the appropriate fast

Posted on July 17, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

July 2015 (17)Isaiah 58:7-14

7 Is the appropriate fast not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the poorly dressed, to cover them, and not to isolate yourself from your own family? 8 Then your light will break out like the dawn, and your healing will spring up quickly; your vindicator will go before you, the glory of Yahveh will be your rear guard. 9 Then you will call, and Yahveh will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, 10 if you offer your food to the hungry soul and satisfy the needs of the afflicted soul, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. 11 Yahveh will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you will be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. 12 Your ancient ruins will be rebuilt; you will raise up the foundations of many generations; you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in. 13 If you refrain from trampling the Sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the Sabbath a pleasure and the holy day of Yahveh honourable; if you honour it, not taking your own roads, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; 14 then you will take pleasure in Yahveh, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the inheritance of your father Jacob, because the mouth of Yahveh has spoken.

the appropriate fast

The appropriate fast does not begin in the temple. It begins when God’s people start taking their obligations to each other seriously. If we just start there, and really live out our love for God by taking care of the needy all around us, being good neighbours to them – we will see God’s love at work. Then, when we do enter the holy place for time alone with God, we will find him there too. We will find that he has taken care of all our needs. We will appreciate those times alone with God all the more once we get our own agendas under control, and focus on him.

LORD, give us the wisdom to start our worship by serving others throughout the week. Then, may we celebrate your presence in worship without hypocrisy.

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whiners worship

Posted on July 16, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

July 2015 (16)Isaiah 58:1-6

Shout out a throaty shout, do not keep it back! Lift up your voice like you would a ram’s horn! Announce to my people their wrongdoing, to the house of Jacob their sins. 2 Yet day after day they seek me and take pleasure in knowing my roads, as if they were a nation that did a righteous thing and did not abandon the judgment of their God; they ask me for righteous judgments, they take pleasure in approaching God, 3 asking “Why are we fasting, but you are not looking? Why are we humbling our souls, but you are not acknowledging it?” Watch, you are finding your own pleasure on your fast day, and oppress all your workers. 4 Watch, you fast only to argue and to brawl and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard up high. 5 Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a man to humble his soul? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in rags and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day favoured by to Yahveh? 6 Is not this the fast that I choose: to untie the bonds of injustice, to unfasten the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to tear apart every yoke?

whiners worship

God was watching, and he did not like what he saw. He saw his people declaring regular fasts, and putting on a show like they wanted to be in God’s presence, then using that time as an excuse to whine about God. In the meantime, these same people were putting heavy burdens on their own workers, and even using their fast times to justify the mistreatment of others. The irony is that the people were whining in their worship that God was not looking. The problem was not that God was not looking. The problem was that God was looking. He saw their hypocrisy. He saw them using worship to enhance their own feelings of superiority and self-righteousness. That kind of whiners worship does get God’s attention, but it does not please him.

LORD, forgive us for making worship about us. When we come into your presence, keep us focused on you. Deliver us from the bondage to ourselves. We choose to take our agenda off the table, and look up to you.

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grace that relents

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

July 2015 (15)Isaiah 57:16-21

16 Because I will not permanently contest with them, nor will I be furious forever; because if I did that, a spirit would wear out in my presence, even the breaths that I have given. 17 Because of their unfair covetousness I was furious; I struck them, I hid and was furious; but they kept turning back to their own roads. 18 I have seen their roads, but I will repair them; I will guide them and restore them with comfort, creating fruit for their mourners’ lips. 19 Peace, peace, to the distant and the nearby, says Yahveh; and I will repair them. 20 But the wicked ones are like the churning sea because it cannot keep still; its waters toss up grime and mud. 21 There will be no peace, says my God, for the wicked ones.

grace that relents

All of human destiny rests on the fact that our wonderful God cannot keep condemning us. His grace relents because he knows how much we can take. He knows the breath within us would leave us and we would die if we were permanently presented with our own sins and shortcomings. That is why there is hope for us. Our God is in the repair business. He sees the wrong roads we have taken, and he speaks peace and comfort with us, through Christ, as he gently guides us back to the right roads. This is true of those who are nearby, as well as those who are distant.

But God’s grace also has a line which it cannot cross. The wicked ones who refuse to repent will not experience that peace, and will not see the repairs needed for their restoration. Some teach that God will ultimately restore everyone to himself. I wish it were true, but it is not. We can take comfort that our God is a God of grace, who is willing to overlook our sins, and lead us back on the right paths. But we must never forget that unless we take those paths, we will face his permanent judgment.

LORD, we accept your conditions of peace. Help us to follow you back to the safe road.

