Isaiah 58:9-12 The Message (MSG)
“This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’
“If you get rid of unfair practices,
quit blaming victims,
quit gossiping about other people’s sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places--
firm muscles, strong bones.
You’ll be like a well-watered garden,
a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,
restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
make the community livable again.
Last week we read from the book of the prophet Isaiah. We began in the very first chapter and the reading we heard was, at that time, a warning to the people of Judah – not yet a threat – but a warning. A warning to shape up or dire things could be coming their way. A warning to stop selfishly ignoring God’s demands for justice for all people.
The reading we just heard today is still from Isaiah, but from the other end of the long story. In between, there have been almost two generations of grief and loss – loss of national autonomy, loss of pride, loss of Temple, loss of family, loss of home – loss of everything the people valued. The one thing they didn’t lose – which was the thing they under-valued – was God. Through all this loss, God was with them. The One they under-valued has been beside them all the way, promising that this long season of loss would not last forever.
Now they are coming home. All that was promised is coming true. After all the lost years those who have held faithful are coming home again and the One who is waiting for them is the one they ignored before. And this One has a long ‘honey-do” list waiting for them. Number One on that list is that they cannot expect to return to their old self-centered ways of acting and thinking. God’s expectation of behavior from the people hasn’t changed. The things God wants from them are still the same as the ones we read last week from the first chapter: feed the hungry, welcome the homeless, care for those who need help, and so forth. Nothing has changed there.
But God does expect changes from them, yes, but if they make these changes and turn their lives back to the days when the people lived to serve God and keep their land and their way holy, then God will return them to all they lost – and more.
In the remaining eight chapters left in Isaiah after today’s reading, there will be repeated reminders of why the bad times happened to them – how the people brought them on themselves:
But more than these reminders, these last chapters of Isaiah are filled will promises:
Promise after promise after promise – and though it did not happen quickly, it did mostly come to pass. The people did return from exile, their homes were returned, the previously destroyed Temple was rebuilt, and though there was an initial struggle between those who had been away in exile and those who had been left behind in Judah, they did become once again a unified people. There was a significant spiritual revival in the land for a while and people remembered to pay more attention to God and God’s messengers.
God's promises were kept, but many of the people's expectations were not. They never again rose to the position of national power they once held under David and Solomon. There was a series of so-so kings and leaders and in later centuries they became vassal states once again, first under the Greeks remaining from Alexander the Great’s Near Eastern kingdom and then under the Romans.
Most of the text that appears in these ending chapters is in the form of these beautiful promises -- promises that would be kept -- including words that are very familiar to us in another setting:
Jesus himself could not find any better words than these, from Isaiah 61, to announce himself to the world when he first entered public ministry after his life-altering experience in the River Jordan and his time in the wilderness.
His quoting these words, and many others he would quote throughout his teaching years, shows us quite clearly just how deeply he was enmeshed in the Hebrew writings – especially Isaiah -- and just what their words meant to him -- the things he would teach, the actions he would take, and how he viewed his role here on earth.
The reading we just heard today is still from Isaiah, but from the other end of the long story. In between, there have been almost two generations of grief and loss – loss of national autonomy, loss of pride, loss of Temple, loss of family, loss of home – loss of everything the people valued. The one thing they didn’t lose – which was the thing they under-valued – was God. Through all this loss, God was with them. The One they under-valued has been beside them all the way, promising that this long season of loss would not last forever.
Now they are coming home. All that was promised is coming true. After all the lost years those who have held faithful are coming home again and the One who is waiting for them is the one they ignored before. And this One has a long ‘honey-do” list waiting for them. Number One on that list is that they cannot expect to return to their old self-centered ways of acting and thinking. God’s expectation of behavior from the people hasn’t changed. The things God wants from them are still the same as the ones we read last week from the first chapter: feed the hungry, welcome the homeless, care for those who need help, and so forth. Nothing has changed there.
But God does expect changes from them, yes, but if they make these changes and turn their lives back to the days when the people lived to serve God and keep their land and their way holy, then God will return them to all they lost – and more.
- Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’
In the remaining eight chapters left in Isaiah after today’s reading, there will be repeated reminders of why the bad times happened to them – how the people brought them on themselves:
- I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask,
to be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, “Here I am, here I am,”
to a nation that did not call on my name.
I held out my hands all day long
to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
following their own devices.
But more than these reminders, these last chapters of Isaiah are filled will promises:
- Arise, shine; for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over you.
Nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
- The sun shall no longer be
your light by day,
nor for brightness shall the moon
give light to you by night;
but the Lord will be your everlasting light,
and your God will be your glory.
Your sun shall no more go down,
or your moon withdraw itself;
for the Lord will be your everlasting light,
and your days of mourning shall be ended.
Promise after promise after promise – and though it did not happen quickly, it did mostly come to pass. The people did return from exile, their homes were returned, the previously destroyed Temple was rebuilt, and though there was an initial struggle between those who had been away in exile and those who had been left behind in Judah, they did become once again a unified people. There was a significant spiritual revival in the land for a while and people remembered to pay more attention to God and God’s messengers.
God's promises were kept, but many of the people's expectations were not. They never again rose to the position of national power they once held under David and Solomon. There was a series of so-so kings and leaders and in later centuries they became vassal states once again, first under the Greeks remaining from Alexander the Great’s Near Eastern kingdom and then under the Romans.
Most of the text that appears in these ending chapters is in the form of these beautiful promises -- promises that would be kept -- including words that are very familiar to us in another setting:
- The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
to provide for those who mourn in Zion--
to give them a garland instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning.
Jesus himself could not find any better words than these, from Isaiah 61, to announce himself to the world when he first entered public ministry after his life-altering experience in the River Jordan and his time in the wilderness.
His quoting these words, and many others he would quote throughout his teaching years, shows us quite clearly just how deeply he was enmeshed in the Hebrew writings – especially Isaiah -- and just what their words meant to him -- the things he would teach, the actions he would take, and how he viewed his role here on earth.
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