Sin Isolates (Isaiah 50:1-13)

Isaiah reflects on the way that the rebellion of sin isolates us from our Creator. It is not that He cannot help. He is powerful to save. However, He will not save us from our choice. Israel has chosen that their ways are preferable to His, and the consequences are real.

We are pretty good at turning a blind eye to our own faults. We put up with things in our own behavior that we will not tolerate in others. We white-wash our lives through lying lenses of distortion. Here, though, Isaiah describes the actions of Israel in his day.

They distort justice and rig in the system for themselves against the innocent. They plot and scheme to poison their own civilization. Ironically, their con-jobs will not benefit them. The benefit will never come through. Their default setting is to cheat, kill, and do evil. That default setting will destroy them in the end. They wage war and pervert righteousness.

Shifting to first person, Isaiah reflects on how the punishment for their evil is, in a sense, their own doing. Sinners reap the reward of their own rebellion. In attempting to do things better, and in preferable ways (to us), we make a mess of everything. However, this is not just a case of trying to do good and making mistakes. We have decided to be our own gods. We have declared that we know better. We are laughable idolaters, worshiping ourselves.

We say we want justice, but practice corruption. We say we know the way forward, but we are blind. We try to save ourselves, to fix our mess, and only make it worse and worse. Evil is multiplied exponentially. Sin isolates us from God, because we are actively running away from Him.