Stoned-Campbell Disciple

Today on April 16, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr languished in a Birmingham Jail. He wrote an epistle to the churches of the city of Birmingham, Alabama. As I reread his letter, my mind went to Isaiah. My thoughts from Isaiah are inspired by Dr. King. I personally wonder if the American church is worse today than in 1963? On to Isaiah.

(If you have never read King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, do so now, You can read the entire text here: Birmingham Letter. No informed American can not read and meditate on it. Certainly no Christian American can not read it several times.).

Isaiah. Do you know him? I remember many years ago in Hebrew readings class in the early 1990s, the prof said “Isaiah is a Beast!” By this he was not referring to the creature in the fairy tale but to the monstrous complexity of his language. He was not jesting.

But Isaiah is not a beast merely in Hebrew, try him in English. He has an epic message in English that comes through loud and clear.

Often Christians know only that Isaiah said something about a “virgin” or possibly that he spoke of One who “by his stripes we have been healed.” And these are very important to know.

But Isaiah’s message is as relevant to the message of the Suffering One as his prophecy of the One. And perhaps because we do not know the message of Isaiah, we also fail to grasp the message of the One born of that virgin.

Isaiah opens in sort of a court scene. The people of God are on “trial.” The question of the trial is twofold: 1) does God’s people know who God is and 2) are they actually faithful to God. These are serious questions.

Yahweh who speaks to the “jury” (the heavens and earth, v. 2). He says “I raised my children, I cared for my children. But they rebelled against me.” Yahweh says they were raised in his own house but they have no idea who he is. “The ox knows its owner, the donkey knows its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people/family have no clue” (v.3).

The people counter with the defense. They are constantly at church! They bring reams of sacrifices, they go to the temple. They sing the songs of praise. They keep the new moons [think Sunday evening and Wednesday nite Bible study! They are going the “extra mile so to speak!”] (vv. 11 & 14).

Israel loves to go to church! How can they not know God? How can they not be faithful?

Shockingly, Yahweh addresses the people directly rather than just the “heavens and earth” the jury). He says “your church service gives me a stomach ache! I could careless for your sacrifices! I simply cannot put up with your worship any longer!” (vv.11c, 12, 13b).

Then Yahweh utters words that take Israel’s breath away. Yahweh says he simply will not listen to them pray any longer.

“When you stretch out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you pray lots and loudly,
I will not listen!” (v.15)

What!? But the defense (the People of God), retorts, “but we love to pray. We love to sing praise songs. We love worship!” (I am paraphrasing).

But Isaiah simply says Yahweh has rejected Israel’s worship. This rejection is not because of some failure of precision obedience by Israel. No. The charge is that they do not know God, they worship but do not have a clue who their Father actually is.

Such a stance by Yahweh is, by his own testimony, painful to him. God wants to hear our prayers. What is keeping God from accepting the praise hymns, the glad songs of the sacrifice, of the celebrations of new moons?

The answer is … the people who gather in worship tolerate INJUSTICE. In fact their tolerance of injustice, according to Yahweh, means they themselves have “blood on their hands” (v.15).

How can God listen to the prayers of outstretched hands that are covered with the blood of the victims of injustice?

God has no desire to “convict” his people. That is not the point of being “in court” in Isaiah 1. The point is to get the people to live as if they grew up in the house of the Lord! If you grow up in the house of the Lord then you will have the values and actions based on the values of the Father of the house. That is the point.

So, Yahweh tells God’s People how and when he will gladly hear their prayers and accept their worship once again.

“Cease to do evil,
learn to do good;
seek justice,
rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
plead for the widow.”
(v. 17)

Yahweh invites them to come alongside and he will wash them and make their sins – that are crimson because of the blood on their hands – will be white as wool (v.18). Yahweh’s Hesed (steadfast love/grace) yearns to be gracious but Yahweh loves the oppressed and we must too.

Isaiah preached to a group of people who loved to go to church. But Yahweh said their worship stank and he simply refused to hear their prayers. It was not because their worship was simply not by the book. It was because the people of God did not know Yahweh. They did not know and did not love JUSTICE.

Do you think Isaiah could be talking to not only the people of God of ancient Israel, could he be talking to the American church? Do we know what justice is? Do we love it?

Isaiah is a Beast.

Related Interest

Do We LOVE Justice? A Journey in the Psalms

Amos “Redefines” Justice: Judgement on the Church’s Sin

Knowing the Heart of the Alien: The Old Testament and Loving Our Neighbor

This entry was posted on Friday, April 19th, 2024 at 7:30 pm and is filed under Contemporary Ethics, Discipleship, Isaiah, Kingdom, Race Relations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.