Isaiah 1:16 “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.”
Isaiah lists four basic Commandments for a “sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters” that “have forsaken the LORD” that “have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger” and have “gone away backward” (Isaiah 1:4)! First, “Wash you, make you clean”; that is, those who have turned their back upon the Word of God and are fulfilling their lusts for immorality, greed, and power; are Commanded to “Wash” their vile deeds from themselves and to continue washing until they have made themselves “clean”. Second, “put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes”; that is, “put away the” bad and harmful things you are doing “from before” the Lord’s “eyes”. Considering that He sees everything, it means to cease the “evil” deeds and even the very thoughts of “evil”, in particular their self-centered religion that gives glory to man and not God. Third, “cease to do evil”; that is, immediately terminate your lies, deceit, distortions, and abuse of others. Fourth, “Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow”; that is, we “learn to do well” by praying for wisdom and strength, reading the Word of God, talking about the Word of God, going to Church and hearing the Word of God Preached, putting the Holy Things we “Learn” into action, and seeking to “worship” our Heavenly Father “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). To “do well” is to “seek judgment”; that is, be truthfully honest, loving, meek, helpful, and kind to those around us. While we are seeking to be honest, we must especially be honest in our interpretation and application of the Word of God. To “do well” is to “relieve the oppressed”; that is, do not oppress or take advantage of anyone, but rush to the aid of the downtrodden to help them and lift them up. To “do well” is to “judge the fatherless”; that is, rush to those children who have no father, that are left alone and have no means of caring for themselves, and certainly do not take advantage of them and use them as pawns in some scheme to advance our own vile lusts. To “do well” is to “plead for the widow”; that is, learn what her needs are, and do all you can to help her and encourage others to help also. These four Commandments emphasize the necessity for heartfelt godly, moral, kind, gracious, and brotherly treatment of others, which is the exact opposite of using others for self-advancement and pursuit of vain glory. Peter put it this way, “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (II Peter 1:5-8)!