Sin Red
We will look at this text and then we will have some fun in mining it deeper and deeper and finding more wonders and concepts as we go forwards. Our verse for today is found in Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” All very simple on the surface, so let us drill down deeper and explore.
Now Scarlet is Strong’s #8144 which just says that it is dyed, marinade in cooking terms. Crimson is Strong’s #8438 and this also points us to cloth dye. Now Adam is connected to Strong’s #119 which is dyed red. Now Adam was made from red mud so God called him red mud, Adumdumah in Hebrew, but the dum dum is the red red, or very red man, or ruddy as used in other places in scripture.
Now the other colour is again all the same, White is Strong’s #3835 is Laban, or white bricks. Snow is Strong’s #7950 points us back to whiteness. So from red and white we get Adam and Laban, now we all know about Adam as a good guy, who did a dumb thing at the forbidden tree, but Laban was a bit of a shrewd businessman who always made sure that he got the largest portion of any business transaction. The thing that scripture does record good about him was wives. If you wanted an “A Grade”, Top Class, dedicated Christian wife, who was also stunningly beautiful, well you just went over and saw Uncle Laban or his family and there were plenty of fantastic women to choose a fantastic wife from.
Now in scripture, the themes are normally very closely related so the concept in one form will assist us to understand it in another form. Now as Isaiah got us started on “Comparisons,” I think that we have the right to play some more in themes we understand better. In his day, glistening white brick may have been popular at the building supply merchants, but today the white brick has got a whole lot thinner and is now glistening white tiles. Still made from clay, so we have not deviated from base principles, just now we can visualize and comprehend it a whole lot better.
So we take good ole sturdy Adam (Red Brick) and build our edifice, there it stands in its wonderful robustness, but boring red colour. Now our verse gives us a colour change, so let us order a fair few pallet loads of Laban (glistening white tiles) and what a difference a tile makes. No longer boring and red, it is pure, white and glistening in the sun, a real knockout now.
There is in scripture another object that is coated and the structure is hidden, and that is the Ark of the Covenant in the Most Holy Place. Now this was timber, clad in gold plate. Now during the second world war, the British had a problem with buildings burning down, and quite a few burned because the fire outside, burned through the wooden door and thus the fire came inside. Fireproof materials went into the war effort so that left a problem, well that was until it was noted that metal cladding over wooden doors, made a very effective fire door, fireproof.
Now the Ark of the Covenant was made of Shittim Wood. Now Shittim Wood, we would understand it more in relationship to Gum trees. The wood is great, hard to work and hard to get a straight plank, but a finished polished piece of furniture has a very unique and fantastic grain, beautiful. This in Hebrew is likened to human flesh. Now Gold is always connected to God and gold chain is connected to law, hence Mayors have mayoral chains, or evidences around his neck that he is in authority, he is the law.
Now back to the start, red mud, now glistening white. Grainy timber now pure shiny gold, and fireproof. So where is this going you may ask, well mud and timber is connected to you and I in our sinfulness and shortcomings. A wee Heavenly treatment and we disappear and there in its place is just an amazing object, but it still bears the likeness and form of the base structure beneath. We Christians on this side of Calvary call this “The Robe of Christ’s Righteousness,” or that which covers our lacking, and we are no longer seen, but as Paul said “Christ liveth in me,” (Gal 2:20)
Now Paul also plays in concepts relating to our subject in 1 Corinthians 3:11-14 “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.”
Here we see that being fireproof is very critical. If we go back to Laban and adapt him a wee bit and make him now a ceramic tiles, still related products, we can also make our verse fireproof. That added to this verse and we complete our mental gymnastics quite well. In Ezekiel 28:14-16 we get that in the perfect eternity past, Satan was Lucifer and worked for God and stood right beside him, but the verse gives us the distinct impression that it was not a mild and tropical paradise, but an intense hot fiery place, sort of a furnace, reminds you of Daniels three friends who had a private meeting with Jesus in an overheated Furnace, a real cool meeting.
Have you and I availed ourselves of this Heavenly provided cladding, which covers our red-sin completely, makes us all brand new and fantastic, very durable and very much fire proof, this now allows us into the presence of God to associate with him without us bursting into flames and incinerating ourselves into ashes, like the lost will so very soon do. Dear Reader, please come to Jesus right now for a complete makeover, a real white fireproof robe of Christ’s Righteousness, it is your only protection.
