Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 57-59.

Isaiah speaks with God’s voice in condemning those who have worshiped idols.  He lists out their various offenses.  Those who have mocked God, and mocked those who believe in Him.  Those who “burn with lust” every place they can find to do so.  Those who have put pagan symbols behind their doors and their doorposts.  I think the prophet this refers to those who put up the symbols of godly worship for the world to see, but hide their unrighteous practices behind those symbolic acts of righteousness.  As part of the Passover, the Israelites marked their doors and doorposts with the blood of the sacrificial lamb, I think this reference to putting pagan symbols behind the door and door posts is a reference to people following the public Passover behavior, but behind it doing ungodly things.  The thing is that the prophet tells us that God has seen our terrible sins, our hypocritical unfaithfulness, but He will heal us anyway.

Isaiah then turns his attention to those who think they are faithfully serving God, but are not.  He speaks of those who wonder why God does not answer their prayers.  He explains that while we may go to Church on Sunday, sing of how much we love God, pray for others, put money in the offering plate, and follow all of the other forms of worship, we go home after service and do as we please.  He accuses us of exploiting our workers and ending the day of worship in quarrelling and strife.  Perhaps you think, “I am a worker.  I don’t have any workers to exploit.”  But, do you buy meat that you know was packed at a meatpacking plant which exploits illegal immigrant labor?  Do you buy goods which you know were produced in countries which essentially enslave the people who work in the factories?  It’s not as simple as saying that we won’t buy goods made in China (or whatever other country known for poor working conditions we might name).  And there is no good way to know which companies exploit illegal immigrants.  Fortunately, God gives us some pointers in positive actions we can take. “Do away with the pointing finger and malicious talk.”  “Spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed.”

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 57-59.

In today’s passage Isaiah addresses a complaint often lodged against God when someone dies young, “But he (or she) was such a good person, why did he (or she) die so young?”  Of course, the answer does not just apply to those who die young, it applies to anyone who dies “before their time.”  God sometimes takes the devout and the righteous sooner than we would wish in order to spare them evil.  Isaiah goes on to show the conceit and arrogance of those who condemn God when someone who was truly good dies young (as opposed to those who merely cry out in grief).  God seeks those who are contrite and humble, not those who arrogantly parrot how righteous they are.

Many put on a false front, Isaiah uses the example of fasting here. but there are many ways that people proclaim how they seek to do what is right while in secret (and sometimes not even all that secret) doing what they please at the expense of those less able.  God desires that we share our food with the hungry, provide shelter to without, clothe the naked, and aid our relatives.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Isaiah 57-59.

I think I understand what the prophet wrote here, but I am not sure I can put it into words.  Today’s passage begins with the prophet writing that sometimes the righteous die young so as to be spared from suffering, or perhaps from falling into wickedness.  Then the prophet accuses those to whom he is primarily writing of seeking some other. any other, god to the true God.  They indulged their lust and sacrificed their children, exhausting themselves in pursuit of an alternative to doing God’s will, seeking a righteousness not of God’s making.  But, the prophet tells us, that seeking will be, and is, in vain.  When trouble inevitably comes the replacements we have for God will fail us.  Only those who take refuge in God will be saved from those troubles.  And yet, even that will not be of our own doing.  God will punish the wicked, which is all of us, as the prophet wrote previously (“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”).  But God will heal us and give us peace.  Unfortunately, some will reject His healing because they are unwilling to humbly accept His deliverance, they are unwilling to admit that they sinned.

And this brings me to where it gets tricky and easy to get mislead.  The prophet actually condemns two types of people: those who reject God outright, and those who seek God on their own terms.   In chapter 57, he wrote of those who rejected God outright.  In chapter 58, he turns his attention to those who seek to clothe their own desires and wishes in God’s righteousness.  If you are reading this, I doubt you fall into the first group, but all of us must be wary of finding ourselves in the latter.  It is all too easy to take the path of visible righteousness, while profiting from injustice and wrong.  We see those reveling in sin and point our fingers at them, crying “Sinner”, without acknowledging our own sin.  The prophet makes clear what God asks of us; feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give shelter to the homeless.  Let us seek to do these things and we need not fear the coming turmoil.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Isaiah 57-59.

Since I am going to be on vacation from July 31-August 9 I have already written my blog posts for these days and scheduled them to be posted.  However, I may not be able to post a link to them on FaceBook, Gab.com, or MeWe.com during every day (or any day) during this time period.  So, please continue to visit my site to read my daily devotional.

