Israel had reached the point of believing that God had grown deaf to them, that His hand had somehow become too short to save, and that Satan’s hand had grown longer than His. This is a familiar place for people to arrive at when trouble comes and prayers seem to go unanswered: they quietly begin to believe that God is not listening, or that He is not working on their behalf, and so they start drifting away from Him. In response, God wants to do two things. First, He wants to correct this misunderstanding about who He is. Second, He wants to bring our sin out into the light, because we are far more comfortable hiding it than confronting it.
If God is not deaf…
Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
Isaiah 59:1-2 (NIV)
If God is not deaf and His hand is not short, why do our prayers feel unanswered? God answers this directly. It is not that His ear is dull, nor that His hand has grown short — it is that our own iniquities have built a wall between us and Him. He is near, He is speaking, He is warning us continually, but our unrighteous deeds stand as a barrier that keeps us from understanding who God is. When David sinned, he did not blame God for the silence that followed. Instead, he said his sin was ever before his eyes.
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
Psalm 51:3 (NIV)
This is the difference between David and us. We rarely say, as David did, that our sin stands before us. We do not consider our sin as sin, and so instead of owning it, we conclude that God’s hand has grown small and Satan’s has grown long. But the truth is the opposite — our sin has separated us from God, so that we cannot see Him even though He continues to see us. And when we cannot see Him, we do not simply stay silent; we add another sin on top of the first. We blame the very God who watches over us and thinks of our good. Sin increases, yet His grace increases even more, though we remain unable to receive it, because our sin keeps blocking the very grace already extended towards us. This does not mean the grace has stopped flowing — it has not. God’s kindness towards His people does not depart, even when we are not prepared to receive it.
Our Hands are Stained
For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken falsely, and your tongue mutters wicked things.
Isaiah 59:3 (NIV)
We tend to believe that what we do and say from Monday to Saturday will go uncounted, so long as we come to church on Sunday, sing our praises, and say our hallelujahs. But God knows everything. Nothing said or done in the quiet of the week is hidden from Him.
No one calls for justice; no one pleads a case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments, they utter lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil.
Isaiah 59:4 (NIV)
No one pursues righteousness, and no one argues a case on the basis of truth, because it has become our habit to trust in lies rather than in what is right. In a courtroom built on lies, the one who lies best wins, and the one who cannot lie loses. And in all of this, no one pauses to consider what true religion actually is. We are far more occupied with pointing out how sinful and cunning others are than with examining ourselves, and when we cannot find fault in someone else, we begin to feel worthless, as though we are not fit to belong in this world. We feel lost because, in pointing to others, we can no longer hide our own sins. All of this is simply wrong thinking.
Religion Vs God’s Righteousness
Religion can be understood the way our body generates heat under a blanket on a cold night. Our own warmth builds up, the blanket holds it in, and we feel comforted enough to sleep. In the same way, the truth we know, the intellect we carry, and the good deeds we perform keep us warm within our own understanding of religion. The rules religion sets in place give us a measure of peace amid ordinary problems. But when real sickness comes — the kind that brings on chills and shivering no blanket can warm — that same comfort does not hold. It becomes useless exactly when it is needed most. This is what religion made by human hands is like. It keeps us content as we go about our prayers, our fellowship, our one appointment a week, but when a real trial arrives, that same religion has nothing to offer. It cannot come to our aid.
This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings—external regulations applying until the time of the new order.
Hebrews 9:9-10 (NIV)
These were only physical regulations, given for a time, until the time of reformation came. That time has come, though many of us have not yet fully learned to act on it. Those who do not believe that Jesus Christ has come must still try to improve themselves through religion, because it is all they have. But for those who trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ, improvement no longer comes from our own deeds — it comes through the grace of God, received by faith. The washing, the rituals, and the bathing rites that once mattered have been set aside now that a new life and a new King have taken hold of us. Yet we so often sit right back down within the old system, unwilling to fully accept or fully walk in what has already been given to us.
Our Crooked Paths
There was no sinless person living on this earth, and yet men ran after the One who was sinless in order to destroy Him, because it was religion, not God, that they were protecting. To preserve their religion, they killed God’s own Son, and this same pattern repeats itself today — people are still willing to destroy one another to protect their religion rather than to know God.
Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood. They pursue evil schemes; acts of violence mark their ways. The way of peace they do not know; there is no justice in their paths. They have turned them into crooked roads; no one who walks along them will know peace.
