Tag: isaiah 1

Learn To Do Good (Isaiah 1:1, 10-20)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
Visiting a Poor People, by Vladimir Makovsky, 1874

The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah…

Hear the word of the Lord,
    you rulers of Sodom!
Listen 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 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 asked this from your hand?
    Trample my courts no more!
Bringing offerings is futile;
    incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and calling of convocation—
    I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.
Your new moons and your appointed festivals
    my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
    I am weary of bearing them.
When you stretch 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 your evil deeds
    from before my eyes;
cease to do evil;
    learn to do good;
seek justice;
    rescue the oppressed;
defend the orphan;
    plead for the widow.

Come now, let us argue it out,
    says the Lord:
If your sins are like scarlet,
    will they become like snow?
If they are red like crimson,
    will they become like wool?
If you are willing and obedient,
    you shall eat the good of the land,
but if you refuse and rebel,
    you shall be devoured by the sword,
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. (New Revised Standard Version)

Today’s Old Testament lesson is a stout and ancient warning against an age-old problem: Worshiping properly on a high holy day, yet living an evil and unjust life the rest of the days. It’s the mentality of “I give to God what’s required on the Sabbaths and festivals, so I can therefore do what I want the rest of the time, because that’s my stuff and my time.”

Just to be clear: That sort of evil thinking and behavior will raise the ire of the Lord every time. It’s dichotomous messed-up thinking. It’s the wrongheaded notion of believing that my financial and professional success is obviously a validation of God’s blessing upon me.

However, motives of gaining more wealth, rather than being motivated by humility, meekness, righteousness, purity, mercy, and peacemaking, will end badly, no matter who we are.

One of the problems here is an arrogant assumption that we’re right in what we are doing. We feel justified in living a duplicitous life. I have power, authority, and wealth; you do not. Thus, I’m right; you’re wrong; and I can do whatever the heck I want because God is on my side, not yours.

In terms of contemporary Christianity, this is the megachurch mentality: Since there are so many church attenders and money being placed in the offering plates, this is an unquestioned sanction from God of our rightness.

Then, when Sunday passes and Monday comes, both parishioner and pastor feel justified in using their wealth in ways that are inconsistent with the ways and words of Jesus.

Indeed, many times the name of Jesus is rarely (if ever) used in justifications of living the rich life. A blind eye is turned away from the poor and needy. When pressed, far too many parishioners admit to the belief that the poor are underprivileged because of their own personal sin.

Such “Christians” get away with their injustice before God, largely because there is a mass of churchgoers who honor the wealthy and give them places of authority and power.

They think God has shown favor by “blessing” particular people and communities with wealth (because God would never bless someone with poverty!). This can even go so far as to elect a leader of a nation because he is exorbitantly rich. Never mind his daily immorality, meanness, and lying; God has blessed him, right?

Wrong! So says the prophet Isaiah. Judah and Jerusalem, in their hubris, claimed special status. They are God’s people; others are not. They believed they had divine immunity from judgment. After all, only the Judeans worshiped the Lord; all other nations were pagan worshipers.

But their worship and sacrifices, in Isaiah’s day, were offered with no concern for justice and righteousness. So, God called them to repent; and gave them a chance to learn how to please the Lord.

And what pleases God is removing evil and learning to do good.

“Good” is defined by God as seeking to meet the needs of the common people; rescuing those who are oppressed; defending the cause of the orphan, and pleading the case of the widow. There’s no mention of wealth as a sign of divine blessing.

In reality, Judah’s situation before God was pitiful. They failed, even refused, to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly. Therefore, the Lord called them to repentance and reformation.

Just because Jerusalem had the temple, this sacred space didn’t inoculate the people from judgment. The bald fact of the matter is that the people were living with self-destructive habits of stupidity. And God had enough of it.

In essence, the Lord said to Judah, “Let’s get serious about this.” Despite all the disobedience, God was willing to entertain the people’s change of heart and life – that is, if they themselves were willing to do so.

