Our Bible Verse this morning is found in the great Book of Isaiah. I especially want you Believers in Jesus, having accepted Him as your personal Saviour, to read it carefully.
“I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.” The Lord God speaking in Isaiah 44:22.
“Transgressions,” the noun, means “rebellion,” spelled “pesha” in Hebrew. To revolt against the Almighty, what an affront to Divinity. And we’ve all done it!
“Sins,” that noun, means “missing the mark” when it comes to anything godly. Disobedience, which leads to great loss. It is spelled “chattah” in Hebrew.
We, both by birth and by practice, are rebels and derelicts when it comes to the things of the Lord.
But God the “Redeemer” (using the word that indicates that great “Kinsman Redeemer” thought in Jewish culture, Old Testament theology) has provided a way to deal with (to do away with) my transgressions and sins!
Through the Blood of Jesus we now know!
As in… “The Blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7
But now to the word pictures today’s Verse employs. Specifically that of “blotting out” our “wrongs” as if they were as distinct as a “thick cloud!”
“Blotted out” (in Hebrew “machah”) means “to wipe away! To abolish or to destroy! One lexicon says “to exterminate!”
And “thick clouds” are those of the violent thunderstorm variety, extremely severe at that. We’ve all seen them. And at times feared them, I’d say.
God can dry up that storm!
And next, here’s the illustration that captivated me this morning … “and as a cloud, thy sins return unto Me.”
This noun for “cloud” is not as foreboding as the first. Hence the absence of the modifier “thick.” Several etymologists (those who study word origins and usage) says this word (spelled “anon”) can means “mists!” Like the “fog” on an early Spring day! “Morning mist” one Preacher explained it!
By “returned unto Me,” God means He will absolve, forgive, evaporate those sins as He does that for, those mists of the morning! The verb “return” actually expresses the Bible idea of “repentance!”
Again … all this because of God’s amazing Plan of Redemption!
Paul explains this best. Read the following little paragraph please …
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the REDEMPTION that is in Christ Jesus. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” Romans 3:23-26
God can clear the skies!
Clear the mist!
Here today with this Verse … even the weather can be a powerful illustration of my sin (and yours) … being taken away!
Hallelujah!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
Oh, the Lesson Title …“Delete!” My laptop computer allows me, with one slight touch, to erase my mistakes! Yes, that little “delete” key! Do you get the picture? God, through the Death of Jesus on the Cross, can also “delete” our sins!
Gone!
.