Isaiah 59:7-8 (NIV)
The one who is walking the Path — Jesus, who said no one comes to the Father except through Him — no longer schemes to do evil. Those who once pursued wickedness, once they are walking that Path, no longer even remember what evil looks like, because their attention is fixed on Him rather than on the sin around them. It is far easier for us to place blame on the innocent than on the guilty, because the innocent will not fight back. We know they will not retaliate, so we feel free to accuse them, while God alone watches over them. The guilty, on the other hand, will turn on us if provoked. Those who cling to religion instead of to God never find peace, because their religion spreads unrest rather than removing it — quick to oppose, quick to blame, quick to build hatred on the basis of religious difference rather than truth.
Truth Falls in the Marketplace
For our offenses are many in your sight, and our sins testify against us. Our offenses are ever with us, and we acknowledge our iniquities: rebellion and treachery against the LORD, turning our backs on our God.
Isaiah 59:12-13 (NIV)
It is only when we begin to walk the path Jesus has shown us that we start to see how far we had actually strayed, and how much of our life had been spent apart from Him. As long as we remain inside our own religion, we cannot honestly confront our sin, because we cannot see it clearly from within it. It is only when God makes His people pure, and gives light where there was none, that we are given the chance to recognise our sin. Anyone can point a finger at another person, but that will only ever account for a small fraction of the truth — most of the time, we already know our own faults better than anyone else could point them out for us.
So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter.
Isaiah 59:14 (NIV)
Righteousness has been pushed aside, justice set behind, and truth itself has fallen into the marketplace, where it is bought and sold. Instead of imparting the love of God to others, leaders have assumed for themselves that they possess the love and the power of God, and have sold this to the believers who regard them and give them money. With the satisfaction of the offering they gave, they seem to receive something in return, as though blessing and anointing could be purchased. But truth is not something God keeps in the marketplace. A believer should find truth directly from the Word of God, through the grace given to him. Then he will realise that his sins are forgiven, and that grace does not go on increasing indefinitely but comes to rest at the level of truth received — and when this happens, the long-awaited justice will be granted.
Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven… Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps.
Psalm 85:10-11,13 (NIV)
Through Jesus Christ, God taught us this very truth — that the Father who shows us grace, and the truth that exposes our sin, have been joined together. It is only when truth and grace are held together — when righteousness and peace embrace one another — that we are truly made right. This is not religion. This is righteousness, and we are born into it through Jesus Christ. For when He lived in the flesh, grace and truth dwelt in Him equally, in fullness — and so obedience and faithfulness sprang up from the earth, and righteousness came down from heaven, bringing the forgiveness of each person’s sin.
The Arm That Needed No Help
The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm achieved salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him.
Isaiah 59:15-16 (NIV)
When we were being destroyed under the weight of our sin, there was no one to intercede for us. No one understood where they were heading or how far they had fallen, so no one prayed. God was astonished that not a single person came forward. So He acted, not on the basis of our request, our fasting, or our labour, but out of His own resolve, His own righteousness, His own holiness. We had no part to play in it. This is a truth we need to hold onto — God does not need our support, not at the beginning and not now. Even when we did not pray, even when we had no desire to be rescued, God still refused to let us be destroyed, because He is the self-sufficient One who gives support rather than needing it.
And yet we so often live as though we are the ones holding God up. We think of our church attendance, our fasting, our meetings, as though we were extending God’s hand into the world. We are told in gatherings that His kingdom needs to be expanded, so we give with great enthusiasm, believing our money is what enlarges His work. We tell Him, in prayer, the names of the sick, the needy, and those we consider sinners, as though He did not already know. We warn Him to be careful of those who might deceive Him, as if He needed our caution. This is how so much of our religious activity operates — as though God were short of resources, short of information, short of help, and we were the ones supplying what He lacked.
He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.
Isaiah 59:17 (NIV)
God does everything Himself. He does not need us. And yet, remarkably, He still chooses to keep us close and invites us to work alongside Him — not because our help is required, but because He wants to include us, to stir something within us, in the same way He has always worked. It is never true that He would simply sit back if we stopped. We are the ones who begin to imagine, after a while, that our efforts are what keep His kingdom moving, and this is where righteousness is shut back into a cage of our own works. We were never meant to carry that weight. We are called to walk on His support, not to hold Him up. With this understanding, every wall our sin has ever built finally comes down. And we may declare with personal experience that His hand is not short, but long enough to save every sinner on this earth.
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