It’s important for all of us to “have it out with God,” to engage the Lord forthrightly, passionately, intelligently, and realistically.

There are really only two choices: Choose life or choose death. Choose to connect in meaningful, right, good, and just ways with God and neighbor; or choose to disconnect from others and do whatever the heck you want.

Each of our choices impacts what will happen tomorrow and into the future.

Decisions consistent with justice, righteousness, and goodness will ultimately go well for us. Decision-making borne of selfishness, a lack of mercy, and callousness toward others will create all sorts of problems.

Judah’s practical and existential decision came down to whether they wanted a just and productive society, or an invading Assyrian army. Which would you rather have?

To have a public daily life of disrespect and disregard for the needs of others (and of God!) is to invite being up a stinking creek without a paddle, and no one around to hear the yells for help.

Nothing can ever replace good old-fashioned turning away from hate, unforgiveness, bitterness, and pride; and turning toward what is good, right, just, and godly – and then ordering our collective public life around caring for the least and the lost among us.

May it be so, to the glory of God.

God of judgment and grace, you ask not for sacrifices but lives of trusting faith that acknowledge Your power and mercy. Give us a deep belief in Your sovereign goodness, so that we may follow You all the days of our lives, as did Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord. Amen.

Divine Intervention (Isaiah 1:24-31)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year CLeave a comment
The Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem, by David Roberts (1796-1964)

So now, listen to what the Lord Almighty, Israel’s powerful God, is saying: “I will take revenge on you, my enemies, and you will cause me no more trouble. I will take action against you. I will purify you the way metal is refined, and will remove all your impurity. I will give you rulers and advisers like those you had long ago. Then Jerusalem will be called the righteous, faithful city.”

Because the Lord is righteous, he will save Jerusalem and everyone there who repents. But he will crush everyone who sins and rebels against him; he will kill everyone who forsakes him.

You will be sorry that you ever worshiped trees and planted sacred gardens. You will wither like a dying oak, like a garden that no one waters. Just as straw is set on fire by a spark, so powerful people will be destroyed by their own evil deeds, and no one will be able to stop the destruction. (Good News Translation)

Judgment does not mean that you need to leave a part of yourself behind in order to be accepted or belong. Judgment isn’t about stuffing down emotions and denying certain thoughts about things because you were told to.

Rather, judgment – divine judgment – is for those leaders, and the persons who support such leaders, who tell people they have to live a particular way, be a certain way, and think in the same way the leaders say you have to think.

Isaiah’s prophecy is first and foremost directed toward leaders – political leaders and religious leaders. Indeed, the nation of Israel had gone down a path of worship that God never condoned nor wanted.

And the Lord put the primary blame squarely upon rulers who led their people in unacceptable ways by telling them things that God never wanted. As a result, the nation as a whole, lived unjustly and unrighteously.

God was determined to do something about the situation of bad leadership: Replace the rulers and advisers. Get rid of them, just like a metallurgist gets rid of impure and worthless dross.

A lot of things in life rise and fall because of leadership. The character and competence of a leader is of upmost importance. God raises up particular people to lead. So, leaders and rulers are expected to fulfill their mandated duty with all diligence and decorum.

The city of Jerusalem fell to the invading Babylonians in 586 B.C.E. All of the Old Testament prophetic books are related to that seminal event in one way or another.

Jerusalem’s destruction, according to the prophets, had a direct relationship to the failure of political kings and religious priests to lead the people according to God’s law. And that failure was specifically tied to the lack of religious piety and leadership performance amongst the rulers of the land.

Indeed, individuals are responsible for their own thoughts and words and actions. Yet, at the same time, the leaders of a city and a nation are also responsible for whether they are leading the people into ways of justice and equity, or injustice and prejudice.

People in responsible positions of authority are to take ownership of the sort of culture they develop. And when people, as a whole, have rude and irresponsible words and actions, such behavior isn’t only on individuals – it’s on the leaders, as well.

