NOTES for Isa 1:15-16

What does God expect from us? How can we please Him so that His wrath does not turn against us? These questions, and precisely in such an incorrect formulation, always occupy us. Isaiah's prophecy, which we read today, answers this with accusations about important and, most unpleasantly, very familiar things. The Lord speaks through the prophet about ingratitude, unfaithfulness, and cruelty. In the first part of today's prophecy the Lord connects the disasters that befall us with the fact that we do not know our Master. "Why should you be beaten any more, you who continue in your stubbornness?" the prophet exclaims. Really, what other disasters must we live through to see that their cause is that we have forsaken the Holy One of Israel? What other wars and revolutions, repressions and impoverishments do we need in order to see the whole godlessness of our life, stop doing evil, and learn to do good?

In recent times we appeared to have seen this, and what we call the "religious revival" of our country began to happen. And about this the Lord says: "When you come to appear before My face, who requires of you that you trample My courts?" Terrible words. Does the Lord really not want us to come into His House? But even more terrible is what He says next: "...when you multiply your prayers, I do not hear: your hands are full of blood." It turns out that we can "revive" everything here in great quantity, yet not be heard and not find mercy for one simple reason: our hands are full of blood.

It turns out that instead of splendid worship and abundant offerings, God needs something quite different from us: "...seek justice; rescue the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow." God tells us today that only in this way, fulfilling His law of mercy toward neighbors, will we be able to "eat the good of the land." Otherwise, whatever we do: "If you refuse and rebel, the sword shall devour you."