done freely, and of choice, it cannot be an act of virtue; and if not an act of virtue, it cannot be of any moral consideration. It is no less an act of the will, though a man be at the first attempt unwilling and averse; yea, though he suffer great difficulty to bring himself to it. For this man hath brought himself to it by reason, consideration, and argument, and so his consent is the better grounded. Application–
1. We ought to be thankful to God, and to acknowledge Him for the gracious assistance that He doth afford unto us.
2. We ought to make use of and employ this Divine assistance, which is in the apostles language, not to receive the grace of God in vain (2Co 6:1). (B. Whichcote D. D.)
Moral ablution
I. THAT SIN CAN BE SEPARATED FROM MANS NATURE. Sin is no more a part of human nature than a stain is of a garment.
1. Human nature has existed without ever having been touched by sin. Christ through all His life could say, The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me.
2. Human nature does exist after having been cleansed from sin. It does so in heaven.
II. THAT SIN SHOULD BE SEPARATED FROM MANS NATURE. There are three obvious reasons for this command–
1. Because your pollution conceals the moral image of Himself which your Maker has impressed upon your nature. Sin is such a besmearment of the moral mirror of mans being, that scarcely a Divine ray is seen reflected.
2. Because your pollution enfeebles your moral health. Physical pollution is inimical to physical health. Sin renders a man powerless for good.
3. Because your pollution injures society. (Homilist.)
Practical regeneration
The call is made to the class that are usually given up. Two questions come up in connection with this subject.
1. When a man is wrong in his life, is wicked on account of the strength of constitutional peculiarities, and is organised with such passion, such will, such temper, such pride and avarice, that that organisation compels as well as controls him, is it possible for him to change that organisation and its fruits?
2. Whatever may have been the proportions in which a mans faculties are given to him, if he has been cast in the midst of temptations, is it in his power, if he be an average man, to break away, to assert his own sovereignty, and recover himself? Can a man control, first, himself inwardly, and second, himself outwardly? Did not Peter wrestle success fully with his constitutional organisation? There is an example which is still more remarkable in some respects. The account which Paul gives of himself is most striking. Here we have a precisionist, a narrow and intense bigot, a man whose conscience was logical, and who therefore followed his conscience without scruple and without the restraint of any meliorating principle. Not only was he man of the most malign feeling in the service of religion, but he was a man of the utmost firmness of purpose. Nothing could stop him on sea or on land. He was a man of the most sensitive pride. Now, turn to the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, and see what the fruit of Pauls change was. It may be said to be a record of his experience. Then, as to the other question, Can men control their circumstances? If a man can overrule a constitutional peculiarity, how much easier can he control that which is not of himself, but is exterior to himself! The experiences of the Gospel for thousands of years show that men can be reclaimed from all forms of vice. Men can break through and rescue themselves from the power of wickedness when it takes on an external and social form. That is the voice of the Old Testament. Is it a false proclamation, based upon a false view of life and possibility? Preeminently it is the voice of the New Testament. The invisible things of God are more and mightier than the visible. If a man treats himself simply as a physical organisation, and believes in nothing but what he can see and handle, it may seem to him as though this world were simply a gigantic crushing machine, irresistible in its impulses, and as though the best way for him were to submit himself to it, and let it take him whither it will; but we are taught, and we believe that the whole heaven is full of powers which are mightier than any which are seen. (H. W. Beecher.)
Renewing forces are silent and gentle
Nature itself gives us an illustration of it. When the spring draws the sap out of the ground into the trees the actual force which is exerted is greater than that of all human machines put together. Never was there an engine built that could for one mingle moment compare with the development of actual physical power in an oak tree standing in a field, acre broad, every spring. Yet you see nothing and hear nothing. But it has been measured and estimated. There is in the silent influence of the seasons more power than in all the storms that ever swept over the earth since creation. The invisible forces of nature are mightier than the visible. Look into a household. The bustling husband who drives the children here and there, and will have order, has nothing but disorder; while the mother sits still, and loves, rules over every child in the family, and secures perfect obedience. The silence of love is mightier than all the physical or moral force of boisterous strength. Now, this truth, which we discern even in the lowest forms of matter, and which grows more and more striking as you ascend along the line of human society, meets the great declaration of the Divine Word, that God has given the Holy Spirit, and that this invisible and silent force in the universe is such that more are they that are for a man who wants to turn than are they that are against him. The whole heaven is Gods apparatus for helping men to unharness their faults, to lay aside their habits, to change mightily their whole internal economy, yea, to so revolutionise themselves that, whereas before the animal, the physical, was in the ascendency, now the angel, the spiritual, is. Is there, then, such an influence existing in every community? Yes, in every community. (H. W. Beecher.)
In regeneration man must cooperate with Gods Spirit
If men would have the help of the sun they must not sulk in caves; if men would set the sun to bringing forth vines and corn and other grains they must employ it according to the suns laws and methods. If they do this they shall have the benefit of its might. All the power that is in nature is mine if I but study natural law and obey it. Now, the invisible influences in the Divine nature, we are taught very abundantly in the Word of God, are to be sought as men seek the seasons. If the power that is in God is to come to the help of a man there should be at least as much seeking as men give to the laws of nature when they seek them. How do men attempt to renovate their spiritual nature? With what dalliance, what carelessness, what facile discouragement, what intermissions, what associations that neutralise or blur that which is bright in us do men seek to bring the Divine influence to bear upon their constitutional peculiarities! Are you proud? You know how to extract the roots of the mightiest tree that ever grew; you know how to attack it and draw it forth; and yet the influences by which a man may extract by the roots all the evil influences within him are a hundred times greater, if men had some conception of the necessity. A man can overmaster his pride. Paul did it. Can a man change his basilar passions so that they shall be held in abeyance? Certainly he can. Something can be done for every man by physiological methods. A man of violent temper, easily excited, an excessively meat-eating man, or a man addicted to the use of stimulating drinks, can hardly expect to overcome the animal in himself while he is gorging him, and is building fires under the very caldrons which he would cool off. If a man choose to go through the necessary practice, he certainly can change; but if a man say to himself, I do not believe in religion; I will change by and by; it is not convenient now; I do not under stand this great change, and I do not like to go into anything which my reason does not comprehend, I say to him, Do you insist, when you are sick, and you send for your physician, upon entering into an argument with him? Do you say to him, What is the matter with me? and when he prescribes for you do you say, Sit down and tell me the whole history of this medicine, who invented it, what its use is, who has employed it, and what right the man had to compose it or mix it? You do not act so. A man under such circumstances instantly makes a practical matter of it, and takes certain practical steps. On the other side, no man can tear himself away from surrounding temptations and evil influences without an adaptation of his life and will to the peculiar work which is required. Shall a man attempt to change himself from evil to good, and do it easily and thoughtlessly and carelessly? Such a change never comes by accident nor by a little striving. Here is the simple fact of this whole subject: both philosophy and example teach that in our strife for virtue the passions and appetites, the infelicities of our organisation, can be overmastered; that we can take ourselves out of our constitutional faults, and that if we have fallen under temptations, it is possible for us to break the net and escape from them. When Jesus came, one of the most matchless and eloquent of all His utterances was that He had come to open the prison doors, to break the shackles, to give the prisoners liberty, and to let those that were bound go free. (H. W. Beecher.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Isa 1:16-17
Cease to do evil; learn to do well
An inoffensive life
The order in which these words are placed, was evidently designed to teach us, that the foundation of acting right is avoiding everything wrong.
Several other parts of Scripture lay down the same rule in almost the same terms (Psa 34:14; Psa 37:27; Am Rom 12:9; 1Pe 3:11); and many express or imply the same doctrine, putting repentance before faith and obedience (Mt Mar 1:15; Act 20:21; Tit 2:12-13). Even heathen authors, in very distant ages and countries, have given the like direction. And indeed everyone must own the justness of it: but still very few appear to perceive or attend sufficiently to its importance: which, therefore, I shall endeavour to shew you–
I. IN RESPECT OF OUR CONDUCT IN GENERAL. It is plainly the natural and rational method to begin with removing what else will obstruct our progress, and to make unity within our own breasts our earnest care. He who hath only consistent pursuits may follow them with a prospect of success: but a mind, distracted between contrary principles of action, can hope for nothing but to be drawn backward and forward by them continually, as they chance to prevail in their turns. Things, indeed, that do but accidentally give some little hindrance to each other now and then, may be prosecuted together, and the due preference, when they interfere, be adjusted well enough. But sin and duty are so essentially opposite, that their interests can never be reconciled, They flow from different motives, proceed by different means, aim at different ends, and thwart one another perpetually. And it is to mens overlooking this obvious truth, that the miscarriage of their good intentions, the irresolution of their lives, the incoherence of their characters, in a great measure, owes its rise. Every one of us knows, in the main, what he ought to do: everyone feels an approbation of it; and so far, at least, a disposition to it. But then he feels also dispositions quite adverse: and though he sees them to be unwarrantable, yet it is painful to root them out, and not pleasing even to take notice of them. So, to avoid trouble, both sorts are allowed to grow up together as they can; and, which will thrive faster, soon appears. Perhaps but one or two sorts of wickedness were intended to be indulged: but these have unforeseen connections with others, and those with more. Or, had they none, when men have once yielded to do but a single thing amiss, they have no firm ground to stand upon in refusing to do a second, and a third: so gradually they lose their strength, God withdraws His help, and they fall from bad to worse.
II. IN RESPECT OF OUR BEHAVIOUR TO EACH OTHER. It is a remarkable thing in the constitution of this world, that we have much more power of producing misery in it than happiness. Everyone, down to the most insignificant, is capable of giving disquiet, nay, grievous pain and affliction to others, and often to great numbers, without the least difficulty; while even those of superior abilities in every way, can hardly discover the means, unless it be within a very narrow compass now and then, of doing any great good, or communicating any considerable pleasure. Besides, the effects of kindnesses may always be entirely lost: but those of injuries too frequently can never be remedied. And therefore we ought to watch over ourselves with perpetual care, examine the tendency of all our words and actions, and, not contented with meaning no harm, be solicitous to do none. The harm that we do through heedlessness is certainly not so criminal, as if it were purposely contrived: but may be almost, if not quite, as severely felt notwithstanding: or though it were but slightly, why should we be so inadvertent, as unnecessarily to cause but an hours, nay, a moments vexation or grief to one of our brethren; or deprive him of the smallest of those innocent gratifications, that help to alleviate the sorrows of life, and make the passage through it comfortable? (T. Secker, LL. D.)
The Bible art of reforming men
I. Its primary principle is, that REFORMATION SHOULD BEGIN AT THE SOURCE OF HUMAN CONDUCT. Change the springs of all action and you change every element of conduct. Ye must be born again. Out of the heart proceed all evils.
1. It does not set aside all forms of outward help–society, industry, family, church, but these are auxiliaries to the central endeavour of the human will.
2. It recognises, too, that the complete work is by stages, gradual–though the purpose may be immediate.
II. Not only is the central element of reformation clearly established, but what may be called THE WORKING PLAN OF REFORMATION FROM EVIL IS LAID DOWN. (Dan 3:27. Compare that with Mat 3:8-10.)
1. Right-doing is the way to cease wrong-doing. Eph 4:28 –not enough to stop getting by stealing, but must do that by learning how to get by working! The way to cure evil, is to set a current of contrary action.
2. The illustration of the inward government of mind–how feelings of one class rise or fall in answer to the excitement or somnolency of another.
3. The two faulty forms.
(1) Forming a purpose, without taking practical steps–empty resolves–by repentance–leaves only; no fruit.
(2) Reformation by external regulation–mechanical.
III. THE DIFFICULTIES OF VICE, OF HABIT, WHEN THEY ARE SIMPLY WATCHED AGAINST.
1. They leave men lonesome–unhappy.
2. The soul develops power to overturn evil only by inspiration of opposite virtues.
IV. THE REASON SO MANY PEOPLE BECOME NEGATIVE, FEEBLE, AND UNINTERESTING WHEN THEY BECOME RELIGIOUS.
V. THE REASON SO MANY ARE STRONG, NOBLE, AS WORLDLY MEN IN BUSINESS, BUT WITHOUT FORCE IN SPIRITUALS. They let loose their whole selves in the one case. They tie up the strong elements in the other, for fear of mischief–and do not let out any other. (Pro 3:13-18; also 8:11, etc.)
