The value of purging
Isaiah 1: 19 – 31
Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 21 Jan, 2007

ON WEDNESDAY night, we began a series on Acts, seeing how it guides us for our direction as a church in mission. We saw how vital it is to be a Holy Spirit-empowered and directed church.

Jesus commanded his disciples:

“Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.”

We didn’t go into this specifically, but the fact is that Jesus was challenging the disciples to clear out their old way of thinking, to open themselves up to new possibilities.

It’s called a paradigm shift.

We can’t take on a new way of viewing our world until we abandon the old way. That’s why Jesus said, “Unless a person is born again, he can’t see the Kingdom of God.” Conversion is about letting go of the old and grasping firmly to the new.

I read a story once of an Antarctic traveller who fell, was knocked out in the fall, and found himself alone, in the dark and hanging at the end of his safety rope when he came back to consciousness. He quickly guesed that his companions had fallen to their death.
As he hung there, he prayed for delivery, and God answered him. "Cut your rope and let yourself fall!” God commanded.
The man was too terrified to do so. He would fall with his friends and be lost. So he hung there in the cold darkness all night, slowly freezing to death.
The next day a search party arrived and found his corpse hanging about a foot above a ledge where a natural indentation in the ice would have protected him from the wind.
“If only he had cut his rope and let himself fall,” said the leader of the search party. He, at least, would have landed safely.”
That man would have survived, except that he could not get it out of his head that a fall would kill him.

In fact, a fall would have kept him alive.

Sometimes our thinking needs a radical shift if we are to move ahead.
And Isaiah's message is a demand that we change our thinking, our directions, our actions. It is a message which demands decisions. He sets it out as a stark contrast:

ISAIAH 1:19 If you are willing and obedient,
you will eat the best from the land;
20 but if you resist and rebel,
you will be devoured by the sword.”
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

The problem with God’s people in Isaiah's day was pretty much what happens in regular cycles. We swing from passion for God to passion for our own benefit. We forget God and do what pleases ourselves.
This morning we will look at what was wrong, what results would follow, and how we might learn from this message for ourselves.
 

What was wrong.
Isaiah writes,

ISAIAH 1:21 See how the faithful city
has become a harlot!
She once was full of justice;
righteousness used to dwell in her — but now murderers!
22 Your silver has become dross,
your choice wine is diluted with water.
23 Your rulers are rebels,
companions of thieves;
they all love bribes and chase after gifts.
They do not defend the cause of the fatherless;
the widow’s case does not come before them.

The problems are clear. God is abandoned, justice and righteousness have given way to all kinds of evil, even to the extent of murder for gain.
Everything good is devalued. Those charged with ensuring justice and equity have taken to thievery, corruption and the law of the jungle.
There is no health in the nation.

Be very careful. In our day there is a lot of atheism, but don’t just assume that atheism means automatic evil.
That is far from the case.
Many atheists are very moral people. I argue that they often keep the morals of Christianity while denying the God of the Bible.

That's not what Isaiah is talking about. It is people who have no place for God because he is an inconvenience. It is people who chase whatever benefits they can get and ignore God because he has expectations of them.
They take the best they can get this moment and forget the big picture. Isaiah compares the people of Israel to a prostitute who wants all the finery and all the best things, but who has no enduring relationships and no thought for anything but herself.

Think of our own nation. Think of how we treat refugees. Think how we backed down to Indonesia after those 42 arrived from Papua. Think of the way we have neglected David Hicks. Think of the way the rich get so much and the poor so little.

And what is it for? Because we chase the benefits.

Why do politicians keep telling us that the rich will only work harder if we all give them more, and that the poor will only work harder if we take more away from them? Who pays for political campaigns? Who looks after the politicians when they lose their seats?
They make video greetings for Christians, but they don’t pursue justice and righteousness, and what does the Lord our God require of us, but to do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with him? What meaning does a Christian greeting have if we say, “Lord, Lord,” but don’t do what he says?
Australia was one of the first countries in the world to permit women to vote, it had the world’s most enlightened industrial relations system, it was a leader in the formation of the United Nations and in setting standards for national and international justice. Where are we now?

Maybe the land that was full of righteousness is not yet filled with murderers as Isaiah charges Israel, but, when people pursue their own interest above all else, when the kings rise up and the nations agree together against the Lord and against his Christ, corruption and murder follow in their wake.

The Marcos regime in the Philippines was one of the world's most spectacularly corrupt governments. Imelda Marcos pushed all kinds of building projects. On one of them, a large concrete pour went spectacularly wrong, and about a hundred workers were entombed in concrete. Only they weren’t suffocated — they were cooked alive by the chemical reactions of the concrete. But they were only labourers. The nation didn’t stop to rescue them. They were left to die, and the corpses were cut away from the concrete later.

When people abandon justice and righteousness, they eventually cease to care for people, and will let them die if that suits the profit motive. It will come here eventually.

And those who take this course finally discover that their fine wine doesn’t give them any pleasure, nor does their accumulated riches buy new Maseratis. They consort with thieves in the hope of getting more, and they cease to care about the poor and the oppressed and those who need justice in the courts.
 

