TRUST WORTHY God’s Faithfulness: God was inviting his people to return to him

Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:

though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow;

though they are red like crimson,

they shall become like wool. ISA 1:18

We see in this passage that God brought this case against his people not to cut his relationship with them, but to draw them closer to him. He gives them the assurance that no matter how unfaithful they have been, he will wipe away all traces of their unfaithfulness and make them as white as snow. God is saying that he will still honor his part of the covenant, but he wants his people to repent and return to him. In the same way, he is calling us to have a real relationship with him, not an empty one masked by religiosity. Though we are unfaithful, he will remain faithful. How can we extend God’s invitation for people to draw closer to him?

Now therefore stand still that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous deeds of the Lord that he performed for you and for your fathers. 1SA 12:7

Arakhin 17a:2

The Gemara returns to the topic of rebuke. It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Eliezer the Great says: Were the Holy One, Blessed be He, to have entered into judgment with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they would not have been able to stand before the rebuke. As it is stated: “Now therefore stand still that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous deeds of the Lord that he performed for you and for your fathers” (1Sa 12:7). This indicates that God acted towards the patriarchs with righteousness, i.e., mercy, not as they deserved according to the strict letter of the law.

John Gill

Now therefore stand still—Keep your place, and do not as yet break up the assembly, but wait a little longer patiently, and with reverence and attention listen to what I have further to say:

That I may plead with you before the Lord—As in his presence; and which he observes to command the greater awe upon their mind, and the greater regard to the subject of his discourse and resolutions; which would be,

Concerning all the righteous deeds of the Lord that he performed for you and for your fathers—Not only in a way of judgment delivering them into the hands of their enemies, when they sinned against him, but rather in a way of mercy and kindness in delivering them out of their hands.

Set forth your case, says the Lord;

bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob. ISA 41:21

John Gill

Set forth your case, says the Lord—The Lord having comforted his people under their afflictions and persecutions from their enemies in the first times of Christianity, returns to the controversy between him and the idolatrous nations, and challenges them to bring their cause into open court, and let it be publicly tried, that it may be seen on what side truth lies:

Bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob—Or King of saints, the true Israel of God, who acknowledge the Lord as their King and their God, and whom he rules over, protects and defends; and this title is assumed for the comfort of them, that though he is King over all the nations of the world, yet in an eminent and peculiar sense their King; and he does not style himself the God of Jacob, though he was, because this was the thing in controversy, and the cause to be decided, whether he was the true God, or the gods of the Gentiles; and therefore their votaries are challenged to bring the strongest proofs and arguments they could muster together, in proof of the divinity of their idols; their “bony” arguments, as the word signifies; for what bones are to the body, that strong arguments are to a cause, the support and stability of it.

24 You have not bought me sweet cane with money,

or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices.

But you have burdened me with your sins;

you have wearied me with your iniquities.

John Gill

You have not bought me sweet cane with money—Or “calamus,” which was used in the anointing oil, and for the perfume or incense (Exo 30:7, 23), this they thought too expensive, and so left it out of the composition, or neglected the whole this being put a part for the whole. Jarchi gives it as the sense, that they had no need to buy it, since it grew in great plenty in the land of Israel, which he took to be cinnamon; though this is distinguished from calamus, or the sweet cane (Son 4:14), wherefore Kimchi much better observes, that it was not to be had in the land of Israel, but came from a land afar off; and therefore must be bought; see Jer 6:20, hence grudging to give the price for it, and to be at the expense of it, bought it not, and disused it:

Or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices—They did not multiply their sacrifices, offered only just what the law required, if so many, and those of the leaner sort; and whereas the fat of the sacrifices was the Lord’s, there was little of it for him in these:

But you have burdened me with your sins; you have wearied me with your iniquities—They were so many, and so aggravated, that he could not bear with them any longer, his patience was worn out; they were an uneasiness to him, as it were a burden upon him, and therefore would ease himself, as he sometimes does, by avenging himself (Isa 1:24), but here by pardoning them, as in the following verse. Some think that these are the words of Christ, the surety of his people, who took upon him the form of a servant for the sake of them, and had all their sins laid upon him, and which he bore, and made satisfaction for; and were to the human nature a burden, and a weariness to it; see Psa 40:12. This must be understood of the remnant according to the election of grace, among these people so sadly corrupted, for whose sins of omission and commission Christ made atonement; and upon the foot of his satisfaction, remission of sins proceeds, as in the next verse.

