White as Snow – Isaiah 1:18-20

When I was sixteen and new to Memphis and our church, my dad made me go to a youth meeting at the church. I did not want to go, even arguing, to no avail, that the Bible was written by men and therefore could not be trusted. But at that meeting I was shown the gospel and somehow God broke through my unwillingness to be there or to embrace Christian faith. I remember being instructed to ask Christ to forgive me. And I really wanted him to forgive me.

God is speaking through Isaiah to break through Israel’s hardness of heart and hopefully move them to willing obedience.

“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD:  though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” (Isaiah 1:18-20 ESV)

Yahweh appeals to Israel’s reason.  He stoops to talk sense with His wayward child.  The choices are obvious.  They can stay with blood on their hands, their sins condemning them, or they can be forgiven and cleansed.  They can obey Yahweh and enjoy all the prosperity He promised for living before Him in the land of Canaan, or they can remain in rebellion and He will send their enemies, the nations around them, to devour them.

And it will not do to go through the motions. Israel must be both willing and obedient, not like the child who was commanded by his parents to sit at the dinner table instead of standing in his chair, and who said as he sat, “I’m still standing on the inside.”

Though it is not said, such a turning around would be sealed with sacrifices.  As the New Testament argues (Hebrews 10:4), animal sacrifice cannot really take away sin.  But Yahweh’s directive was to transfer one’s guilt to an animal and slay it if one wanted forgiveness.  This was in anticipation of the true sacrifice made by Jesus (Romans 3:21-26).  The wanting of forgiveness was the operative key.  The animal’s death was a testimony that death was the penalty for sin and a substitute was needed by me if I didn’t want to pay the price of death myself.

Jesus, of course, is the only suitable sacrifice to cover my sin.  The eternal God-Man alone can be a sufficient substitute for me and everyone who wants forgiveness.  He alone can make the scarlet soul white as snow.

Discussion Questions

1. What experience comes to mind of your being obedient on the outside but disobedient on the inside?
2. Why do you think God makes a point through Isaiah of asking for Israel to be “willing and obedient”?
3. Why do we so often act contrary to reason when it comes to relationship with God?
4. How have you experienced your scarlet sins becoming white as snow?
5. Do you think there is any significance to the color red being used to describe our sins?
6. Is God’s covenant with us the same as with Israel, that we will prosper if we are willing and obedient, but be “eaten by the sword” if we are not?