Paradigm Perplexities (1)

“Come now, and let us reason together,” says the LORD.  “Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.”  Isaiah 1:18  NASB

Reason – Certainly you’ve heard this verse more than a few times.  Does it mean that God wants to have a sit-down rational debate with you?  Does it mean that God is trying to convince you to adopt His point of view?  Do you really think you can go toe-to-toe with God?  Or is He inviting you to put aside your emotions and think logically about heaven and hell?  The translation of the Hebrew yakah as “reason” is unfortunate because in our Western thinking, “reason” is about clear thinking, rational argument and persuasion.  But yakah is first and foremost about moral standing, not about correct thinking.  It means “to reprove, to judge, to convict” as well as “to argue” or “to convince.”  How does the sense of this verse shift if we translated it with one of these English choices instead of “to reason”?  If we look at the rest of the verse, we see that “reason” doesn’t quite fit the context because the very next thought is about our sins, not about our faulty logic.  God is calling us to repent, not to engage in formal debate.  He isn’t lecturing about apologetics.  He is pointing toward the confessional.

God reproves sin.  He points out that we are guilty and miserable, lost and hurting.  That’s the gist of His “argument.”  He doesn’t have to convince us that we are a mess.  He only has to reveal a sliver of His holiness and we are undone.  Just a little vision on the road to Damascus and we are blinded.  Just a touch from His hand and we are struck dumb.  No, I don’t think God is handing out tickets to the next televised debate.  “Reasoning” with God turns out to be remorse, regret and repentance.  Just ask Job.

The point of an encounter with God is restoration, not recitation.  Frankly, God doesn’t care much about your theological position or your proficiency with the arguments.  He isn’t giving you an academic exam.  He is inviting you to take a moral inventory.  He knows what you will find.  That’s why the objective of this encounter isn’t a logical proof.  The objective of this encounter is the removal of guilt.  “Though your sins are as scarlet.”  That’s the conclusion of “reasoning” with God.  Perhaps we would have captured the idiom with a translation like, “Come now, let us examine together.”

When we encounter verses that seem to endorse our penchant for logical argument and cognitive expertise, we should recognize the warning signs.  The Bible isn’t part of our “head knowledge” worldview.  It is saturated with how we live in the world of moral adjustments.  It comes to us as God’s indictment of our way of life.  Its primary concern is the heart.  Its secondary concern is the hands.  Eventually it gets around to what we think, but it certainly doesn’t start there.  The Bible recognizes that sin and the power of the yetzer ha’ra cloud our ability to understand clearly, so it begins with practical obedience, not with theoretical elocution.  Now that you have this clearly “in mind,” are you ready to come and “reason” with Him?

Topical Index:  reason, yakah, reprove, judge, convict, guilt, Isaiah 1:18