Sin Confronted and Grace Declared (Isaiah 43:22–44:5)
The trial scene continues. After God reminds creation of the Exodus, and declares a new, greater Exodus event to come, he turns back to the case against Israel.
The sin is surprising. It is not that the people stopped making sacrifices and worshiping according to the law. It is that they lost the point of it all. They saw the ritual as the thing and forgot entirely what the ritual represented.
A simple reading of the passage might sound like the religious ceremony had ceased, but history shows us that it never did. However, the words here should not be “You did not call upon Me.” Rather, it reads “Not on Me did you call.”
How easy it is for genuine worship to become idolatry. That is, in a sense, the entire message of the Bible. Created to worship God, we turned that worship onto ourselves and other, created things. Even when we convince ourselves that we are worshiping God, we can quickly start to worship our own ideas of Him instead. Remember, the golden calf at Sinai was intended to represent YHWH!
The point was never the ritual, even though true sacrifice had to be made for the sins of humanity. God rescues His people. He rescued them from the slavery of Egypt, and He rescues them from their sin. Not because the deserve it. Not because they earn it. Not because He just doesn’t care about sin. Out of His great love, God satisfies the demands of holiness and justice. He takes the sin upon Himself and defeats it.
To those who recognize this, to those who choose to trust, He brings new life. New creation. Restoration.
The sin is surprising. It is not that the people stopped making sacrifices and worshiping according to the law. It is that they lost the point of it all. They saw the ritual as the thing and forgot entirely what the ritual represented.
A simple reading of the passage might sound like the religious ceremony had ceased, but history shows us that it never did. However, the words here should not be “You did not call upon Me.” Rather, it reads “Not on Me did you call.”
How easy it is for genuine worship to become idolatry. That is, in a sense, the entire message of the Bible. Created to worship God, we turned that worship onto ourselves and other, created things. Even when we convince ourselves that we are worshiping God, we can quickly start to worship our own ideas of Him instead. Remember, the golden calf at Sinai was intended to represent YHWH!
The point was never the ritual, even though true sacrifice had to be made for the sins of humanity. God rescues His people. He rescued them from the slavery of Egypt, and He rescues them from their sin. Not because the deserve it. Not because they earn it. Not because He just doesn’t care about sin. Out of His great love, God satisfies the demands of holiness and justice. He takes the sin upon Himself and defeats it.
To those who recognize this, to those who choose to trust, He brings new life. New creation. Restoration.
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