Jess vs. Isaiah 58

This morning I've been spending some time in Isaiah and I wanted to pause and take a moment to reflect on Isaiah 58.

Here we see a good ole case of false piety. Isaiah is commanded to confront God's people about their hypocrisy. Their religiousness.

Sound familiar yet?

This passage is dripping with irony and sarcasm, an interesting, and in my opinion, admirable approach by the Big Guy. God tells Isaiah, "They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its God. They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me (emphasis my own). 'We have fasted before you!', they say, 'Why aren't you impressed? We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don't even notice it!' "I will tell you why!" I respond, "It's because you are fasting to please yourselves. Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers. What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me. You humble yourselves by going through the motions of penance, bowing your heads like reeds bending in the wind. You dress in burlap and cover yourselves with ashes. Is this what you call fasting? Do you really think this will please the Lord? (again, emphasis my own)- vs. 2-5

Clearly, these people are doing something wrong. And they are God's people. We, as believers, must be careful not to think that our religiousness pleases the Lord when our hearts are not in the right place. We must be willing to examine our actions and the reasons why we do them. Do we seek to please the Lord or ourselves?

Do I seek to please the Lord or myself?

So why is the Lord not pleased? What does he want his people to be doing? Let's keep reading.

"No this is the kind of fasting I want: free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help." -vs. 6-7

And then we are given a promise. If we do these things...

"Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind. Then when you call, the Lord will answer, 'Yes, I am here,' He will quickly reply. (quickly? Say whaaa?)-vs. 8-9

I believe that the Lord wants to bless his people. That's why he disciplines them and corrects them when they are on the wrong path. He wants us to know that there is a path to blessing, and it's not through ritualistic means or by doing "all the right things" with a wrong attitude. Blessing will come when we do the things that he asks us to do, and with a servant's heart.

I don't think that blessings and curses are simply a means of punishment and reward. While they can serve as those things, I think that our big God created them to be more than that. There's something else going on here. What I mean is, I believe that God created the universe to be a certain way, to act a certain way. There are laws and principles that guide the universe. We see this when we look at science (which by the way, I believe is not in opposition to God). So similarly to how we know that for every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction, or how we know that gravity is what holds us down, I think there is a principle embedded in the very purposes of the universe that says something like, obedience brings blessing. Serving the Lord brings blessing. Serving God's people brings blessing. Disobedience brings consequences. Sin brings suffering. Not because we are like one of B.F. Skinner's pigeons, receiving a treat every time we push the right button, but because God designed the universe to work that way. He designed the universe to display his glory. He weaved blessing into the design, so that we, his creation, could get a glimpse of his glory, and receive blessing from our Creator. We have access to his blessing, and he reveals this to us in Isaiah 58 (among other passages in the Bible). If we come into agreement with this, if we acknowledge the Lord's holy power, and his desire to bless his children, how much more will we experience his glory and his blessing!

I want to end with verse 11 in Isaiah 58 because I think that it's really powerful.

"The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an every-flowing spring."

I know what it's like to feel dry, to feel weak and weary. Oh what a promise, to be guided continually by our Creator, to have our strength restored, and our garden full of life.