25 I, I am he

who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,

and I will not remember your sins.

26 Put me in remembrance; let us argue together;

set forth your case, that you may be proved right. ISA 43:24-26

And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, ACT 17:2

John Gill

And Paul went in, as was his custom—To the Jews in their synagogue; for though the Jews had put away the gospel from them, and the apostle had turned to the Gentiles; yet he still retained a great affection for his countrymen the Jews, and as often as he had opportunity, attended their synagogues, in order to preach the gospel to them;

And on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures—That is, out of the Old Testament, concerning the Messiah, the characters of him, the work that he was to do, and how he was to suffer and die for the sins of men; and this he did three weeks running, going to their synagogue every Sabbath day, when and where the Jews met for worship; and made use of books, which they allowed of, and of arguments they could not disprove.

And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. ACT 18:4

John Gill

And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath—In Corinth there was a synagogue of the Jews, in which they met together for worship on the seventh day of the week, which was their Sabbath; and here Paul went, and took the opportunity of reasoning with them out of the Scriptures, concerning Christ, his person, and offices, his incarnation, obedience, sufferings, and death, and about redemption and salvation by him: we may observe the diligence, industry, and indefatigableness of the apostle; on the Sabbath day he went to the synagogue, and preached Christ to those who there attended; and on the weekdays he laboured with his own hands. Beza’s most ancient copy, and the Vulgate Latin version add here, “interposing the name of the Lord Jesus”; frequently making mention of his name, or calling upon it, and doing miracles in it.

And tried to persuade Jews and Greeks—This was the effect of his reasoning, and the success that attended it; some, both of the Jews, who were so by birth, as well as religion, and of the Greeks, or Gentiles, who were Jewish proselytes, and attended synagogue worship, were convinced by his arguments, and were induced to believe the truth of his doctrine, and to embrace it; or at least he endeavoured to persuade them that they were lost sinners, and that there was salvation for them in Christ, and in him only.

6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

John Gill

To the praise of his glorious grace—The grace of God manifestly appears in the predestination of men to adoption; in that God had no need of sons, he having a dear and well beloved one; in whom he is well pleased; and in that those he adopts are so unworthy of the relation; and in that men, and not angels, should be taken by him into his family; and that some, and not others of the same race; and that this should be before the world was; and in providing Christ as a Redeemer, to open the way for the reception of this grace and happiness; and in appointing the grace of faith to be the receiver of it: and the glory of the grace of God appears herein; the glory of God is the supreme end of all he does; and the glory of his grace, and not his power, or other perfections of his, and the manifestative glory of that is here intended; yea, the “praise” of that glory: and this end is answered, when the children of God ascribe their adoption to the free grace of God; and when they admire it, and are thankful for it, and walk worthy of the relation they are brought into:

With which he has blessed us in the Beloved—The Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions read, “his own beloved Son,” and so the Claromontane exemplar; the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the beloved of God the Father; and was so from everlasting, and will be so to everlasting; which has appeared by his nearness to him, lying in his bosom; by his being privy to all his counsels, purposes, and designs; in putting all things into his hands, and in showing him all that he does; and by his giving him honour and glory, as man and mediator: and he is the beloved of the saints, for the transcendent excellencies that are in him, and for his love to them, and for what he has done for them, and is unto them; and in him is their acceptance: which is to be understood of the acceptance of their persons, as founded in the blood and righteousness of Christ, and so of their services in him; of God’s act of delight and complacency in them, as considered in Christ; who looks upon them, and is well pleased with them, and rests in his love towards them; which is an amazing instance of grace: it was grace that gave them a being in Christ, and which has provided in predestination everything to make them grateful to God; and the very act of acceptance is of mere grace; for internal grace, or grace infused, is not here meant, but the free favour of God: some read not “in which,” but “which, he freely gave us in the Beloved”; so the Alexandrian copy, and some others, and the Syriac and Arabic versions.

7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight EPH 1:6-8