NOTES for Isa 1:16-17

It is the beginning of the book of the prophet Isaiah. Here becomes very obvious the task of any prediction: in a situation, when people lose all the spiritual and moral orienting points, God through His prophets restores the genuine representation of righteousness.

Thus, firstly: wash you, make you clean. For that, it is necessary to accept that we are unclean, to recognize our failure and our sinfulness. And then – cease to do evil, put away the evil of our doings "before the eyes of God ", which is completely from life, because God sees everything. And after that - do good, the criterion of the authenticity of this good is the disinterestedness. Indeed, to save the slave, to protect the fatherless and the widow – it means doing something good to the weakest, the most poor, to the most deprived of right people in the world of that time, those, from whom can’t expect for any remuneration for your good action. The disinterestedness is a sign of mercy and of beneficence, so dear to the heart of God.

Certainly, this call of the prophet in itself doesn’t give to man the strengths for life according to these orienting points, it [the call] awakes only the desire of such life, but the possibility of the plenitude of righteousness reveals itself in the New Testament with Christ.