VI. WHEN MEN TURN FROM EVIL LET THEM GO CLEAR OVER TO RELIGION! (H. W.Beecher.)
The men for the times
Men are wanted who are prepared to march in the van of the army of national, civic, and personal reformers,–men with the one thought dominating them that God the Father lives, and loves with an everlasting love every member of the human race,–men who, influenced by this irresistible intuition, seek to purge and purify politics and trade, society and the Church, law and custom, speech and practice, of all things that oppress and injure, and which in any way retard the triumph of the kingdom of God. The watchword still is, Cease to do evil, etc. (F. Sessions.)
The prophetic temper in James Russell Lowell
The temper that was in James Russell Lowell is the temper we seek for in all our public men–in all leaders of thought in Church or State, of local or general following. He sang of the wrongs of the poor and the slave; the emptiness of life without conviction; of the nullity of poetry without purpose; the vapidness of preaching without piety; the shame of law without justice; the blank horror of a world without God. (F. Sessions.)
Holding on to a sin
A little child was one day playing with a very valuable vase, when he put his hand into it and could not withdraw it. His father, too, tried his best to get it out, but all in vain. They were talking of breaking the vase, when the father said, Now, my son, make one more try; open your hand and hold your fingers out straight, as you see me doing, and then pull. To their astonishment the little fellow said, Oh, no, pa. I couldnt put out my fingers like that, for if I did I would drop my penny. He had been holding on to a penny all the time! No wonder he could not withdraw his hand. (J. McNeill.)
The first principle
There is no religion–or if there is, I do not know it–which does not say, Do good; avoid evil. There is none which does not contain what Rabbi Hillel called the quintessence of all religions, the simple warning, Be good, my boy. Be good, my boy, may seem a very short catechism; but let us add to it, Be good, my boy, for Gods sake, and we have in it very nearly the whole of the Law and the Prophets. (Max Muller.)
What repentance is
Suppose I am to go down to Boston tonight, and I go down to the Union station, and say to a man I sere there, Can you tell me, is this train going to Boston? and the man says Yes. I go and get on board the train, and the superintendent comes along and says, Where are you going? I say, I am going to Boston, and he says, Well, you are in the wrong train, that train is going to Albany. But I am quite sure I am right; I asked a railroad man here, and he told me this was the train. And the superintendent says, Moody, I know all about these trains; I have lived here forty years, and see these trains go up and down here every day. And at last he convinces me that I am on the wrong train. That is conviction, not conversion. But if I dont remain on that train, but just get into the other train, that is repentance. Just to change trains–that is repentance. (D. L. Moody.)
Evil to be supplanted by good
Sin is to be overcome, not so much by maintaining a direct opposition to it, as by cultivating opposite principles. Would you kill the weeds in your garden, plant it with good seed: if the ground be well occupied there will be less need of the labour of the hoe. If a man wished to quench fire, he might fight it with his hands till he was burnt to death; the only way is to apply an opposite element. (Andrew Fuller.)
Learn to do well
The highest education
We hear much about various grades of education–primary, secondary, and higher education; by the text we are reminded of that highest education which concerns all, and which it is the main end of life to secure. Moral culture is even more imperative than intellectual development.
I. THE NECESSITY FOR MORAL LEARNING. Numerous definitions have been given of man, but he might justly be defined as the being who learns. Other creatures can scarcely he said to learn; whatever pertains to their species they do instinctively, immediately, perfectly. A lark builds its first nest as skilfully as its last, a spiders first embroidery is as exquisite as anything it spins in adult life, a bee constructs its first cell and compounds its first honey with an efficiency that leaves nothing to be desired. We know that naturalists are not altogether agreed on this point, but we may conclude that substantially instinct dispenses with that laborious process which we know as learning. It is altogether different with the human creature. If we are to do well, taking that phrase in its noblest sense, we must learn to do it, acquiring the splendid power through attention, repeated endeavour, and manifold sacrifice. Take, e.g., the virtue of contentment. We, are persuaded of the reasonableness of contentment with the dispensations of Divine Providence; yet the folly of the soul is subdued only through much failure and discipline. Or, take the virtue of sincerity. This virtue, if it be not rather of the essence of all virtues, we all, to some extent, require to learn, some, however, finding in the learning of it the chief task of life. It seems paradoxical to say so, but some men are naturally theatrical; the temptation is always to act a part. Through repeated and hitter castigations of the soul do we master this passion for masquerading, and attain sincerity, simplicity, and thoroughness of life. Take the virtue of veracity. We have much to learn here–to speak the truth, to act the truth, to live the truth. Take the virtue of temper. There is a faculty of wrath in nature, and a faculty of wrath becomes noble men but to harmonise this faculty with reason, and to be at once high-spirited and gentle, is a problem that may demand years for its solution. Or, take the virtue of kindness. We pass through much self-reproach, scourging, and shame in striving to reach the beauteous ideal. St. Paul bears witness of himself, I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. Let us remember in the training of our children that virtue is acquired much as intellectual life is.
II. CONSIDER THE METHOD OF THIS MORAL CULTURE. Three things are essential to the liberal education of the soul.
1. A pattern. Looking unto Jesus. He is the supreme Pattern. Said an American artist, I would give everything I have to see Velasquez paint for one week, one day. But the splendid privilege is given to us to behold the Lord Jesus live through years! Learn of Me, says the Master, and a loving, thoughtful glance into the New Testament every day is a lifelong vision of perfection. Let us learn of Him in joy and sorrow, in work and leisure, in strength and weariness, in popularity and neglect, in success and failure, in life and death. He best teaches the art of life.
2. Power. We can never become holy except as we have a genius for holiness, and this genius in an adequate degree only the Spirit of God can impart. Let us in prayer seek for more inward vision, receptivity, and energy, more of the Spirit that worketh mightily in fully surrendered souls, and all things will become possible.
3. Practice. We learn to do well through doing well. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Lifes great lesson
I. THERE IS NO ROYAL ROAD TO RENOWN. You envy me, do you? said a marshal (Lefevre) of France, to a friend complimenting him on his possessions and good fortune. Well, you shall have these things at a better bargain than I had. Come into the courtyard: Ill fire at you with a gun twenty times at thirty paces, and if I dont kill you, all shall be your own. What, you will not come! Very well; recollect, then, that I have been shot at more than a thousand times, and much nearer than thirty paces, before I arrived at the state in which you now find me! The marshals friend saw only the success attained; he forgot the toil, the suffering and peril through which it had been achieved. The traveller with ardent love of beauty climbs the rugged hill whence his view, he fancies, will be unobstructed and complete; but the first ascent made, behold, another hill overshadowing him; and that surmounted, behold, still another frowns upon him higher yet. So with the hill of life. One arduous ascent made, one difficulty overcome, another presents itself, another, and still another. It is ever Excelsior! We would not have it otherwise. Without difficulty, there were no display of energy. Without temptation, there were no self-discipline. Without trial and suffering, there were no fortitude and resignation.
II. OBSERVE THE ENFORCEMENT OF THIS LESSON OF THE PART OF NATURE THE VERY BEGINNINGS OF LIFE. We begin life as strangers in a strange land. We bring nothing with us into the world, either of wealth, knowledge, or experience. What we possess, we receive, acquire, or learn. We find the conditions of life already existing We must accept the situation; meet it as best we may, and each go on to act his part. Beginning to learn, we find nature and her laws fixed, inexorable, demanding recognition sad obedience. Observe these laws, heed natures warnings, and she is a gentle mistress, a kind benefactress; but disregard them, disobey them, and she becomes a terrible avenger. The penalty she never fails to inflict. If not in youth, then in manhood; if not in manhood, then in old age. Though her voice be silent, still nature speaks. And this is her word: Whatever and wherever your place in lifes arena act well your part,–learn to do well. For the sake of your physical well-being; for the sake of your temporal happiness; for the sake of those to come after you–observe my commandments to do them!
III. CONSIDER THE UTILITY OF THIS LESSON AS TAUGHT BY SOCIETY AND EMPHASISED IN EVERY SPHERE OF LIFE. The household, the school, the college, the counting room tuitions, the business apprenticeships, civil and political laws and institutions–whatever factors enter in to develop and improve society–are but the outgrowth and exemplification of the precept of learning to do well. They are natures assistants, teaching us how to do well in life. What is self-denial? It is but another word for learning to do well; that is, learning to forego the lesser for the sake of the higher good; denying the present moment for the sake of the moment that is to come–all which involves difficulty, cost, pain, persistent effort. Persistent effort in the mastering of difficulties lies at the basis of true advancement and success. Wisdom, skill, mastery in hall of trade or science, in field of politics or war, come not by wishing.
IV. BUT, ALONG WITH SELF-DENIAL LEARNING TO DO WELL INVOLVES SUBMISSION TO HIGHER AUTHORITY. Who could expect to become an able soldier without first submitting to a tacticians guidance? There must be days, weeks, months of weary taxation of eye and ear, nerve and muscle; there must be continued restraint of body and mind; there must be submission to anothers will–obedience to a masters command. But–there it comes again–obedience, self-restraint, is difficult. And what is all this struggle with difficulty for? Why, simply for the sake of learning to do well–to drill well; for the sake of becoming a good soldier!
V. But the Bible declares that this life is a period of trial, on the issue of which turns the destiny of our future being. If, then, whatever is worth the having in this present life comes not without conflict with difficulties, IS IT REASONABLE TO SUPPOSE THAT THE ADVANTAGES OF THE FUTURE LIFE WILL ACCRUE TO US WITHOUT LIKE CONFLICT WITH DIFFICULTIES? Do nothing, and still inherit eternal life? It is not so cheap a thing as that.
VI. Beyond this, THE BIBLE NOT ONLY POINTS OUT THE DIFFICULTIES THAT OPPOSE US–IT SHOWS HOW THE DIFFICULTIES ARE TO BE MET. In the lives of its heroes the Bible individualises every virtue, but in no one of them does every virtue appear till we come to the perfect man, Christ Jesus. He is the Master of goodness. And He says, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. If the way seem too full of obstructions, and old sins hedge us in, and our weakness is very great, He yet kindly says to us as to the apostle Paul, My grace is sufficient for thee, etc. (C. P. H. Nason, M. A.)
The struggle between good and evil in the human soul
We see what the author has produced, but we do not see what he has destroyed. The book comes out in fair copy, and we, looking upon the surface only, say, How well done! Who can tell what that fair copy cost? We see the picture hung upon the wall for exhibition, but we do not see how much canvas was thrown away, or how many outlines were discarded, or how many efforts were pronounced unworthy. We only see the last or best. So much is to be done in private with regard to learning to do well. We do not live our whole life in public. We make an effort in solitude: it is a failure; we throw it away; we acknowledge its existence tone one: still, we are acquiring skill–practice makes perfect–and when we do our first act of virtue in the public sight people may suppose that we are all but prodigies and miracles, so well was the deed done. Only Gods eye saw the process which led up to it. This is a characteristic of Divine grace, that it sets down every attempt as a success, it marks every failure honestly done as a victory already crowned. So we are losing nothing even on the road. The very learning is itself an education; the very attempt to do, though we fail of doing, itself gives strength, and encouragement, and confidence. In learning to do well we assist the negative work of ceasing to do evil. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Learn to do well
1. We must be doing; not cease to do evil, and then stand idle.
2. We must be doing good; the good which the Lord our God requires, and which will turn to a good account.
3. We must do it well, in a right manner, and for a right end.
4. We must learn to do well, we must take pains to get the knowledge of our duty, be inquisitive concerning it, in care about it; and accustom ourselves to it, that we may readily turn our hands to our work, and become masters of this holy art of doing well (M. Henry.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 16. Wash you] Referring to the preceding verse, “your hands are full of blood;” and alluding to the legal washing commanded on several occasions. See Le 14:8-9; Le 14:47.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Make you clean; cleanse your hearts and hands from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, and do not content yourselves with your ceremonial washings.
Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; reform yourselves so thoroughly, that you may not only approve yourselves to men, but to me, who search your hearts, and try all your actions.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. God saith to the sinner,”Wash you,” c., that he, finding his inability to”make” himself “clean,” may cry to God,Wash me, cleanse me (Psa 51:2Psa 51:7; Psa 51:10).
before mine eyesnotmere outward reformation before man’s eyes, who cannot, asGod, see into the heart (Jer32:19).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Wash ye, make you clean, c. These two words are to be regarded as one, since they intend the same thing, and suppose the persons spoken to to be unclean, as they were, notwithstanding their legal sacrifices and ceremonial ablutions and are designed to convince them of it, to bring them to a sense of their inability to cleanse themselves, to lead them to inquire after the proper means of it, and so to the fountain of Christ’s blood to wash in, which only cleanses from it:
put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; the exhortation is not barely to put away their doings, but the evil of them, and that not from themselves, but from before the eyes of God, from the eyes of his vindictive justice, which is only done by the sacrifice of Christ; and the use of this exhortation is to show the necessity of putting away sin to salvation, and the insufficiency of the blood of bulls and goats to do it, since, notwithstanding these, it remains untaken away; and to direct to the sacrifice of Christ, which effectually does it.
Cease to do evil; either from ceremonial works done with a wicked mind, or from outward immoralities, such as shedding innocent blood, oppressing the fatherless and widow, things mentioned in the context; it denotes a cessation from a series and course of sinning, otherwise there is no ceasing from sin in this life.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The first three run thus: “Wash, clean yourselves; put away the badness of your doings from the range of my eyes; cease to do evil.” This is not only an advance from figurative language to the most literal, but there is also an advance in what is said. The first admonition requires, primarily and above all, purification from the sins committed, by means of forgiveness sought for and obtained. Wash: rachatzu , from rachatz , in the frequent middle sense of washing one’s self. Clean yourselves: hizdaccu , with the tone upon the last syllable, is not the niphal of zakak , as the first plur. imper. niph. of such verbs has generally and naturally the tone upon the penultimate (see Isa 52:11; Num 17:10), but the hithpael of zacah for hizdaccu , with the preformative Tav resolved into the first radical letter, as is very common in the hithpael (Ges. 54, 2, b). According to the difference between the two synonyms (to wash one’s self, to clean one’s self), the former must be understood as referring to the one great act of repentance on the part of a man who is turning to God, the latter to the daily repentance of one who has so turned. The second admonition requires them to place themselves in the light of the divine countenance, and put away the evil of their doings, which was intolerable to pure eyes (Hab 1:13). They were to wrestle against the wickedness to which their actual sin had grown, until at length it entirely disappeared. Neged , according to its radical meaning, signifies prominence (compare the Arabic negd , high land which is visible at a great distance), conspicuousness, so that minneged is really equivalent to ex apparentia .
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| A Call to Repentance; Repentance and Reformation Urged. | B. C. 738. |
16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. 18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
Though God had rejected their services as insufficient to atone for their sins while they persisted in them, yet he does not reject them as in a hopeless condition, but here calls upon them to forsake their sins, which hindered the acceptance of their services, and then all would be well. Let them not say that God picked quarrels with them; no, he proposes a method of reconciliation. Observe here,
I. A call to repentance and reformation: “If you would have your sacrifices accepted, and your prayers answered, you must begin your work at the right end: Be converted to my law” (so the Chaldee begins this exhortation), “make conscience of second-table duties, else expect not to be accepted in the acts of your devotion.” As justice and charity will never atone for atheism and profaneness, so prayers and sacrifices will never atone for fraud and oppression; for righteousness towards men is as much a branch of pure religion as religion towards God is a branch of universal righteousness.
1. They must cease to do evil, must do no more wrong, shed no more innocent blood. This is the meaning of washing themselves and making themselves clean, v. 16. It is not only sorrowing for the sin they had committed, but breaking off the practice of it for the future, and mortifying all those vicious affections and dispositions which inclined them to it. Sin is defiling to the soul. Our business is to wash ourselves from it by repenting of it and turning from it to God. We must put away not only that evil of our doings which is before the eye of the world, by refraining from the gross acts of sin, but that which is before God’s eyes, the roots and habits of sin, that are in our hearts; these must be crushed and mortified.
2. They must learn to do well. This was necessary to the completing of their repentance. Note, It is not enough that we cease to do evil, but we must learn to do well. (1.) We must be doing, not cease to do evil and then stand idle. (2.) We must be doing good, the good which the Lord our God requires and which will turn to a good account. (3.) We must do it well, in a right manner and for a right end; and, (4.) We must learn to do well; we must take pains to get the knowledge of our duty, be inquisitive concerning it, in care about it, and accustom ourselves to it, that we may readily turn our hands to our work and become masters of this holy art of doing well. He urges them particularly to those instances of well-doing wherein they had been defective, to second-table duties: “Seek judgment; enquire what is right, that you may do it; be solicitous to be found in the way of your duty, and do not walk carelessly. Seek opportunities of doing good: Relieve the oppressed, those whom you yourselves have oppressed; ease them of their burdens, ch. lviii. 6. You, that have power in your hands, use it for the relief of those whom others do oppress, for that is your business. Avenge those that suffer wrong, in a special manner concerning yourselves for the fatherless and the widow, whom, because they are weak and helpless, proud men trample upon and abuse; do you appear for them at the bar, on the bench, as there is occasion. Speak for those that know not how to speak for themselves and that have not wherewithal to gratify you for your kindness.” Note, We are truly honouring God when we are doing good in the world; and acts of justice and charity are more pleasing to him than all burnt-offerings and sacrifices.
II. A demonstration, at the bar of right reason, of the equity of God’s proceedings with them: “Come now, and let us reason together (v. 18); while your hands are full of blood I will have nothing to do with you, though you bring me a multitude of sacrifices; but if you wash, and make yourselves clean, you are welcome to draw nigh to me; come now, and let us talk the matter over.” Note, Those, and those only, that break off their league with sin, shall be welcome into covenant and communion with God; he says, Come now, who before forbade them his courts. See Jam. iv. 8. Or rather thus: There were those among them who looked upon themselves as affronted by the slights God put upon the multitude of their sacrifices, as ch. lviii. 3, Wherefore have we fasted (say they) and thou seest not? They represented God as a hard Master, whom it was impossible to please. “Come,” says God, “let us debate the matter fairly, and I doubt not but to make it out that my ways are equal, but yours are unequal,” Ezek. xviii. 25. Note, Religion has reason on its side; there is all the reason in the world why we should do as God would have us do. The God of heaven condescends to reason the case with those that contradict him and find fault with his proceedings; for he will be justified when he speaks, Ps. li. 4. The case needs only to be stated (as it is here very fairly) and it will determine itself. God shows here upon what terms they stood (as he does, Eze 18:21-24; Eze 33:18; Eze 33:19) and then leaves it to them to judge whether these terms are not fair and reasonable.
1. They could not in reason expect any more then, if they repented and reformed, they should be restored to God’s favour, notwithstanding their former provocations. “This you may expect,” says God, and it is very kind; who could have the face to desire it upon any other terms? (1.) It is very little that is required, “only that you be willing and obedient, that you consent to obey” (so some read it), “that you subject your wills to the will of God, acquiesce in that, and give up yourselves in all things to be ruled by him who is infinitely wise and good” Here is no penance imposed for their former stubbornness, nor the yoke made heavier or bound harder on their necks; only, “Whereas hitherto you have been perverse and refractory, and would not comply with that which was for your own good, now be tractable, be governable” He does not say, “If you be perfectly obedient,” but, “If you be willingly so;” for, if there be a willing mind, it is accepted. (2.) That is very great which is promised hereupon. [1.] That all their sins should be pardoned to them, and should not be mentioned against them. “Though they be as red as scarlet and crimson, though you lie under the guilt of blood, yet, upon your repentance, even that shall be forgiven you, and you shall appear in the sight of God as white as snow.” Note, The greatest sinners, if they truly repent, shall have their sins forgiven them, and so have their consciences pacified and purified. Though our sins have been as scarlet and crimson, as deep dye, a double dye, first in the wool of original corruption and afterwards in the many threads of actual transgression–though we have been often dipped, by our many backslidings, into sin, and though we have lain long soaking in it, as the cloth does in the scarlet dye, yet pardoning mercy will thoroughly discharge the stain, and, being by it purged as with hyssop, we shall be clean, Ps. li. 7. If we make ourselves clean by repentance and reformation (v. 16), God will make us white by a full remission. [2.] That they should have all the happiness and comfort they could desire. “Be but willing and obedient, and you shall eat the good of the land, the land of promise; you shall have all the blessings of the new covenant, of the heavenly Canaan, all the good of the land.” Those that go on in sin, though they may dwell in a good land, cannot with any comfort eat the good of it; guilt embitters all; but, if sin be pardoned, creature-comforts become comforts indeed.
2. They could not in reason expect any other than that, if they continued obstinate in their disobedience, they should be abandoned to ruin, and the sentence of the law should be executed upon them; what can be more just? (v. 20); “If you refuse and rebel, if you continue to rebel against the divine government and refuse the offers of the divine grace, you shall be devoured with the sword, with the sword of your enemies, which shall be commissioned to destroy you–with the sword of God’s justice, his wrath, and vengeance, which shall be drawn against you; for this is that which the mouth of the Lord has spoken, and which he will make good, for the maintaining of his own honour.” Note, Those that will not be governed by God’s sceptre will certainly and justly be devoured by his sword.
“And now life and death, good and evil, are thus set before you. Come, and let us reason together. What have you to object against the equity of this, or against complying with God’s terms?”
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Verse 16-20: A CALL TO REPENTANCE AND OFFER OF BLESSING
1. The change required in them must be a radical one.
a. There must be a cleansing from their defilement (Psa 26:6; cf. Exo 30:19); God’s own people still need such cleansing when they have turned aside from the way of holiness, (2Co 7:1; 1Jn 1:9).
b. They must repudiate, abandon and turn from such wickedness as has become a stench in God’s nostrils, (Jer 25:4-5; Isa 55:7).
c. Learning the way of righteousness, they must see that justice and equity become, the ruling principles of their national life (Jer 22:3-5; Zep 2:3). When this happens: ruthlessness will be restrained, orphans will be defended, and the cause of the widow will not be without an advocate, (Isa 58:3-8). ,
2. What follows (in Verse 18-20) is NOT an invitation to negotiate; it is a summons to judgment! (Isa 41:1; Isa 43:26-28; Mic 6:2).
a. If Israel, the covenant nation, is willing to meet the conditions already held down by their Lord; then, He will be merciful and show kindness toward them – offering forgiveness and cleansing, (Isa 44:22; Isa 43:25; Psa 51:7; 1Jn 1:7; Heb 9:22).
b. If they obey, with willing heart, they shall “eat the good of the land”, (Deu 30:15-16; Isa 30:23-24; Isa 55:2-3; Isa 58:13-14).
c. But, if they despise His offer of goodness and mercy and continue in their rebellion (in disobedience of unbelief); then, they will be devoured by the sword, (Isa 3:25-26; Isa 65:12).
d. They are duly informed of the only alternatives open to them – obedience and blessing, or rebellion and ruin!
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
16. Wash you, make you clean He exhorts the Jews to repentance, and points out the true way of it, provided that they wish to have their obedience approved by God. Hence we conclude that nothing can please God, unless it proceed from a pure conscience; for God does not, like men, judge of our works according to their outward appearance. It frequently happens that some particular action, though performed by a very wicked man, obtains applause among men; but in the Sight of God, who beholds the heart, a depraved conscience pollutes every virtue. And this is what is taught by Haggai, holding out an illustration drawn from the ancient ceremonies, that everything which an unclean person has touched is polluted; from which he concludes that nothing clean proceeds from the wicked. Our Prophet has already declared, that in vain do they offer sacrifices to God, in vain do they pray, in vain do they call on his name, if integrity of heart do not sanctify the outward worship. For this reason, in order that the Jews may no longer labor to no purpose, he demands that cleanness; and he begins with a general reformation, lest, after having discharged one part of their duty, they should imagine that this would be a veil to conceal them from the eyes of God.
