Hello, my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
Yesterday, we looked with caution at a great warning from God found in Isaiah 58. Do you remember? It’s a warning about integrity, about going through the religious motions, rituals, or traditions while at the same time allowing our hearts and lives to be defiled by the evil darkness of our world.
As we concluded yesterday, I promised I’d meet you right back here in Isaiah to see what God says next, because very often God balances a warning with guidance to a blessing, and that’s what God did with Isaiah.
Yesterday we saw that God explained to Isaiah what true fasting behavior was in contrast with the mockery of fasting which the people were doing as a religious ritual, assuming they were impressing God! Isaiah recorded God’s words in Is. 58:5-8.
Then God followed it with this powerful promise of blessing IF His people would stop living deceitful lives and start living lives which honored God: “Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help and the LORD will say ‘Here am I’.” (Is.58:9)
Real HOPE begins right there doesn’t it my friends? God given HOPE is rooted in the reality that God is aware of all things and available to us when we need His help, when we face challenges in life bigger than our capacity or resources. Hope is also rooted in the promise of God that He will HEAR our cry for help, and because He cares and loves us, He will RESPOND within His full understanding of our situation and from His position of unparalleled power!
For Jews, that idea, that promise, always awakened their memory of the Passover experience of God rescuing His people, their ancestors, from Egyptian slavery. They knew that Egyptian rescue began with God’s promise to Moses at the burning bush: “I have indeed seen the misery of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers and I am concerned about their suffering. So, I have come down to rescue them…” (Ex. 3:7,8)
Those words have historically been a reliable source of hope for millions of people, generation after generation. I’m sure Isaiah thought of those words and perhaps smiled as he wrote the words God was speaking into his mind which he recorded for us Isaiah 58:9.
But the ink wasn’t even dry when Isaiah heard God speak again, so Isaiah kept writing: “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.“ (Is. 58:9b,10) Do we understand God’s formula for blessing, found here my friends? Do you see the contrasts God declares here? “The yoke of oppression” has to do with unfair labor practices in the workplace and slavery, especially child slavery, would be the ultimate example. “The pointing finger” is seen in every segment of society when someone is falsely accused of wrongdoing or mocked or humiliated. Do you see how rampant that is in our day? “Malicious talk” is seen almost everywhere in society, isn’t it?
It’s the foul language used against police officers trying to do their job to keep law and order in our society; or at ball games as athletes, coaches and referees in athletics are booed from the stands; or politicians and government officials who receive threatening notes. And it’s especially found in social media as anyone with a gripe wanting to stir the pot of disgruntledness simply exercises what a friend of mine calls “keyboard courage”. All three of these are epidemic in every society in the world, aren’t they? And they all feed the darkness!
But God calls His people to live very differently. Do you remember Jesus said it this way: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world…People do not light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matt. 5:13-16)
I wonder if you’d agree that the darkness in every city, every country, every society is growing darker. Hope is dimming for millions of people as they look into their future with great anxiety. God was giving His people some very practical advice for transforming their families and even their city, and God was promising that if His people would change and think differently, act differently, change their priorities and behavior to be God honoring, then He would step in and do among them what only God can do!
Isaiah wrote God’s next promise with these words: “The LORD will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”(Is. 58:11) For people living in the middle east, and many other parts of the world, these are very real, practical words. While the sunshine is important it can be excessively hot, scorching for plants, crops, animals and people. If rain is infrequent and water rare, life can be miserable.
But God promised He would sustain His people, supply everything needed by His people, and His blessings on them would cause them to be as welcome and delightful, in any place, as cool water in a dry, hot place!
Now I think we need to pause right here and look closely at ourselves, our families, our cities. Are we contributing to the darkness, the problems, the dysfunction, the hopelessness? Or with God’s help are we awakening HOPE and is God pouring out THROUGH US, His blessing upon our families, our neighborhoods, our cities, even our nation?
Give that some serious thought as we consider Isaiah’s words today, and I wonder if this song is what God was hoping would be the cry of His people in Isaiah’s day… And in our day, in your city and mine.
Today’s Scripture: Is. 58:9-11.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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