Wash

"Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow" (Isaiah 1:16-17).

I take a shower every day, almost without fail. I'm a morning showerer, and I'm not really awake until I've had my shower.  My wife and daughter are both nighttime showerers, which means there's plenty of hot water for me in the morning! (And yes, I know "showerer" is not a word, but you know what I mean...) For me, there's something great about getting clean in the morning. It gives each new day a fresh start, a new beginning.

It's an image Isaiah is playing with as he begins his ministry and addresses the people of Israel. I don't think Isaiah is actually referring to showers in these verses; for one, he spoke to a desert-dwelling people and water wasn't always in abundant supply. We do know they used water in ceremonial washings; evidence of this is still seen at places like Qumran. A person would go down into the water on one set of steps and come out by another, leaving their sins and spiritual blemishes behind. When Isaiah tells the people to "wash," that's more what he's referring to. Make yourselves clean in the sight of the Lord.

What a great word and a good goal for us at the beginning of a new year. In many ways, we are in the "morning" of the year. So Isaiah urges us, before we do anything else, to wash ourselves, make ourselves clean before the Lord. And how do we do that?

• Get rid of evil deeds (stop doing the things we know are wrong)
• Instead, do right things, like...
• Seek justice (do what's right, not just what's legal).
• Defend the oppressed.
• Care for the fatherless.
• Plead the case of the widow.
• In other words—be aware of and caring for those who are most vulnerable in the world around you!

We spend a lot of time as Christians debating what is right and what is wrong. We argue in denominations about whether we should do this or that ministry, or whether the Bible would support this practice or that. And there are many things the Bible just isn't entirely clear on. But as someone once said: if we would just do the things the Bible is clear on, we wouldn't have time to argue and fuss and worry over what the Bible isn't clear about. There's plenty of clear instruction for how we should live, what we should do. The prophets speak with one voice: seek justice, care for the vulnerable, do what pleases God.

Doing those things, living that way, will give us a new year's cleansing that will change everything.