Such is the manner in which we ought always to deal with men who are estranged from God. We must not confine our attention to one or a few sores of a diseased body but if we aim at a true and thorough cure, we must call on them to begin anew, and must thoroughly remove the contagion, that they who were formerly hateful and abominable in the sight of God may begin to please God. By the metaphor washing, he unquestionably exhorts to remove inward pollution, but shortly afterwards he will also add the fruits of actions.
When he bids them wash, he does not mean that men repent by their own exercise of free-will; but he shows that there is no other remedy but this, that they shall appear pure in the sight of God. Now, we know that the sacred writers attribute to men what is wrought in them by the Spirit of God, whom Ezekiel calls clean water, because to him belongs the work of repentance. (Eze 36:25.)
Put away the evil of your doings The Prophet now comes to describe the fruits of repentance; for not only does he explain without a metaphor what it is to wash and to be cleansed, but he enjoins them to exhibit in their whole life, and in every action, the evidence of their being renewed. Yet he confirms the former statement, that the pollution of the people is before the eyes of God, that it stains and debases all their actions, and thus makes it impossible that they shall be pleasing in his sight. And he particularly mentions the eyes of God, lest, when they employed a veil to hinder themselves from seeing, they should vainly imagine that God shared with them in their blindness.
Cease to do evil He still proceeds to reprove their manner of life. This passage is commonly interpreted as if by doing ill the Prophet meant loving ill; but it ought strictly to be understood as denoting those crimes by which a neighbor is injured; so that in the exhortation, Learn to do well, which occurs in the next verse, the expression to your neighbor ought to be supplied; for he speaks of the injuries and kind offices which Eve perform to our neighbors. Now since repentance has its seal in the heart of man, he describes it by those outward appearances by means of which it is, in some measure, brought before the eyes of men. There is no man who does not wish to be reckoned a good man; but the true character of every man is manifested by his actions. He therefore calls them to the performance of those outward actions by which they may give evidence of their repentance.
He comprehends under two heads the fruits of repentance, ceasing to do evil, and doing well. First, we must cease to commit every act of injustice; for we must not imitate those spendthrifts who wish to be thought bountiful, and fraudulently take from one person what they bestow on another. Again, we must not resemble those idle people who think that they have done enough, if they have kept themselves from doing harm, and from invading the property of their neighbors, but are not careful to perform acts of kindness. He intended, therefore, to include both; for under those two heads the keeping of the second table of the law is comprehended.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
MORAL ABLUTION
Isa. 1:16. Wash you, make you clean.
This is one of a very numerous class of passages which summon sinners to the duty of moral purification, of thorough and complete reformation of character (Jer. 4:14; Jas. 4:8; Jer. 18:11; Eze. 18:30-32, &c.) These passages are very clear and emphatic, but they seem to be in opposition to others which assert mans natural inability to do anything that is good (Mat. 7:18; Rom. 7:18-23; Joh. 15:5), with others which teach that repentance is a Divine gift (Act. 5:31; 2Ti. 2:25), and with those which teach that sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit (1Co. 6:11, &c.) The opposition is only apparent [297] Every Divine command really involves a promise of the grace necessary for its accomplishment, and God is ever ready to work with and in us to will and to do of His good pleasure [300] Fallen as we are, we yet retain the power of responding to or of rejecting His admonitions; if we respond to them, there instantly begins to flow into our souls that which will enable us to accomplish everything that God has required (Php. 4:13). Three great questions
[297] There is no contradiction between these statements and the command to repent. Whoever considers what repentance is,that it is a change of mind toward sin, so that what once was loved is viewed with disgust, and what was pursued with eagerness is shunned with abhorrence,will perceive at once that it can only be wrought in us by a Divine power. Mans natural tendencies are toward evil; and a river could as easily arrest itself on its way to the ocean, and climb to the sources whence it sprang, as can man without the help of the Holy Spirit learn to hate sin because of what it is. Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil. The polluted fountain of our heart will never cleanse itself. Repentance, like every other gift, must come from the Father of lights.
[300] The gospel supposeth a power going along with it, and that the Holy Spirit works upon the minds of men, to quicken, excite, and assist them in their duty. If it were not so, the exhortations of preachers would be nothing else but a cruel and bitter mocking of sinners, and an ironical insulting over the misery and weakness of poor creatures, and for ministers to preach, or people to hear sermons, upon any other terms, would be the vainest expense of time and the idlest thing we do all the week; and all our dissuasives from sin, and exhortations to holiness and a good life, and vehement persuasions of men to strive to get to heaven, and to escape hell, would be just as if one should urge a blind man, by many reasons and arguments, taken from the advantages and comfort of that sense, and the beauty of external objects, by all means to open his eyes, and to behold the delights of nature, to see his way, and to look to his steps, and should upbraid him, and be very angry with him, for not doing so.Tillotson, 16301694.
But God works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. By His Holy Spirit He strives in every human soul, awakening desires after a better and purer life. By His long-suffering, by messages from His Word, by the monitions of His providence, He strives to lead us to repentance. But we must repent. As while the earth cannot bear fruit unless the sun shine upon it, it is still the part of the earth to he fertile; so while we cannot repent unless God aid us, it is our part to turn from evil. Repentance cannot he exercised for us; it must be exercised by us.
God commands you to repent, just as to the apostles, when five thousand hungry men, besides women and children, surrounded them, and their whole store was five loaves and two fishes, Christ said, Give ye them to eat. The task is as much beyond your unaided power as that was above theirs; but address yourself to it as they did, in obedience to the Divine behest, and you will receive power from on high to accomplish not only it, but other tasks higher yet.
I. Why must we cleanse ourselves from evil?
1. Because sin renders us offensive to God. It is in itself repulsive to Him, just as immodesty in all its forms and in every degree is repulsive to a virtuous woman (Hab. 1:13).
2. Because it is destructive to ourselves. In physical matters dirt and disease are inseparable, and so they are in spiritual. Moral pollution leads to moral decay. Sin is a leprosy that eats away all the finer faculties of the soul.
3. Because it renders us dangerous to our fellow-men. In the measure that we are corrupt, we shall corrupt others. There is a terrible contagiousness in iniquity (Pro. 22:24-25; Rev. 18:4). A sinner is a walking pestilence. And
4. The special lesson of our text in its connectionBecause otherwise access to the throne of grace will be closed against us. If it be not so with us now, yet there will come a season when it will be supremely important to us that God should hear our prayers (a time of great trouble, or the hour of death), and how awful will be our condition if God should then turn a deaf ear to us! But this is the doom of obdurate sinners (Isa. 1:15; Jer. 11:14, &c.)
II. How may we cleanse ourselves from evil?
1. By resolutely putting off our old evil habits. This is what Isaiah exhorted the Jews to do (Isa. 1:16-17). Similar exhortations occur in the New Testament (Eph. 4:25-29; Heb. 12:1). Begin with the faults of which you are most conscious [303] Begin and continue the great task of moral reformation in humble dependence upon God.
2. By prayer. In earnest communion with God our views of duty and purity receive a marvellous elevation, and we catch the inspiration of the Divine character, so that iniquity, instead of being attractive, becomes hateful to us also [306]
3. By humble but resolute endeavours to copy the example of our Lord Jesus Christ.
4. By intercourse with the people of God [309]
5. By making the Word of God the only and absolute rule of our life (Psa. 119:1). These are the means by which we may attain to moral purity in the future. Cleansing from the guilt of sin in the past is bestowed freely on all who believe in Jesus (1Jn. 1:7-9). Yea, the guilt of a man whose hands are literally full of blood may thus be washed away; e.g., Saul, the persecutor and murderer of the saints (Act. 22:4; Act. 22:16; 1Ti. 1:16).
[303] Rooting up the large weeds of a garden loosens the earth, and renders the extraction of the lesser ones comparatively easy.Eliza Cook.
[306] There is an antipathy between sinning and praying. The child that hath misspent the whole day in playing abroad, steals to bed at night for fear of a chiding from his father. Sin and prayer are such contraries, that it is impossible at a stride to step from one to another. Prayer will either make you leave off sinning, or sinning will make you leave off prayer.Gurnall, 16171679.
[309] Get some Christian friend (whom thou mayest trust above others) to be thy faithful monitor. Oh, that man hath a great help for the maintaining the power of godliness that has an open-hearted friend that dare speak his heart to him. A stander-by sees more sometimes by a man than the actor can do by himself, and is more fit to judge of his actions than he of his own; sometimes self-love blinds us in our own cause, that we see not our own cause, that we see not ourselves so bad as we are; and sometimes we are oversuspicious of the worst by ourselves, which makes us appear to ourselves worse than we are. Now, that thou mayest not deprive thyself of so great help from thy friend, be sure to keep thy heart ready with meekness to receive, yea, with thankfulness embrace a reproof from his mouth. Those that cannot bear plain-dealing hurt themselves most; for by this they seldom hear the truth.Gurnall, 16171679.
The first true sign of spiritual life, prayer is also the means of maintaining it. Man can as well live physically without breathing, as spiritually without praying. There is a class of animalsthe cetaceous, neither fish nor seafowl, that inhabit the deep. It is their home; they never leave it for the shore; yet, though swimming beneath its waves and sounding its darkest depths, they have ever and anon to rise to the surface that they may breathe the air. Without that these monarchs of the deep could not exist in the dense element in which they live, and move, and have their being. And something like what is imposed on them by a physical necessity, the Christian has to do by a spiritual one. It is by ever and anon ascending up to God, by rising through prayer into a loftier, purer region for supplies of Divine grace, that he maintains his spiritual life. Prevent these animals from rising to the surface, and they die for want of breath; prevent him from rising to God, and he dies for want of prayer. Give me children, cried Rachel, or else I die. Let me breathe, says a man gasping, or else I die. Let me pray, says the Christian, or else I die.Guthrie.
III. When may we cleanse ourselves from evil? NOW! this very hour the task ought to be begun.
1. Difficult as the task is, delay will only increase its difficulty [312]
2. Now, because Gods commands brook no delay. (Psa. 95:7-8).
3. Now! because now though God may be willing to-day to grant you repentance unto life, by your delay you may so provoke Him to anger that to-morrow repentance may be denied you.
[312] The more we defer, the more difficult and painful our work must needs prove; every day will both enlarge our task and diminish our ability to perform it. Sin is never at a stay; if we do not retreat from it, we shall advance in it, and the farther on we go, the more we have to come back; every step we take forward (even before we can return hither, into the state wherein we are at present) must be repeated; all the web we spin must be unravelled.
Vice, as it groweth in age, so it improveth in stature and strength; from a puny child it soon waxeth a lusty stripling, then riseth to be a sturdy man, and after awhile becometh a massy giant, whom we shall scarce dare to encounter, whom we shall be very hardly able to vanquish; especially seeing that as it groweth taller and stouter, so we shall dwindle and prove more impotent, for it feedeth upon our vitals, and thriveth by our decay; it waxeth mighty by stripping us of our best forces, by enfeebling our reason, by perverting our will, by corrupting our temper, by debasing our courage, by seducing all our appetites and passions to a treacherous compliance with itself: every day our mind groweth more blind, our will more resty, our spirit more faint, our passions more headstrong and untamable; the power and empire of sin do strangely by degrees encroach, and continually get ground upon us, till it hath quite subdued and enthralled us. First we learn to bear it; then we come to like it; by and by we contract a friendship with it; then we dote upon it; at last we become enslaved to it in a bondage, which we shall hardly be able, or willing, to shake off; when not only our necks are fitted to the yoke, our hands are manacled, and our feet shackled thereby, but our heads and hearts do conspire in a base submission thereto, when vice hath made such impression on us, when this pernicious weed hath taken so deep root in our mind, will, and affection, it will demand an extremely toilsome labour to extirpate it.Barrow, 16301677.