God will hold everyone accountable – especially leaders = for what they have done, and not done, to foster a just and right society.

In the time of the prophets, the majority of those in authority led the people into a degenerate state. It had become so bad that divine judgment would intervene in order to burn out the evil, and remove the worthless dross of incompetent and inconsiderate leadership.

Only through the wholesale replacement of rulers and advisers could restoration and regeneration ever take place.

Fortunately, the Lord is a God of justice, mercy, and grace. The Lord is a redeeming God. And the theme of redemption runs throughout the Book of Isaiah. Yet, for a nation to be redeemed, it will require an elimination of rebellious evil.

The wrath of God exists precisely because of the love of God. Since the Lord has a steadfast, committed, and covenantal love for the people, God will render judgment, purging hate and injustice from the land.

When God decrees something, no one can stop it. And when God decrees destruction upon the material things which promote illegitimate worship and public injustice, you can be absolutely sure that it’s going to happen.

No one, no city, and no nation is truly autonomous, in the sense that they can do whatever the heck they want to do, regardless of whether it is right or just, or not. There is no person and no government who is free to indulge in their own selfish agenda.

We have a purpose and a mandate as people on this earth, to care for this world – the people and the environments we inhabit.

All of the ways in which individuals, groups, and governments cheapen and degrade human dignity and environmental worth, puts everyone at risk of survival and a good life on this planet.

Unjust and dysfunctional systems and structures must be purged of their impurities. And that means, in many cases, a new order of things must occur.

If we cannot learn to play well with one another, then playtime will be over; and God will call us back into the house and make us sit in the corner for a long time – or worse.

Whenever leadership fails to be neighborliness, then we have a huge problem.

Our world suffering divine devastation of all the things we know and love may not be far behind. And, quite frankly, it will be our own damn fault – and not somebody else’s.

However, in the prophetic biblical tradition, devastation and destruction never have the last word. There is always hope – a confident expectation that good, right, and just forms of social, economic, and religious communities will function yet again.

There are good leaders waiting in the wings. It’s just that no one yet sees or knows them. But God will raise them up at the proper time, to accomplish good purposes in communities, churches, families, and governments everywhere.

A divine intervention will make the last be first, and the first be last.

May it be so, for the blessing of the world, and to the glory and praise of God. Amen.

Learn To Do Right (Isaiah 1:1-4, 16-20)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
Statue of Isaiah the Prophet, by Salvatore Revelli (1816-1859), Rome, Italy

The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth!
    For the Lord has spoken:
“I reared children and brought them up,
    but they have rebelled against me.
The ox knows its master,
    the donkey its owner’s manger,
but Israel does not know,
    my people do not understand.”

Woe to the sinful nation,
    a people whose guilt is great,
a brood of evildoers,
    children given to corruption!
They have forsaken the Lord;
    they have spurned the Holy One of Israel
    and turned their backs on him…

Wash and make yourselves clean.
    Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
    stop doing wrong.
Learn to do right; seek justice.
    Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
    plead the case of the widow.

“Come now, let us settle the matter,”
    says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
    they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
    they shall be like wool.
If you are willing and obedient,
    you will eat the good things of the land;
but if you resist and rebel,
    you will be devoured by the sword.”
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. (New International Version)

Whenever the prophet has a vision, everyone better perk up and take notice.

After the northern Jewish kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians in 722 B.C.E., they lost their national identity. The southern Jewish kingdom of Judah, and its capitol Jerusalem, continued to exist for nearly a century and a half – even though they were vassals of either the Assyrians or the Babylonians.

Yet, Judah still functioned as its own nation in a semi-independent state. It was during this time that the prophet Isaiah had his vision, under the kingship of those descended from King David.

The Prophet Isaiah, by Marc Chagall,1968

The initial section of Isaiah’s prophecy is a series of oracles that establish the relationship between God and the nation of Judah, especially Jerusalem. The gist of God’s message is that the people are guilty of lots of sins.

