Isaiah Week Two: A Divided Heart

I’m not going to quote this entire passage, after all, it is quite long. However, as I was thinking about what the 2nd post should cover, I kept coming back to Isaiah 1:13. It says, “Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations – I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.” Notice, he doesn’t say he cannot endure iniquity (though true and stated all through Scripture). He also doesn’t say he can’t stand a solemn assembly (as they had been instructed to conduct since ancient times). Rather he says he can’t endure iniquity and solemn assembly. This verse was incredibly convicting to me. It is also a small part of several verses with the same theme.

As you may remember from last week’s post, the kings who reigned during Isaiah’s ministry came in a variety of spiritual shapes. However, a frequent theme was that they followed God with reservations or not at all. There was not a whole-hearted commitment from the kings (except for Hezekiah and Josiah), and we see that in an even more pronounced way with the people of Judah. They would worship in the Temple and then sacrifice on the high places. They would bring an offering to God and then murder their children. God, through Isaiah, is pointing out the hypocrisy of their attitudes and actions.

Now I think it goes without saying that God wouldn’t want iniquity period. However, he was completely offended by the fact that they would not make a commitment one way or another. This echoes what Elijah said to the Northern Kingdom in 1 Kings 18:21 more than one hundred years before when he challenged, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions?” God hates idolatry but he hates a divided heart even more. Outward conformity and performance with no inward plans to change or surrender will never please the one who is wholly righteous, wholly truth, wholly powerful…wholly all aspects of his character. He does nothing by parts.

Before Israel ever entered the promised land, God told them, “You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree…You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way. But you shall seek the place that the LORD your God will choose…There you shall go, and there you shall bring your burn offerings…and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the LORD your God has blessed you” (Deut. 12:2-7). God had ordained on place in which his presence would dwell, the Tabernacle and then eventually the Temple. However, the people did not listen. They followed their own wisdom and pursued their own pleasures. Notice, he told them that true worship would bring joy and blessings but they wanted to worship on their terms instead of in surrender.

Now, as long as we are in our physical body, we will have some iniquity (hopefully less and less as we are conformed to Christ’s image). God isn’t expecting (or wanting) us to forgo worship of him until we attain sinless perfection in our behavior. Rather, when we read this passage, I encourage you to think about our lives in terms of idols and altars. When we are giving equal time, love, devotion…worship to something or someone then it has become an idol. When we come back repeatedly to the same sin, it is an altar. While we may struggle with our behavior at times, God will make a way to escape if we will take it and God will give grace to repent.

Yet if we constantly and frequently return to the same sin, the same person, place or thing that demands our love/time/energy instead of God then we have arrived at the place where Judah was living. They had divided hearts, devotions, and minds as they worshipped at two contradictory altars. Even if it was just the high places, even if all the other shrines had been taken down, Judah rarely only worshipped God in the way he had ordained.

God issues the invitation to his people a few verses later, “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” (Is. 1:18-20). What other idols, pet projects, worries, or altars are we devoting ourselves to? What is the iniquity and solemn assembly that we are justifying? What will a divided heart cost us and our families as we navigate this new year? Run to the one who will empower you to live a life wholly devoted to him and if we do struggle or fail, don't make it an altar - repent and return to his fellowship where there is fullness of joy.