Consequences
The thing is that people assume that there will be no consequences. While they are on top they assume that they can never be brought low.
But Isaiah makes it clear that our actions have consequences.
God’s word is,

ISAIAH 1:24 Therefore the Lord, YAHWEH Almighty,
the Mighty One of Israel, declares:
“Ah, I will get relief from my foes
and avenge myself on my enemies.
25 I will turn my hand against you;
   I will thoroughly purge away your dross
   and remove all your impurities.

He also says,

ISAIAH 1:28 But rebels and sinners will both be broken,
and those who forsake the LORD will perish.
29 “You will be ashamed because of the sacred oaks
in which you have delighted;
you will be disgraced because of the gardens that you have chosen.
30 You will be like an oak with fading leaves,
like a garden without water.
31 The mighty man will become tinder
   and his work a spark;
  both will burn together,
   with no one to quench the fire.”

There is a price to pay for restoration. If we don’t run to the shelter Jesus gives us, we must suffer the consequences.

There is no benefit in having the name of a Christian and living contrary to God’s will. God speaks to Israel and calls them his foes, his enemies, the dross in pure gold of the land, if they do not live in justice. They are rebels and sinners if they forsake the Lord; they are impurities in the pure people of God, and they will be broken, and they will perish like dried twigs in a fireplace.

These are people who looked like God’s people, but they worshipped in sacred oak groves; down in the bushes where they couldn’t be seen — that was where what was really in their hearts was seen.

Apparently my great grandmother King on my mother’s side was a fairly strict old lady and, when young men came courting the girls, they could sit together on the verandah, but they had to have the light on. One young man kept blowing out the lamp, and great granny kept coming and relighting it.
Finally she quoted John’s gospel, where we read,

Men love darkness rather than light, for their deeds are evil.

There was probably some truth in it when you apply it to a young couple: how much more true is it when we think of how readily we all conceal the truth and live a lie? If we don’t want to face consequences, we have to face the truth and change.

I am not saying this to be holier than thou.

Every one of us struggles with a reality in our lives which is less than what we know God desires of us. We struggle with prayer, with devotional life; we live in a constant tension between the demands of family, work and church; we struggle with sexual issues and with being honest over money.

That’s just to start with.

I can’t judge anyone. I know what that is like. But I also know that we all have to make decisions, decisions which will sometimes be hard, but decisions which will ultimately liberate us.

John Wesley went to visit an older man who was known to have a good income, but gave very poorly to the cause of the gospel. Wesley went in critical and emerged humbled.
This man had had a position of trust when he was a young man, and had embezzled a large sum of money. He had never been caught.
When he believed in Jesus, he knew he had to put things right.
He wrote to his forner employer, confessed all, and offered to repay what he had stolen, with interest.
The man was living as a pauper, yet he was repaying his debt, and still giving a few pence to the Methodist cause. He was a man who knew how to repent in deed and not just in words.
 

Lessons
God’s word has lessons for us.
First, we need to see that, in the worst of situations there is still hope.
God says,

...I will thoroughly purge away your dross
and remove all your impurities.
1:26 I will restore your judges as in days of old,
your counselors as at the beginning.
Afterward you will be called
the City of Righteousness,
the Faithful City.”
27 Zion will be redeemed with justice,
her penitent ones with righteousness.

When he clears away the rubbish, it is to restore and repair.

We have dry rot in two of the window frames at the Manse. One was getting pretty bad, but it would be a big job to replace the window, and there are more vital tasks to do.
So I patched the damage a couple of years back. I couldn’t leave the rot there and just fill over it, so I had to cut as much away as I could, and then I filled the hole with builder’s filler and shaped it and painted it, and it worked for a long time.
God is the master builder who cuts away the rot and the borer holes and fills it all and mends it until everything is made new.

He will bring back the good if we are just, if we are repentant, if we turn to righteousness once more.

And that is the lesson.

In a world gone mad, there will be a reckoning. They will run to the rocks and slip in the blood; they will turn to the sun, but it will give no light, they will run to the mountains, crying, “Fall on us! Hide us!” But they will not run to the Lord; they will not cry out,

Foul, I to thy fountain fly
Wash me, Saviour, or I die!

As I once pointed out, people don’t go to hell unless that is their choice, and they don’t have to stay there; but the price of humble repentance is too high, so they stay in their misery.

Jesus paid the price for our redemption.
If we come to him in repentant trust, he will save us, right now.
But all who reject him perish.
What does the Bible say?

Whoever has the Son has life; and whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life, but God’s wrath remains on him.

It’s that simple.
But, you know, there is one thing which I believe sums it all up, and that is the death and resurrection of Jesus. That is what guarantees that all things can be made new, what guarantees that our repentant prayers will be heard, what guarantees acceptance for the humble.

We still have to humble ourselves and pray and seek God’s face, so that he will hear from heaven and heal our land and forgive our sins.
But God will be found — the cross guarantees it! And we will be heard — the cross guarantees it! And we will be healed and forgiven — the cross guarantees it!

Only let’s do it with all our heart, or else we will never do it in full sincerity and faith, and nothing will ever change.
:Let’s hear God’s word and do it!

And may all glory be to Father and to Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and forever more,
AMEN

© Peter R. Green 2007. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. Portions also copyright The Bible, NIV (Zondervan Ltd.)