Isaiah 58

Rewritten notes from a message on Isaiah 58, given at Corona International Christian Fellowship on Oct. 30, 2011.

This may be one of those sermons or passages in Scripture that declare the Lord’s commands that either we don’t want to hear, or we think it doesn’t apply to us – to other people, most certainly, but not to us. But, as Paul said in  Acts 20:27, “For I did not shrink from declaring to you the FULL counsel of God,” (ESV) and as he wrote to Timothy, “ALL Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting AND training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for EVERY good work.  (2Tim 3:16-17 NIV)

So make no mistake, if you and I say we follow Jesus and call Him the Lord of our lives, Lord of His church, this applies to ALL of us here (and those who follow Christ and are not here) today. As Isaiah 58:14 says: “The mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Read Isaiah 58; and I suggest ignoring the subheads since they were never part of the original Scripture.

Teaching Point No. 1, verses 1-5

We are no different than the people of Isaiah’s day, who went through the visible actions of worship, but once the Sabbath was over, once they left the place of worship, they were no different.

In verse 1, God, being God, sees right through all this, and instructs the prophet Isaiah:

“Shout it aloud, do not hold back.

Raise your voice like a trumpet.

Declare to my people their rebellion

and to the house of Jacob their sins.”

And what were those sins? Self-centeredness and hypocrisy. Aren’t we like that at times?

Maybe more than we are willing to admit? Let’s read on …

Back then, when you read the entire Book of Isaiah, as well as the Book of Amos (his contemporary), you’ll see how the people followed the Law and seemed to be making a show of keeping it. Look at verse 2:

² For day after day they seek me out;

they seem eager to know my ways,

as if they were a nation that does what is right

and has not forsaken the commands of its God.

They ask me for just decisions

and seem eager for God to come near them.

They expected to be rewarded for such a display of piousness, for making every effort of following the rituals to the letter.  In verse 3, they are quoted as saying

³ ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,

‘and you have not seen it?

Why have we humbled ourselves,

and you have not noticed?’

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard people say, or seen people post on Facebook, that they’ve “done” all the right things, that they went to church on a Sunday, or they said a prayer, or they read their Bible, or they dropped a few more dollars in the offering bag, or they listened to Christian songs on their car stereo, but God doesn’t seem to listen to them. I know I’m guilty of that at times.

Yet it’s all a façade. Just like back in Isaiah’s day, God sees through all that. Continuing in verses 3, 4 and 5, the LORD says:

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please

and exploit all your workers.

⁴ Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,

and in striking each other with wicked fists.

You cannot fast as you do today

and expect your voice to be heard on high.

⁵ Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,

only a day for a man to humble himself?

Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed

and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?

Is that what you call a fast,

a day acceptable to the Lord?

In other words, back then, they went through worship rituals, probably looked pretty good doing it, and looked to thre Lord and said, “See what good people we are!”

And God said, who are you fooling? You come to worship, but you mistreat your workers, using them however you please to please you, but not to do right by them. You come to worship, but you guys argue, and some of you get into fights. And you expect Me to do as you asked? Is this what My laws are all about? Is this what it means to worship Me? Do you think you can do it for a day, maybe an hour and think I’ll bless you for THAT, while the rest of the time you’re doing exactly OPPOSITE of My commands?

Doesn’t God say that to us today? We say we read the Bible, go to church and Bible study, pray, sing God songs, listen to God radio. Oh, even this: I teach a Bible study, I sing on the worship team, I help with a ministry – all on a Sunday. But what happens when we are away from each other, when we are in the workplace or at school, or with friends and family? Admit it, we will sometimes start to act like the world.

And yet we expect God to bless us. Yet, when we are really honest with ourselves before the Lord, all we’re really doing is just going through the motions – that we are giving lip service to the great commandment of loving God and people, but we fail at doing actual service that really does honor God and rains down love on people.''

In New Testament terms, Paul wrote: “⁷Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” (Galatians 6:7)

Teaching Point No. 2, verses 6-7, 9b-10, 13

What God desires goes beyond rituals, goes beyond talking about it, goes beyond one day. What God wants is real love as a way of life that worships Him as we love others – regardless of who they are, where they come from, even what they believe.

Let’s look at three sections out of this passage:

⁶ “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:

to loose the chains of injustice

and untie the cords of the yoke,

to set the oppressed free

and break every yoke?

⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry

and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—

when you see the naked, to clothe him,

and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,

with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

¹⁰  and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry

and satisfy the needs of the oppressed …

¹³ “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath

and from doing as you please on my holy day,

if you call the Sabbath a delight

and the Lord’s holy day honorable,

and if you honor it by not going your own way

and not doing as you please or speaking idle words …

What God wants is pretty plain, and it’s not pick one or the other, but ALL of them (under line each “and” that you see):

