I find it amusing how some children react to the sight of blood. They can have a significant injury and be completely oblivious to it, but as soon as they see a speck of blood on themselves, they go into panic mode.
Children have a natural aversion to blood, especially their own. Something inside of them knows that that stuff should be on the inside of a body and that, if it isn’t, something is wrong. The more blood they see, the more they realize that something horribly wrong.
10 Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. (Isaiah 1)
These verses are very telling. The Lord’s reference to Sodom and Gomorrah is, by itself, a harsh reprimand and is indicative of the destruction that awaited ancient Israel and that awaits us today. God isn’t talking to heathens. God is talking to people who should know his laws, but don’t. They go through the motions of doing what they think is his will, but there is no purpose to what they are doing. The Lord does not delight in them. In doing these things, the people tread his courts. He asks them to stop doing these things in vain and calls it iniquity. He hates their empty observances, calls them a trouble, and states that they weary him.
God doesn’t ask us to obey commandments that lack substance. There is purpose to everything he gives us and he is displeased when we don’t understand his purposes because, to the degree that we don’t understand, his efforts are wasted. The last verse quoted above clues us in to the degree to which we don’t understand.
Were we to look at our hands and see them the way God sees them, we would see them “full of blood.” We should sense, like a little child would, that something is terribly wrong. What’s more is that the blood is on our hands. It’s not on our clothes, or our arms or legs, or our faces. It’s on those parts of our bodies that symbolize action and participation—intentional or not.
The Lord says that, because of this, he hides his eyes from us and will not hear our prayers. When we approach him, we are unaware of just how sinful we are and how much we actively participate in things that are abominable before him. But he is not without mercy. He has made a way for us to approach him and it takes a considerable amount of effort on our part.
16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. (Isaiah 1)
The Lord commands us to be clean. He commands us to put away evil doings. He says that we must “learn to do well,” which implies that doing well is something that must be learned. He tells us that doing well means to “reason”—to understand—and then practically apply principles to our actions instead of just going through the motions of outward ordinances that are designed to teach us those principles. He invites us to communicate with him so that he can help us understand and, through that understanding and our subsequent abandonment of our sins, we are made as white as snow.
This is the only way to obtain the promises that God covenants to the faithful. Eating of the good of the land comes to those who are both willing to be put through and obedient to this process, and being devoured by the sword comes to those who refuse and rebel. “The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”