I am working on a sermon series in Isaiah and I am awestruck at God who initiates reconciliation with us. In Isaiah 1:1-3 God makes an opening charge against Judah and says his people are rebellious children who really don’t know him. They are worse than a stubborn ox! And then in 1:4-9 he declares that his people are sinful through and through and as a result he won’t hear them anymore (1:10-15). Anyone who has raised children can probably identify with Isaiah 1:1-15! And yet God, like a parent grieving an obstinate child, makes this remarkable offer to his people:

“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 (Isaiah 1:18)

That’s our God. He is the reconciling God who initiates with us, whether to save us or to restore us to him, it is his grace, his power, and his Spirit that does his work.

Categories: God, Isaiah, reconcilation, Uncategorized