Isaiah 1:15, commentary and pictures

Spoken to the rulers and people of Judah in apostasy, called rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah, the word rebukes those who kept up outward worship while claiming to belong to God and building up His cause by wrongdoing. When such worshipers lift their hands and multiply prayers, God turns away His eyes and refuses to hear or look on them with favor, because their lives are stained with violence, bloodshed, injustice and transgression of His law. No multitude of sacrifices, feasts or outward devotion can please Him or remove sin while evil is persisted in, for offerings cannot take the place of a broken heart, sorrow for sin, turning from evil and obedience. What He requires is to cease from evil and do right by seeking justice, freeing the oppressed and defending the fatherless and widow, with cleansing promised to the willing and obedient and judgment to the rebellious. That guilt rests on liquor dealers who grow rich from the ruin of their victims, on a church that neglects the orphan, widow, blind, lame and sick, and on a people that tolerates oppression, so their prayers and gifts are not accepted until wrongs are undone and every yoke is broken.

Context and Meaning

The words were addressed to the rulers and people of Judah in the apostasy under Ahaz, who are called rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah. Even while in that apostasy their leaders kept up the forms of divine worship, claimed to be numbered among God's people and to lean upon the Lord, yet they were building up Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity. When such worshipers spread forth their hands in prayer and make many prayers, God hides His eyes from them and will not hear. He refuses to look favorably on them because their hands are full of blood.

Hands full of blood means lives stained by violence, bloodshed, iniquity, wrongdoing and injustice. That guilt makes multiplied prayers and outward worship vain and unacceptable, so God does not accept them while worshipers persist in wrongdoing. The verse belongs to a rebuke of people who claim righteousness while transgressing God's holy law. It describes the spiritual condition of the men Christ drove from the temple courts.

In the setting of Isaiah 1:11-17 and Isaiah 1:13-15, the multitude of sacrifices, coming to appear before God, treading His courts, new moons and appointed feasts become a trouble He is weary to bear when hearts remain unrepentant. Many prayers and outward acts do not make worship acceptable without a true spirit of worship. Worship and many offerings cannot remove sin while hearts remain unrepentant, for sin is transgression of God's law and requires genuine repentance and humility.

Why Prayer Is Rejected

Religious ceremonies, sacrifices and outward devotion cannot please God or remove sin while people persist in evil and fail to do what is right. When worshipers spread forth their hands and make many prayers, He hides His eyes and will not hear or look favorably upon them because their lives are stained by violence, wrongdoing, injustice and bloodshed. Their bloodstained hands make multiplied prayers and outward worship vain and unacceptable, for such worship is heartless hypocrisy that withholds the obedience He requires.

Multiplying sacrifices cannot replace humble repentance, obedience and turning from evil. Sacrificial offerings cannot take the place of a broken heart, sorrow for sin and obedience to God, and outward religious acts without these do not remove guilt. Worship and many prayers cannot be accepted while people persist in sin without true repentance.

Religious forms cannot transform the character, and a show of holiness can conceal love of sin. Prayers and outward religious observances do not make worship acceptable when people persist in sin and hearts remain unrepentant. Sin must be named as transgression of God's law, and those who have sinned must show genuine repentance and humility, which He requires of His people in every age. Many prayers and outward acts do not make worship acceptable when they lack a true spirit of worship, but He welcomes those who seek Him sincerely, confess sin, ask pardon and trust in the promised Savior's merits.

Required Change and Applications

The way out is to stop doing evil and learn to do good, to seek justice, relieve the oppressed, and plead for the fatherless and the widow, for cleansing is offered and good is promised to those who are willing and obedient, while refusal and rebellion bring judgment. Hands full of blood include the guilt of those who grow rich from the liquor trade by profiting from the degradation, suffering and ruin of their victims, so money gained by exploiting people in that traffic is bloodstained. Giving such money to the church or using it to appear generous cannot cover the guilt or make it acceptable to God.

The seller's hands are full of blood because the liquor traffic spreads misery and suffering, and both sellers and supporters share responsibility for the harm it causes. They are held accountable for the misery, deprivation and loss of hope it brings, and for the deaths it causes, including souls sent unprepared into eternity. The same warning falls on God's people when they neglect the afflicted or take advantage of them, for while members neglect the orphan, widow, blind, lame or sick, God hides His face and does not answer the prayers of the church. The church is accountable as a body and must do what it can to remedy the wrong.

Prayers offered by a people who tolerate oppression are not accepted, because worship joined to injustice is turned away. In wartime the prayers of the nation do not reach God while it fails to free the oppressed, and He will accept them only when the people keep the fast He has chosen by undoing heavy burdens and breaking every yoke. Meanness, littleness, cheapness of action and selfish scheming to gain advantage in business connected with God's cause are hated as robbery. This includes taking advantage in conferences and institutions and scheming of one branch of the work against another, growing into stronger selfish threads and an offensive spirit and character until trust is forfeited.

Such management with narrow figuring and worldly policy brings grief, and God will not serve with those sins nor let His name be degraded by them, nor accept service mixed with them. After sufficient trial every agent who schemes to gain advantage over those with whom he deals will be removed from service. What is called for instead are noble-spirited, whole-hearted, sympathizing, liberal, tender and unselfish people with the Spirit of Christ, lifted above desire for gain, who love God supremely and their neighbor as themselves and deal nobly with sacred interests as one cause.