Isaiah 1:16-17 – Transaction or Transformation?
From Isaiah 1 (New King James Version) – 16 "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes: cease to do evil, 17 Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor, Defend the fatherless, plead for the widow."
Jacob Marley came to visit me over Christmas. Unlike his visit to Ebenezer Scrooge in The Christmas Carol, he came to me late on December 23 – and he stayed within the confines of my flatscreen to play his part in the movie. Nevertheless, his words might have been directed to me, and they have stayed with me these four months.
Marley tells Scrooge that since Marley's death, he has been wandering the Earth. This, says the ghost, is to compensate for the fact that in life Marley's spirit never left the counting house. He never shifted from, he confesses, the transactional mentality toward life that his job enforced. When Scrooge tries to comfort Marley that he was a good man of business, Marley is emphatic: "MANKIND WAS MY BUSINESS!"
So God implores in His own words in Isaiah 1:16-17. No messenger's paraphrase from Marley or Isaiah is sufficient to convey His conviction. At the very point at which His half-listening covenant people believe themselves to be transactionally clean because they have given offerings, He says as forcefully as a mother confronting attempted deceit: WASH YOUR HANDS. While you still think, He seems to say, you smell of parentally approved soap, you stink. The offering is over, but you are filthier than ever.
Transformation, He then insists, extends beyond the washroom, or the prayer closet. Clean hands, redeemed hands, will DO My work toward mankind who is their business. Just as David’s hands can learn to fight, redeemed hands can learn to do good, to act in tangible ways that reflect the heart’s complete conviction that vulnerable humans are made in the image of God. As the scrubbed hands move, so does the mouth in continuing, prayerful intercession that draws us closer to God as we see people His way.
Jacob Marley came to visit me over Christmas. Unlike his visit to Ebenezer Scrooge in The Christmas Carol, he came to me late on December 23 – and he stayed within the confines of my flatscreen to play his part in the movie. Nevertheless, his words might have been directed to me, and they have stayed with me these four months.
Marley tells Scrooge that since Marley's death, he has been wandering the Earth. This, says the ghost, is to compensate for the fact that in life Marley's spirit never left the counting house. He never shifted from, he confesses, the transactional mentality toward life that his job enforced. When Scrooge tries to comfort Marley that he was a good man of business, Marley is emphatic: "MANKIND WAS MY BUSINESS!"
So God implores in His own words in Isaiah 1:16-17. No messenger's paraphrase from Marley or Isaiah is sufficient to convey His conviction. At the very point at which His half-listening covenant people believe themselves to be transactionally clean because they have given offerings, He says as forcefully as a mother confronting attempted deceit: WASH YOUR HANDS. While you still think, He seems to say, you smell of parentally approved soap, you stink. The offering is over, but you are filthier than ever.
Transformation, He then insists, extends beyond the washroom, or the prayer closet. Clean hands, redeemed hands, will DO My work toward mankind who is their business. Just as David’s hands can learn to fight, redeemed hands can learn to do good, to act in tangible ways that reflect the heart’s complete conviction that vulnerable humans are made in the image of God. As the scrubbed hands move, so does the mouth in continuing, prayerful intercession that draws us closer to God as we see people His way.
Comments
Post a Comment