“See how Jerusalem, once so faithful, has become a prostitute. Once the home of justice and righteousness, she is now filled with murderers. Once like pure silver, you have become like worthless slag. Once so pure, you are now like watered-down wine. Your leaders are rebels, the companions of thieves. All of them love bribes and demand payoffs, but they refuse to defend the cause of orphans or fight for the rights of widows.”
Isaiah 1:21-23 NLT
Having provided a remedy for the Israelites’ sin and idolatry, in which God offered to make their crimson sins as white as snow “if you will only obey Me”, God directs His complaint against the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Isaiah lived in the Southern Kingdom, Judah, and probably lived in Jerusalem, so he was well placed to observe what was going on, and he was appalled by what he saw. Jerusalem, once the City of God, “Once the home of justice and righteousness”, had lapsed into sin and evil, so bad that Isaiah likened their situation there to the actions of a prostitute. Jerusalem, once a city of people faithful to God, was now filled with murderers.
After building the Temple, around 959 BC, Solomon dedicated it to the Lord, with a prayer full of prophetic warnings about what would happen to Israel should they sin against the Lord. Verses such as “If your people Israel are defeated by their enemies because they have sinned against you, and if they turn back and acknowledge your name and pray to you here in this Temple, then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and return them to this land you gave to them and to their ancestors” I2 Chronicles 6:24-25). Further on in his prayer, we read, “If they sin against you—and who has never sinned?—you might become angry with them and let their enemies conquer them and take them captive to a foreign land far away or near”. And we know that this was something that really came to pass around 250 years later. The Temple provided a focal point where the Jews could confess their sins before God and receive His forgiveness, but here we are in a situation where Jerusalem has become a place of iniquity.
The worship going on in the Temple had become an empty caricature of what God desired, and He was sick of their burnt offerings and all the other rituals that had become meaningless because they no longer connected with Him. The hands raised in prayer were stained with “the blood of innocent victims” offered by “rebels, the companions of thieves”. And so, Isaiah’s vision was a timely warning to a people whose behaviour and unfaithfulness to God were compared to sexual immorality and “worthless slag”.
So what do we pilgrims make of all this? Perhaps the people in Jerusalem had become complacent with character traits we can still observe today. They were behaving in ways that were sinful, and yet they thought they were getting away with it. How many people today think the same? They discover that their sins are not found out, and so they decide to continue with them. Our politicians make decisions that are against God’s decrees, such as legalising abortion, but because they are never held to account, they think that their evil decisions don’t matter. No lightning bolt from Heaven stopped them, so they think that God doesn’t care, even if they believe He exists in the first place.
But we live in a moral universe, and one day the scales of justice will be balanced, and punishment dispensed. In Isaiah’s time, the people were punished for their sins, resulting in captivity and exile. But in our season of God’s grace, He is being very patient. Peter wrote, “But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment” (2 Peter 3:8-10).
Jerusalem was a city in which the people were behaving badly. Our local cities and towns are no different. But God had a plan and He sent His Son, Jesus, to take the punishment we deserved for our sins. We pilgrims have a mission to tell our fellow citizens of the love and grace of God wrapped up in the ultimate message of Good News. In a nutshell, we have a simple statement that says, “Hell is hot, Heaven is real, and Jesus saves”. Let us put it out there wherever we live, and whenever we can, at every opportunity.
Heavenly Father. Thank You for Jesus, and His willing sacrifice at Calvary. Please be with us as we share You with anyone who will listen. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 