NOTES for Isa 1:16-20
In every age, all the prophets tirelessly reminded God’s people that they could remain God’s people only by observing the commandments given by God and doing good to their neighbors. One might regard this as a kind of religious moralizing, so beloved of mediocre preachers. But judging by Isaiah’s words, the matter is far more serious. The prophet is not exhorting anyone. He is warning them. He warns that if they do not do what he calls them to do, the outcome may be grave: perhaps a national catastrophe, a serious military defeat, captivity, and the death of people. One might think that the prophet warns of God’s coming punishment. Yet this is hardly punishment in the sense in which we understand it. Punishment is a sanction against those who violate certain norms, in this case God’s law and the commandments He has given.
Yet in war and captivity, as in natural disasters, for example, everyone suffers, both the innocent and the guilty. This can hardly be regarded as punishment unless, of course, one accepts the principle of collective responsibility. But God has no need of a collective; He works with specific people. If He were the one punishing, the punishment would most likely touch specific people. Here it is not so much punishment as simply the consequences of sins that have been committed. Sin always raises a wall between God and a human being, or even between God and a whole people when sin becomes widespread and pervasive. But even this is not the worst thing. It is only the first step on the way to catastrophe.
The next step is a change in the spiritual quality of the people. It is roughly the same as with an individual: the wall that has separated him from God leads to the sinner’s destruction, first spiritual, then psychological, and sometimes physical. The same can happen to a people that has separated itself from God. This process can truly end in a national catastrophe. In the case of God’s people, it will inevitably do so.
God’s people can exist only as a people-community. If they cease to be such a community, their existence loses its meaning. Then they simply disappear as a people and become a mass of individuals, a population, a crowd. National catastrophe then becomes the only means of their spiritual renewal. In effect, such a catastrophe becomes the re-creation of the people precisely as God’s people. But the prophet does not want the people’s spiritual formation to take such extreme forms. He calls them to purification, conversion, and spiritual renewal, while it is not yet too late.