Saturday after the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on October 7, 2023 by under
Scripture: Isaiah 1:10-17 (NKJV)
1:10 Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; Give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah:
11 “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?” says the Lord. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs or goats.
12 “When you come to appear before Me, who has required this from your hand, to trample My courts?
13 “Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies—I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting.
14 “Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them.
15 “When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.
16 “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil,
17 “learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.”
Devotion
The wickedness of the people had become so great that Judah was likened to Sodom and Gomorrah: “Hear the word of the Lord, You rulers of Sodom; Give ear to the law of our God, You people of Gomorrah: ‘To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?’”
It was not that the people had stopped going to offer sacrifices. The sacrifices were an offense to the Lord because they were not offered in a spirit of repentance. The people imagined that they could remain in their impenitence and simply “buy God off ” with their offerings, while their hearts grew ever more distant from the Lord.
A dreadful judgment came from the Lord against the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and a dreadful judgment came upon Judah. And, in the year A.D. 70, the judgment of the Lord fell on Jerusalem through the instrumentality of the Roman army. The Lord warns of the coming judgment so that His people may be drawn to Him in repentance and faith. The Lord led His people out of Sodom and Gomorrah, and He preserved His remnant in the time of the captivity. He preserved His saints from the destruction of Jerusalem. He will preserve His people when the last judgment falls upon this world.
Prayer: Lord, we beseech Thee, grant Thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow Thee, the only God; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
