“COME, LET US REASON TOGETHER”

Isaiah 1:18

INTRODUCTION.

1. These words have long been a favorite quotation among Bible students. What do they mean?

2. Sometimes they are applied, apart from the context, to an invitation to people to come and study God’s word together. Such is a Biblical concern and is therefore always good. But is that the idea in this passage?

3. Looking at the context, it is the Lord who issues the call. It is a call to a trial. There is a controversy between Judah and Jehovah that now must be settled. Judah has transgressed God’s law. The phrase “let us reason together” denotes the kind of contention or argumentation that would take place in a court of justice, where the parties state the grounds or reasons of their cause.

4. Some scholars suggest that here it means “let us settle our differences” or “let us settle the matter.”

5. Clearly the call carries with it the force of a command: let us reason together, or settle our difference.

6. God offers pardon to His people who are deeply stained with sin.

7. What did they need to reason about?

I. THEY WERE A SIN-SICK AND REBELLIOUS NATION (vss. 2-9).

A. In many respects the conditions characterizing Israel and Judah in the 8^th c. BC were similar to those that characterize our own society today. In their prosperity, Israel and Judah forgot God and fell into corruption and decay. During these days (Jeroboam II of Israel and Uzziah of Judah) both nations had reached a peak of prosperity unknown since Solomon’s day. In both nations this material affluence produced ills that so often accompany wealth. They forgot God and ascribed their prosperity and well being to the idols to which they had turned. There was political corruption, social decay, and moral depravity, all of which brought the judgment of God upon them.

B. In the midst of this time of moral and spiritual decline and turmoil, Isaiah was called by the Lord to carry the torch of truth in the midst of spiritual darkness.

1. His name means, “the Lord is salvation” because His mission was to point the people to the Lord, the only source of salvation.

2. His wife was a prophetess and they had two sons, both with prophetic names (7:3; 8:3).

3. There is a tradition that he was sawed asunder on the order of king Manasseh.

C. Isaiah’s message is a call from the Lord to come, reason together about their moral depravity. The first thing Israel and Judah needed to learn was the gravity of their sins. Only then is there hope for redemption.

D. Likewise, we must know that all have sinned (Rom. 3:23) and the wages are death (Rom. 6:23).

II. THEIR WORSHIP WAS HYPOCRITICAL AND EMPTY (vss. 10-15).

A. See also Amos 5:21-23.

B. How can anyone hope to offer acceptable worship to God while his or her life is given over to sin?

III. CALL TO REFORMATION OF LIFE (vss. 16-20)

A. First they must be cleansed of their evil ways.

B. God offers pardon to His people who are so deeply stained with sin.

C. But the promise is conditional. Once again, as in Deut. 30:15, 19, life and death are set before the people.

D. The call to submit to God in repentance and obedience is the same call extended in the gospel of Christ (James 4:4-10; Acts 2:38; 3:19).

IV. THE LORD WILL REDEEM HIS PEOPLE (vss. 21ff)

A. In a lament, the prophet contrasts the city of his day with what it had once been (vss. 21-23). She is like a wife who has turned away and played the harlot (cf. Hos. 9:1).

B. The Lord will purge His people as one purifies metal in a fiery furnace. He will judge His people.

C. Then the city will be called “the city of righteousness, a faithful city.” Through this judgment there will then be a restoration of a right relationship with the Lord, bringing forth a new spiritual Israel. “Zion will be redeemed with justice.” (A major theme in Isaiah.)

D. The gospel message is a call to repentance and renewal. It is an offer of redemption and forgiveness of sins. Those who come to Christ are the “heirs of the promise” (Gal. 3:26-29), the “Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16), the true Israel (Rom. 9:6-8).