I have read
Isaiah 58 many times in the years that I’m a Christian and it is
certainly one of my favorite passages. However, it never spoke to me so
loudly as it did this morning. And it is really a loud chapter. It even
says it in the first verse:
Isaiah 58:1
"Cry aloud, spare not; Lift up your voice like a trumpet; Tell My
people their transgression, And the house of Jacob their sins."
Cry aloud!! This
is not a message to stay somewhere hidden. This is a message that must
be said ALOUD! It is a message that must be heard like a TRUMPET! For I
believe that, like the people of Israel, so also many of us have the
same issues they had and which are described in the first 3 verses of
the chapter:
Isaiah 58:1-3
"Cry aloud, spare not; Lift up your voice like a trumpet; Tell
My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet
they seek Me daily, And delight to know My ways, as a nation that
did righteousness, and did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They
ask of Me the ordinances of justice; They take delight in approaching
God. `Why have we fasted,' they say, `and You have not
seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?"
Israel was
seeking God! Israel took delight to know the ways of the Lord! They took
delight in approaching God! You know, these folks wanted to be close to
God! They wanted to know God more and more! They fasted! They
"afflicted their souls"! And yet… it was like God was deaf
in all this! It was like He was blind, frozen, paying no attention to
what they did and to their supposingly great interest. If they were
today, they would attend church, they would take seminars, they would do
"ministry" activities. And yet, God wouldn’t hear nor see!
Haven’t we seen this today, probably in our own lives? We may miss
somehow God. We try to approach Him … through fasting, through
searching for more knowledge, through studying etc… "We take
delight to KNOW His ways". Yet, knowing the ways of God does not
mean that we know God, nor it means that we walk in these ways! Fasting
or taking delight in approaching God does not mean that our hearts are
necessarily touched. And it is there that change must happen. It is
there where repentance must enter. It is there where transformation must
occur. Renewal of the mind (Romans 12:2), means renewal of the heart. As
the Lord tells us in I Samuel 16:7 :
I Samuel 16:7
"man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the
heart."
It is the heart
where the Lord looks at. It is not a ritual that we have to follow to
approach God: get up at that time, do this and that, go to church every
Sunday, do this and that ministry work. This is not going to bring us
nearer to God, when there is no change of the heart. If we
are going to church, do this and that and have many activities, and
yet in our personal lives, in our hearts, we live something else, then
whatever we may do will not help. We may very well cry as the
Israelites "why you don’t see?". And the reason He does not
see lies in the heart. Here is what He said to the people of Israel:
Isaiah 58:3-5
"In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, And
exploit all your laborers." Indeed you fast for strife and debate,
and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you
do this day, to make your voice heard on high. Is it such a fast
that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to
bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under
him? Would you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the
LORD?"
These folks were
fasting but in that very day they exploited their laborers! They were
fasting and yet they were harboring strife and debate… and in fact
they were fasting for this…. "please Lord make the so and so
change his mind and see that I’M RIGHT in my argument". They were
afflicting their souls, their head went down like a bulrush, they had
sackcloth and ashes under them and yet they had the same hard heart! Do
you know what the Lord said: THIS IS NOT A FAST!!! Real fast has to do
with change of the heart! Stay as many days as you want without food….
if the heart is not changed it does not matter. This does
not mean that the fast does not matter in general. What it means is that
a fast with unchanged heart does not matter. And then the
Lord moves ahead to tell His people what was the true fast:
Isaiah 58:6-7
"Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose
the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed
go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to share your
bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are
cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide
yourself from your own flesh?"
See, this is not
an apathy state. What the Lord describes here is ACTION! However, not
action in religious practices but action in justice, in doing His will!
This is not the picture of somebody that has made settlements with the
world and lives OK for himself and cares nothing for the others. And yet
there are many church attending brothers that do this. They do their
religious duties or ministries and then they think they are justified to
live however they like. There are many that live double lives… one
life with those outside (church, work etc.) and another life at their
home. You can live however you like but you are not justified to do this
nor it is going to benefit you. There are many that say "I give my
tithes, I do my "ministry works" so I don’t know why God has
a problem with me". The reason is that despite the accomplishment
of the duties the heart hasn’t changed. It does need change of the
heart, it does need a humble heart, to share your bread with the poor,
and to take him to your house! It does need change of the heart to not
do what is the easiest thing in the world to do: to be indifferent. It
does need change of the heart to loose the bonds of wickedness and undo
the heavy burdens. It does need change of the heart for our voices to be
heard above. It does not need change of our religious practices. It
needs change of the heart. And though nothing is possible without the
help of God, it is WE that we are at the end responsible about it. It is
WE that we have to make the decision which way we will walk. It is WE
that we will make a decision and will say "I WANT TO CHANGE".
