Monday, June 13, 2011

Isaiah 1:18

Copyright Ó 2011 J. Neely
Isaiah 1:18

18 Come now, [yalak] and let us reason together, [yakach] saith ['amar] the LORD: [Yahovah] though your sins [chet'] be as scarlet, [shaniy] they shall be as white [laban] as snow; [sheleg] though they be red ['adam] like crimson, [towla`] they shall be as wool. [tsemer]KJV-Interlinear

18 "Come now, and let us reason together," Says the Lord, "Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool. NASB

If you clean yourself up, then and only then will God allow you to approach.  James 4:8 clarifies this.  

As carnal people, that is to say, as a person who is negative toward God and is run by his sin nature rather than by the power of the Holy Spirit (that is being in fellowship - remember that there are no weird emotional or seizure kinds of things happening in this mode), then you have no direct or even indirect access to God.

The control of the Spirit in you is a spiritual phenomena and therefore beyond your five senses. People who 'act' out possession kinds of take overs, by the Holy Spirit are phony. They are just trying to impress 'people'. God is not impressed. And people cannot advance ones spiritual life by mere observation of phony gyrations.

But, but, you say, we do go to church, and give, and treat people nicely, and dress nicely, and take a shower everyday. How much cleaner can one get! Isa. 58:3 addresses this argument. And the argument is phony as well. It is sincere. The motives are from double minded people.

Those people that vacillate back and forth between Gods viewpoint and human viewpoint. People who are inconsistent and uncommitted to legitimate Bible study, while substituting their own version of spirituality, based on their emotions and convenience.

The outward actions carry no weight with God. The inward thoughts that support those non-spiritual actions carry no weight with God. The only thing that is important to God as far as you and I are concerned, is the residence of His Word inside our soul, and the subsequent application of His Word to our everyday life.

This requires a regular washing of the soul (confession of sin) to regain and maintain ones fellowship status. This requires the daily and consistent study of Gods Word so that God will always be in the forefront of your thoughts. This requires some desire on your part, some initiative on your part to want to learn and to go after Gods Word with passion. Just as you would pursue a passionate relationship with someone who really catches your eye (Song of Solomon is the love story describing what your spiritual attitude should be like using love and passion as the guide).

Therefore, let us reason together.  This is an exhortation to all believers, from God, wherein He puts His position of truth in front for all to see, such that you can see His plan clearly and see your own plan clearly and choose the right plan, namely His, which is far and away better than anything humanity can even begin to imagine or invent.

To reason, ‘yakach,’ meaning to show, to prove, Job 13:15, to correct, reprove, convince, Job 32:12; to rebuke, reproach, censure, Job 6:25; to punish, Job 5:17; Prov 3:12; to judge, to decide, Isa 11:3; to do justice, Isa 11:4; or to contend, Job 13:3; 16:21; 22:4.

And here it means that God will present His case of truth, and you can present your case of your false imaginations, and truth will bear out and the false will fall by the wayside.

And here is Gods case.  Your sins are as scarlet.  Scarlet, ‘shaniy,’ is a red die into which articles are dipped into twice, and the color becomes nearly permanent. Once the color is set, it cannot be removed by rain or washing, by anything natural or manmade. 

And this is the nature of yours sins.  They cannot be removed from humanity, by humanity.  Sins are set and they are permanent and nothing in this world can diminish them or remove them.  Man is trapped in the color of his stained and tainted life, with sin.

However, they shall be made white.  And they are made white or pure or clean, by God and by no other person or source.  They are expunged as though they never existed in the first place.

White, is the symbolism for purity, clean, innocence, Ps 68:14; Eccl 9:8; Dan 7:9; Matt 17:2; 28:3; Rev 1:14; 3:4-5; 4:4; 7:9,13.

And though they are of a permanent scarlet nature, such that man cannot remove them, God can wipe them away.

And though they are red like crimson, ‘towla,’ and this is a red dye that is used for decorative purposes.  It can be applied to wool and such things, but it can also be removed, thus restoring the wool to its former white.

As wool, ‘tsemer,’ is the un-dyed wool or white, or the material from which the colored dye has been removed.

Therefore, sin is permanent.  Man cannot remove it from his life or from his essence.

God is able to remove mans sin by way of the Cross, and through salvation, man experiences this removal.

However, after salvation, man sins again and again.  But this time, the permanent sin having already been wiped away once, comes back as more of a decorative dye, and can be washed away through confession, thus the restoration to fellowship and restoration into the spiritual life through the cleaning action of confession which removes the discoloration which is superficial, through confession.

And therefore, man can be restored into a relationship with God through salvation, and restored into fellowship with God by means of confession, by means of Gods plan.

Man cannot accomplish this on his own.  Only Gods plan and process works.

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