The Echos in Scripture

12 “When you come to appear before me,
    who has required of you
    this trampling of my courts?
13 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.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts
    my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
    I am weary of bearing them.
15 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.
16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
    remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
17     learn to do good;
seek justice,
    correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,    plead the widow's cause.
Isaiah 1:12-17
Yesterday I wrote on that concise challenge from Micah 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Seeing the passage above is like hearing an echo.  We see it often in scripture: God saying the same thing through different writers at different times under different circumstances. Why? We need to keep hearing it. We all have this tendency to begin to "go through the motions" in worship, doing the things which we think will appease Him and please others. But He has already told us what He wants: purity of life, a passion for justice, and a humble heart before Him.  Yes, He wants and deserves our hands to be full of gifts of adoration, then raised in praise, but not if they are stained with sin and the blood of the innocent we have ignored. So let's hear it again, like He's told us before: He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?