«Come now, and let us reason together,» says the Lord, ‘though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool’ » (Isaiah 1 :18).
MORE MODERN VERSION OF TODAY’S TEXT reads as follows: «Come on now, lets walk and talk; let’s work this out. Your wrongdoings are blood red, but they can turn as white as snow. Your sins are red like crimson, but they can be made clean again like new wool.
God’s people were sunk in sin. Through the prophet Isaiah, God called them: «sinful nation, laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers» (Isaiah 1:4). The worst thing was that they did not even realize their condition because they kept taking their offerings to God as if nothing bad was happening. However, their hands were «red» with blood! (v. 15). Was it for this reason that God compared the sin of His people to the red of crimson and scarlet?
This question had long been going around in the minds of a church pastor from Yorkshire, in the north of England, whom G. Campbell Morgan was visiting. Campbell Morgan said that one night, while they were chatting, his friend told him of an experience he had lived forty years earlier. He intended to preach about Isaiah 1:18, but he did not know why the Lord used the crimson and scarlet colors to describe sin. He then decided to ask a dry cleaner what the most difficult colors were to treat in the dyeing process.
«The hardest colors to dye,» the dry cleaner replied, «are crimson and scarlet. Black is easy.»
There was the explanation! Just as the dry cleaner cannot remove crimson red— or scarlet—from the cloth, nor can the sinner, through his own efforts, cleanse his guilt of sin. What, then, does our wonderful God do? He lovingly invites us to «settle the matter»: If our sins are like scarlet, «they shall be as white as snow!»; if they are red like crimson, «they shall be like wool!»
Is this not the best news?
The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary grasps this idea very well when it says that «God here assures us that however guilty we may have been in the past. . . it is still possible to be restored to purity and holiness.»
In other words, if the guilt of our sins is great, infinitely greater is the love of the One who will spare no effort in order to forgive us!
Thank You, dear Jesus, because only Your precious blood can do what nothing else in the vast universe can accomplish: remove the stain of my sin and cleanse me from all evil. Blessed be Your name now and for all eternity!
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Taken from: Devotional Readings for Adults 2022
“GREAT IS OUR GOD!”
From: FERNANDO ZABALA
Collaborators: Xiomara Perdomo & Angelica Cuate