Repentance is entirely in Gods disposal. This grace is in the soul from God, as light is in the air from the sun, by continual emanation; so that God may shut or open His hands, contract or diffuse, set forth or suspend the influence of it as He pleases. And if God gives not repenting grace, there will be a hard heart and a dry eye, maugre all the poor frustraneous endeavours of nature. A piece of brass may as easily melt, or a flint bewater itself, as the heart of man, by any innate power of its own, resolve itself into a penitential humiliation. If God does not, by an immediate blow of His omnipotence, strike the rock, these waters will never gush out. The Spirit blows where it listeth, and if that blows not, these showers can never fall.
And now, if the matter stands so, how does the impenitent sinner know but that God, being provoked by his present impenitence, may irreversibly propose within Himself to seal up these fountains, and shut him up under hardness of heart and reprobation of sense? And then farewell all thoughts of repentance for ever.South, 16331716.
A PLAIN COMMAND
Isa. 1:16. Cease to do evil.
One of the pretexts by which wicked men endeavour to excuse their neglect of religion is, that many of the doctrines of the Bible are mysterious. They are so necessarily, and that they are so is one proof that the Bible is from God. But however mysterious the doctrines of Scripture may be, its precepts are plain enough. How plain is the command of our text! No man can even pretend that he does not understand it. If he does not obey it, he will not be able to plead that it is beyond his comprehension. We have
I. A universal requirement. Certain of the precepts of Scripture concern only certain classes of individuals (sovereigns, subjects, husbands, wives, &c.), but this command concerns us all. Your name is written above it, and it is a message for you.
II. A most reasonable requirement. It is wrong that needs justification, not right. The worst man in the community will admit that he ought to cease to do evil. And he can, if he will, not in his own strength, but in that which God is ever ready to impart to every man who desires to turn from sin. And not only ought and can men cease to do evil, it will be to their advantage to do so. Sin has its pleasures, but they are but for a season, and they are succeeded by pains and penalties so intense that the pleasures will be altogether forgotten. To exhort men to cease to do evil is to exhort them to cease laying the foundation for future misery [315] On every ground, therefore, this is a most reasonable requirement.
[315] As where punishment is there was sin; so where sin is there will be, there must be, punishment. If thou dost ill, saith God to Cain, sin lies at thy door (Gen. 4:7). Sin, that is, punishment for sin: they are so inseparable, that one word implies both; for the doing ill is the sin, that is within doors; but the suffering ill is the punishment, and that lies like a fierce mastiff at the door, and is ready to fly in our throat when we look forth, and, if it do not then seize upon us, yet it dogs us at the heels; and will be sure to fasten upon us at our greatest disadvantage: Tum gravior cm tarda venit, &c. Josephs brethren had done heinously ill: what becomes of their sin? it makes no noise, but follows them slily and silently in the wilderness: it follows them home to their fathers house; it follows them into Egypt. All this while there is no news of it; but when it found them cooped up three days in Pharaohs ward, now it bays at them, and flies in their faces. We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, &c. (Gen. 42:21).
What should I instance in that, whereof not Scripture, not books, but the whole world, is fullthe inevitable sequences of sin and punishment? Neither can it be otherwise. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? saith Abraham. Right, is to give every one his due: wages is due to work; now the wages of sin is death: So then, it stands upon no less ground than very necessary and essential justice to God, that where wickedness hath led the way, there punishment must follow.Hall, 15741656.
III. A comprehensive requirement. It is not from certain forms of evil, merely, but from evil in all its forms, that we are required to abstain. Cease to do evil! [318] Sin must be utterly forsaken! not great and flagrant sins only, but also what are called little sins [321] These destroy more than great sins [324] One sin is enough to keep us enslaved to Satan [327]
[318] There may be a forsaking of a particular sin that has been delightful and predominant without sincerity towards God, for another lust may have got possession of the heart, and take the throne. There is an alternate succession of appetites in the corrupt nature, according to the change of mens temper or interests in the world. As seeds sown in that order in a garden, that tis always full of a succession of fruits and herbs in season; so original sin that is sown in our nature is productive of divers lusts, some in the spring, others in the summer of our age, some in the autumn, others in the winter. Sensual lusts flourish in youth, but when mature age has cooled these desires, worldly lusts succeed; in old age there is no relish for sensuality, but covetousness reigns imperiously. Now he that expels one sin and entertains another continues in a state of sin; tis but exchanging one familiar for another; or, to borrow the prophets expression, Tis as one should fly from a lion, and meet with a bear that will as certainly devour him.Salter.
[321] Thou dost not hate sin if thou only hatest some one sin. All iniquity will be distasteful in thy sight if God the Holy Spirit has really made thee to loathe iniquity. If I say to a person, I will not receive you into my house when you come dressed in such a coat; but if I open the door to him when he has on another suit which is more respectable, it is evident that my objection was not to the person, but to his clothes. If a man will not cheat when the transaction is open to the world, but will do so in a more secret way, or in a kind of adulteration which is winked at in the trade, the man does not hate cheating, he only hates that kind of it which is sure to be found out; he likes the thing itself very well. Some sinners, they say they hate sin. Not at all; sin in its essence is pleasing enough; it is only a glaring shape of it which they dislike.Spurgeon.
[324] The worst sin is not some outburst of gross transgression, forming an exception to the ordinary tenor of a life, bad and dismal as such a sin is; but the worst and most fatal are the small continuous vices which root underground and honeycomb the soul. Many a man who thinks himself a Christian is in more danger from the daily commission, for example, of small pieces of sharp practice in his business, than ever was David at his worst. White ants pick a carcase clean sooner than a lion will.Maclaren.
[327] As an eagle, though she enjoy her wings and beak, is wholly prisoner if she be held but by one talon; so are we, though we could be delivered of all habit of sin, in bondage still, if vanity hold us but by a silken thread.Donne, 15731631.
Ships, when the tide rises and sets strongly in any direction, sometimes turn and seem as if they would go out upon it. But they only head that way, and move from side to side, swaying and swinging without moving on at all. There seems to be nothing to hinder them from sailing and floating out to sea; but there is something. Down under the water a great anchor lies buried in the mud. The ship cannot escape. The anchor holds her. And thus are men holden by the cords of their own sins. They go about trying to discover some way to be forgiven, and yet keep good friends with the devil that is in them.Beecher.
If we would realise the full force of the term hatred of evil, as it ought to exist in all, as it would exist in a perfectly righteous man, we shall do well to consider how sensitive we are to natural evil in its every form to pain and suffering and misfortune. How delicately is the physical frame of man constructed, and how keenly is the slightest derangement in any part of it felt! A little mote in the eye, hardly discernible by the eye of another, the swelling of a small gland, the deposit of a small grain of sand, what agonies may these slight causes inflict! That fine filament of nerves of feeling spread like a wonderful network of gossamer over the whole surface of the body, how exquisitely susceptible is it! A trifling burn, or scald, or incision, how does it cause the member affected to be drawn back suddenly, and the patient to cry out! Now there can be no question that if man were in a perfectly moral state, moral evil would affect his mind as sensibly and in as lively a mannerwould, in short, be as much of an affliction to him, as pain is to his physical frame. He would shrink and snatch himself away, as sin came near to his consciousness; the first entrance of it into his imagination would wound and arouse his moral sensibilities, and make him positively unhappy.Goulburn.
IV. An imperative requirement. This is not a counsel, which we are at liberty to accept or reject; it is a command, which we disobey at our peril; a command of One who has full power to make His authority respected.
V. A very elementary requirement. Men who have laid aside certain evil habits, such as drunkenness, swearing, &c., are apt to plume themselves on what they have done, and to regard themselves as paragons of virtue. But this is a mistake. Ceasing to do evil is but the beginning of a better life; it is but the pulling up of the weeds in a garden, and much more than this is needed before a garden can be worthy of the name. Those who have ceased to do evil must learn to do well [330]
[330] Thou hast laid down the commission of an evil, but hast thou taken up thy known duty? He is a bad husbandman that drains his ground, and then neither sows nor plants it. Its all one if it had been under water as drained and not improved. What if thou cease to do evil (if it were possible) and thou learnst not to do well? Tis not thy fields being clear of weeds, but fruitful in corn, pays thy rent, and brings thee in thy profit; nor thy not being drunk, unclean, or any other sin, but thy being holy, gracious, thy having faith unfeigned, pure love, and the other graces which will prove thee sound, and bring in evidence for thy interest in Christ, and through Him of heaven.Gurnall, 16171679.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
TRUE AND FALSE RELIGION
Isa. 1:11; Isa. 1:16-17. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord. I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. Wash you, make you clear; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
What was the business of the ancient prophet? Not merely to predict events. His chief work was to make men realise vividly the presence of God. Religions, in order to their permanence, require system. But religious systems, with their creeds, forms, and ceremonies, have an inevitable tendency to coldness and deadness. The prophet was sent to counteract this tendency. It was his mission to restore to great words their great meanings, to cause moral principles to reassert themselves as the lords of conscience and of willin a word, to prophesy on the dry bones of a decaying religion until there came upon them flesh and sinew, and there passed into them the breath of spiritual life. Such a mission was that of Isaiah. In his time religion was in a state of petrifaction, nay, rather of putrefaction. From this fact his prophetic message takes its keynote. It begins with an invective that reminds us of John the Baptist.
What was the condition of things that provoked his indignation? Not a lack of religious observances; there was a redundancy of them. That which caused a righteous anger to burn within him vehemently was their perversion of the sacrificial system in which they gloried, their dissociation of it from the moral law, to which God intended it to be only a supplement. It was given to teach men the hatefulness and the terrible consequences of sin, and the duty of consecration to God; but they separated it from the moral law, and allowed all its spiritual meaning to drop out of it. Instead of using it as a help to morality, they were making it the substitute for morality. Coming up red-handed from their murders, and reeking with their foul vices, they stood up before God, claiming His favour; for were they not sacrificing to Him, yea, in accordance with the regulations Himself had given? No wonder that a man with veracity in him and a love of righteousness should pour out upon such men and such offerings the whole wrath of his nature.
From this exposition take the following practical lessons
1. All forms of religion have a tendency to lose their original purity and freshness. As a stream, clear at its fountain-head, but turbid before it reaches the sea; as our planet, which physicists say was flung off at first from the sun a glowing mass of light and heat, has been cooling down ever since; so is it with religions and churches. As a rule, their history has been one of gathering accretions and of diminishing purity and power in proportion to their distance from their fountain-head. So was it with Judaism. So has it been with Christianity. Contrast Christianity as we have it in St. Pauls epistles, all aglow with fervour and love, and that of the time of Leo X., with its professed head and most of his court professed infidels, and the officials of the Church selling indulgences to sin for money! Luther lit the fire again; but Protestantism has had its illustrations of the same law. Witness the state of things in this country in the last century. In view of this fact let the Church pray for prophetic spirits who shall in each generation rekindle the dying fires; and, apart from the influence of specially-gifted men, let each Church betake itself continually to the Fountain-head of spiritual life.
2. False religiousness is worse than none at all. Isaiah says, not simply that such observances are of no avail with God, but that they are abominations to Him. We can see the reason. Such a religion as that which Isaiah denounced works harm to the individual and to the cause of godliness generally; to the individual, by inspiring him with a vain confidence; to the cause of godliness, by furnishing points for the shafts of ridicule, by which faith is killed in many hearts. It would be difficult to say who are the greatest promoters of infidelityprofessed atheists or hypocritical religionists.
3. It is a perilous thing to overlook the connection between impression and practice in religion. In Isa. 1:16-17, the prophet shows us what the true nexus between them is. Your ceremonies and observances will do you no good unless you practise the morality, the judgment, mercy, and love to which they point. Our power of receiving impressions is under a directly opposite law from our power of practice. The former steadily decreases by exercise, the latter as steadily increases. This is so in religion, as well as in other things. The impression produced upon the Jews by the sacrifices would decrease as they were repeated, unless by them they were led to practical righteousness, and their whole system would in time become utterly powerless as a moral incentive; just as, if a man is for a few mornings wilfully deaf to an alarum in his bedroom, it presently loses its power even to waken him. The same law will operate with us. The preaching of the gospel is intended to produce impression, and that again to lead to practice. If the latter does not follow at once, the chances are all against its ever following, because the impressions will become feebler with each repetition. A fact this for all hearers to ponder.
