Isaiah Chapter 58 starts with God the Word calling Isaiah to confront His people with their sins. Verses 2-3 God is actually sarcastic and points out His people's self-righteousness: they claim to seek God and walk righteously, they act like they want the ordinances of God and to be near to God, and are surprised by the fact that God isn't seeming to notice it. God replies, starting in 3, that He doesn't hear because He's not interested in fasts that honor self or result in humbling the self (5) in sackcloth and ashes. He sees His people causing problems in their wickedness--and it seems like the people are currently wanting to be heard by God on high, but not at the expense of stopping their wicked habits (4). God gives them what He considers and honorable fast: ending wickedness, freeing the oppressed, feeding the hungry (6), housing and clothing the poor and homeless, caring for your relatives (7), and turning away from our own selfish pursuits (13; I deal with this at length in the personal thoughts section). Not only that, but God--in typical blessing fashion--shares how listening to Him and following His commands is going to result in some pretty amazing blessings, not the least of which is taking delight in Him (8-12, 14).
Harkening back to the fears of abandonment expressed in 58:3, God the Word says that God's not weak or deaf or blind to His people's suffering (1), but that their sins "have made a separation between you and your God." Then I read the next part and a part of me shudders: "And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear" (2). My first thought is "What? So my sin short-circuits God's ability to hear the cries of the afflicted? That's pretty jacked up!" But the NASB translation I'm using isn't paraphrased; it's as close to the original language (Hebrew) as we can get. And God the Word says "[God] does not hear." Not can't, but won't. This flies right in the face of our modern--some might say "enlightened"--sensibilities. But if we take the time to look at what is being said here, we might see that God is saying our lives matter. What we do and say is not without consequence. Our sins are not without consequence. They matter, and we cannot simply claim to be one with God and live in any way that suits us. When we do that, our lives are not only divided but both sides of our behavior become a lie because of that other side.
In verses 3-8 God the Word draws out why God will not hear His people. Their behavior does not resemble godliness at all, much less godly pursuits that honor Him. Therefore (9), we don't see justice, righteousness, or light, walk like half-dead blind people, stumbling around in the middle of the day and whining about the absence of salvation (10-11). The "speaking voice" has shifted (as of verse 9) to Isaiah, or the collective people of Israel, or is God the Word speaking the truth that all the people hold unspoken in their hearts. Verse 12 is a confirmation of our conscience, of the gentle probing of the Holy Spirit to turn us back to God. Our sins are a result of turning away from God, ignoring truth, and thus the ones that do resist evil make themselves easy pickings for those who continue in it... and this bothered God (13-15). But since no one could do what only God can do, God does. He upholds His righteousness and brings salvation, He comes to repay and redeem (16-21). I read this and, though I don't know if it's connected to the Jewish mindset looking for a Messiah, it sounds like the Messiah to me. The vocabulary sounds militaristic, and establishing a reign that spreads God's glory and fear of Him everywhere, so I can see how people would think that the Messiah was going to be a conquering hero. And God proclaims that these words are going to continue on from generation to generation--proclaiming the fear of the Lord, His greatness now and forever.
In verses 3-8 God the Word draws out why God will not hear His people. Their behavior does not resemble godliness at all, much less godly pursuits that honor Him. Therefore (9), we don't see justice, righteousness, or light, walk like half-dead blind people, stumbling around in the middle of the day and whining about the absence of salvation (10-11). The "speaking voice" has shifted (as of verse 9) to Isaiah, or the collective people of Israel, or is God the Word speaking the truth that all the people hold unspoken in their hearts. Verse 12 is a confirmation of our conscience, of the gentle probing of the Holy Spirit to turn us back to God. Our sins are a result of turning away from God, ignoring truth, and thus the ones that do resist evil make themselves easy pickings for those who continue in it... and this bothered God (13-15). But since no one could do what only God can do, God does. He upholds His righteousness and brings salvation, He comes to repay and redeem (16-21). I read this and, though I don't know if it's connected to the Jewish mindset looking for a Messiah, it sounds like the Messiah to me. The vocabulary sounds militaristic, and establishing a reign that spreads God's glory and fear of Him everywhere, so I can see how people would think that the Messiah was going to be a conquering hero. And God proclaims that these words are going to continue on from generation to generation--proclaiming the fear of the Lord, His greatness now and forever.
Isaiah 58 starts with God the Word telling Isaiah to confront His people with their sins. And then He gets sarcastic. Yes, the Word of God gets sarcastic with His people. They are so sure that they're pursuing God, desiring His nearness and honoring Him, that they have somehow avoided doing the very things God has commanded them to do. Given the connection between the sabbath and fasting in this passage, we see here how far afield God's people have gone when they later itemize what is work and what is not, and therefore allowed or prohibited on the sabbath. It seems to me that stopping wickedness, freeing the oppressed, and caring for the hungry, homeless, and poor among you might take some work. In verse 13 God reiterates the importance, and content, of the sabbath so they don't miss it. I include the bullet points again here as a matter of great importance we would all do well to remember:
On the Sabbath, you should...
| On the Sabbath, you should avoid...
| ... and the result will be...
|
How HUGE is that?! The importance of the sabbath is not in a ceasing of all activity, but ceasing our relentless pursuit of what WE want, what WE think we need, our OWN desires and cares and concerns, and focusing on that which moves the heart of God! And it seems to me that, based on the list in Ch. 58, what moves the heart of God is US! The hurting, the hungry and afflicted and suffering who need to be rescued and helped, not abandoned and rejected because someone else doesn't think we measure up. But the sad thing is how we continue to turn to people just as sick and broken and needy as us for help and answers, and instead of hearing the need to turn away from our sin and back to God (59:1-3), we keep hearing self-help plans and ways to get the most out of life and how much God loves us and wants to bless us. Those things are well and good, but only in their proper place. Only after we've recognized the sin in us that separates us from the One true, holy and loving, God can admit that it's only this God that can save us and make us clean again.
There is power in the Word of God, if we are willing to take it in. But, more often than not, we only take in what other people say about the Word, a false caricature of who God is and what He's about.
What's funny--funny "I'm gonna ralph," not funny "ha ha"--is that so often we don't reject God at all but the idol that someone has erected and said "this is God." We dissect God, and remove His actions and words from their proper context, and reject the false god that results from it. God out of context is not God at all, but a construction of human reason and logic and feeling and (honestly) whatever opinions happen to be foremost in our thinking at the time. That god isn't God at all. Scripture calls it an idol. And we are not to make any idol to worship or serve (Ex. 20), whether it's a golden calf in the desert or a paragraph that lessens God's greatness.
I've got to sit on that for a while.
Mind + Word of God = Blown
There is power in the Word of God, if we are willing to take it in. But, more often than not, we only take in what other people say about the Word, a false caricature of who God is and what He's about.
What's funny--funny "I'm gonna ralph," not funny "ha ha"--is that so often we don't reject God at all but the idol that someone has erected and said "this is God." We dissect God, and remove His actions and words from their proper context, and reject the false god that results from it. God out of context is not God at all, but a construction of human reason and logic and feeling and (honestly) whatever opinions happen to be foremost in our thinking at the time. That god isn't God at all. Scripture calls it an idol. And we are not to make any idol to worship or serve (Ex. 20), whether it's a golden calf in the desert or a paragraph that lessens God's greatness.
I've got to sit on that for a while.
Mind + Word of God = Blown