Powerful cleansing

‘Wash yourselves clean. Stop all this evil that I see you doing. Yes, stop doing evil and learn to do right. See that justice is done – help those who are oppressed, give orphans their rights, and defend the widows.’ The Lord says, ‘Now, let’s settle the matter. You are stained red with sin, but I will wash you as clean as snow. Although your sins are deep red, you will be as white as wool.’   (verses 16-18)

Read Isaiah 1:10-20

Ever since I was a child I have been seeing television advertisements for washing detergent. There have been beaming housewives delighted at the snow-white results, children getting clothes impossibly dirty and apparently even helpless husbands who could get the washing clean if they used brand X.

The Bible advertises a cleansing agent too: ‘You are stained red with sin, but I will wash you as clean as snow. Although your sins are deep red, you will be as white as wool.’ Now that’s powerful! And, unlike the products in the television advertisements, this cleansing actually works – and it’s free!

Thanks to the life and death of Jesus, you and I are made clean and can look forward to a life in heaven, where no sin will ever stain our lives again.

Wash me, Lord Jesus, and I will be clean. Amen

by Anne Maczkowiack in ‘Renewed Hope for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2000)

Visit the Daily Devotion archives page.