Hello my friends,

I read the news about the horrific mass shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school right after dropping my own children off at their school. Reports say that there were more than 20 victims and two children were killed. My wife and I just burst into tears at the thought of what those parents are going through. We both said to each other that there is just no coming back from that kind of loss. Just the thought of what they are experiencing right now is unimaginable.Events like this not only break my heart, but it just makes me so angry at the senselessness and hypocrisy of it all. I feel this way even more so now as a father.

So today, I want to reflect together on a common sentiment that is still being said today around thoughts and prayers being offered in the face of perpetual mass shootings through the lens of Isaiah 1:15.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES:

​-"No One Said Destroying Our Idols Would Be Easy." I highly recommend reading this excellent article written by Tyler Huckabee. Through the lens of the Old Testament, he brilliantly shows that guns can only become an idol when violence is already an idol. It is such a thought-provoking, biblically-based read.

​-The Gun Problem is a Sin Problem. I wrote this reflection on the common phrase, "It's not a gun problem, it's a sin problem" that's often said from many Christians in the wake of mass shootings. I thought I would share it again here.

​-Thoughts and Prayers vs Fruit of Repentance This is another article I wrote back in 2023. In it, I reflect on the nature of how this sentiment is often applied and where it isn't at the intersection of Christianity and politics.

​-The Gun Machine Podcast This is an excellent investigative podcast on both the gun industry and gun culture in America. It is so well done and I highly encourage giving it a listen if you haven't yet already.
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"Thoughts & Prayers."

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After every tragic mass shooting, there has been a very common response, especially from those in positions of power. It is always something along the lines of, "We offer our thoughts and our prayers for the victims of this terrible tragedy."

Now, there is nothing wrong with this phrase inherently. In fact, I have said it many times as a pastor to those who are grieving and hurting and I still do. Genuinely thinking and praying for someone is a deeply needed and loving act.

Yet with every act, we must ask its purpose and the fruit it is producing from our lives and in our world.

One of the most common critiques of how this phrase is used is towards those in political power who express it after mass shootings in our country, yet actively oppose common sense gun laws and even cut funding to mental health care all while claiming we need to address mental healthcare, not guns.

With lip service being paid to praying over these tragedies, yet resisting efforts to address them, it comes across as merely spiritualizing themselves and the tragedy at best and hypocrisy at worst.

As the theologian Miroslav Volf famously puts it, “There is something deeply hypocritical about praying for a problem you are unwilling to resolve.”

Criticism towards this dynamic is taboo and is often treated as though prayer itself is being criticized, which might be the case by some, but not all. The majority of the criticism is directed towards using prayer as a replacement for pursuing justice, especially for the most vulnerable.

This is why I believe it is all the more important to evaluate a time when God leveled a similar rebuke towards prayer being used this way and why it is so critical for us to understand today.

So let's take a look.

Isaiah 1:15

“When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood.”

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​Immediate Context (Isaiah 1:10–20)

Isaiah 1:15 falls in the opening oracle of the book, where God delivers a stinging rebuke to Judah and Jerusalem. The people were still participating in temple worship, sacrifices, and prayer, but their society was corrupt and unjust.

In Isaiah 1:10–14, God says their sacrifices, festivals, incense, and assemblies have become meaningless because they are disconnected from righteousness and justice. Religious ritual without ethical integrity is hypocrisy. Then in Isaiah 1:15, God declares that He will not hear their prayers because their “hands are full of blood.” This imagery points both to violence in society and to complicity in injustice. Blood on their hands represents guilt for oppression and neglect of the vulnerable.

This leads to Isaiah 1:16–17 where God calls them to repentance: “Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” This takes us to Isaiah 1:18–20 where God offers hope: if they repent, their sins, though scarlet, will be made white as snow. But if they refuse, they will face judgment.

So, verse 15 is not a standalone condemnation of prayer, but rather a critique of prayer divorced from justice and mercy.

Historical and Social Context

The first chapter of Isaiah likely reflects the late 8th century BCE, during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, or Hezekiah (Isaiah 1:1). Judah was in political and social turmoil. Wealthy elites were exploiting the poor, courts were corrupt, widows and orphans were neglected, and leaders were more interested in power than covenant faithfulness. Worship practices continued at the temple, but they had become hollow rituals. God’s covenant with Israel demanded that worship be inseparable from justice and care for the vulnerable (cf. Deut. 10:17–19; Amos 5:21–24; Mic. 6:6–8).

In this context, Isaiah is showing that God rejects worship that does not reflect God's character. Their prayers were empty because their lives contradicted their words.