4. Religious observances and machinery of all kinds have their end in the development of character. This was so in Isaiahs time. It is so now. If their religious observances were not leading them to cease to do evil, and to learn to do well, but were hindering them from doing so, it were better for them to give them up. So our creeds, organisations, ministers, &c., are of use only as related to character. They are the scaffolding, character is the building; they are the tools, that the work. If no building is going on, this parade of scaffolding is an imposture, and had better be swept away.J. Brierley, B.A.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(16) Wash you, make you clean . . .The words were probably as an echo of Psa. 51:7. Both psalmist and prophet had entered into the inner meaning of the outward ablutions of ritual.
Cease to do evil; (17) learn to do well.Such words the prophet might have heard in his youth from Amos (Amo. 5:14-15). What had then been spoken to the princes of the northern kingdom was now repeated to those of Judah.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. Wash you The allusion here is doubtless to the injunction on priests, who, on pain of death, (Exo 30:19-21,) had to wash hands and feet before they ministered at the altar. The symbol, no doubt, was at once understood by these worldly men now before the prophet: the expression did not seem to them an abrupt transition to another subject. Before they could offer “the earnest, effectual prayer of the righteous man,” they must pray not in alarm merely, but with deep repentance. They must cease to do evil.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Response That God Requires ( Isa 1:16-20 ).
What God requires of them is a complete change of heart and a renewing of their lives.
Analysis.
a “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes” (Isa 1:16 a).
b “Cease to do evil, learn to do well, Seek justice, restrain the oppressor, Obtain justice for the fatherless, plead for the widow” (Isa 1:16-17)
c “Come now and let us reason together,” Says Yahweh, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they will be as white as snow” (Isa 1:18 a).
c “Though they are red like crimson, they will be as wool” (Isa 1:18 b).
b “If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land” (Isa 1:19)
a “But if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword. For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it” (Isa 1:20).
Here again we have a chiasmus. The call to put away evil in Isa 1:16-17 contrasts with the refusing and rebelling in Isa 1:20. Learning to do well parallels being willing and obedient in Isa 1:19, and in Isa 1:18 we have two parallel descriptions of cleansing.
Isa 1:16-17
“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean,
Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes,
Cease to do evil, learn to do well,
Seek justice, restrain the oppressor,
Obtain justice for the fatherless, plead for the widow.”
This is not urging them to take part in the ritual washings and cleansings of the cult ritual but is a contrast to them. They are not in themselves to be seen as sufficient. The actual carrying out of the literal rituals is not what is being required here. They would be lumped with the sacrifices, incense and feasts as fruitless ritual. It is the moral application that is required. In order to be truly clean the people must become morally clean. Using later terms they must repent and believe, receiving God’s mercy and forgiveness. They must wash themselves by their repentance towards God and cleanse themselves by claiming His mercy. (Washing was always preparatory, cleansing what necessarily followed) This will then result in positive living, by putting away their evil behaviour totally so that God could see it no more, by ceasing to do what was wrong, by learning to do well and seeking for the application of true justice, by restraining (or reproving) the oppressor and acting in defence of orphans and widows.
Note that it is not enough just to behave well personally, that behaviour must overflow into acting against oppressors and reaching the needy in society, showing concern for the poor and helpless. It must be full-orbed righteousness.
This is not just an emphasis on good works, it is a stress on covenant righteousness, on the righteousness that should result from their compact with God. Their response is to be response to the covenant. Morality without religion was unknown in Israel. The point is that they have been concentrating on the ritual ordinances of the covenant (although somewhat perfunctorily) while ignoring its essential moral demands, they have not revealed righteousness in response to the Great Deliverer. Thus they have been missing its essence, God’s gracious deliverance of them and His righteous requirements in the light of it, which were to result in a transformed people. The ten commands and their later exposition lay at the heart of the covenant.
‘Wash — cleanse.’ This is a process. They are not describing the same thing. Washing with water is never said to cleanse in the Old Testament ritual, it was preparatory to cleansing. It washed off the filth of the flesh (including the body odours) prior to an approach towards God, or to waiting in the presence of God. The only water that ‘cleansed’ was that mixed with the ashes of the heifer, ‘the water for purification’ (Num 19:17; Num 19:20-21; Num 31:23 compare Isa 8:7). Constantly the one who has washed in ordinary water is regularly informed that he will not ‘be clean until the evening’ (Lev 15:2-24). It is the period of waiting before God in humble dependence subsequent to washing that cleanses. Thus steady progress in becoming clean before God is in mind here, although in this case not by ritual but by repentance, response and behaviour.
Isa 1:18
“Come now and let us reason together,”
Says Yahweh,
“Though your sins be as scarlet,
They will be as white as snow.
Though they are red like crimson,
They will be as wool.”
The contrast is between before and after. The scarlet and the red have especially in mind the ‘bloodiness’ of Isa 1:15. By repenting and becoming renewed in accordance with the covenant their bloodstained hands and clothing will become transformed so that they are as white as snow, as white as wool. They will be forgiven and transformed from being those who approve of, and gain by, violence, by the way of harshness and self-gain, to being those who follow God’s non-violent ways, the way of compassion, and this will be true both without and within. Thus will they become acceptable to God and clean before Him (Isa 1:16).
‘Come let us reason together.’ This is probably intended to have a forensic sense, like pleading in a court of law. The Great Judge reminds them that they are in court before Him and pleads with His people that he might restore them to His mercy.
Isa 1:19-20
“If you are willing and obedient,
You will eat the good of the land,
But if you refuse and rebel,
You will be devoured by the sword.
For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.”
The choice is laid before them. They must either be willing to respond to His covenant and become obedient to His instruction, in which case their inheritance will be theirs, and ‘they will eat the good of the land’, or they can continue refusing to respond to the covenant, and continue their rebellion, in which case they will be devoured by the sword, that is, the sword will ‘eat them’ instead of them eating the good of the land.
So the stark choice is that they can choose to eat or be eaten. They can either have blessing in the land by loving God and walking in His ways (Deu 30:15-16), in fulfilment of the covenant, or they can receive judgment by the sword, and be devoured by it.
‘For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.’ Isaiah wants them to be in no doubt that this is the solemn word of Yahweh. He has said it and they can be sure that He will do it, either the one way or the other (compare Isa 1:2).
For the whole passage from Isa 1:2-18 note the progression. In Isa 1:2 the heavens and earth were called on as witness to what Yahweh has declared and determined on His people, in Isa 1:10 the rulers and the people of the wicked city were themselves called on to consider their ways, and in Isa 1:18 all who will hear are called on to be willing to respond God’s appeal. Again, in Isa 1:4-9 their state is revealed, in Isa 1:11-15 they are assured that no vain ritual can cleanse them because of the state of their hearts, and in Isa 1:16-20 they are called on to receive the new cleansing and new hearts that they need by response to Yahweh and His covenant.
In some ways this call to repent comes to us also, day by day. We need constantly to consider our ways, not morbidly but sensibly; to wash and cleanse ourselves by repentance and reception of forgiveness; to ask ourselves whether our worship is becoming stereotyped and formal, or whether our worship is still heartfelt and true. Thus will we retain a genuine relationship with God and avoid His chastisement.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Suggesting the only Way of Relief
v. 16. Wash you, v. 17. learn to do well, v. 18. Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord, v. 19. If ye be willing and obedient, v. 20. but if ye refuse and rebel,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Exhortations
Isa 1:16-17
“Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless”, plead for the widow” ( Isa 1:16-17 ).
How easy to say “Cease to do evil”! Have we considered how much is meant by these words? Does evil get so slight a hold upon a man that he can detach the hand that grasps him without effort or difficulty? By what image would we represent the hold which evil gets upon men? Is it the image of a chain, a manacle, a fetter? Has it in it anything of the nature of a heavy burden, a weight that drags the life down to the very ground? Is it a tyranny that defies the poor little strength of man, and laughs at the victim when he attempts his freedom? Is evil kind to those who practise it? Is it most gracious in its mastery? Or does it taunt, and mock, and threaten, and defy? Can it be truthfully represented as a spectre that terrifies men in the darkness, a goblin that looks at them frowningly when they attempt to pray? If there is any suggestion of truth in all these inquiries and human experience alone can reply how easy it is to say, “Cease to do evil”! The man who is exhorted might reply, I cannot: the master whom I serve is a tyrant: if I even sigh as an indication of my suffering he doubles my punishment. Oh wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Who shall cut away from me this cold corpse that I am doomed to carry? Herein perhaps we have not been sufficiently kind to men who are in a negative period of education, men who are simply trying to abstain, to refrain from evil, to cut down evil little by little because they feel they cannot cut it off all at once. To such men we should ever reveal an aspect of the tenderest graciousness, and when we speak to them our voice should be musical with tones of encouragement. It is a long leap from hell to heaven. The devil is no easy taskmaster; if he allows us to go one inch from him it is that he may leap upon us with deadlier certainty of his hold. Still, the exhortation is needed, and all Biblical exhortations bring with them their own assurance of divine interposition and divine succour; they are not mere exhortations, vocal cries, efforts in words. Whenever a man is exhorted in the Bible to cease from evil and to attempt good, the meaning is that God is behind the exhortation to afford needful inspiration and grace, if the man will himself ask for help, and cast himself unreservedly upon it. What is the evil which a man is called upon to cease to do? Every man must answer this question for himself. Almost every one can find some kind of virtue easy to practise, but every one has his own special and all but ineradicable evil, following him, stamping him, sealing him, and defying him to throw it off. Is any one conscious of being engaged at this moment in denying a craving for some personal indulgence, be it the draught of poison, the draught of death? How far have you proceeded? If you have proceeded so far as to make up your mind that it would be well to cease that evil, take heart: that is the first good, solid, upward step; that resolution is itself a rock on which you may stand. Now can you conquer all at once? The answer is, certainly not, in many cases at least. There have been stupendous and successful efforts which have had about them at the first all the characteristics and qualities of completeness; but let not those be discouraged who have to try again, to fight more desperately to-day than they had to fight yesterday. Is it a consciousness of being hardly able to speak without the utterance of profane language? Cease to do evil: there was less profanity in the speech to-day than there was the day before: be hopeful, be on your guard; say, Lord, keep thou the door of my lips, set a watch upon my mouth. So these are but indications. Whatever the evil is, know that it must be fought out, put in its right relation to your life, and that it is impossible for you to cease to do evil except with the co-operation, the inworking spiritual ministry of God the Holy Ghost. How is that to be obtained? Ask, and ye shall receive. Seek, and ye shall find.
“Learn to do well” or, to do good. Then does not good-doing come natively, as breathing does, or locomotion, or sight? Is this a trade to be learned? Do men serve an apprenticeship to good-doing? In a sense they do. All this is matter of education. And how wonderfully education spreads its necessities over the whole space of human life! You find it everywhere, on the very lowest levels, and on the very highest. We see what the author has produced, but we do not see what he has destroyed. The book comes out in fair copy, and we, looking upon the surface only, say, How well done! Who can tell what that “fair copy” cost? We see the picture hung upon the wall for exhibition, but we do not see how much canvas was thrown away, or how many outlines were discarded, or how many efforts were pronounced unworthy. We only see the last or best. So, much is to be done in private with regard to learning to do well. We do not live our whole life in public. We make an effort in solitude: it is a failure; we throw it away; we acknowledge its existence to no one: still, we are acquiring skill practice makes perfect and when we do our first act of virtue in the public sight people may suppose that we are all but prodigies and miracles, so well was the deed done. Only God’s eye saw the process which led up to it. This is a characteristic of divine grace, that it sets down every attempt as a success, it marks every failure honestly done as a victory already crowned. So we are losing nothing even on the road. The very learning is itself an education; the very attempt to do, though we fail of doing, itself gives strength, and encouragement, and confidence. In learning to do well we assist the negative work of ceasing to do evil.
