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Clear the Way!
Eric Ross 6-8 minutes
It is, and always has been our behavior, our sin that has separated us from God.
The Lord says, “Call!”, say “Here is your God!”, “Lift up your voice like a trumpet”, “I will heal him; and I will lead him”.
The Lord asks one thing, “turn away from transgression”.
There is a God kind of life.
There is a way for us to find peace and it begins as we “remove from among you the yoke, the finger-pointing and evil speech … offer your soul to the hungry”.
He says to “Clear the way!”
Part 1: Turn From Transgression
Isaiah says “Clear the Way!”
Isaiah 57:14–21
This message from
“echos” (Barry, J. D., et al, 2016) this message in Isaiah which says
and then goes on to say in
with an answer in
“Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”
“Look!
The Lord Yahweh comes with strength, and his arm rules for him”.
“Look!
His reward is with him, and his recompense in his presence”.
God himself is removing the obstacles, God himself is bringing the power to overcome them.
John the Baptist says “Make straight the way”
This is fulfilled in John the Baptist as recorded in each of the gospels.
It says in
It is not the Lord’s heart though, to bring condemnation, his desire is in
But there are those, the wicked, and of them in
Our part is to turn to the Lord and seek after him.
Joshua said Choose Yourselves Today Whom You Want to Serve
As Joshua, now in his last years, admonishes the people of Israel, he say to them twice, remove the foreign Gods.
He says “revere Yahweh” and “remove the gods” in
but this is no demand.
They are not required to serve Yahweh, they are free to choose and as Joshua declares his allegiance to Yahweh, he presents them with that choice in
and the people all respond that they will not forsake Yahweh in Joshua 23:16.
Then Joshua challenges them saying “you cannot serve Yahweh” in Joshua 23:17.
Joshua must have seen the people turning away already and he issues a strong caution in
but the people respond that they will not forsake him in
Joshua 24:21 And the people said to Joshua, “No, we will serve Yahweh.”
so Joshua says to them again “remove the foreign gods” in
Some believe that serving God is a passive act that only requires that they stop doing evil, but it is much more than that, it is an active proposition that requires doing good.
Living for God means loving God, inclining your heart to him, listening to his voice and following his ways, not just for a moment in time, but for all of your life.
Part 2: Lift Up Your Voice Like a Trumpet
Isaiah 58:1–14
Declare Their Rebellion and Sins
The Lord tells Isaiah to “declare to my people their rebellion … they seek me day by day … they (his people) desire the closeness of God”
We Fast, And You Do Not See
Isaiah 58:1-14
but they say in Isaiah 58:3 ‘Why do we fast, and you do not see it?
We humiliate our soul, and you do not notice it?’
and the Lord answers with two issues.
He says:
Look!
You find delight on the day of your fast, and you oppress all your workers!
Look!
You fast to quarrel and strife, and to strike with a wicked fist
Here in Isaiah, the Lord is speaking to those that claim His name and claim to live for the Lord, and don’t in
These people are fasting to get God to do what they want, to make their voice heard so their will is done.
As it says in
The True Fast
There is a different purpose for fasting, it is not for self abuse and “humiliation”.
Fasting is not so God will hear your voice, he hears you.
Instead, fasting is in
to release the bonds of injustice
to untie the ropes of the yoke
to let the oppressed go free
to tear every yoke to pieces
And you do this when you
… break your bread for the hungry
… bring home the poor
… cover (the naked)
Also in
This fast, the true fast, is not anything about making yourself heard so that you can get what you need or want from the Lord.
The true fast is about expressing righteousness and justice.
Or, as Jesus said in
There is a truth that fasting quiets the voice of our flesh and helps us become more in tune with God’s spirit.
Jesus fasted for forty days in the wilderness in
This fast was after being baptised with the Holy Spirit and before he began his ministry.
Jesus also taught people in
And in the early church, we know they gathered to pray and fast as in
So, there is a fast to the Lord, a fast where we prepare ourselves for the work of the ministry.
There is no Justice
Isaiah 59:1–11
It isn’t that the Lord cannot save in Isaiah 59:1, it is that in Isaiah 59:2 “your iniquities have been barriers between you and your God”.
This is the bleak and simple truth in Isaiah 59:3 “your hands are defiled with blood” and in Isaiah 59:4 “There is nobody who pleads with justice”.
Or as it says in
Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
Which leaves us separated from God in
Part 3: A Redeemer Will Come to Zion
Isaiah 59:12–21
The world is lost because “truth is missing” but even worse than that, anyone that would stand for the truth (“turn aside from evil”) is attacked (“plundered”) in
But in Isaiah 59:16 “so his arm came to assist him” and in Isaiah 59:20 “And a redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn away from transgression,” declares Yahweh.
The Lord makes a promise to those that will “turn away from transgression” even though they know they will be “plundered”.
Some versions say they make themselves “a prey”, “They (people of the world) have distanced themselves so far from the truth that they openly combat those who turn away from perversity and choose the good”.2
But here is God’s promise, the beginning of life with God’s blessing that grows and progresses through Isaiah 60-61 in
The Glory of Yahweh (the Lord) Has Risen on You
Isaiah 60:1–11
Keep Yourselves in the Love of God
Jude 17-23
There will be those that only cause divisions.
They seek their own way as it says in
For us as Christians, there is a simple way forward, it is the power of the Holy Spirit in
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