1.27.2007
more thoughts on isaiah 1:16-17
In the last few years God has been raising my awareness of the poor and needy and showing me the theology of the poor in Scripture. While that is continuing, God is now calling me to do something. Positively, I am beginning to think of ways to live generously and instead of a generous deed here or there. However, I still need to learn how to prevent making a mental list and checking it off, as if one generous deed holds me for a while. What I am doing is motivated out of love for God and a desire to respond to Him and to live a holy life, but I still have a tendency to mentally check things off. I want to get past that and just respond to God every time He nudges me, without thinking that I am somehow “okay” if I do this. Realizing that “justice” in Isaiah 1:17 is more than just social justice, but following the will of God, is helping me to grasp the holistic nature of the theology of the poor. It is about a lifestyle of generosity, not a list of good deeds.
1.25.2007
isaiah 1:16-17
"Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow."
This verse is in the context of a chapter in which Yahweh, through Isaiah the prophet, tells the people of Judah that He is sick to death of their meaningless, obligatory religion. Does God hate the rituals He Himself had prescribed? No, it is because the people do their religious activities but neglect what in the New Testament Jesus called "the more important matters of the law" (Matthwe 23:23). It's as if God is saying, "I can't stand your worship. Stop singing, stop praying. Yuck. I can't take it any more. Just do what's right." He even calls them murderers, rebels and thieves (Isaiah 1:21,23).
In verses 16-17, God calls His people to do three major things1:
1. Purify themselves (make clean)
2. Reorder their lives (stop doing wrong, learn to do right, and seek justice)
3. Transform society (put right2 the oppressor, defend the needy).
I want to look closely at the phrase, "Seek justice." I find it fascinating that it is included in the second category, not the third. However, the word justice is much more than social justice. In his book, The Prophecy of Isaiah, J. Alec Motyer says: "The underlying verb of justice (mispat) is vsapat meaning 'to judge, come to a decision, determine authoritatively what is right'. Mispat is often therefore used, as here, to express the sum total of what the Lord has adjudged to be right, in a word, the will of God (cf. Rom 12:2)."1
In other words, Isaiah is saying, "Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek the will of God." God's will is not some nebulus entity which we must pray to discern and that tells us which job to take or person to marry; it is whatever God has called right. Living according to His Word.
Subsequently, Isaiah gives us some specific ways to live rightly: transforming society by helping the oppressed and needy and rebuking the oppressor.
Thoughts?
1Motyer 47. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993.
2NIV renders this "encourage the oppressed," but the NIV text note says "rebuke the oppressor," and Motyer states that though the noun for "oppressor" can be rendered "oppressed," this destroys the contrast "between the two ends of imperfect society, the oppressor and the needy, the one inflicting and the other suffering the hurt (Ibid.)".
This verse is in the context of a chapter in which Yahweh, through Isaiah the prophet, tells the people of Judah that He is sick to death of their meaningless, obligatory religion. Does God hate the rituals He Himself had prescribed? No, it is because the people do their religious activities but neglect what in the New Testament Jesus called "the more important matters of the law" (Matthwe 23:23). It's as if God is saying, "I can't stand your worship. Stop singing, stop praying. Yuck. I can't take it any more. Just do what's right." He even calls them murderers, rebels and thieves (Isaiah 1:21,23).
In verses 16-17, God calls His people to do three major things1:
1. Purify themselves (make clean)
2. Reorder their lives (stop doing wrong, learn to do right, and seek justice)
3. Transform society (put right2 the oppressor, defend the needy).
I want to look closely at the phrase, "Seek justice." I find it fascinating that it is included in the second category, not the third. However, the word justice is much more than social justice. In his book, The Prophecy of Isaiah, J. Alec Motyer says: "The underlying verb of justice (mispat) is vsapat meaning 'to judge, come to a decision, determine authoritatively what is right'. Mispat is often therefore used, as here, to express the sum total of what the Lord has adjudged to be right, in a word, the will of God (cf. Rom 12:2)."1
In other words, Isaiah is saying, "Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek the will of God." God's will is not some nebulus entity which we must pray to discern and that tells us which job to take or person to marry; it is whatever God has called right. Living according to His Word.
Subsequently, Isaiah gives us some specific ways to live rightly: transforming society by helping the oppressed and needy and rebuking the oppressor.
Thoughts?
1Motyer 47. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993.
2NIV renders this "encourage the oppressed," but the NIV text note says "rebuke the oppressor," and Motyer states that though the noun for "oppressor" can be rendered "oppressed," this destroys the contrast "between the two ends of imperfect society, the oppressor and the needy, the one inflicting and the other suffering the hurt (Ibid.)".
1.14.2007
happy day
Tomorrow is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Happy day before! That's for you, Rob!
I'm on a little vacation in Amish Country. My family and our family friends have gone on this vacation for years—probably since I was 14. It's really relaxing. We eat really good food and play games.
I'm looking forward to this little vacation.
I'm on a little vacation in Amish Country. My family and our family friends have gone on this vacation for years—probably since I was 14. It's really relaxing. We eat really good food and play games.
I'm looking forward to this little vacation.
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