April 14, 2021
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. – Isaiah 58:8
We all look forward to the day that the healing of our world is complete, though it is a slow process, we know it is coming, and one day, like a flash, it will all be made well. Whether the reality of this healing takes place in our world, or with the coming new world of the Lord’s return, I think matters less than the belief in our hearts that healing is on the horizon, and that the best the Lord has to offer is still to come.
The later part of the prophecies of Isaiah are interesting, and were written to give a guide to peoples yet to come of what it is like to worship, truly and truthfully in the presence of the Lord. These prophecies speak of the restoration of Israel, and of the world, which we now believe happened through the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus.
The prophetic word found in Isaiah 58, speaks of true worship. If we read the entirety of this chapter what we find is that when our worship is true and genuine there are certain human constructs and hang ups that we can finally get over. We stop arguing about fasting, as if our fasting somehow draws us closer to God than those who don’t. We begin to humble ourselves instead of others. We chose to worship as a way to lose the bods of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, and work to let all oppressed go free. We share our bread with the hungry and bring the poor and homeless into our houses, we clothe the naked. Verse 9 and 10 says:
“Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall 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 and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.”
And immediately my heart breaks for myself and for so many in our world. It breaks because I know that our human condition loves to “point the finger” at someone else to blame them for what has gone wrong in our world. We see all kinds of finger pointing, and I wonder if we should take a breath and realize that if we want to see our world change it starts within. It starts by cleaning up our own biases and shortcoming, it focuses on those around us, and we work diligently, through all the weeks, months, and years of our lives to see that this world is made right, not by blaming others, but by helping them, showing them through the love we have for God the way made right, and world healed through caring.
It’s won’t come quickly, nor easily, but I believe this is the path of Christ to bring genuine healing to our world.
Grace & Peace,
Sam