However, the Lord left a gracious opening for them; their fate was not yet sealed. The nation could repent of their sins and experience a future restoration. God wanted to bring a resolution, and not have the people keep going in their unhealthy ways.

Throughout Isaiah’s vision, God is presented as a Father, with the children being Israel (both northern and southern kingdoms). And Father God has a complaint against them. The people’s principal sins were rebellion and ignorance. They spurned God’s authority, and did not accept their family intimacy with God.

Thus, the Lord is quite disappointed with the people. Heavenly witnesses are called to hear the charges of wrongdoing. The troubles of the nation were to be interpreted as warnings and disciplines, meant to lead them to stop and do right. Yet it seems that the warnings go unheeded by the people. It appears that God’s efforts to woo the people back are in vain.

Although the people’s continued sacrificial worship is merely done as a mere perfunctory act, and without true hearts of devotion for what is just and right, God offered them a chance to make things right, so that they could do justice and embrace righteousness.

God made it clear what it would take to repent: learn to do good; seek justice; recuse the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow. God even issued an invitation for a divine/human dialogue to happen.

Grace and cleansing from sin are possible, that is, if the people are willing and obedient, instead of remaining rebellious and refusing to do what is right, just, and good.

The nation was at a crossroads and had to make a decision. Would they choose wisely or foolishly?

Decision-making is critical. Some choices are harder than others. Yet the ability to decide is a God-given gift and ability.

Making decisions is fraught with consequences; we may try to anticipate or ignore what might happen with a particular choice. And how we go about decision-making is important. Who do we listen to? What information do we need? How will this choice shake out in the end?

Intentions are not choices, but are simply a mental resolve to do or not do something, at some point. And to not make a decision is to have already made a decision to either procrastinate or not do anything at all.

There are also decisions of duty. This may or may not be admirable. There is also the choice of attitude and energy given to the decision – because a choice of doing one’s duty can be done with joy or grumpiness, excitement or bitterness, with a bright disposition or a flat sullen affect.

It’s not really hard to guess or assess the choices of the people in Judah and Jerusalem in Isaiah’s day. They were doing an outward duty of temple worship, but without any heart to it.

Many of the people looked upon their duty as a sort of magical talisman that would ward off any trouble or army invasion. With that kind of approach, the people looked upon the rest of their time as their own, as discretionary, as the choice to do whatever they wanted to do.

If their business practices were dubious and not quite right, then big deal. After all, they give their money at the temple.

If the leaders played favorites and overlooked the needy person among them, then so what? The poor and oppressed can work harder, right?

And if orphans and widows – who were the most vulnerable persons in society – were not completely cared for, then that’s sad, but too bad for them.

I can picture an ancient city council saying something like, “We have a lot on our plate, dealing with foreign powers, the economy, and political issues. Those needy persons need to get a clue. It’s their own fault for hanging around and not leaving the city for greener pastures. Not our problem.”

Oh, but it very much was their problem. It was everyone’s problem, and each person’s responsibility, to ensure that God’s justice, goodness, and righteousness was infused throughout the entire city and nation.

Hence, the reason for the book of Isaiah. Tackle the moral and ethical problems head on before it’s too late and the gravity of judgment presses everyone out of the land.

What’s needed is a willing heart inclined to walk into divine obedience, without any talkback, and without any negotiations or deals.

God is merciful, and is willing to talk it out. But justice must be done. Needs must be met. People must be cared for. The Lord’s will must be done, here on earth, as it is always done in heaven. Is this what you are about, or not? Will you learn to do right?

Most merciful God, shine the light of your gracious love upon my cold hard heart. Enlighten my mind and dispel the darkness; speak the truth and help me obey; and have pity upon me. Forgive me yet again of my offenses, transgressions, and guilty acts. Grant me the grace to serve you with faithfulness and care for your people with love and purity, today and always. Amen.