Saturday, February 14, 2015
TEXT: ISAIAH 1:1-15
Key Verse: “And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood” (Isaiah 1:15).
In allowing prophet Isaiah to preface his messianic book of hope within the grim details of Israel’s sin along with the promise of judgment and mercy, God is passing on an instructive method of reaching out to lost souls. The Lord looked upon the action of Israel and concluded that they were “a people laden with iniquity ... who had forsaken the Lord … they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they have gone away backward.”
The result? “From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores … your country is desolate.”
In spite of this spiritual filth, the people of Israel still offered a semblance of service to God! They sacrificed “burnt offerings” of animals. These gifts were unacceptable, according to God, because the bearers had not first cleansed themselves from sin. A person’s sins would stain his sacrifice.
A sinner needs to avail himself of cleansing by the precious blood of Jesus and receive pardon. Thereafter, he can serve God acceptably and enjoy additional blessings as he continues to abide in the Lord.
This is precisely what Isaiah did. He preached the priceless message of the coming Messiah who would be born of a virgin, One who would be the everlasting Father (Isaiah 9) and who would die for our sin (Isaiah 53). But the sinner must first be told the great implication of his lost state for him to be able to appreciate the price paid to redeem him.
The import of today’s exposition is, the sinner will not be on God’s radar of mercies for true worshipers until he forsakes his iniquity and becomes clean through salvation.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: JOSHUA 11 - 14
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Without Jesus, you are lost.
Higher Everyday for Youths - Link: http://highereveryday.dclmhq.org/
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