February 20

Friday, February 20

Read: Isaiah 1:16-18

Devotion:
When Kim and I were first married she worked in the sales and marketing department for a Christian book publishing company. It was a job she loved with a group of people she dearly loved. To express that love, whenever someone in her department had a birthday, she would prepare that person’s favorite dessert and they would have a party.

Well, one morning she got up extra early to make a strawberry cobbler for some lucky co-worker. She had a late meeting at church the night before, so she was pressed for time. Long before the sun had risen, Kim had fully prepared this cobbler and placed it into the oven to bake – and then hurriedly gotten herself ready for the day.

Everything had gone according to plan. With not a minute to spare, Kim gathered her things for work, took the piping hot cobbler from the oven, and carried it toward the door with oven mitts. Just as she was walking out the door, the bag she was carrying dropped from her shoulder, the cobbler dish slipped out of her hands, and it instantly shattered on the floor. Cobbler went everywhere. In the house on the walls. Outside on the sidewalk and in the bushes. Miraculously cobbler was everywhere except on Kim. It was like there was some invisible shield around her.

But here is the image I remember most vividly. Because it had just snowed during the night, the bright red strawberry pie filling from the cobbler created the look of a violent crime scene right in front of our house! What once was pure white was stained with the evidence of disaster.

Scarlet on snow.

That’s how God describes sin in Isaiah chapter 1. Sin leaves an obvious mark when it occurs.

However, others around us will often feel the effects of our sin before we ourselves do.

Sin’s mark, so to speak, gets left on them.

I mentioned that the cobbler’s splatter didn’t land on Kim. In the case of the Israelites, their sins had definitely splattered onto the people around them. Their self-indulgence and greed were unjustly oppressing the vulnerable ones, causing harm to orphans and widows. Many people around them were suffering while they themselves remained oblivious.

For us, our outbursts of anger, our addictions, our selfishness, our acts of hatred are typically felt by others prior to us experiencing the toll these things take on our souls.

Our family, co-workers, neighbors, and even our fellow church members may bear the brunt of our sinful behavior long before we acknowledge there is a problem.

So God says, “Wash yourselves. Cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from my sight. Stop doing evil.” (Isaiah 1:16)

What God is calling for is repentance: a true change in our actions brought about by conviction in our minds and remorse in our hearts. Repentance is a requirement in order to receive God’s forgiveness. But God also knows full well that no personal washing, no personal effort can eradicate sin from our lives completely. As far as we are concerned, the stain is un-removable.

That’s why we need what Jesus Christ did for us.

“Come, let’s settle this,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are crimson red, they will be like wool.” (Isaiah 1:18)
An old hymn says, “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins. And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains.” Only Jesus’ blood can wash us clean.

Question:
Who around me is currently feeling the effects of my sin?
What “scarlet sin” do I need to come before the Lord with today for his cleansing?

Prayer:
Lord, I confess my sins are like scarlet. I know others around me are impacted when I sin. Thank You for the invitation to come and settle this with You. I cannot wash myself clean. I ask for Your grace to purify me and the strength to turn from evil, to do good, and to seek justice. Amen.