Spare me the noise. I can’t stomach any more of your songs. I know how you really live! Do you think I’m stupid? You don’t care to really serve me, to really walk out true spirituality: to help the helpless, the poor, and the oppressed. It’s all a show – just shallow, empty, dead religion.” – God.
Perhaps the message of Isaiah is more relevant today than ever before.
We’ve been exploring the real meaning behind Isaiah 64:6, and in my previous post, I asserted that this verse does not substantiate the popular view that righteous deeds or good works are detestable to God. Certainly a quick, surface level reading of this text could cause one to think that way.
“We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds [lit: 'righteousnesses'] are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” (Isaiah 64:6 ESV)
However, if we apply a wide angle lens to our interpretative eye, we will discover that throughout the book of Isaiah, he rebukes Israel for clinging to worthless, half-hearted forms of religion while continuing in complete rebellion against God. They wonder why God does not 
pay attention to their many displays of righteousness, but He knows that their covenantal faithfulness is divided – a stench of hypocrisy and syncretism. You see, they didn’t outright reject the worship of YHWH, but thought they could simply appease him with ritual observances while worshipping idols (30:22) and living in deeds of darkness. They chose to ignore the weightier matters of God’s instruction, playing the game of empty religion. In the opening chapter, the prophet, therefore, scolds them for contaminating His courts:
“When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” (Isaiah 1:12-17 ESV)
All these displays of righteousness were detestable to God. Their offerings, incense, Sabbaths, festivals, fast days, endless prayers – all commanded in the Torah, and all rejected. Why? Because God could see how they really lived. Jerusalem was not offering her best; Judah was full of evil deeds. Those who worshipped with their lips had evil hearts (29:13). Hands raised in prayer were stained with bloodshed. We find the same rebuke in the concluding chapters. Empty observances could not cover up unfaithfulness to the Mosaic covenant.[1]
“Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God. ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ (Isaiah 58:1-3)
It is a cry for authenticity. If Israel chose to repent and replace their evil ways with real righteous deeds of charity, the very thing God was after, He would welcome their worship and answer their prayers before him.
“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness [righteous deed] shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ (Isaiah 58:6-9)
Therefore, by interpreting Isaiah 64:6 in the wider context of the book, the meaning becomes very clear. Their outward displays of righteousness were repulsive to God, because inwardly their real behavior was teeming with defiling wickedness. Isaiah declared his people unclean with vivid imagery. They would be discarded as menstrual bloody bandages; like dried leaves, carried off by the wind. Exile was in the air. “Return to true righteousness!” sang the prophet, but the people preferred their hymns of dissent.
How on earth have we justified such an interpretation that God hates good deeds, detaching it from its context and creating some universal doctrine out of it? The entire Bible counters this toxic view. God is indeed pleased by good works, no matter who does them. The story of Cornelius, the centurion, testifies to this truth:
“Staring at him and becoming greatly afraid, Cornelius replied, ‘What is it, Lord?’ The angel said to him, ‘Your prayers and your acts of charity have gone up as a memorial before God.’” (Acts 10:4 NET Bible)
This was actually before Cornelius accepted Jesus, and God declared that his tzedakah, his righteous deed, was a sacrifice of pleasing aroma. No mention of filthy rags here, because acts of charity are right on target.
In closing, there is a universal principle that we can glean from Isaiah 64:6. Living in religious ritual, and going through the motions does nothing for anyone. God is not impressed. Have you ever felt so trapped in sin that you felt like a dry leaf blown by the wind? Taping a dead leaf to a tree branch accomplishes nothing. Empty observance, whether it be church attendance, singing, or liturgical prayer accomplishes nothing if we are not alive in the Spirit. It’s simply ignoring the whole point of the New Covenant: the repairing of the world (“tikkun olam”) through God’s Spirit, moving people to walk in righteousness.[2]
Such repeated regurgitation in the church that good deeds are filthy, unnoticed before God , or somehow counter the cross, is the exact opposite of what Jesus taught. He always stressed how one should live; for Jesus’ greatest teaching, the Sermon on the Mount, does not concern creed, nor cross. It is a call to action.
“In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16 ESV)
