Isaiah 1.4 describes, Oh, what a sinful nation they are—loaded down with a burden of guilt. They are evil people, corrupt children who have rejected the Lord.

The book of Isaiah could be describing the current Church and culture in America today. The description of course is general but so much is apropos to our nation that it bears reading, praying and pondering over. 

Of the many observations available to us in the first chapter I am particularly struck by these:

First, God holds His people accountable for the moral state of the nation. The moral decadence in America is no one’s fault except the Church. It is the Church that believes people are born with a heart predisposed toward disobedience to God and toward self-centered living.

Until people are born again they live lives naturally, which is in a state of rebellion against God. Christians use the term ‘born again’ because God used that term in describing what must happen to a person spiritually for them to become a child of God. Children of God are those who live now to please God having turned from their former rebellious ways.

The Church is commanded to be the salt and light in the world. It is to make disciples or obedient followers of Jesus. Summarily this means Christians are to live their lives as Jesus lived His.

Jesus lived in total submission to the will of God. He did this by serving the needs of humanity while staying focused on pointing people to Himself for reconciliation with God.

The key to Jesus’ life was the Word of God. He knew exactly what it said and He lived it. The Church has a desperate need for the people of God to read the Word of God so that they can apply His commands to their life.

Second, God points out that His house is full of sexual immorality. He calls His people, ‘people of Gomorrah,’ and their leaders, ‘leaders of Sodom.’ The new sexual norm in our culture, and bought into by so many within the Church, is at odds with God’s Word and God’s ordained ways.

The list in this chapter continues from corrupt governments to murder of the innocent. America is in desperate moral and spiritual times.

The Church is God’s provision to every nation for restoration, healing and blessing both to God Himself and to one another.

The means the Church is to apply for bringing righteousness to a land is the proclamation of the Good News that God has come in Jesus the Savior. Those who believe are then to receive instruction, even insistence, upon obedience to His commands, beginning with the Church.