Isaiah beginnings

Last week was the first meeting of the Precept Upon Precept class I participate in at my church. We met to pick up our books and will be meeting this week with our first week of homework done.  We are studying...Isaiah!  I've been looking forward to this study for almost a year, and I have to say that it is already as wonderful as I knew it would be.

In the first chapter of Isaiah, the Lord is making a "case" against the nation of Israel for the sin and iniquity that have plagued the hearts and minds of most every man, woman and child.  I have studied the prophets before so I have seen this "case-making" before.  What is new, and already so striking to me is the beauty of the language the Lord has used.

1:5b, 6

The whole head is sick

And the whole heart is faint

From the sole of the foot even to the head

There is nothing sound in it, 

Only bruises, welts, and raw wounds,

Not pressed out or bandaged

Nor softened with oil.

That is the result of sin.  Their sin and ours.  It is true that those of us who claim Jesus as the Lord and Savior of our lives can claim (1:18b) "Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool."  But just because we claim Jesus as the Lord of our lives does not mean we are incapable of sin. It means we are not slaves to it.  We can still make poor choices that are sinful.  We can still sin.

I found this description to be so vivid.  This is how our God sees our hearts.  This is what they look like to him when we choose to walk in sin.  We are a mess of bruises, welts and raw wounds with no band-aids or Neosporin.  But we don't have to walk in sin.  We can turn around and lay hold of the bandage of Jesus and He will be salve for our wounds.