I wrote yesterday how I saw Isaiah’s writings as applying to our society today.  I see more of that in today’s passage.  The following passage seems to me to describe our society:

You burn with lust among the oaks
    and under every spreading tree;
you sacrifice your children in the ravines
    and under the overhanging crags.

I think the first part needs no further exposition.  In the past, I saw the way our society deals with abortion as being related to passage like the second part.  However, today I realized that there is much more to our society’s sacrifice of children then just abortion.  There is the way we encourage them to see themselves as sexual beings before they reach puberty.  There is the way in which we permanently alter their bodies on the basis of childhood fantasies. In seeing the ways in which our society fulfills this, let us not lose sight of the important part of this: all of this happens because we choose not to obey God.  Which leads me to one of the most hopeful passages in the Bible:

“I have seen their ways, but I will heal them;”

God will bring healing to those willing to repent of their sin.  Despite our knowing embrace of sin, God will pour out His Spirit upon us, inspiring us to turn from that sin to Him.  Let us call on God to do so for our society today.

Many people use what Isaiah says in Chapter 58 to argue their case.  There he writes of people who call on God while mistreating their fellow man, people who practice religious rituals but exploit their workers. Isaiah goes on to tell us that the religious practices which God truly desires is for us to share our food with the hungry and to provide shelter to the poor wanderers. However, many of those who appeal to this passage forget where he also tells us to do away with the pointing finger and the malicious talk.  More importantly, they do not follow what Isaiah tells us is the biggest problem in our society, “no one pleads a case with integrity.”  Too many, on every side of every issue, are willing to make their case by presenting misleading information.  We cannot have justice and righteousness unless we plead each case with integrity.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 57-59.

Isaiah condemns those who mock both God and those who worship Him while worshiping their idols with great passion.  I see a connection with those in today’s society who have made a sacrament out of abortion while laughing at those who follow the traditional practices of Christianity.  Isaiah refers to how they keep seeking after new and different idols, yet refuse to consider God when their idols fail them.  And yet I also see a warning to those who have continued to worship God when Isaiah tells us to clear the road for their return.  We must seek out what obstacles we have placed in the way of those who may turn back to God.  Each of us must examine our lives to see if there is something we have done, or are doing, which presents an obstacle to others turning back to God.  If we find such a thing in our lives, we must immediately remove it, we must humbly seek God and change so that He can call the sinners back to Himself.

We must examine ourselves to see if we are the ones to whom Isaiah is referring when he talks of those who act pious, but are not.  When we follow the traditional practices of Christians, are we doing so in order to serve God?  Or, are we merely putting on a show for those around us?  Do we do the things which God commands in order to demonstrate God’s love? Or, are we seeking to be honored by others?  Rather than seeking honor for our piety, let us be humble and contrite about our sins.  Then, and only then, God will forgive us, welcome us, and bless us.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.  I am going to be on vacation through August 10th.  I have prepared my daily Bible Studies for each day throughout that time in advance since I will have limited access to the Internet during this time.  The timing on when I publish these blogs may be erratic during this time.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 57-59.

The prophet tells us, almost as an aside, that when the good die before what we would consider “their time”, God is protecting them from coming evil.  Those of us who survive them should be more concerned about what God is leaving us to face than about grieving over those who will face no more suffering.

The rest of the passage contains messages about our sin and what true worship of God looks like.  Attending Church every Sunday, singing the good songs, listening to sermons about the Bible do not compose true worship of God.  No, true worship involves feeding the hungry, freeing the oppressed, and providing shelter for the homeless.  There is nothing wrong with that first set of actions, but they will not bring us into a relationship with God unless we are doing the second set.  Our sins cut us off from God.

OK, changing direction here a bit.  Isaiah was explaining to the people of Jerusalem why bad things were happening to them, even during King Hezekiah’s reign.  When people are more concerned with what is in it for them than in what is fair and honest, bad things will happen.  As I read Isaiah’s condemnation of the people to whom I speaks, I see parallels to our society today.  They worship idols, constantly seeking out new and different idols to satisfy their cravings.  They sacrifice their children and demand the right to call on others to sacrifice theirs.  They redefine “good” and call those who call people to righteous behavior evil.  People pay lip service to God while refusing to listen to His commands.  Yet, for all of our sin and rejection of God, He still offers us healing and salvation.