Be Gone!

Be Gone!

Q: What did God promise to do about the people’s sins?

• a. accept a burnt offering for forgiveness
• b. make them white as wool
• c. erase them

Adam grabbed his dirty soccer uniform from the floor of his room. He could hear the washer running and needed his uniform washed right away. It was bright red and had never been washed before. Adam opened the washer lid and added the uniform to the load of clothes. Later when Adam’s mom went to put the clothes into the dryer, she was shocked to see her load of whites was now pink! Those whites could be made white again by using bleach, but the same is not true of the scarlet, or crimson, mentioned in Isaiah.

The book of Isaiah says, “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.” Scarlet, or crimson, was the color of a dark red dye, and it was permanent. That’s how sin is. When we do anything against God’s law, it leaves a stain in our lives we can’t remove. Only God can remove the stain of sin.

God was talking to the southern kingdom, assuring the few who still remembered him that he would remove their sins. He promises us the same thing. His Word says, “If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (1 John 1:9).

Sin leaves a stain in your life, but God promises to make your heart clean again.

For You

Search your heart and life for sin, and ask God to give you a clean heart.

Answer: b

“Come now, let’s settle this,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.”   Isaiah 1:18

(The Whole Story: Isaiah 1:1-20)