Isaiah 58-59
Notes
Transcript
Isaiah 58-59
Isaiah 58-59
Good evening church! So glad you came tonight to join us through this journey through Isaiah. Let’s pray… Show us what you have for us, purify our ways, that we would honor You and bless You.
1 “Cry aloud, spare not; Lift up your voice like a trumpet; Tell My people their transgression, And the house of Jacob their sins.
This is an interesting start. It is the Lord, speaking to His prophet Isaiah. Telling him not just to sound the alarm, not just to speak up, but to cry aloud and spare not. God wanted a man to stand up boldly and to tell the people of God the truth. Tell my people their transgression, let them know where they are and have been crossing the lines, and tell them their sins.
I don’t know if you have ever been in the prophet Isaiah’s position. I’ve met several self appointed sin sniffers that profess it is their mission to cleanse the world, or cleanse the church, and in most cases I absolutely believe them, that they are on their own mission. But if you’ve ever been in that place, after having dealt with the log in your own eye, God wanting to use you to point out a transgression or sin in someone else’s life. AND when I say point it out, I mean to them, not everyone but them. Done correctly, and with the right heart, as difficult as it can be, can be a huge blessing to the recipient.
Not everyone appreciates receiving a message like that. Be thankful for the folks that love you enough to risk your relationship to tell you the truth, when you need to hear the truth. So God instructs Isaiah to be a truth teller, and we need Isaiah’s in the church today as well as outside of the church. But for tonight, lets stick to this and how it might apply to us.
2 Yet they seek Me daily, And delight to know My ways, As a nation that did righteousness, And did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; They take delight in approaching God.
3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’ “In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, And exploit all your laborers.
At first read, you might think, “What is God’s problem here?” The people are seeking Him everyday, they want to know His ways, they take delight in approaching God, they are even fasting!
Yet God says tell My people their transgressions and sins. Then God begins to address the truth of the problem. The outward show, doesn’t match what He sees in the heart. You are seeking Me, you want to learn about Me, as a people it looks to others like you do all the right things. And yes, you are fasting, must again not with the right heart. You are finding pleasure in your religious practices, hoping for glory and recognition for your dedication to these things and at the very least, maybe manipulate God into doing what you want Him to do.
It’s not any different from Jesus’s encounter with the scribes and pharisees when He tells the truth and calls them hypocrites. Matt 23:23
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.
Ann-is. So Jesus wasn’t rebuking them for doing these things, in fact He says you ought to have done these things, but with the proper heart, or they don’t matter, they are just things. Right after that part in the Gospel of Matthew when Jesus says by their fruits you will know them…He then says,
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’
23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
The NIV says then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you. It is not religious ritual, service, or religious acts that win us a spot in the Kingdom of Heaven, but a surrender of heart.
That takes us back to Isaiah 58:3
3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’ “In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, And exploit all your laborers.
We have done all these things God, and why? It’s like You’re not even paying attention, you take no notice. And God says in the very day you are seeking your own pleasures not Mine and you are exploiting your laborers.
4 Indeed you fast for strife and debate, And to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day, To make your voice heard on high.
5 Is it a fast that I have chosen, A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, And to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, And an acceptable day to the Lord?
In verse four we see their real motivation to make their voice heard. God says this is not the fast that I have chosen. You are doing your own thing. Notice God has not condemned the fast. Nor does Jesus in the New Testament. In fact Jesus says when you fast, do it this way, not in a way that is for show. So the condemnation is not against fasting, but it is against empty, meaningless religious ritual.
6 “Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh?
God now identifies that fast He has chosen, that before we try to impress Him, or to move Him, we will make our relationships with others right first. We won’t put others under heavy burdens, or put them in yokes of bondage, we won’t oppress them. We will share with and minister to the poor. Do these things first, and then the Lord says...
8 Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily, And your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
10 If you extend your soul to the hungry And satisfy the afflicted soul, Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall be as the noonday.
Take note of that statement from verse 9, then you shall call, and the Lord will answer - speaking of hindered and unhindered prayer and we’ll touch on that more in a few minutes. Verse 11. Isa 58:11-12
11 The Lord will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
12 Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.
There was a political campaign a few years ago, and it still remains, but the slogan was “Make America Great Again.” I bring that up only because the message here is that not just in America, but all across this world things are not how they are supposed to be. And the Lord is talking here about reclaiming and restoring things.
Regarding this passage, Alan Redpath was quoted as saying...
Isaiah 2. The Blessings God Promises for the True Worshipper (8–12)
How there needs to be a rebuilding work today! “We live in a broken world. In every direction there are breaches which are wide and deep. There are broken hearts and broken homes, and that which once was sacred is but a waste place. Whereas once there was a carefully guarded fence around the sanctity of family life, sex life, and the right to personal privacy, now there is just a waste place. The wall of protection is in ruins, and life has lost all its meaning.” (Redpath)
Verses 13 and 14 are an important reminder of our message on Sunday which talked about that rest that is still available today. Because it said so, if today still exists and today is today, so His rest still remains…but not in a day, but in the fulfillment of the day. Verse 13 Isa 58:13-14
13 “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, From doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, The holy day of the Lord honorable, And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking your own words,
14 Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Remember Sunday we read, Hebrews 4:9-11
9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.
10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.
11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.
Again this does not mean keeping a day. It means keeping everyday and honoring God in it, or keeping no particular day, because the Sabbath itself was all just a shadow of what was to come, or who was to come, Jesus. In Col 2:16-17
16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths,
17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
OK, so today, our rest, or our Sabbath rest is in Jesus. Chapter 59 and back to the appearance of what things look like. Isa 59:1
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.