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he lives to revive

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

July 2015 (14)Isaiah 57:12-15

12 I myself admit your righteousness and your works, but they are not to your advantage. 13 When you are crying out, let your collection deliver you, and a wind will carry all of them away; a breath will blow it away. But he who takes refuge in me will take possession of the land, and he will inherit my mountain of holiness. 14 And he will say, “Build it, build it! Clear a road! Remove that obstacle from the road for my people!” 15 Because this is what the high and lofty one who resides forever, and whose name is holy says: “I reside in a high and holy place, but also with the crushed and humble of spirit; I live to revive a humble spirit, and to revive a crushed heart.

he lives to revive

The centuries and millennia pass away as we read these words. The prophet Isaiah’s words from God are no different from the New Testament prophets and apostles. They all speak of a God who is so holy that even the righteous acts of his people do not move him. But he is moved by one thing in every generation. A humble spirit who seeks him. A heart crushed by her own sins, and desperate to build a road back to God. The good news from Isaiah is that reviving the repentant is what our great God lives for. Seek him today. Do not try to rest on your own acts of righteousness. They mean nothing.

LORD, we seek you. Show yourself to us in your word and your Son. Revive us!

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hypocritical hanky-panky

Posted on July 13, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

July 2015 (13)Isaiah 57:7-11

7 You have set your sex bed upon a tall mountain; you also went up there to slaughter sacrifice. 8 And behind the door and the doorpost you have placed your erotic image; because you have divorced yourself from me, and you climb up; you make your bed wide, and you have covenanted for yourself with them, you have loved their sex bed; you have watched their naked form. 9 And you climbed down to “the king”[1] with the oil, and you poured out lots of perfume, and you sent out your messengers to entice them from a distance and you climbed down to Sheol itself. 10 You struggled because your road was so long, but you did not say, I give up!’ You gained new life by thinking about the sex you had, so you do not grow weak. 11 And who did you fear and dread, that you lied and did not remember me? Did you not think about it in your heart? Was it not that I have been silent, even from long ago, and so you do not fear me?

hypocritical hanky-panky

Isaiah’s words reflect God as a husband whose wife has not just been unfaithful. She has opened up her sex bed to anyone. She sends out messengers enticing people to come and have sex with her. She climbed down to Molech, the king. Then, she kept climbing until she reached the depths of the grave (Sheol) itself. All the while this adulteress is doing this, she keeps up the appearance that she is still faithful. She goes out to slaughter a sacrifice to Yahveh, and on the way back she has sex with an idol. You would think that she would get tired of this hypocritical road she is travelling, but, no. Nothing is going to stop her, because Yahveh has been silent. So, she keeps at it.

This is how our Lord feels when we prostitute ourselves. He knows the depths of our betrayal. It grieves him to see our disloyalty. He waits in silence to see if we will ever recognize how much our unfaithfulness hurts him. He still wants us to come back.

LORD, we are running back to you. Help us to put an end to our race away from you.

[1] למלך — a reference to Molech.

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gemstones as a destiny

Posted on July 12, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

July 2015 (12)Isaiah 57:1-6

1 The righteous have perished, but there is not a man who cares. And loyal men are being gathered, while there is no one who understands, because the righteous one is being gathered from the a place where there is wickedness. 2 he enters peace; they will rest on their beds, walking straight ahead of him. 3 “And you, come near here, you children of a magic arts practitioner, offspring of an adulterer and she who commits fornication. 4 Who are you making fun of? At whom do you open wide your mouth making your tongue long? Are you not criminal youth, offspring of deception, 5 who make yourselves burn with lust among the oaks, under every leafy tree, who slaughter children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks? 6 Your fate rests with those gemstones of the valley; they, they are your destiny; in fact, to them you have poured out a drink offering, you have brought a food offering. should I change my mind about these sins?

gemstones as a destiny

Using religion for self-satisfaction, pornography, illicit sex, infanticide, living for accumulation of wealth alone – these are some of the things that the neighbouring nations did. The self-respecting Israelites would stand with their mouths wide open and their tongue extended in astonishment at these openly evil acts. They expected those who did such things to be punished by Almighty God. In the end, they expected the wealth of these nations to be destroyed, and the people with it.

But Isaiah dares to accuse these self-righteous Israelites of harbouring the same greed, lust and rebellion that motivated the pagans surrounding them. Yahveh asks these secret sinners if they expect to get away with the very sins that they expect him to destroy the Gentiles for. Should God change his mind about these sins, just because they are within his covenant community?

God has a plan. He wants to lead these pagan neighbours to his righteousness, to forgive their sins and cleanse them. But, how can he do this when the very covenant community he plans to bring them into is secretly seeking the same life of lust, murder and greed as the communities he wants to take them out of? God’s kingdom should be different.

LORD, cleanse our hearts. We do not want you to overlook our sins. We want you to take us away from that life that is heading for destruction.

