Come now, let us reason together, saith Jehovah though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
If ye be willing and hearken, ye shall eat the good of the land;
God has just called Judah to stop doing evil and to reason with Him. Now He sets out two roads, and this verse is the first: is its promise earthly or eternal, and may a preacher use it today?
The promise does not stand alone. It closes a call to repentance that reaches into ordinary life.
Yet Jehovah stoops to call them to repentance and to the fruits that match it. The wording clearly comes from the ceremonial washings the Jews knew so well, but moral reality is the point... God can tolerate iniquity nowhere, least of all in His people. They must therefore stop doing evil and learn to do good, showing it in the ways of ordinary life. But He adds a gracious invitation, that He and they should reason together... The call ends with His promise to help them if they were broken down and obedient. It ends too with His threat to devour them by the sword if they refused.
Verse 20 gives the other road: refuse and rebel. Both verses turn on one small word.
Notice too how "if" occurs in verses 19 and 20. The cleansing and blessing offered hinge upon obedience. To refuse and rebel brings judgment. Both the blessing and the judgment deal with matters of this life. The Old Testament says little about the life to come.
Why does God offer terms at all instead of simply passing sentence? The answer lies in how He governs the world.
God's government of the world has Israel at its centre and its immediate sphere. But we have to remember that grace must have a part in this government, or it would not be the government of God. It would be nothing but judicial condemnation, with no possibility of blessing.
To "eat the good of the land" came with terms. Israel held the land the way a tenant holds a lease, and the lease ran out — but the story does not end there.
Under law, they failed to meet the conditions that their continued enjoyment of earthly blessing depended on. So they failed to keep hold of it, even when God had given it to them so fully, in Joshua's day and in Solomon's. In days to come, grace will restore and save them. They will stand in grace, no longer holding their blessings on the terms of their own obedience. Yet their blessings — the blessings that belong to their calling and position — will still be earthly.
The verse ties a reward to conduct, so it is easy to read as a formula for earning salvation. Does obedience buy a place in heaven?
Israel's inheritance depended on their conduct. If they were willing and obedient, they were to eat the good of the land. Do you think — does anyone here think — that his obedience could get him to heaven? Could it win him that inheritance which is reserved in heaven for believers? If he does, he is very greatly mistaken. In thinking that way he is not obeying God; he is only disobeying Him. The one who trusts his own obedience or faithfulness is not trusting Christ at all. He is not really believing the gospel.
Commentators differ here. Kelly says the offer of cleansing in the verse before may be pressed on anyone. But verses 19 and 20, he holds, cannot be cut loose from Israel, since Christians have fuller and more direct appeals in the New Testament. Hole allows a preacher to use them, as long as he takes the eternal weight of the words from New Testament scripture, not from Isaiah. Either way, the word willing still stands. What does a willing sinner do?
Nothing could be plainer, and when a sinner feels his need of the Saviour and is ready to say "I will" to Him — to the Lord Jesus Christ — the great transaction is for ever done.
- The call — the promise follows a call to stop doing evil and learn to do good. God ties repentance to the offer.
- The "if" — verses 19 and 20 turn on the same word. Both the blessing and the judgment belong to this present life.
- The grace — grace must have a part even in God's rule of the world, or only condemnation would remain.
- The land — Israel held the land on the terms of obedience, and lost it. Grace will restore them one day on different terms, and their blessings will still be earthly.
- The will — no conduct buys the inheritance kept in heaven. But the sinner who is ready to say "I will" to Christ finds the transaction settled for ever.