Isaiah 1: 2-6, 18-20
Completely Unreasonable!

Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth;
for the LORD has spoken:
I reared children and brought them up,
but they have rebelled against me.
The ox knows its owner,
and the donkey its master's crib;
but Israel does not know,
my people do not understand.

Ah, sinful nation,
people laden with iniquity,
offspring who do evil,
children who deal corruptly,
who have forsaken the LORD,
who have despised the Holy One of Israel,
who are utterly estranged!

Why do you seek further beatings?
Why do you continue to rebel?
The whole head is sick,
and the whole heart faint.
From the sole of the foot even to the head,
there is no soundness in it,
but bruises and sores
and bleeding wounds;
they have not been drained, or bound up,
or softened with oil.

Come now, let us argue it out,
says the LORD:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be like snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land;
but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be devoured by the sword;
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

New Revised Standard Version

In the opening of the book of Isaiah, God, through this prophet, makes His case to the people of Israel: "Look how unreasonable you are being!"

The text describes how they have completely lost, even abandoned, their identity as God's people, their grounding in the truth in God, and their source of blessings and prosperity from God. The passage pleads that even farm animals know where they belong, but God's children do not.

The result for the people of Israel has been calamity, but they cling to that calamity as if it were a great prize! Their wickedness has hurt them -- as a nation, they are completely sick, battered and bruised from head to toe, covered with open wounds, and without even anyone to clean and bandage the wounds. Still, they stand defiant, refusing even to recognize what they have abandoned.

Starting with verse 18, God asks to work this out. Many other translations show this verse as "Come, let us reason together", with this translation saying "let's argue this out" -- let's get all the facts straight between us so that we can resolve this conflict.

But God's offer is totally unreasonable!

All His wicked, rebellious, heart-breaking children have to do is to repent and be obedient, and everything is right again. The alternative, to continue in rebellion, is to continue to suffer, and in the case of the nations of Israel and Judah, ultimately to be conquered.

This, too, is the story of Easter. We sometimes lose that story line in the Old Testament as we contemplate being "devoured by the sword," but the primary point for Isaiah is not the consequences of rebellion but the unreasonable generosity of God. He tells us that whatever we think separates us from a good relationship from God cannot possibly turn God away from us.

Whatever we think would make us unlovely to God is brushed away -- ask Peter after he talked to the resurrected Jesus.

Whenever we think we don't know enough to be a follower of God, we think wrong -- ask the adultress brought to Jesus to be stoned after he forgave her and told her to "go and stop sinning."

Whenever we think what we've done that is so bad that we can't forgive ourselves, we need to see the smile break through the pain in Jesus' body on the cross as he tells the criminal that "today you will be with me in paradise."

God has always been unreasonable in His love for us! And anything we do other than accept and rejoice in that love is unreasonable, too...