Then God will help us. God will not move into our area when our hearts
don’t actually want Him. "Draw near to God and He will draw near
to you" will read in a minute. God will come in only to the extent
we truly want Him in our hearts. The Word of God says in James 4:
James 4:1-10
"Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they
not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your
members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot
obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it
on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know
that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore
wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, "The Spirit who
dwells in us yearns jealously"? But He gives more grace. Therefore
He says: "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the
humble." Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee
from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your
hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you
double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to
mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of
the Lord, and He will lift you up."
Have you ever
thought that this is not spoken to people of the world but to
Christians, to brothers and sisters in the faith (James 1:2-3)?!!! They
had fights, lust, war, envies, murder, and may be the other awful fruits
of the flesh described in Galatians 5:19-21! No wonder that they could
not approach God. You cannot expect to have a heart unchanged and at the
same time God to come near to you, simply because you may take delight
in knowing Him or even in approaching Him. It is not enough to intent to
approach Him, to be glad in the thought of it. It is not enough to have
good intentions! YOU NEED TO DO IT! YOU NEED TO CHANGE! YOU NEED TO STOP
GOING FROM ONE DAY TO THE OTHER, BUT TO STEP OUT AND MAKE A DECISION! True
approach of God comes only when the heart changes towards this direction.
James does not say "go to church more often… start some more
activities… fast for a couple of days and read 4 chapters of the Word
every day". He does not say this! Not because these things are
wrong or evil or bad. No way. He does not give such instructions for such
instructions alone cannot bring you nearer to God, when the heart is not
changed! In contrast here is what he, through the Spirit of the
Lord, tells us:
James 4:7-10
"Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your
hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you
double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to
mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of
the Lord, and He will lift you up."
Submit to God!!!
Resist the devil! Cleanse your hands, and this is not physical cleaning
but relates to what these hands have done… it relates to actions!
PURIFY YOUR HEARTS!! It does not say…. "please stay as you are
and God will change you!". It says: YOU, purify your hearts. It is
WE that we do it. Do you want to have a wonderful relationship with the
Lord? The key is simple: change of the heart!
Returning to Israel and to
Isaiah, after the Lord told them what to do, He tells them what will
follow if they followed what He said, if they changed their hearts:
Isaiah 58:8-14
"Then your light shall break forth like the morning, your
healing shall spring forth speedily, and your righteousness shall go
before you; The glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you
shall call, and the LORD will answer; You shall cry, and He will say,
`Here I am.' "If you take away the yoke from your midst, the
pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you extend
your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light
shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the
noonday. The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in
drought, and strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden,
and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. Those from among
you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations
of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach,
the Restorer of Streets to Dwell In. "If you turn away your foot
from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and
call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable,
and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own
pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight
yourself in the LORD; And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of
the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The
mouth of the LORD has spoken."
Do you want to
say "God.." and hear Him say "Here I’m"? Do you
want to call Him and hear Him answer? The way is simple… do what
Isaiah 58 and James in a another way told us :
loose the bonds of wickedness,
undo the heavy burdens,
let the oppressed go free,
break every yoke ,
share your bread with the hungry,
bring to your house the poor who are cast out,
when you see the naked, cover him,
not hide yourself from your own flesh,
take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and
speaking wickedness,
extend your soul to the hungry,
satisfy the afflicted soul
If the
relationship with God is not alive, if the relationship with God is
poor, if the relationship with God is not what it used to be, there is
one and a single remedy: THE HEART NEEDS TO BE CHANGED. And this is an
assignment for YOU. YOU have to make the decision to do it. God wants it
more than anything else. But you have to make the decision to change.
God cannot get in to something you haven’t decided to do! God will
help you but you need first to make the decision to really go for it.
God wants all men to be saved and come to the knowledge to the truth,
but it is the man that makes the decision. God will seem deaf, remote,
and blind to your calls when these calls are not accompanied by a change
of the heart. Purify the heart, change the heart, make the decision to
change and steak to it, and you will call Him and He will be there as He
was and even nearer that you have ever seen Him. So close as you couldn’t
even dream! This is not an assumption. It is the surety and the last
verse of this chapter affirms it, for "THE MOUTH OF THE LORD HAS
SPOKEN". This is His promise to you, this is what His mouth says
and this is what will happen! It works the same on the contrary though:
you can do all the religious activities you want, fast every day, read
and memorize all the Bible, go to many seminars etc. BUT NOTHING WILL
HAPPEN IF YOU DON’T CHANGE THE HEART, for the Lord does not care for
the outside, for what the eyes see, but for the inside, FOR THE HEART!
He wants to be loved there, with ALL OUR HEART (Matthew 22:37)! Let the
days that come be days of transformation for all of us.
Tassos Kioulachoglou
PDF
version (printer friendly)
