{"id":29589,"date":"2011-10-17T20:19:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-18T01:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=29589"},"modified":"2021-01-05T20:22:16","modified_gmt":"2021-01-06T02:22:16","slug":"isaiah-118-seems-out-of-place-can-you-explain-what-it-is-saying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/isaiah-118-seems-out-of-place-can-you-explain-what-it-is-saying\/","title":{"rendered":"Isaiah 1:18 seems out of place. Can you explain what it is saying?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>The first sentence in Isaiah 1:18 about reasoning together seems so out of place compared to what&#8217;s around it &#8211; at least to me. Can you help me understand the context a little bit better? Also if you know of any other passages that show God encourages us to use reason and test the things we hear to understand the truth I&#8217;d certainly appreciate it.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;<em>&#8220;Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together,&#8221; says the LORD, &#8220;Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword&#8221;; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken<\/em>&#8221; (Isaiah 1:16-20).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Isaiah is addressing the reluctance of people to change. People often get trapped in the mindset that they are too sinful to be forgiven. God is saying that line of thinking is not reasonable. God is able to forgive the worse of sinners if they leave their sins. A similar passage is found later in Isaiah 55:6-9. Just because a man doesn&#8217;t see how it is possible, it doesn&#8217;t make it impossible with God.<\/p>\n<p>The number of passages inviting people to reason with God is huge. Read through Ezekiel 18:21-32 and you will see God arguing from logic how He forgives the sinner. In fact, I wrote a small book on the subject. See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/keys-to-understanding\/\">Keys to Understanding<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: The first sentence in Isaiah 1:18 about reasoning together seems so out of place compared to what&#8217;s around it &#8211; at least to me. Can you help me understand the context a little bit better? Also if you know of any other passages that show God encourages us to use reason and test the&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[795,36],"class_list":["post-29589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-isaiah","tag-reasoning"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":41048,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-christians-worship-be-hindered-if-he-is-in-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":29589,"position":0},"title":"Can a Christian&#8217;s worship be hindered if he is in sin?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good morning, Can a Christian's worship be hindered if they are in sin? Does God expect Christians to be completely holy when we worship Him? Answer: \"Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16615,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/would-i-still-have-the-right-to-remarry-if-i-slept-with-another-man-before-my-divorce-was-final\/","url_meta":{"origin":29589,"position":1},"title":"Would I still have the right to remarry if I slept with another man before my divorce was final?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi! I have a serious question: My husband walked out on me after 20 years of marriage. He has had numerous affairs. He has been gone for 2 years. I finally filed our divorce five months ago and it may be over within the month. For the past year,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28951,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-god-want-us-to-ask-questions\/","url_meta":{"origin":29589,"position":2},"title":"Does God want us to ask questions?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Does God want us to ask questions? Answer: God invites people to ask good, honest questions. \" \"Come now, and let us reason together,\" says the LORD\" (Isaiah 1:18). Christianity is taught by reasoning with people, which implies answering people's questions. \"As his custom was, Paul went into the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1754,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-age-of-accountability-for-a-child\/","url_meta":{"origin":29589,"position":3},"title":"What is the age of accountability for a child?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 4, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is the age of accountability for a child? Answer: The Bible teaches us that each person is held accountable for his own sins. \"The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2584,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-disappointed-you-didnt-answer-my-question-about-animals\/","url_meta":{"origin":29589,"position":4},"title":"I&#8217;m disappointed you didn&#8217;t answer my question about animals.","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 20, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"I find it very interesting that you choose to ignore passages from the Bible that do not condone the inhumane treatment of animals. You still haven't answered my question. I suppose you will not answer it and continue to divert the subject to something it's not about. Unfortunately, I see\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34621,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-you-distinguish-between-the-real-and-the-make-believe\/","url_meta":{"origin":29589,"position":5},"title":"How can you distinguish between the real and the make-believe?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Alright, how do we know that religion, in general, is not just our mind playing tricks on us? This has been bothering me badly now. I didn't know if you had an answer or not. For example, I had terrible anxiety problems. I was convinced that my house was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29589\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}