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God reasons with man — that is the first article of religion with Isaiah. God addresses man's mind, intelligence, conscience. There are two great falsehoods in the world about God.

1. That He is too great to reason with man; that He never gives any reason for anything He commands or does.

2. That God Himself is not a reasonable Being at all. It is a falsehood not openly declared in so many words, but a practice adopted in the lives of men. Men act as though they believe they could impose upon God. Let us try to follow God's reasoning in this chapter. There is a threefold basis of reasoning laid down.

I. God reasons with man ON THE BASIS OF MAN'S WHOLE LIFE. God said to man, "Come, let us reason together." "Very well," says man, "let this be the ground of our reasoning. Look at my life as it lies within the circle of its religious action and exercises, the sacrifices I bring to you, the incense I offer, the fasts I make. Let us reason on that basis, let us take our stand there." And as you will see in this chapter, God utterly rejects reasoning like this, and says, "No, no; I must deal with you on the basis of your whole life, not any limited and selected part of it which you choose to present and urge." Now there is great significance in this connection in the opening words of this chapter. God cries out to earth and heaven, and says, "These are the only limits of man's life I can recognise — the earth on which he walks, on the surface of which everything is done, the heavens over his head, which look down upon every transaction of his life; that is the basis of My reasoning, and that alone." It is well for us to remember this, for today men are trying continually to reason with God on some narrow chosen ground of their own.

II. God reasons with men or THE BASIS OF HIS OWN FATHERHOOD. You will see how in this chapter He reminds all men of it, gives men proofs of it, tells men He has fulfilled it in relation to them. "Admit," He says, "My Fatherhood, and what does your life look like in the light of it? How unnatural and base it becomes. You sink below the brute." This is God's reasoning, and who of us can stand against it?

III. God reasons with man or THE BASIS OF SIN'S RESULTS. He says, "You have rebelled against Me. Has it justified itself in its success?" And God gives the answer in searching and terrible words "Why should ye be stricken any more?" etc. (vers. 5-8). He points them to the terrible and pitiful results which have come to pass for the Individual and the nation through their disobedience towards God; and He challenges them, and says, "Now, look at it as I have reasoned it out with you." This is God's argument still. If we would listen, we might hear His voice in His Word, and in our consciences, saying, "Tell me, O men and women who are living without Me and in sin, what good has your sin ever done you!" There is no answer. And so we are led to the crisis of my text. We seem to be in the presence of a great dilemma. Either God must abate His claims, lower rebellion, or else logic must rule, justice must have its way. The first of these we know God cannot do. It would wreck His universe if God declined from the absolute right, it would bring ruin and shame wherever created and finite beings are found. If that be impossible, what remains? Oh, there seems to be an awful moment between that first clause of the text and what follows. "Come now, let us bring our reasoning to an end. There is nothing more to be said. The case has gone against you; all your arguments have fallen to the ground." What remains? We wait to hear, and instead of the dread sentence of wrath and judgment come the words of mercy: "Though your sins be as scarlet," etc. Right in between the eternal and infinite righteousness and the sinner's doom mercy breaks in, pardon perfect and complete. So great the change that when a man feels the pardon in his heart, he can turn his face and address himself hopefully to that great ideal of life which the law of God presents. "Wash you, make you clean," etc. And then, the soul within us rises up and asks, "Why is this, if God be infinitely reasonable, if He reasons with such force and conclusion, why does He not follow out His reasoning to its logical conclusion? Why does He spare and pardon the sinner taken red-handed in his sin?" Why, simply because there is something more scarlet than the scarlet of a sinner's sin, that covers the sinner's sin, and makes God's pardon a just and rightful thing. "There is a fountain filled with blood," etc.

(W. Perkins.)

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KJV: 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.

WEB: "Come now, and let us reason together," says Yahweh: "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.