Isaiah
1:1-17 “Like a Booth, Shelter,
Besieged City”
The vision that
Isaiah son of Amoz saw regarding Judah and Jerusalem during the times of the kings of Judah: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz,
and Hezekiah. 2-4 Heaven
and earth, you’re the jury. Listen to God’s case: “I had children and raised them well, and hey turned on
me. The ox knows who’s boss, the mule knows the hand that feeds him, But not
Israel. My people don’t know up from down. Shame! Misguided God-dropouts, staggering under their guilt-baggage, Gang of miscreants, band of vandals—My people have
walked out on me, their God, turned their backs on
The Holy of Israel, walked off and never looked back. 5-9 “Why bother even
trying to do anything with you when you
just keep to your bullheaded ways? You
keep beating your heads against
brick walls. Everything within you
protests against you. From the bottom of
your feet to the top of your head,
nothing’s working right. Wounds and
bruises and running sores—untended, unwashed,
unbandaged. Your country is laid waste,
your cities burned down. Your land is destroyed by outsiders while you watch,
reduced to rubble by barbarians.
Daughter Zion is deserted—like
a tumbledown shack on a dead-end street, Like a tarpaper shanty on the wrong side of the tracks, like a sinking ship
abandoned by the rats. If God-of-the-Angel-Armies hadn’t left
us a few survivors, we’d be as desolate as Sodom, doomed just like
Gomorrah. 10 “Listen
to my Message, you
Sodom-schooled leaders. Receive God’s
revelation, you Gomorrah-schooled people. 11-12 “Why this frenzy
of sacrifices?” God’s asking. “Don’t you think
I’ve had my fill of burnt
sacrifices, rams and plump grain-fed calves?
Don’t you think I’ve had my fill of blood from bulls, lambs, and goats?
When you come before me, whoever gave you the idea of acting like this, Running here and there, doing
this and that—all this sheer commotion in
the place provided for worship? 13-17 “Quit your
worship charades. I can’t stand your trivial religious games: Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths,
special meetings—meetings, meetings, meetings—I can’t stand one more!
Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them! You’ve worn me out! I’m sick of
your religion, religion, religion, while you go right on sinning. When you put on your next prayer-performance, I’ll be looking the
other way. No matter how long or loud or
often you pray, I’ll not be listening.
And do you know why? Because you’ve been tearing people to pieces, and your hands are bloody. Go home and wash up. Clean up your act. Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings so I don’t have to look
at them any longer. Say no to wrong. Learn
to do good. Work for justice. Help
the down-and-out. Stand up for the
homeless. Go to bat for the defenseless.(The Message
Translation)
This morning
I began a study of the book of Isaiah. I
decided I would read through one chapter a day with two questions in mind:
1. What was God saying to the original hearers?
2. What is God saying to me?
The first hearers
of this text knew their own current reality, and yet, they didn’t! They knew that all around them were peoples
who wanted to conquer them. They knew
they were in the center of power-mongers who cared more about making a name for
themselves than they did for those dwelling in the land they wanted to
conquer. They knew there was someone
bigger than their own current fears and realities, God -- yet they practiced a
form of worship that was ritual and not righteous. They continued bringing their sacrifices,
burnt offerings and burning of incense to God – but it was all rote, there was
no heart in it, and no proof of signs of compassion, mercy and grace towards
others. They were self-focused,
self-centered and their worship was no more than just checking off their list
of necessary things to do, because this is who we are. This was NOT what God wanted. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the
Creator of Adam and Eve; the Sustainer of Ruth and Naomi was a God of
relationship and covenant, not ritual and acts of worship that deny the power
thereof.
While they
knew their current reality, they were not in relationship with God. Oh, they had been at one time, but the
heartaches of life, the pressures of politics both within the church and the
state, the pressure for cultivating their own provision slowly eroded their
faith, their trust in God, and their worship life. There had likely been an ever increasing
intrusion of negativity invading and permeating their thoughts and heart, all
the while maintaining worship practices devoid of the real presence of God, and
they weren’t even aware of it!
Isaiah’s
call is one of sounding the alarm to wake up and realize their true condition
before God. It’s as if God wanted to
snap His children out of the haze of doing and into a state of being. Meaning, they seemed to be doing the right
things, something they somehow equated with righteousness, but they weren’t
“being” who God called them to be. They
weren’t making a difference, they weren’t being a blessing to the world around
them and they certainly weren’t doing good, seeking justice, rescuing the
orphans, or pleading for the widow. The
orphan and widows represent persons on the margins, the least, the last and the
lost…those who couldn’t help themselves.
They didn’t because their lives had become all about themselves; a
self-absorbed, in denial, and unproductive people.
I’m afraid
when I examine my own heart, this is exactly where I have been walking. My life is a life honestly, of doing and not
being. I’m busy serving a church, taking
care of as many needs as I can, creating worship experiences, bible studies and
offering myself as a sacrifice … and believe me, I feel sacrificed! I feel empty, burned up and burned out! How did I come to this place? The same way these first hearers did, I
allowed the enemy to warp my mind and my thinking by invading and overwhelming
me with all the things that I must do to cultivate provision for the church,
for her people, and for myself. In that
doing, I lost sight of being. I found
myself in the bible every day in order to produce, but not in order to worship
my God. Not in order to meet God in
fellowship, insight, and the growth of my relationship with the lover of my
soul. And soon enough the proof of my
reality came spilling out of my mouth in words that sound more faith-less than
faithful. The waters that run deep
became stagnant pools of polluted thinking.
This “stinkin’ thinkin’” does NOT please God and actually hinders the
work of God on our behalf. I had moved
out of covenant with God and like the first hears, I didn’t even know it!
But, my
precious Father is unrelenting in His relationship with me. God actually pursues us and woos us back into
relationship – that is God’s heart toward His children. However, make no mistake God will not
tolerate our lackadaisical attempts we call worship apart from real
relationship, evidenced by shifting the focus off of self and onto what He
calls us to do. We live in a society
that is “self” driven. We snap, snap, snap
pictures of ourselves, post them to the internet for the world to join us in
our self-worship! We live lives that
are centered around producing our every comfort, (in multiples mind you),
cultivating our own provision while at the same time forgetting who our
provider really is. But, worse yet we
attend church (if it’s convenient) and call it worship!
Thank you
Almighty, most Holy, Heavenly Father for today’s revelation and reality
check. Forgive me for sinning against
You! Forgive me for walking out of
covenant, while I was so busy doing what I called “Your work.” Forgive me for my stinking thinking! Thank you for loving me, pursuing me, and
calling me back into honest, righteous relationship!
