On The Flip side Week 2

God flips our definition of righteousness

Back when the Old Testament was written, God’s people often needed to be reminded what god’s definition of righteousness” really is. At one point, God sent the prophet Isaiah to help make their wrong understanding right.

In Isaiah’s time, it seems like God’s people defined “righteousness” as “doing all the right religious things.” And they were doing a pretty good job. According to Isaiah, God’s people were:

Spending time with God’s word.

Wanting to hear God’s words.

Obeying God’s commands.

Practicing spiritual disciplines like fasting in order to get closer to God.

Fasting, by the way, is a spiritual discipline a lot of people practice. What is fasting? The idea is to give something up for a short period of time in order to better focus on God.

When you read about fasting in the Bible, it usually is referring to choosing to give up food for a period of time. Instead of eating food during the fast, they would spend time in prayer instead.

In the passage we’re about to read, God’s people have a complaint that has to do with their fasting. Even after doing all the “right” religious practices, God’s people didn’t feel any closer to God. They didn’t think God was listening to their prayers. They didn’t trust God was watching out for them. And they weren’t happy about it!

In their eyes, they did all of the “righteous: things they were supposed to do - but, for some reason, they didn’t think God cared. To help set them right, here’s what God said through the prophet Isaiah.

Read Isaiah 58:1-9

“Cry out loudly, don’t hold back! Raise your voice like a ram’s horn. Tell my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins.

They seek me day after day and delight to know my ways, like a nation that does what is right and does not abandon the justice of their God. They ask me for righteous judgments; they delight in the nearness of God.”

“Why have we fasted, but you have not seen? We have denied ourselves, but you haven’t noticed!” “Look, you do as you please on the day of your fast, and oppress all your workers.

You fast with contention and strife to strike viciously with your fist. You cannot fast as you do today, hoping to make your voice heard on high.

Will the fast I choose be like this: A day for a person to deny himself, to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord?

Isn’t this the fast I choose: To break the chains of wickedness, to untie the ropes of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, and to tear off every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your house, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to ignore your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will appear like the dawn, and your recovery will come quickly. Your righteousness will go before you, and the Lord’s glory will be your rear guard.

At that time, when you call, the Lord will answer; when you cry out, he will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you get rid of the yoke among you, the finger-pointing and malicious speaking,

Isaiah isn’t holding back on the honest feedback God’s people needed to hear. Isaiah makes it clear God heard their prayers, but God wasn’t happy with their behavior. They seemed like there were doing a lot of the “right” things, like fasting, but they were also:

Being selfish

Exploiting others

Fighting

Harming each other

Using their fasts to try to earn God’s attention and favor.

They had missed the entire point of the fast, according to God, the point of their fast should have been to:

Practice humility

fight against injustice

set people free

share their food with people who need it

help house people without shelter

Give clothing to the people without it

Only then., Isaiah said, would God’s people truly be “righteous.” That’s because God’s definition of “righteousness” wasn’t about all the religious things they were doing to build themselves up. God’s definition of righteousness required them to take their eyes off themselves and take care of others too.

Of course, God wants us to pray, spend time in Scripture, and practice spiritual disciplines like fasting. Those are some of the most important tools we have to grow closer to God.

But if all of those activities we’re doing aren’t leading us to be less selfish and more focused on caring for others, especially the people who are most in need, oppressed, or in danger, we’ve missed something significant.

It’s not just Isaiah who talked about this. This same message can be found all over the Old Testament, especially in the words of the prophets like Isaiah, Amos, Micah, and more. Apparently, this is a message we need to keep learning and re-learning.

Long after Isaiah, Jesus delivered a similar message to his followers. Some religious leaders of Jesus’ day often disliked the things he did, taught, and spoke about.

A main reason is because Jesus was eager to call out their religious hypocrisy, like Isaiah had once done for God’s people.

Jesus often told these religious leaders that, while they had some things right when it came to “righteousness,” they were missing the big picture.

Rather than fighting for justice and caring for others, these religious leaders often seemed to worried about their own “righteous” reputations.

Read Matthew 22:36-40

“Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?”

He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

This is the greatest and most important command.

The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.

All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

According to Jesus, “righteousness” isn’t just about you and your relationship with god. If you’re not also loving others like you love yourself, Jesus says you don’t have the whole picture.

Righteousness is NOT just about you:

Going to church

Saying prayers

Doing Bible studies

Singing loudly during your favorite worship song

Following all the rules

No, “righteousness” is so much bigger than that. It’s about:

Humility

Selflessness

Justice

Compassion

And loving the people God loves