Faith for show versus “daily driver” faith
Daily Scripture
Isaiah 58 :1-10
1 Shout loudly; don’t hold back;
raise your voice like a trumpet!
Announce to my people their crime,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 They seek me day after day,
desiring knowledge of my ways
like a nation that acted righteously,
that didn’t abandon their God.
They ask me for righteous judgments,
wanting to be close to God.
3 “Why do we fast and you don’t see;
why afflict ourselves and you don’t notice?”
Yet on your fast day you do whatever you want,
and oppress all your workers.
4 You quarrel and brawl, and then you fast;
you hit each other violently with your fists.
You shouldn’t fast as you are doing today
if you want to make your voice heard on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast I choose,
a day of self-affliction,
of bending one’s head like a reed
and of lying down in mourning clothing and ashes?
Is this what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD?
6 Isn’t this the fast I choose:
releasing wicked restraints, untying the ropes of a yoke,
setting free the mistreated,
and breaking every yoke?
7 Isn’t it sharing your bread with the hungry
and bringing the homeless poor into your house,
covering the naked when you see them,
and not hiding from your own family?
8 Then your light will break out like the dawn,
and you will be healed quickly.
Your own righteousness will walk before you,
and the LORD’s glory will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and God will say, “I’m here.”
If you remove the yoke from among you,
the finger-pointing, the wicked speech;
10 if you open your heart to the hungry,
and provide abundantly for those who are afflicted,
your light will shine in the darkness,
and your gloom will be like the noon.
Daily Reflection & Prayer
Isaiah 58:1-10 called God’s people to genuine worship through acts of justice and compassion. God rejected superficial rituals and emphasized helping the oppressed, feeding the hungry, and sheltering the homeless. The Israelites who heard Isaiah wondered why God didn’t honor their religious feasts and fasts. In impassioned language, Isaiah told them their piety was only external. They didn’t need showy, outward fasts from some kind of food. They needed to “fast,” at heart level, from injustice.
- The people to whom Isaiah 58 first spoke were very publicly fasting (verse 5). Fasting can be a beneficial spiritual practice, but theirs only seemed to go skin-deep. Verses 3-4 noted sadly that the pious “fasters” kept exploiting their workers and fighting each other. How do verses 6 and 7 speak to your heart and your life today? What are specific, day-to-day ways in which you and your church can act to bring about God’s justice in the world?
- “Only twice in the Old Testament does God command persons to fast. But in hundreds of places he commands his people to treat other people, especially those weaker than they, with respect, justice, and kindness. So here God tells the people that if they want to stop doing something, they can stop oppressing the poor (58:6–7).” * What would it look like for you to make that call a guide for your daily spiritual life today? How have you grown in your ability to show mercy to others? To whom can you extend mercy today?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, keep opening my eyes and heart to care for and show mercy to your people in need. Use me and whatever good things I have, so that through me “your light will shine in the darkness.” Amen.
GPS Insights
Glen Shoup
Glen Shoup served as the Executive Pastor for Worship when he wrote this powerful Insights blog in 2013. After more than a decade of service, he left Resurrection's staff this summer for an appointment as senior pastor at Heritage United Methodist Church in Overland Park.
It’s not what I don’t know about the Bible that bothers me, it’s what I do know that bothers me.
Nobody knows if that quip, attributed to Mark Twain, was the original observation of that literary master or if he was just repeating what he’d previously heard some other penetrated soul observe. But regardless of who said it first, that observation sums up today’s reading well for me.
Please stop right here and go read the GPS reflection questions before continuing. With the added perspective of the Reflection Questions, perhaps you understand more fully why I find myself again echoing Twain… It’s not what I don ‘t know about the Bible that bothers me, it’s what I do know.
My more than adequate waistline shows clearly that I (perhaps like you) don’t practice the God-centering discipline of fasting from food nearly enough. But through Isaiah God is making it abundantly clear that forgoing another double cheeseburger so I can be reminded that God—not food—is the sustenance of life…. well, that’s useful and worthwhile (and something I should do more often)—but my goodness—God’s word through Isaiah makes it abundantly clear that fasting from lunch doesn’t even scratch the surface of what’s really important to God.
No, God then—and God now—wants me (and you) to get that what God is really after is a fast from my gluttonous consumption of… me; my agenda, my promotion, my wants, my desires. So long as I’m at the buffet of my own self-focus, I am (on-purpose and on-accident) going to be prone to putting me above others. So long as I’m circling the table of my own self-serving, I’m going to be blind to my ability to empower others and consumed with leveraging power for my own purposes. So long as I’m dining on my own pursuits, I’m going to be numb to the most vulnerable and blind to the most overlooked.
And Isaiah makes it clear that God wants that to stop. Isaiah makes it poignantly clear that God wants me (and you) to fast from the unhealthy and unsatisfying consumption of… ourselves. Because (and I hear Micah tag-teaming with Isaiah here) it’s only when we fast—as God truly wants us to fast—that we can begin to more fully… do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.
Like I said, it’s not what I don’t know about the Bible that bothers me, it’s what I do know.
God, would You today, help me live what I know!
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
References
* John N. Oswalt, Isaiah. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003, p. 625.