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hungry, sleepy dogs

Posted on July 11, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

July 2015 (11)Isaiah 56:9-12

9 Come, all his field animals to eat all his forest animals! 10 His blind watchmen, none of them know what is happening. They are all dumb dogs; they are unable to bark, panting, lying down, loving to sleep. 11 And the dogs are voracious of soul — they do not know what it means to be full. And they are shepherds! They do not know understanding. They all turn to their way, each one for his purpose. 12 “Come, let me take wine, and let us party with an intoxicating drink, and tomorrow will be like today, only more so.

hungry, sleepy dogs

This passage took me a couple of days to mull over. I had a problem with the 3rd masculine singular suffix which appears twice on the noun chayah in verse 9. I finally found a way of expressing it. Here’s what I think Isaiah is getting at: While the LORD will be continually adding to his kingdom from other ethnic groups, the leaders of Israel will not know what is going on. They will turn the ethnic Israelites (his field animals) against the converts (his forest animals). The leaders are described as hungry, sleepy dogs, who only care for their own fulfilment. This text has a very practical application for today’s church. The LORD wants to gather new believers into his flock. But often we leaders are more interested in our own enjoyment, so we cause unnecessary divisions among those under our charge. That is not what our chief shepherd wants. He wants us to put aside our own appetites and to foster unity among the flock.

LORD, make us shepherds who truly care about building a unified flock.

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for all peoples

Posted on July 10, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

July 2015 (10)Isaiah 56:6-8

6 And the sons from the foreign country who join themselves to Yahveh to serve him and to love the name of Yahveh, to become his servants, every one who keeps Sabbath (from profaning it), and those who keep hold of my covenant, 7 I will bring them to the mountain of my holiness. I will make them joyous in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be permitted on my altar, because my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples,” 8 — a declaration of the Lord Yahveh, who is gathering the scattered ones of Israel. I will keep gathering for him, to his gathered ones.

for all peoples

Isaiah continues to encourage Israel to bring people from all nations into the kingdom of the coming Messiah, God’s Yeshua (verse 1). Yahveh is gathering sons from foreign countries for him, putting them together with his other gathered ones. Ethnicity means nothing. Race means nothing. Social status means nothing. Gender means nothing. Our identity as the gathered into Christ’s body is all that matters.

LORD, may we see each other as you see us … equal recipients of your gathering grace.

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a permanent name

Posted on July 9, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

July 2015 (9)Isaiah 56:1-5

1 This is what Yahveh says: “Keep acting fairly and doing righteously, because my Yeshua is close to coming, and my justice to being revealed. 2 A person living like this will be happy, and a son of Adam who keeps hold of it, who keeps Sabbath (from profaning it), and who keeps his hand from doing all evil.” 3 And do not let the son from the foreign country who joins himself to Yahveh say, “Surely Yahveh will keep me separate from his people.” And do not let the eunuch say, “Watch! I am a fruitless tree!” 4 Because this is what Yahveh says, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose that in which I delight, and who keep hold of my covenant. 5 I will also give them a monument and a name in my house and within my walls, better than sons and daughters; I will give him a permanent name that will not be cut off.

a permanent name

Isaiah’s words speak to the marginalized within Israel. The foreign convert always envisions being a second-class citizen in God’s kingdom. The eunuch feels the same way, never fitting in to the nation which prides itself on its family roots. But Yahveh wants both of these marginalized groups to know that there is an equal future for them in the coming kingdom of his son, Yeshua. In Christ there will be no slave Christian, no Gentile Christian.[1] In Christ we all have a new name – a permanent name.

LORD, thank you for our new identity – and equality — in Christ.

[1] Galatians 3:28.

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a permanent sign

Posted on July 8, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

July 2015 (8)Isaiah 55:10-13

10 “Because just like the rain and the snow come down from the sky, and they do not return there until after they have watered the land completely and cause it to break out and sprout, and provide seed to the planter and bread to the eater, 11 that is what my word that goes out from my mouth will be like. It will not return to me without success, but will do what I want and be successful in the purpose for which I sent it. 12 Because you will exodus joyfully, and you will be escorted peacefully. The mountains and the hills will break forth in your presence, rejoicing and all the forest trees will clap the hand. 13 Instead of the thorn bush, a juniper will spring up; instead of the brier, a myrtle will spring up, and it will serve as a memorial to Yahveh, for a permanent sign, not to be removed.”

a permanent sign

God’s promise to his people that they would experience a second exodus is a non-negotiable for him. It is going to happen. Just like the rain which God sends from the sky, and it makes the land fruitful, so God’s message of restoration and spiritual revival for Israel is a given. The fruit of that revival will serve as a permanent sign, a memorial to Yahveh, a proof of his love and his covenant loyalty.

Some people take these words from God out of their context and use them to teach that the words of the Bible have a magic quality. They teach that you can take a promise from the Bible, apply it to yourself, and if you do not waver in believing it, it will give you what you want. That was not at all what Isaiah was referring to. The success of God’s message from Isaiah was grounded in the fact that God had a plan to restore Israel. It was that message that would not return to God without succeeding.

But there is a message for the believer in Christ here as well. God has a purpose for our lives. It is wrapped up in his plan to reach the nations with the gospel. When we dare to trust that the gospel we proclaim will turn the nations to Christ, we can be assured that that word will not return to God without succeeding in what he wants to accomplish.

LORD, make us people who dare to proclaim your gospel, trusting in you to make it produce what you want.

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