The Godly Recipe ~ Isaiah 1
- Dan Potter
- 8 hours ago
- 5 min read
“Cease to do evil, learn to do good” Isaiah 1:17 ESV
The book of Isaiah starts with a bang. Only one short verse of introduction and then God gets right to the business at hand. His chosen people, the Israelites, have rebelliously and idolatrously wandered from Him. And because of the destruction of civil war within His chosen people, they currently reside in two separate kingdoms, Judah to the south, and Israel to the north. And the kings that were chosen to rule these two kingdoms lacked much in the Lord. In fact, of the 39 total kings the two kingdoms endured, God’s Word tells us only 8 did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. And then, of those 39, none who ruled in the northern tribes of Israel did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. So as a result of this prideful, sinful rebellion of the Lord, here comes the first book of prophecy in the Old Testament, Isaiah.
The word prophecy and its true meaning and intent gets greatly misused in our world today. Biblical prophecy is simply God sending someone with a message to call His people back into a right relationship with Himself. You see, God created humans to be in communion with Him and to do that, there is a right way and a wrong way. God is perfectly good, incapable of error, free of sin, and therefore, is the only perfect judge this world will ever know. For to truly have perfect justice, you need a prefect judge, and perfectly righteous Holy God is just that. So as God’s people choose sin and worshipping created images (idols) over God, He judges them in perfect righteousness, yet also in unconditional love. And as a result of His love, He desires to call them back into a harmonious, loving relationship with Himself. And to announce His correction and loving intention, God used prophets.
As Isaiah addressed the rebellious hard hearts that had forsaken God’s righteous ways and instead chose their own, He delivered Words from God that cut through the mire and muck and got right to the heart of the matter…and the resolution of the matter. And God did it with only 8 words.
“Cease to do evil, learn to do good.”
There is a simplistic complexity in dealing with our personal sin. God created us in His image, placed Himself in our hearts, and planted the idea of His goodness in our thoughts. Yet as a result of our inherited sin nature, we have a choice. To choose the way in which we know is good and right, God’s way, or instead, just as sheep wandering to the grass they deem as greener, to go our own selfish way. And friends, as easy and as good as it seems to simply go God’s way, the power of sin, desire, and temptation is and will be the downfall of every man at some time. So what to do? Well, God has given us a two-step how-to model in His 8 word corrective offering. Let’s explore.
First, cease to do evil. It sounds as easy as pie but never confuse simple and easy. A plan can be very simple yet be incredibly difficult. For our study, let’s consider evil as our personal sin. For, after all, sin is anything we say, think, or do that violates God’s perfect intentions for us. Yes, God sees a simple lie as simple evil. God sees arrogantly placing yourself above others as sinful evil. God sees glancing at someone of the opposite sex a little too long and coveting there figure, as lustful evil. God sees, choosing anything else over Him as idolatrous evil. If you extrapolate this logic, you can quickly see that simply ceasing to sin is not nearly as easy as it seems. Yet how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. To cease doing evil, simply cease choosing your own way over God’s way. And you do that one decision at a time, one moment at a time, one day at a time.
Yet how can you effectually choose God’s way over your own, sometimes subliminal sinful intentions, if you are not only aware of God’s ways, but perpetually washed in the idea of them? Well, enter the second 4 words…”learn to do good.” And folks, do not miss the importance of the first word, “learn.” You see, God knows us much better than we know ourselves because He created us. Just as a master knows every brushstroke of his masterpiece better than anyone else, God knows every brushstroke of your being because His hand wielded the brush. And because of this, He knows that you constantly need an education in His ways, laws, commandments, and desires for your life-conduct. God built you to run optimally on only one operating plan…His plan. And He knows that if you choose His good ways for your life, it will lead you to joy, peace, freedom, purpose, and harmony. And to not only find these, but live and walk in them daily, you must first learn them. And just how do you do that? Well, you read, study, and meditate daily on God’s operating plan for your life…the Word of God, the Holy Bible.
God sent Isaiah to a sinful generation with a prophetic warning to straighten up and fly right and if they refused, God promised He would start doing the straightening. Folks, the same message from God exists today. Cease the evil personal sin in your life and instead learn to do the good of God. If you are not already in a deep, daily personal study of the Word of God, start today. For if you are not constantly learning and being reminded of how to do the good of God, you will instinctually revert to the evil that lies within the DNA of your sin nature.
Learn to do good, flee from sin, and do it one decision at a time. That my friends, is a recipe for a Godly life.
Blessings ~ Dan
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” John 14:15 ESV
“but whoever keeps His word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.” 1 John 2:5
“For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.” 1 John 5:3 ESV
“And this is love, that we walk in obedience to His commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.” 2 John 1:6 ESV
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