Broken

Having spent some time in the latter part of the book and the latter part of its historical reach, let's come back to where Isaiah's ministry to Israel started.  

Here at the start of the book we are back in about 745BC. The Northern Kingdom is about to be destroyed and the Southern Kingdom will only escape the Assyrians by Divine Intervention.

Here in chapter one, Isaiah is describing the utter brokenness of society.

• They're like a fighter going into a stick-fight without a stick and still they just keep going back into it. They're doing the wrong things, getting broken by them, but still going back to it. Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. We have clear evidence that drugs, alcohol and smoking are bad for us, but there has been an uptake in young people who partake in these dangerous habits.
• It's a heart and head problem—our thinking is wrong and we've lost our hearts. Isaiah shows them how they bow down to statues their own hands have made instead of worshipping the God of heaven and earth who lovingly created them. We spend hours on social media and ignore the precious people right in front of us. Our whole heads and whole hearts are afflicted.
• Their rebellion has affected and infected them from top to toe. And nobody is trying to heal it. Society is affected at every level when corruption and rebellion are the order of the day.

You might be saying, "Wow, what a depressing way to go into the rest of the day."

But here's what I want to pick up on: These verses are just a part of a very accurate diagnosis of their predicament. God looks at them like a devoted doctor and a loving parent. He doesn't miss or overlook any of their brokenness.  

And then, in verse 18 He says:

 "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD.
"Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool."

He sees our brokenness—all of it—and still He wants to heal us.