The Final Word

In my Hermeneutics class, we are reminded frequently that we need to let the text, the Scriptures, speak to us. It is without question that we come to the Bible with our own ideas of what is being said. We allow our current situation, the sermon we heard three years ago on the Scripture, and our unacknowledged theology to guide our interpretation of the Word of God, often ignoring the very words on the page. (Where does it say that in the text?) Even more foolish, sometimes, we think the text speaks only to the historical situation of the Israelites or the Jews, not to us today.

I admit, I was guilty of this latter sin as I sat down to read Isaiah 58 last night. I read the text out loud to my roommate, “For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves and you have not noticed?’” I spit out the words as if they were a nation that does what is right, casting my judgment on the foolish Israelites for screwing it up again.

But this morning, the text came back to me. It popped into my mind as I took a sip of my coffee this morning- one of the last cups that I will drink before Lent begins tomorrow. It crept in as I thought, “Why am I giving up coffee? What on earth was I thinking? I can barely make it through the day WITH coffee, how am I going to make it without it?” I thought I was something, giving up something that I view as sustaining me. And in that moment, the text spoke, and I heard the words of Isaiah 58, “‘Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?’”

Okay, so maybe I don’t exploit workers or beat anyone up. But am I coming to the Lord with any less pride, any less bravado than the Israelites? Of course my fasting is holy and with pure motive. Of course I can ask the Lord to come near…or not.

Lent isn’t about me. Fasting isn’t about me either. It’s about who God is. Lent is a season of preparation and remembrance. If my giving up coffee doesn’t remind me of the sacrifice of Jesus, if it doesn’t cause me to worship, if it gives me ground to demand that a Holy God come than I have no business participating. If I come with that attitude how am I any different than the Israelites were at the time of Isaiah’s proclamation?

The remainder of Isaiah 58 is a powerful, powerful text that I’ve heard quoted often.

6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice

and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free

and break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry

and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them,

and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,

and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you,

and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;

you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,

with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry

and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness,

and your night will become like the noonday.

11 The LORD will guide you always;

he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land

and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden,

like a spring whose waters never fail.

12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins

and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,

Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
13 “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath

and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight

and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way

and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,

14 then you will find your joy in the LORD,

and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land

and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”

For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

God declares the amazing things that He wants to do and to see, but He wants the Israelites to participate. He lays out an agenda more far reaching than any dream they may have had. But they have to change.

Why, WHY do I think I know better than the God of the universe what’s best? Today the text had the final word. Oh Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.