Isaiah 58

Our Bible Study topic for this week

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Isaiah 58

I really like this chapter.

We started by playing 'word-association' with "Religion/Religious" and considering what those words connoted to us.
like: exploiting, social, righteousness, 'holier than thou', old people, holidays...

we broke the chapter up into bits.

Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.

Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.

Wherefore have we fasted, [say they], and thou seest not? [wherefore] have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.


We started by discussion what sort of people God is addressing. The second verse actually looks pretty good, doesn't it? Isn't that what God's people should be doing? But in the third verse we see their questions, wondering why God seems so far off even as they are doing the right things. They have these 'if->then' expectations of what they should do and what God should do because of it. It seems that they're doing everything right, but the last sentence starts in at what God is getting at.

If you already know this verse or this situation, it's easy to say "Oh, well, they thought they were being righteous, but really they had it wrong." But what is that like? What is it like to think you are doing everything right, and being confused that God isn't responding? It sounds like they aren't very different from us. And, obviously it's hard to understand what you're doing wrong when you think you're doing everything right. kind of scary, actually.

The next chunk:

Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as [ye do this] day, to make your voice to be heard on high.

Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? [is it] to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes [under him]? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?

[Is] not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

[Is it] not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?


The things He's focusing on are a little different than what it seemed the people were doing. Isn't that confusing? What are the significant differences between the peoples' actions and what God wants the peoples' actions to be? We had a diagram with a 'God' bubble interacting with a 'People' bubble. Apparently, the two bubbles aren't communicating effectively and don't understand each other. This is not be best of relationship situations. The people are attempting to reach God with what they think are appropriate religious actions, and being confused. But God doesn't just want the religious actions. In our diagram, his bubble says 'Yo! Do things for your brothers.'
Consider: which of our actions are from our own sense of righteous appropriateness,
and which are genuinely motivated by love?
What is important here? Why does God even have to deliver this message?

What sort of diagram would we make if instead of 'God' interacting with 'The People' we considered 'God' interacting with 'us'?


the ending of Isaiah 58:

God comes back with His own if->then statement for the people.

I want to end this email with this passage, so first:
Consider
Is this real? Seriously. should I believe this?
if not, then what else should I believe?
if so, what does this picture of the world look like? is it worth working for?
what would it mean to work for this? Be concrete, now.

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Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.

Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I [am]. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;

And [if] thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness [be] as the noonday:

And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

And [they that shall be] of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
¶
If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, [from] doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking [thine own] words:

Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken [it].