Isaiah 2:5-9

⁵ House of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of Yahveh. ⁶ Because you have forsaken your people, house of Jacob, because they are full of diviners from east, and soothsayers like the Philistines, and they clap hands with the offspring of foreigners. ⁷ And its land is full of silver and gold, and there is no end to its treasures; and its land is full of horses, and no end is seen of its chariots. ⁸ Its land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of his hands, to what his fingers have made. ⁹ And Adam bows down; humanity is enslaved, and you must not lift them up.

mirror image

Isaiah’s people thought of themselves as a lonely island of purity in a sea of pagan filth. Isaiah said. “Really? Have you looked at yourself lately? You are just like the pagans. They are full of witch doctors and animistic practitioners of the magic arts; so are you. They are all about amassing wealth for themselves; look at your piles of silver and gold. They are all about building a war machine so they can kill and enslave other humans; ditto. Look in the mirror.”

We will never know true repentance until we stop believing that we are different from all those evil people out there. Really looking into the mirror means coming to grip with our own depravity and repulsiveness.

LORD, show us our true ugliness, and cleanse us so that we reflect your image, not that of the world around us.