Answers (4)

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

Scarlet – What an odd expression?  Sins are like the color scarlet?  Why?  From our Christian perspective, we might expect sins to be painted black.  We would hardly imagine that the color most often associated with redemption (the blood of the Lamb) would be used to describe the essence of sin.  But maybe we haven’t looked hard enough.

The seventh principle of rabbinic exegesis is devar halamed meinyano – what is learned from an examination of the subject itself.  This may be seen in the midrash, an examination of the possible connections between one thought and another drawn from clues in the text.  While many well-trained rabbis employ this technique with amazing expertise, most Christian Western views of exegesis would be aghast at the procedure.  Often ignoring context, syntax and other “essential” elements of modern biblical exegesis, the rabbis move from one thought to another seemingly unconcerned by the structures of the Greek mind.  We might object, but we should be careful doing so, for the Bible is written by men who do not think, or write, like we do.

Let’s employ a bit of devar halamed meinyano to a clue in this verse and see where it takes us.  The word for “scarlet” is shaniy.  The consonants are Shin-Nun-Yod.  But those same consonants with the vowel change to “e” instead of “a” produce sheniy, a word that means “second in a series.”  What does “scarlet” have to do with “second”?  Maybe nothing.  Maybe.  But let’s look a bit deeper into God’s declaration in Isaiah.

“Though you sins are like the second . . .”  What might this mean?  The pictograph of Shin-Nun-Yod is “work that destroys life.”  That’s certainly an apt description of “sin.”  But in what way is “sin” connected to “second?”  Obedience is the first choice in God’s created order.  The universe is designed to flow toward obedience.  The natural processes, the instincts of animals, the grand celestial orchestra all obediently follow the direction of the Creator.  But Man chooses the second way, the way of disobedience.  Not only does this second way result in inglorious hubris, it poses an illusory alternative that is false in its very inception.  There really is no second way to life.  There is only a second way to death – a death that spills scarlet blood on the earth.  Why are sins scarlet?  Because they are the second choice – the blood-red choice of destruction.

There is one more connection.  When sacrifice for sin is presented before the altar, the ground runs red with the blood of the substitute.  Man’s second choice results in death and requires death to be redeemed.  “Though your sins are like the second choice, the choice of spilled blood, yet I will make them as white as snow.”  The Lord, merciful, gracious, long-suffering, kind, withholds His wrath to allow us to see the folly of the second choice – He will rescue us.  May His Name be blessed.

Topical Index:  scarlet, second, shaniy, sheniy, Isaiah 1:18