So from the perspective of the people. If God is really God, and He’s our God, why doesn’t He do all that we want Him to do. Why not heal, why not protect, why not spare us from harm? Is He too weak? Maybe He is deaf and can’t hear our demands, or prayers rather? AND again, God, tells them the truth.
2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.
It’s not that He is weak, it’s not that He can’t hear…your sins have separated you from God. Your sins have cause God to hide His face from you, so that He won’t hear you. There is a benediction in the book of Numbers, I often read at funerals or other events I’m asked to give a benediction at. It says…Numbers 6:24-26
24 “The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you;
26 The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” ’
The prophet here says your sins have hidden His face from you, His face is not shining upon you due to your actions, your choices, your sin, not in anyway a shortcoming on the behalf of God. He is holy and righteous and true.
God now describes their sin.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken lies, Your tongue has muttered perversity.
4 No one calls for justice, Nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies; They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity.
5 They hatch vipers’ eggs and weave the spider’s web; He who eats of their eggs dies, And from that which is crushed a viper breaks out.
I think that means they just rely on the politicians to determine the way of the world. When we need to be the ones calling for justice. We need to be the ones calling out truth and identifying the lies our society is embracing. Evil is conceived, and in this world it is not no harm done. Or my sin only affects me. It brings for more sin, and it gives birth to more evil. Here viper’s eggs, spiders, and death of those that consume it or partake of it.
6 Their webs will not become garments, Nor will they cover themselves with their works; Their works are works of iniquity, And the act of violence is in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil, And they make haste to shed innocent blood; Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; Wasting and destruction are in their paths.
8 The way of peace they have not known, And there is no justice in their ways; They have made themselves crooked paths; Whoever takes that way shall not know peace.
That is just the beginning of their consequences, but it is important that this is known. How many turn to sin seeking peace, or seeking a better way? How many turn to sin in hopes of not feeling pain, or not feeling at all? The Word of God here says their works and acts of violence will not lead them to justice and they shall not know peace.
Remember this began with God saying tell my people the truth. That is always for the purpose and invitation for repentance. It leads here to them first seeing the reality of their situation, not the appearance of their situation. Verse 9
9 Therefore justice is far from us, Nor does righteousness overtake us; We look for light, but there is darkness! For brightness, but we walk in blackness!
10 We grope for the wall like the blind, And we grope as if we had no eyes; We stumble at noonday as at twilight; We are as dead men in desolate places.
11 We all growl like bears, And moan sadly like doves; We look for justice, but there is none; For salvation, but it is far from us.
I would say God was right, that doesn’t sound like peace to me. But look, having heard the truth, they also stop blaming God and give credit to whom credit is due.
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before You, And our sins testify against us; For our transgressions are with us, And as for our iniquities, we know them:
13 In transgressing and lying against the Lord, And departing from our God, Speaking oppression and revolt, Conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
14 Justice is turned back, And righteousness stands afar off; For truth is fallen in the street, And equity cannot enter.
15 So truth fails, And he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Then the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him That there was no justice.
16 He saw that there was no man, And wondered that there was no intercessor; Therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him; And His own righteousness, it sustained Him.
17 For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, And a helmet of salvation on His head; He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, And was clad with zeal as a cloak.
18 According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay, Fury to His adversaries, Recompense to His enemies; The coastlands He will fully repay.
19 So shall they fear The name of the Lord from the west, And His glory from the rising of the sun; When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.
20 “The Redeemer will come to Zion, And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,” Says the Lord.
21 “As for Me,” says the Lord, “this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,” says the Lord, “from this time and forevermore.”
Who does the Redeemer come to? Those who repent! Those who turn away from their transgressions and turn to God.
So quickly, some points of application. Remember this began with people thinking they were doing the right thing simply because they were going through the motions. God clearly doesn’t care about the motions being done without it being a response from a proper heart with Him.
Secondly, their accusation toward God was that He could not hear. It was as if their prayers were bouncing off the ceiling and never making it past the low lying fog, much less to God’s ears in heaven.
There are times that that can happen to us according to the new testament. We know that just as it did then, sin still separates us from God relationally. This isn’t a new testament passage but we just read about that in Isaiah, and the book of Pro 28:9
9 One who turns away his ear from hearing the law, Even his prayer is an abomination.
Jesus tells us our relationships with others matter as well. Remember He tells us that if we are coming to the alter and remember that one of our brothers has something against us, to actually stop what we are doing, leave our gift, go make things right first, and then come back. We also need to be willing to forgive others.
14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
So this takes us back to verse one of chapter 58, or transgression and sin separate us, the implication then is that God turns His face from us and won’t hear us.
Husbands… 1 Peter 3:7
7 Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered.
Last one, and again I think it ties right back to tonight and the issue of doing things with the right heart, or fasting with the right heart. Fasting is an important part of prayer, but not in the way that they were doing it, wanting their voice, their opinion and direction to be heard on high. Remember when the disciples came to Jesus wondering why they couldn’t cast out a demon and Jesus’s response was this kind will only come out with prayer and fasting. So fasting is a good thing. I don’t want anyone to leave tonight thinking I’m down on fasting, or Isaiah, or God looks down on fasting. But God first looks at the heart. Last passage from the book of James.
1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?
2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
Asking amiss for our own pleasures. Not our will, but Your will be done Father. I guess the encouragement tonight is speak the truth in love and be ready to receive the truth. Be ready to examine ourselves before the Lord and ask Him to reveal the things we have hidden even from ourselves in our hearts.
Grace and Peace