"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.)".
2 comments:
History definitely repeats itself. Referencing His very own chosen Israel as the new Sodom and Gomorrah earlier in this chapter, God pretty much judges their worship as worthless and insulting. But, later in verse 18, He shows that His judgment is not to destroy His people, but rather to bring them to repentance and redemption...as only God can.
What an awesome part of scripture that we can all use to remind us to keep our priorities straight when it comes to putting our religion into practice by defending and caring for the weak and poor.
Kudos to you, Kenton, and the rest of the Chapel staff for your noble efforts in leading the way for our church's work in Mozambique and the children of Rajastan, India.
I bought Marie, Josh, and Sarah their own "Mozambique pipe-sections" last Sunday and had an awesome conversation with them (well, at least the older two) about the project that our church is undertaking.
That's always been one of my favorite passages. Every time I read it I wonder if James had that in mind when he wrote: (1:27)
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
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