Herein is a mystery of spiritual education. In learning to pray we by so much separate ourselves from doing that which is evil in speech: we cleanse the mouth; we set the mind upon a new level; we import into the whole music of life a new keynote. How hard it must be to rise from prayer and then give both hands to the devil! Surely that is a miracle which ought to lie beyond the compass of human power. So we are not to wait until the negative process is completed before we begin the positive process. First of all we have to do a great negative work; we have to get rid of all our provincialisms before we can speak the true language of the country: we have to rid ourselves of our mistakes before we can begin to build: we have to cleanse the constitution before we commence the construction which is associated with sound health. Yet at points the two processes coincide, and they help one another. To cease to do evil without learning to do well is to cleanse the house and leave it empty that the devil may return to an ampler and more inviting habitation.
“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord” ( Isa 1:18 ).
“Come now, and let us reason together,” may be read, I present an ultimatum. “Let us reason together,” or, I have come from the eternal place to offer man an ultimatum: How truly becoming to divine majesty is such a voice! It is for God to say which is the way of life, and it is for God to say how life can be obtained by those who have forfeited it. Thus we get rid of all human inventions, all man-made schemes of salvation, all theories of human reconciliation. It is not for man to speak upon that question at all; his opinion is not invited; he can have no opinion to give that would touch the fundamental and vital condition of affairs. The picture, then, is that of the Eternal King offering an ultimatum to rebellious and perverse subjects.
“Saith the Lord.” This expression occurs frequently in Scripture; it occurs repeatedly in this chapter. What meaning do we associate with the expression? Who, in reading such words, would not read them in a loud and resounding voice? It would appear as if we required the trumpet of the thunder that we might properly articulate the expression, “Thus saith the Lord.” Etymologically that is wholly wrong in some of the instances which occur in the prophecies of Isaiah. Were the words literally rendered they would come to this, Thus doth the Lord whisper. There is no thunder in the emphasis; there is a solemn stillness, an accommodation of infinite voices to human capacity to listen. The appeal loses nothing wherever this etymology can be adopted, but rather seems to gain something.
“Thus doth the Lord whisper.” He has been a whispering Lord; he was not in the earthquake, nor in the high wind, nor in the burning fire; he was in the still small voice. The emphasis is in himself. For God to speak is to be emphatic by virtue of the very fact that it is he who speaks. The Lord has no occasion to raise his voice; when he whispers he thunders, not in the outward and popular sense of that term, but when the Eternal speaks there is an energy in his whispering that could not be found in all the thunders that roar in the troubled sky. Men often say, Could we but hear the Lord speak! In ancient times men were enabled to say, “Thus saith the Lord,” and therefore they had an advantage over us. Nothing of the kind. The men of ancient time heard a whisper. So may we if we listen for it if we say, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. What we need is the hearing ear. Is there a man who can solemnly declare that he has never heard a whispering in his conscience, in his better nature? Has no voice appealed to him, saying, Cease to do evil; learn to do well: be a braver man and a better; come away from all evil, and abandon the paths of unrighteousness which end in ruin? He may call it memory, or conscience, or describe it by any name that suits the fancy of the hour, but the right interpretation of that whispering, pleading, is that God has a controversy with that man, or is at that solemn juncture inviting him to paths of pleasantness and paths of peace.
Hear the still small voice; listen to the energetic whisper: it suits our weakness; it meets the necessity of the case in every aspect; it is adapted to the passion which reduces our speech to a cry, and it falls like balm upon wounds that ache, and through whose red lips our poor life pours itself in despair. What do we want from heaven? Great appeals that thrill the whole wind that blows around the globe? Do we want appearances in the constellations, figures in the zenith, convulsions, earthquakes, and signs in the clouds? By so much as we ask for these are we out of harmony with God’s method of educating and preserving and directing the universe. Listen for quiet voices or whispered appeals, and know that the appeal loses nothing in consequence of its being whispered, but rather gains because he who whispers is God.
“Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” ( Isa 1:18 ).
Who could make this bold proposition? All men can dye their souls, but, as saith a quaint divine, only God can bleach them. It is in our power to dye ourselves into all colours, but only God can make us white. The light is the image of the purity to which we are called, and which God will work in us if we yield ourselves to his gracious ministry. The idea is that there is no human condition too desperate for divine treatment. “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool”: “red” represents blood, and blood represents fire, and blood and fire are life; they hold in their tremendous grasp the secret of this awful thing that lives and breathes, and would be God if it could. The heifer, the white ashes of which were to purify those who had been in contact with the dead, was to be a red heifer; the sprinkling-brush was to be tied or fastened with a scarlet thread. There is a philosophy of colours; there is a theology of hues; and it hath pleased God to represent purity by whiteness. The saints above are robed in white; they who love God are clothed in white raiment now, and it is the harlot of the earth that is scarleted and that lives in her significant redness. Only God can take out all our black stains, and red signs, and scarlet tokens of iniquity, and make us as white as snow, brighter than the noonday sun. He has said he will do it; he offered to do it. This is the very purpose of the incarnation and ministry of Jesus Christ. The whole priesthood of the Son of God expresses itself in this holy eventuation, that every stain is taken out, and that the whole catharism has ended in spiritual purity and whiteness.
Are we trying to whiten ourselves? Then we must most surely fail. Have we undertaken to rub out the red spot from the hand that has committed murder? All the seas of the universe could not wash that hand and make it clean. God proposes to accomplish the miracle; let us hasten to him, and say, Lord, thy will be done; so long as there is one stain upon us we are restless, we are filled with torment: take thou out of us the last taint, and make us without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, a glorious Church, fit for heaven’s own whiteness. If God called us to some trifling task, some little contracted effort, some evanescent attempt, to do a little better than we have been doing, the whole vocation of heaven would contradict itself; this, indeed, would be the subjugation, yea, the humiliation, of heaven’s majesty in making so unworthy a proposition. The proposition is that we be cleansed in and out, that we have every fleck and flaw and speck and stain taken out by divinely-directed detergent methods, and that we be left at last pure with God’s holiness. All this should be recognised as the claim of the Bible. It means to do this, it wants to do this; if it is speaking because of some human inspiration, who was the man who spoke so? Verily, we would hear him speak again, for never did human invention propound so infinite a miracle.
We have spoken of an ultimatum; the terms are given:
“If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it” ( Isa 1:19-20 ).
This is a message which the common-sense of men can understand. It is not marred by even apparent superstition; it is an ultimatum, based on reason which we ourselves can test; it might have been stated by man within the limits which are possible to his understanding “If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword.” That is happening every day. Here the Lord comes down upon the common reason and the common experience of mankind, and justifies supernatural revelations by his supreme and gracious hold on absolute facts which we ourselves can test. He works with both hands: one ranges through the heavens, and we cannot follow it; the other sets before us the facts of human history, and thus by a double action God holds human attention and human confidence with gracious and benevolent mastery.
How the chapter varies in its tone:
“How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. Thy silver is become dross, thy wine [mutilated, as well as] mixed with water: thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them. Therefore saith the Lord [whispereth the Lord,] the Lord of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies” ( Isa 1:21-24 ).
In no other verse are so many divine designations given. “Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies.” This is a very significant figure. It is the figure of a man drawing a deep breath, and thus casting off his trouble by an exhalation: Ah, I will draw a deep breath, and in my sighing I will ease me of mine adversaries sigh them off, cast them away with the wind of my heart and avenge me of mine enemies. Lord, take not that deep inspiration against thy creatures! Who can live if thou dost breathe upon us so? who can answer the respiration of God? Hold thy breath, or breathe softly and gently upon us, that we may live, and not die.
Isaiah represents by the threefold designation of the divine being the omnipotence of God. “The Lord,” that would be enough; “The Lord of hosts,” that is more; “The mighty One of Israel,” he piles his argument, he draws in all possible designations significant of almightiness, and then asks Judah and Jerusalem if they will attempt to rebel against the concentrated omnipotence of God; as who should say, O fools! to attempt with knuckles and fists and hands of flesh to beat back an eternal rock! Consider the lunacy of the case, the absolute madness of the conditions! It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks: acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace. No man can encounter God in battle and leave the field a victor. Here again comes the great gospel ultimatum: Here is a stone: if you fall upon it, you will be broken that you may be reconstructed; if it fall upon you, it will grind you to powder, and the wind will blow you away.
Note
Of the literary qualities of Isaiah Ewald writes: “We cannot in the case of Isaiah, as in that of other prophets, specify any particular peculiarity, or any favourite colour as attaching to his general style. He is not the especially lyrical prophet, or the especially elegiacal prophet, or the especially oratorical and hortatory prophet, as we should describe a Joel, a Hosea, a Micah, with whom there is a greater prevalence of some particular colour; but, just as the subject requires, he has readily at command every several kind of style and every several change of delineation; and it is precisely this that, in point of language, establishes his greatness, as well as in general forms one of his most towering points of excellence. His only fundamental peculiarity is the lofty, majestic calmness of his style, proceeding out of the perfect command which he feels he possesses over his subject-matter. This calmness, however, no way demands that the strain shall not, when occasion requires, be more vehemently excited and assail the hearer with mightier blows; but even the extremest excitement, which does here and there intervene, is in the main bridled still by the same spirit of calmness, and, not overstepping the limits which that spirit assigns, it soon with lofty self-control returns back to its wonted tone of equability ( Isa 2:10 to Isa 3:1 ; Isa 28:11-23 ; Isa 29:9-14 ).”
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Isa 1:16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
Ver. 16. Wash ye, make ye clean. ] “Wash your hearts from wickedness, that ye may be saved”; Jer 4:14 “yea, cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” Jam 4:8 But how is that done? “Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep,” &c. Jam 4:9 Ye cannot wash your bloody hands in innocence; wash them therefore in tears, which are a second baptism of the soul where it is rinsed anew. And surely, as the sins of the old world, so of this little world, need a deluge. Set to work, therefore, and God will soon set in with you. Wash yourselves with the tears of true repentance, and God will wash you with the blood of his Son; only be sure to do your work thoroughly – wash hard, rub, rinse; we have inveterate stains, which will hardly be got out till the cloth be almost rubbed to pieces; and as an error in the first concoction is not mended in the second, nor of the second in the third, so if a man’s humiliation hath not been sound, his reformation cannot be right. “Wash,” therefore, and then
Put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes.
Cease to do evil.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isaiah
THE GREAT SUIT: JEHOVAH VERSUS JUDAH
Isa 1:1 – Isa 1:9
The first bars of the great overture to Isaiah’s great oratorio are here sounded. These first chapters give out the themes which run through all the rest of his prophecies. Like most introductions, they were probably written last, when the prophet collected and arranged his life’s labours. The text deals with the three great thoughts, the leit-motifs that are sounded over and over again in the prophet’s message.
First comes the great indictment Isa 1:2 – Isa 1:4. A true prophet’s words are of universal application, even when they are most specially addressed to a particular audience. Just because this indictment was so true of Judah, is it true of all men, for it is not concerned with details peculiar to a long-past period and state of society, but with the broad generalities common to us all. As another great teacher in Old Testament times said, ‘I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices or thy burnt-offerings, to have been continually before me.’ Isaiah has nothing to say about ritual or ceremonial omissions, which to him were but surface matters after all, but he sets in blazing light the foundation facts of Judah’s and every man’s distorted relation to God. And how lovingly, as well as sternly, God speaks through him! That divine lament which heralds the searching indictment is not unworthy to be the very words of the Almighty Lover of all men, sorrowing over His prodigal and fugitive sons. Nor is its deep truth less than its tenderness. For is not man’s sin blackest when seen against the bright background of God’s fatherly love? True, the fatherhood that Isaiah knew referred to God’s relation to the nation rather than to the individual, but the great truth which is perfectly revealed by the Perfect Son was in part shown to the prophet. The east was bright with the unrisen sun, and the tinted clouds that hovered above the place of its rising seemed as if yearning to open and let him through. Man’s neglect of God’s benefits puts him below the animals that ‘know’ the hand that feeds and governs them. Some men think it a token of superior ‘culture’ and advanced views to throw off allegiance to God. It is a token that they have less intelligence than their dog.
