One of the best passages of the Bible to illustrate God’s love is found in Isaiah 1:18. In this passage and in this book that God pleads with a people who are so caught up in sin it would surely seem they would never be able to be forgiven.

God was willing to forgive because of His love.

Just how much is God willing to forgive? Mankind takes the soul, which starts out without blemish and mars it with sin. There have been those who have come to think that their sins are so extreme that God would not even think about forgiving them.

Sometimes people get the idea that they can make their lives pure and then God will accept them. These ideas are false.

God loves mankind and is willing to forgive man of all his sin, if man will simply come to Him and obey Him (Matt. 11:28 – 30).

Thinking back to Isaiah, he wrote to a nation of people who were going into Assyrian captivity because of their sin. The people should have listened to this prophet of God but they refused. The sins of these people affected every walk of life from the poor, the rich, the leaders, the priests.

Honesty was a rare gem to be found in the lives of the people. Idolatry was the religion of the day, started by Jeroboam when he set up the golden calves in Dan and Bethel, making priests of the lowest of the people (1 Kings 12:26-33). Ahab introduced the nation to Baal worship setting up an alter in the house of Baal that he had built in Samaria (1 Kings 16:30 – 34). God had told them what king’s would do for them, but the people refused to listen to God so king after king continued the path to destruction.

The words in verse 18 are said by some to be words that would be used in a court of law. This has some merit as the accusations made against the people are talked about in the first part of the chapter. Yet there is another thought seen in this passage, one that should bring hope to all for it shows the call from God for his people to stop and contemplate their condition and His offer of pardon. God had never desired to punish His people. If that was His intent the scheme of redemption would have never been know. His desire has been that men follow Him.

These people had been lulled into false security of trusting in ill-gotten riches taken from the others, cheating, stealing whatever they could do to take advantage of the poor. The leaders, both governmental and spiritual could not be trusted. Neighbors stole from neighbors. It was a wicked time in which to live. The prophet was trying to warn them of the coming punishment from God at the hand of Assyria.

Other prophets had been sent but their word, too, had been spurned. Now the love that God has for them is plainly seen. His mercy was being offered, but they would have to be a part of the solution. “Come not let us reason together,” God was asking them to look at their condition.

Their sins were described as “scarlet” and “red like crimson.” These colors are used to describe the depth of the nation’s sins. They were stained through and through. To some it might seem as though there was no hope for these, but God offered them cleansing. He had the power to change a soul so stained by sin into a soul that could be clean and white as the snow, as pure as clean white wool. It was only by their turning back to God that they could be made as white as the snow and wool. A complete change could take place if they would but listen to the prophets and turn away from their sins and back to God.

This same forgiveness awaits man today, but just as in the days of Isaiah, man must stop and contemplate what God is offering and then obey His word.