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​Theological Context

This scripture shows that God values justice over ritual. Prayer and sacrifice cannot substitute for obedience and mercy. This same message runs throughout the prophets:

-Amos 5:23–24 – “Away with the noise of your songs! … But let justice roll on like a river.”

-Micah 6:6–8 – God requires justice, mercy, and humility more than offerings.

-Jesus echoes this in Matthew 23:23 – rebuking religious leaders for neglecting justice, mercy, and faithfulness while keeping rituals.

The phrase "blood on your hands" symbolizes more than literal murder. It is a metaphor for systemic injustice, exploitation, and oppression. They were guilty of shedding innocent blood by neglecting the powerless and participating in unjust systems.

The hands lifted in prayer are the same hands stained by injustice. God will not hear prayers offered with unrepentant hearts. Prayer without repentance is ineffective.

The strong judgment of verse 15 is followed by a gracious invitation in verse 18. God’s rejection of empty worship is not the last word. True repentance leads to forgiveness and renewal. This rebuke ends with hope.

Isaiah 1:15 is a sharp prophetic critique of religious hypocrisy. The people of Judah were faithfully performing rituals but ignoring justice. God refuses their prayers because their hands are “full of blood,” a vivid image of guilt, oppression, and violence. The larger passage makes clear that God desires repentance expressed through justice, mercy, and righteousness. Only then will prayer and worship be acceptable to Him.

Still Relevant Today

Isaiah’s words strike us with unsettling relevance today. The prophet condemned a people who were faithful in their rituals but unfaithful in their lives. They prayed, offered sacrifices, and held their religious assemblies, yet their hands were “full of blood.” God said plainly, “I will not listen.”

We see a haunting parallel when people in power publicly claim to follow Jesus, speak His name in prayers, or appeal to “Christian values,” yet actively perpetuate injustice. Leaders invoke God while passing policies that harm the poor, strip away dignity from the vulnerable, and protect systems of violence. They pray in public, but in their decisions and actions, they refuse justice and mercy.

Isaiah reminds us that God is not impressed with religious language when it is divorced from love of neighbor. To bow our heads in prayer while ignoring the suffering around us is to lift bloodstained hands. To say “Lord, Lord” while neglecting the widow, orphan, immigrant, or marginalized is hypocrisy. Jesus Himself said that not everyone who calls Him “Lord” will enter the kingdom, but only those who do the will of His Father (Matthew 7:21).

This means that when public officials wrap themselves in the language of faith but defend policies that protect the powerful and crush the powerless, they stand under the same prophetic critique. God is not fooled by piety that masks oppression. God rejects prayers that do not flow from hearts committed to mercy and justice.

But Isaiah also offers hope and we should to. Right after declaring that God will not hear their prayers, God says, “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean… learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow” (Isaiah 1:16–17). The path forward is repentance and restoration. God’s desire is not to reject forever, but to call people back to faithfulness.

For us today, this means that if we claim the name of Jesus, our prayers must be joined with lives of compassion, our worship with acts of justice, our words with deeds of mercy. Otherwise, we risk offering God the same hollow prayers that God refused in Isaiah’s day.

So when leaders use Christ’s name while advancing injustice, we must not confuse their public prayers with genuine faithfulness. The true measure of faith is not how loudly one invokes God’s name in prayer, but how deeply one embodies God's love and justice.

Now I'd like to hear from you! Did you find this helpful? What thoughts came to your mind as you read? Feel free to respond to this email and share your thoughts with me. I look forward to reading them. New 30 Day Devotional: I recently wrote a 30 day devotional in hopes to provide a companion for people seeking to follow Jesus in our world today. You can read more about it here: $20.00 Following Jesus In A World Obsessed With Empires: 30 Days of reclaiming the hope, compassion, and justice of Jesus. Today, our world can often feel overwhelmed by darkness, division, and despair. I created this 30-day devotional to... Read more Get it now! ​ Ways to support: If you'd like to support this project, you can do so through one-time-gift of any amount you feel is right. You can also subscribe through a $5/mo, $15/mo, or $25/mo. Several others have also asked for a recurring gift option that is different from the ones offered here, like this one. If you'd like me to set up a different option for you, please just send me an email with the word "support" in the subject line. As always, I really want to thank all of you for reading and for all the ways you support me and this project every single week. I'm thankful for the ways we are building this together and hope it creates a lasting, positive change in our world along the way! I sincerely appreciate you all, Ben Remember, you can now view this and all previous newsletters as well as invite friends to join through this link: https://benjamin-cremer.ck.page/profile.

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