There is something very beautiful and pathetic in the fact that Judah is not directly addressed, but that Isa 1:2 – Isa 1:4 are a divine soliloquy. They might rather be called a father’s lament than an indictment. The forsaken father is, as it were, sadly brooding over his erring child’s sins, which are his father’s sorrows and his own miseries. In Isa 1:4 the black catalogue of the prodigal’s doings begins on the surface with what we call ‘moral’ delinquencies, and then digs deeper to disclose the root of these in what we call ‘religious’ relations perverted. The two are inseparably united, for no man who is wrong with God can be right with duty or with men. Notice, too, how one word flashes into clearness the sad truth of universal experience-that ‘iniquity,’ however it may delude us into fancying that by it we throw off the burden of conscience and duty, piles heavier weights on our backs. The doer of iniquity is ‘laden with iniquity.’ Notice, too, how the awful entail of evil from parents to children is adduced-shall we say as aggravating, or as lessening, the guilt of each generation? Isaiah’s contemporaries are ‘a seed of evil-doers,’ spring from such, and in their turn are ‘children that are corrupters.’ The fatal bias becomes stronger as it passes down. Heredity is a fact, whether you call it original sin or not.
But the bitter fountain of all evil lies in distorted relations to God. ‘They have forsaken the Lord’; that is why they ‘do corruptly.’ They have ‘despised the Holy One of Israel’; that is why they are ‘laden with iniquity.’ Alienated hearts separate from Him. To forsake Him is to despise Him. To go from Him is to go ‘away backward.’ Whatever may have been our inheritance of evil, we each go further from Him. And this fatherly lament over Judah is indeed a wail over every child of man. Does it not echo in the ‘pearl of parables,’ and may we not suppose that it suggested that supreme revelation of man’s misery and God’s love?
After the indictment comes the sentence Isa 1:5 – Isa 1:8. Perhaps ‘sentence’ is not altogether accurate, for these verses do not so much decree a future as describe a present, and the deep tone of pitying wonder sounds through them as they tell of the bitter harvest sown by sin. The penetrating question, ‘Why will ye be still stricken, that ye revolt more and more?’ brings out the solemn truth that all which men gain by rebellion against God is chastisement. The ox that ‘kicks against the pricks’ only makes its own hocks bleed. We aim at some imagined good, and we get-blows. No rational answer to that stern ‘Why?’ is possible. Every sin is an act of unreason, essentially an absurdity. The consequences of Judah’s sin are first darkly drawn under the metaphor of a man desperately wounded in some fight, and far away from physicians or nurses, and then the metaphor is interpreted by the plain facts of hostile invasion, flaming cities, devastated fields. It destroys the coherence of the verses to take the gruesome picture of the wounded man as a description of men’s sins; it is plainly a description of the consequences of their sins. In accordance with the Old Testament point of view, Isaiah deals with national calamities as the punishment of national sins. He does not touch on the far worse results of individual sins on individual character. But while we are not to ignore his doctrine that nations are individual entities, and that ‘righteousness exalteth a nation’ in our days as well as in his, the Christian form of his teaching is that men lay waste their own lives and wound their own souls by every sin. The fugitive son comes down to be a swine-herd, and cannot get enough even of the swine’s food to stay his hunger.
The note of pity sounds very clearly in the pathetic description of the deserted ‘daughter of Zion.’ Jerusalem stands forlorn and defenceless, like a frail booth in a vineyard, hastily run up with boughs, and open to fierce sunshine or howling winds. Once ‘beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, . . . the city of the great King’-and now!
Isa 1:9 breaks the solemn flow of the divine Voice, but breaks it as it desires to be broken. For in it hearts made soft and penitent by the Voice, breathe out lowly acknowledgment of widespread sin, and see God’s mercy in the continuance of ‘a very small remnant’ of still faithful ones. There is a little island not yet submerged by the sea of iniquity, and it is to Him, not to themselves, that the ‘holy seed’ owe their being kept from following the multitude to do evil. What a smiting comparison for the national pride that is-’as Sodom,’ ‘like unto Gomorrah’!
After the sentence comes pardon. Isa 1:16 – Isa 1:17 properly belong to the paragraph omitted from the text, and close the stern special word to the ‘rulers’ which, in its severe tone, contrasts so strongly with the wounded love and grieved pity of the preceding verses. Moral amendment is demanded of these high-placed sinners and false guides. It is John the Baptist’s message in an earlier form, and it clears the way for the evangelical message. Repentance and cleansing of life come first.
But these stern requirements, if taken alone, kindle despair. ‘Wash you, make you clean’-easy to say, plainly necessary, and as plainly hopelessly above my reach. If that is all that a prophet has to say to me, he may as well say nothing. For what is the use of saying ‘Arise and walk’ to the man who has been lame from his mother’s womb? How can a foul body be washed clean by filthy hands? Ancient or modern preachers of a self-wrought-out morality exhort to impossibilities, and unless they follow their preaching of an unattainable ideal as Isaiah followed his, they are doomed to waste their words. He cried, ‘Make you clean,’ but he immediately went on to point to One who could make clean, could turn scarlet into snowy white, crimson into the lustrous purity of the unstained fleeces of sheep in green pastures. The assurance of God’s forgiveness which deals with guilt, and of God’s cleansing which deals with inclination and habit, must be the foundation of our cleansing ourselves from filthiness of flesh and spirit. The call to repentance needs the promise of pardon and divine help to purifying in order to become a gospel. And the call to ‘repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ,’ is what we all, who are ‘laden with iniquity,’ and have forsaken the Lord, need, if ever we are to cease to do evil and learn to do well.
As with one thunder-clap the prophecy closes, pealing forth the eternal alternative set before every soul of man. Willing obedience to our Father God secures all good, the full satisfaction of our else hungry and ravenous desires. To refuse and rebel is to condemn ourselves to destruction. And no man can avert that consequence, or break the necessary connection between goodness and blessedness, ‘for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it,’ and what He speaks stands fast for ever and ever.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 1:16-17
16Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;
Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight.
Cease to do evil,
17Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Reprove the ruthless,
Defend the orphan,
Plead for the widow.
Isa 1:16-17 The prophet expresses the heart of YHWH in a series of commands.
1. wash yourselves, BDB 934, KB 1220, Qal IMPERATIVE
2. make yourselves clean, BDB 269, KB 269, Hithpael IMPERATIVE
3. remove the evil, BDB 693, KB 747, Hiphil IMPERATIVE
4. cease to do evil, BDB 292, KB 292, Qal IMPERATIVE
5. learn to do good, BDB 540, KB 531, Qal IMPERATIVE
6. seek justice, BDB 205, KB 233, Qal IMPERATIVE
7. reprove the ruthless, BDB 80, KB 97, Piel IMPERATIVE (possibly rebuke the oppressor)
8. defend the orphan, BDB 1047, KB 1622, Qal IMPERATIVE
9. plead for the widow, BDB 936, KB 1224, Qal IMPERATIVE
Notice that YHWH’s will is expressed in terms of a person’s righteous acts of compassion (cf. Mat 25:31-46). One cannot be rightly related to God and hateful and neglectful toward his covenant brother/sister.
Often there is confusion about biblical faith. Is it based on the character of God (i.e., grace, mercy) or on the actions of believers? And the answer is yes! A good example of the covenant reciprocity (always initiated by God) is comparing Eze 18:31 with Eze 36:26-27 (also note Eph 2:8-10)!
SPECIAL TOPIC: EASTERN LITERATURE
Isa 1:17
NASBreprove the ruthless
NKJVreprove the oppressor
NRSVrescue the oppressed
TEVhelp those who are oppressed
NJBdiscipline the violent
LXXdeliver him that is suffering wrong
PESHITTAdo good to the oppressed
The MT has set right the oppressors (found only here), but the VERB means called blessed or set right (BDB 80, KB 97, Piel IMPERATIVE), which does not fit this context. It is probably best to change the vowel points of the MT from the oppressors to those who are oppressed (i.e., Qal PARTICIPLE, BDB 330).
orphan. . .widow This pair is a symbol of all oppressed and socially disempowered people (cf. Exo 22:21-22; Deu 24:17; Deu 24:19-21; Job 24:3; Psa 68:5; Jer 7:6; Lam 5:3; Eze 22:7; Zec 7:10; Mal 3:5). They are used together many times in Deuteronomy as the object of YHWH’s personal care and attention (i.e., Deu 10:18; Psa 10:14; Psa 10:18; Psa 68:5; Jer 49:11).
It was especially the office of king in the ANE that was responsible for social justice and fairness!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
evil. Heb ra’a. App-44.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Wash: Job 11:13, Job 11:14, Psa 26:6, Jer 4:14, Act 22:16, 2Co 7:1, Jam 4:8, Rev 7:14
put away: Isa 55:6, Isa 55:7, Eze 18:30, Eze 18:31, Zec 1:3, Zec 1:4, Mat 3:8, Eph 4:22-24, Tit 2:11-14, 1Pe 2:1
cease: Psa 34:14, Psa 37:27, Amo 5:15, Rom 12:9, Eph 4:25-29, 1Pe 3:11
Reciprocal: Gen 35:2 – clean Lev 8:6 – washed Lev 11:40 – eateth Lev 15:5 – General Lev 15:6 – General Lev 15:8 – General Lev 26:23 – General Deu 5:10 – showing 1Ki 8:35 – and turn 2Ki 5:13 – Wash 2Ki 17:13 – Turn ye Ezr 10:11 – do his Job 1:8 – escheweth Job 9:30 – General Job 17:9 – clean Job 28:28 – to depart Job 36:10 – commandeth Psa 24:4 – He that Psa 37:3 – Trust Psa 145:18 – call upon Pro 4:27 – remove Pro 28:9 – turneth Pro 30:12 – not Isa 56:1 – Keep Isa 65:12 – did evil Jer 7:3 – Amend Jer 18:8 – that nation Jer 18:11 – return Jer 26:3 – so Jer 33:5 – I have hid Jer 35:15 – Return Eze 18:21 – if the Hos 12:6 – keep Amo 5:14 – Seek Jon 3:8 – let Mic 6:8 – to do Zec 7:7 – cried Zec 7:10 – oppress Zec 13:1 – a fountain Mat 21:29 – he repented Mar 7:4 – except Luk 3:8 – fruits Luk 3:13 – Exact Joh 8:11 – go Joh 13:5 – to wash Act 3:19 – be Act 16:30 – brought 1Co 6:11 – but ye are washed Jam 1:27 – To visit Jam 4:3 – and 1Pe 4:1 – ceased 2Pe 2:14 – that cannot 3Jo 1:11 – follow
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 1:16-17. Wash ye, make you clean Repent, and do works meet for repentance: cleanse your hearts and hands from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, and do not content yourselves with your ceremonial washings. He refers to the charge preferred in the preceding clause, and alludes to the legal purifications commanded on several occasions: see Lev 14:8-9; Lev 14:47. Put away the evil, &c., from before mine eyes Reform yourselves thoroughly, that you may not only approve yourselves to men, but to me, who search your hearts and try all your actions. Learn to do well Begin, and inure yourselves, to live soberly, righteously, and godly. Seek judgment, &c. Show your religion to God, by practising justice and mercy to men. Judge the fatherless, &c. Deliver and defend those that are poor and helpless, and liable to be oppressed by unjust and potent adversaries.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1:16 {y} Wash ye, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil;
(y) By this outward washing, he means the spiritual: exhorting the Jews to repent and amend their lives.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Having shown what God does not want, Isaiah now told the people what He does want (cf. Isa 66:1-4; Isa 66:17). His demands are short and simple in contrast to the elaborate rituals described above (cf. Deu 10:12-13; Mic 6:8). Three negative commands relate to the past and five positive ones to the future. Washing (Isa 1:16) is symbolic of repenting (cf. Act 2:38; Act 13:24; Tit 3:5).
"The passage clearly reveals a concern over the social injustices of the time. Such social injustices, however, could only be corrected by a change of heart upon the part of individuals." [Note: Young, 1:74.]