Isaiah
Chapter
58
Isaiah
58:1-2
1 Cry
aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew
my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. 2 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a
nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they
ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.
Godly people never condone hypocrisy! We are lights
to the world showing the way to Christ!
Lights have only one job! They
shine!
Our shining is accomplished through raising our
voices to shed light on unrighteousness and calling for a change of direction,
repentance!
Many
tell us that if we turn to God and plead with Him, He will heal our land. The fact is that God shall heal the land, BUT not in this season!
The
Old Testament is a record of God’s work among Israel. The New is a record of
His pausing that work and opening the doors to Gentiles. The pause does not
represent a change, but instead represents the progression of God’s plan for
the ages!
At
the end of the gentile age God shall once again turn to Israel. He is now in the process to turning back to
Israel! The book of Revelation is the story of that last progression.
Even
today’s hypocrites shall turn to God and cry out for His salvation on His
terms! They shall seek Him daily, and delight to know His ways!
They
shall become righteousness in Christ, and honor the ordinances of God. Many
will say that verse 2 is referring to only Israel. Actually it is referring to
all who call upon the name of the Lord.
Romans
10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved.
Romans 10:13 is inclusive to all Jews
and Gentiles alike who call upon the name of the Lord, Christ Jesus!
In
the day of final reconciliation, all those that ask for justice shall receive
His mercy!
James 2:13b mercy rejoiceth against judgment.
God mercy supersedes His
Judgment! Humanly, we may think we want
Judgment, but actually our desire is for God’s mercy!
Jesus came to bring mercy through
salvation!
John 3:17 For God sent not his Son
into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be
saved.
In the day of mercy, all those who
have called on the Lord shall “delight in approaching to God.”
Isaiah
58:3-7
3 Wherefore have we fasted, say
they, and thou seest not? wherefore
have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no
knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your
labours.
4 Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with
the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make
your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a
day for a man to afflict his soul? is it
to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under
him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable
day to the LORD?
6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness,
to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break
every yoke?
7 Is it not to deal thy
bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to
thy house? when thou seest
the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
Those who
have falsely called upon the Lord have not received the benefits of His loving
concern. They are still blind to His
salvation!
They fast
without seeing the benefit! They have
afflicted their own souls because of the lack of understanding, relationship!
Isaiah
58:3a Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have
we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge (Heb yāda-יָדַע)?
Gen 4:1 And Adam knew (Heb
yāda-יָדַע) Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
Some teach
that simply mouthing words to “call” upon God without His approval for the call
is a valid. It is not! The calling is
based on relationship!
But, in
that day of mercy, all shall call from the heart and find the mercy of God.
Isaiah
45:23 I have sworn by myself, the word is
gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.
Romans
14:11 For it is written, As I
live, saith the Lord, every knee
shall bow to me, and every tongue
shall confess to God.
Do you understand that the day shall come when every knee
shall bow to Christ and every tongue shall swear an oath, confess that “Jesus
Christ is Lord!”
That is not just my opinion! It
is the word of God!
While we are here, let me remind you of another of God’s
pronouncements!
Isaiah
55:11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my
mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I
please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
Today, we fast and debate with
strife! We attack in anger! Although we are to shed light on unrighteousness,
anger is not the way to shed that light!
In verse 5, God admonishes His
people to speak in love, not in anger.
Unfortunately the light is not being shed by
the Church of today. Instead, our light
is being shed in condemnation. That is unacceptable to the LORD!
The fast that God has chosen for us
is “to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the
heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free”, so that “every yoke” may be
broken!
Today we face an onslaught of
homosexuality. I will not try to tell
you that deviant behavior is wrong. You
already know that and those who do it don’t care. But, in Christ there is a better way!
God’s love for you is not the
issue!
Your love and understanding of Him
is the issue!
When Christ confronted the demoniac,
He found a man that abused his own body as do all homosexuals. Instead of condemning him, Christ healed him.
Notice how the Bible describes the
healing of he demoniac.
Mark 5:15 And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed
with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.
To feed others physical food without
offering the bread of life is a dreadful thing to do! To offer housing without offering them the
opportunity to dwell in the House of the Lord is senseless! To clothe them
without offering them the clothing of God’s righteousness is appalling!
Physical food, housing, and clothing
are wonderful things. But without God’s food, housing and clothing, the Lake of
Fire is one’s destiny!
Isaiah
58:8-12
8 Then shall thy light break forth
as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily:
and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.
9 Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt
cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take
away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and
speaking vanity;
10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and
satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy
darkness be as the noonday:
11 And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy
soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered
garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
12 And they that shall be of thee shall build the old
waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of
many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The
restorer of paths to dwell in.
When we come to Christ, the lights
go on! And, yes there is healing in His salvation, His atonement!
Some deny healing in salvation, BUT what do they think salvation
is?
Salvation is spiritual healing!
Verse 8 ends with a remarkable
phrase.
“[T]he glory of the LORD shall be
thy rereward.”
What is the world is that?
Rereward (Heb ʾāsap-אָסַף) speaks of a gathering!
We shall be gathered in Christ!
It is when we call from the heart
that He hears from heaven and says, “Here I am.”
If we speak to the yokes of life in
the name and power of Christ, they shall obey and desist! Otherwise we speak in
vain!
The word has an intrinsic power to
achieve what God has sent it accomplish!
But, we must ask in accordance with His plan!
If we lift up those who are hungry
and satisfy the inward parts of those who are afflicted by sin, then the Light
within us, as Christians shall shine brightly!
And, in that shining, the LORD (Heb yhwh-יהוה) shall guide us continually satisfying ever desire that we
have. However, in that day, our only
desire shall be for the LORD’s pleasure!
In the beginning, God gave a design
for the end results! When we, the true Church, some into complete unity in His
plan, we shall, at that time, repair the foundations of His creation as He has
prophesied!
Many have abuse Scripture using it
out of context, but in those days it shall be time to speak fully and
powerfully! God in us shall be the Repairer of the breach, and the Restorer of
paths.
Isaiah
58:13-14
13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath,
from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath
a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and
shalt honour him, not doing thine
own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor
speaking thine own words:
14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will
cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the
heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
The last two verses of this
chapter may come as a surprise to mainstream Christianity. But one of the
things that shall be restored in the Sabbath!
There is no “Christian
Sabbath!” There is only the Sabbath!
In the creation, God said all
He made was ‘good.” But, God blessed
only one created thing! He blessed the
Sabbath!
Some things now observed in
Christianity are man-made. The Sunday sabbath is one of
those things!
The Sunday sabbath has its
origins in the Roman Empire when the Roman Emperor Aurelian proclaimed that the
entire Roman Empire must observe Sunday, the day of the sun in honor of the
pagan god Sol Invictus in the year 274.
The Roman Church threw out the
Bible and obeyed the Roman Emperor!
There is absolutely no biblical
admonishment to observe Sunday as the Sabbath!
In verse 13 God warns that “If we as individuals turn away from honoring the Sabbath,
then he shall ignore all we sway and ask for!
But, if we delight in the Sabbath,
He shall lift us up and care for us! God
ends the chapter, “for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.” Amen!