• Loosen the chains of injustice, untie the cords of the yoke, set the oppressed free, break every yoke, satisfy the needs of the oppressed = which can range from getting involved with the effort to end human trafficking, poverty and homelessness, to helping someone out of an abusive relationship, maybe going to law school to be a public interest lawyer. Just know that it means being aware of things that are wrong and finding ways to be a part of the solution, rather than just talking about it. And don’t look to others to do it; if God is showing you and me the problem, I think it’s a pretty good indication that He’s asking you and me to get involved somehow.
• Share food with the hungry, clothe the naked, provide shelter to anyone in need. That’s pretty self-explanatory. In a way, we did that (and I pray we will continue to do that) at City Park here in Corona. As for shelter, maybe we donate to a program that helps with that … or maybe we become advocates for a community effort to help the homeless find shelter and get them bag on their feet.
  And don’t let the words “not turn away from your own flesh and blood” narrow your focus. In the language of Isaiah’s day, “own flesh and blood” also meant one’s fellow countryman. In other words, don’t be selective about whom you help.
• Honoring the Sabbath, the day that we draw near to the Lord and rest in Him. Remember that we were not made for the Sabbath, but that the Sabbath was made for us (Mark 2:27). Meaning that we’re not to be spiritual couch potatoes, sing a few God songs, crack open the Bible for the message, have a bite to eat, then go home, only to look and act like the world once we leave here.
  It means that our worship does not stay within this building, that the Bible lesson stays in the seats or in your notes. It means we look for ways to love God by loving others. Consider this passage: Matthew 12:9-12: ⁹ Going on from that place, he (Jesus) went into their synagogue, ¹⁰ and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they (the Pharisees) asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”¹¹ He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? ¹² How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
  And listen to this carefully: We should not make coming to worship as a body in Christ as if it were a chore or a burden. Verse 13 says “if you call the Sabbath a delight.” Yet, how many times have we passed up on something, say, a family activity, and we used these words: “I HAVE to go to church.” Think about that. How many of you think you have to be here? If you think you have to be here, you’re free to leave. But, as we sing every now and then, there is no other place you’d rather be, then you’re free to stay. Do you see what the difference is? To come here to worship because you feel obligated is not what God wants. That’s what he looked down on in Isaiah’s day and in our day, too, because if we think we have to be here, God knows that our hearts are far from Him.

Teaching Point No. 3, verses 8-9, 11-12, 14

God wants to bless us for showing our love for Him as we show our love for people.
That’s pretty simple Biblical logic. We know God will not bless disobedience. But what we fail to remember is that even if we look like we’re doing what we are supposed to do, but our hearts are not in it, He’s not going to bless that either.

Look at what He says:

⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,

and your healing will quickly appear;

then your righteousness will go before you,

and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

⁹ Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;

you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

¹¹ 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.

¹² Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins

and will raise up the age-old foundations;

you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,

Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

¹⁴ then you will find your joy in the Lord,

and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the

 land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”

So when we share our food with the hungry, clothe the naked, provide shelter for the poor wander, loosen the chains of injustice, set the oppressed free, do away with malicious talk, and honor the Sabbath:

• God will have the light that is our salvation through Jesus that He gave us  shine, that people will see what we do because we allowed God to work through us.
• He will guide us as we walk in His ways, and He will be with us.
• He will answer our prayers – rather we’ll know that He has – as we delight in Him and His ways, as it says in Psalm 37:4.
• He will satisfy our needs.
• While the reference to rebuilding and restoration of ruins and is a prophesy for the re-gathered nation of Israel, we can look at it as rebuilding relationships, as peace makers, as people who point to Jesus as the way back to a restored relationship with God.
• We will realize more and more what joy in the Lord really means, because we will have done His will because we desire to honor Him and love Him as the great commandment says, and love others, just as the great commandment says.

Application

Make what you learn real outside these four walls, outside your D-group Bible studies and for the least of these. Make it part of how you live your life daily.

Some of this pretty easy to figure out:

• Sharing our food with the hungry, clothing the naked and providing shelter for the poor wander, we can do that in a lot of ways. Financially, for sure. Food donations, we’ve done that. Face-to-face sharing, getting to know them so they might come to know Jesus … well, not so much, but we do have opportunities with our now monthly visits to City Park.
• Doing away with the pointing finger/malicious talk: If we are truly desiring to honor the Lord and love others, there just is no room for either of those. If there is, then we’re just going through the rituals, and our hearts are far from Him.

Some of this is not so easy to figure out:

·         Loosening the chains/tossing off the yoke of injustice and setting the oppressed free take some thinking. But we can get involved in various ways. For example, poverty is an injustice. 

      

      And we can fight it in various ways. If we’re already donating to causes, that’s great. You might also consider making purchases with companies that give back, such as Sevenly, which gives $7 of every shirt it sells to a selected charity a week, or Toms shoes, which gives a pair of shoes to a child who has no shoes.

·         Maybe you find time to volunteer for an organization that helps people who are going through tough times or need guidance. There are a lot that do need help these days, such as the American Cancer Society, a local hospital, the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization, or maybe you offer your expertise as a tutor, or help someone learn to read.

Here’s your challenge:

With your D-Group leaders, find a way to reach out to the hungry/naked/homeless, to loosen the chains/take off the yoke of injustice. Not just a one-shot thing, not just a plan, not just making a donation, but something each D-group can do on a consistent, regular basis.

You may be looking at me and thinking, no, that’s for other people to do. But this message is meant for all of us, that we all are called to help those less fortunate than ourselves. Are we going to solve the problem? No, and reading this passage and others like it, it doesn’t say we have to, but only for us to act.

You also may be looking at me thinking that this is way over your head, that you’re not capable or ready or have time to do something like this. I think God’s answer is you do.

Look what Paul says in Philippians 4:13, “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.”

This is what God has called us to do. And as we obey Him, He promises to guide us always and strengthen us.

We just need to trust Him.