All
praise and worship and prayer is meaningless if it does not flow from a life
dedicated to the justice and love of the God it claims to praise. One cannot
speak truly of the character of God when one denies that character by one's
life. To ignore injustice and then claim to extol the name of the source of all
justice is abominable.
Isaiah 1:14-17
(ESV)
"Your new
moons and your appointed feasts
my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
I am weary of
bearing them.
When you spread
out your hands,
I will hide my
eyes from you;
even though you
make many prayers,
I will not
listen;
your hands are
full of blood.
Wash yourselves;
make yourselves clean;
remove the evil
of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do
evil,
learn to do
good;
seek justice,
correct
oppression;
bring justice to
the fatherless,
plead the
widow’s cause.
Isaiah’s
name means “God is Salvation”. The book that bears the name lives up to it. The
entire book of Isaiah is about the salvation of God, speaking of it more than
twice as often than all the other Hebrew prophetic books combined. But this
salvation was not of the personal and private kind, as we often speak of
salvation in the 21st century church. The salvation of God in Isaiah
is a complete restoration of an entire people whose land has been decimated and
their people scattered to exile among the empires of the North. Better than
that, Isaiah prophesies of a salvation of all nations, and of all of creation.
This salvation is better than a reformation, better than a revolution.
The
salvation of Isaiah is a resurrection.
All
corruption and injustice will be destroyed by the judgment of God, and a new
world, a New Creation will grow to life from the ashes of the old world.
Isaiah
prophesies of a coming Messiah who will turn all things to right, who will be
the beginning of the end of the old way, and will by his authority turn the
world to justice. No other book in the Hebrew scripture but the Psalms is
quoted more frequently in the Christian New Testament than the book of Isaiah,
confirming the Messianic Anointing of Jesus Christ, and continuing the story of
salvation of all Creation from Jesus’ resurrection to return in harmony with
Isaiah’s prophesies from hundreds of years before.
Isaiah’s
book does not begin so hopeful, however. Before describing things as they will
be, it condemns the injustice in how things are.
Isaiah 1:1-5a
(ESVUK)
The vision of
Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days
of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Hear, O heavens,
and give ear, O earth;
for the Lord has spoken:
“Children have I
reared and brought up,
but they have rebelled against me.
The ox knows its
owner,
and the donkey its master's crib,
but Israel does
not know,
my people do not understand.”
Ah, sinful
nation,
a people laden with iniquity,
offspring of
evildoers,
children who deal corruptly!
They have
forsaken the Lord,
they have despised the Holy One of Israel,
they are utterly estranged.
Why will you
still be struck down?
Why will you continue to rebel?
The
judgment of the people of God is heard in the courtroom of all of Creation. All
of the earth and heavens are called upon to hear of the corruption of God’s
people. Those of us who claim to be of the people of God today should take care
to remain humble. God’s people are held to the standard of the Word of God they
know. We have no excuse.
God describes his people as his “children”. In the book of Exodus, Moses was told by God to call Israel “my firstborn son” when telling Pharaoh to let his people go (Exodus 4:22). Exodus tells the story of Israel rescued from slavery in the land of Egypt by God’s hand. 800 years later, Israel is now a ruined nation, attacked, destroyed, and occupied by the empires of the North. Isaiah tells us that this, too, was by God’s hand.
God describes his people as his “children”. In the book of Exodus, Moses was told by God to call Israel “my firstborn son” when telling Pharaoh to let his people go (Exodus 4:22). Exodus tells the story of Israel rescued from slavery in the land of Egypt by God’s hand. 800 years later, Israel is now a ruined nation, attacked, destroyed, and occupied by the empires of the North. Isaiah tells us that this, too, was by God’s hand.
God’s
patience with his people’s hypocrisy had come to an end. Their religious
practice had become nothing but a worthless show. Though they may continue to
go through the motions of religion and piety, Isaiah compared them to the
stubborn donkey or stupid ox, two animals who could at least remember to return
to their home, while God’s nation offended God by arrogantly building their own
empire of violence and slavery, completely forgetting the story of their
redemption, or the God who had called them to minister that same freedom they’d
received to others. They were adopted into the family of God, and chosen so
that they may display to the world the justice they’d come to know by their
salvation from Egypt. Instead, they’d become worse than Egypt, worse than the
nations that God had judged outside of his covenant. They were worse than Sodom
and Gomorrah, burnt by fire and sulfur from heaven. God even addresses them as
Sodom and Gomorrah, lest there be any doubt.
Isaiah 1:9-15
(ESVUK)
“If the Lord of
hosts
had not left us a few survivors,
we should have
been like Sodom,
and become like Gomorrah.
Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodom!
Give ear to the
teaching of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!
“What to me is the multitude of your
sacrifices?
says the Lord;
I have had
enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of well-fed beasts;
I do not delight
in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of goats.
“When you come to appear before me,
who has required of you
this trampling of my courts?
Bring no more vain offerings;
incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and
Sabbath and the calling of convocations—
I cannot endure iniquity and solemn
assembly.
Your new moons and your appointed feasts
my soul hates;
they have become
a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
When you spread out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you
make many prayers,
I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.”
Do
we hear this? Even our complicity in the oppression of others stains our hands
red with blood. We are responsible for the treatment of the poor among us.
Without seeking justice for the least of those marked by the Image of God, our
religion is absolutely worthless.
Let
us seek to emulate the God we think we know before we dare to speak to or of
God. All such words will only become a witness to our own corruption, evidence
that we truly do not know God at all. God promises to be revealed in us if we
will repent and follow God, according to God's word and will. This life of
justice is the work of God in us, making us righteous, if we will submit to it.
However, if we continue in the outward practice of religion without seeking to right injustice in our own communities . . .(End Page 1 of 2 - Click here for page 2 of 2)
Tomorrow: Isaiah 2: Swords to Plowshares
Thursday: 1 Peter 1 - Salvation and the End of Suffering
Click above for the whole series from Isaiah
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