And finally, Isaiah puts it like this: the essence of humanity’s trouble is ‘sin’, and he is going on to deal with that. We have here, in the first verse of this first chapter, a masterly analysis of sin. Isaiah gives it to us in detail, for it is only as we understand sin, and see ourselves as sinners, that we have any hope whatsoever of being delivered. The Bible puts repentance before faith. We must go down before we go up. We must admit where we are wrong before we can be put right. We must understand