July 19: Isaiah 57 to 59

In today's passage, we see the following themes:

-- The people had forsaken God. God describes their following after idols as making "a pact with those whose beds you love,/ and youir looked on their nakedness." Our worship, either of idols or of the Lord, brings us into intimate contact. Yet, these idols would prove worthless in front of God's judgment:

"I will expose your righteousness and your works,
and they will not benefit you.
When you cry out for help,
let your collection of idols save you!
The wind will carry all of them off,
a mere breath will blow them away.
But the man who makes me his refuge
will inherit the land
and posees my holy mountain."
　
I love this imagery of God as our refuge. We may run to Him at all times, and He will not turn us away. Whether there is a storm today or tomorrow, we may cling to His presence.


-- God becomes present with the contrite. While the people had turned away from God, He can look upon those who are earnestly seeking Him. While God is wholly other, "the high and lofty One[,]... who lives forever, whose name is holy," He is "with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit." God will "revive the spirit of the lowly/ and to revive the spirit of the contrite." When the people turn to God, He will restore them and bring peace to their hearts. As St. Augustine prayed, "Lord, you have made us for yourself and our hearts find no rest until they rest in you!"
　

-- The Lord detests empty worship. As Juan preached today, sometimes we express our frustration when God appears not to answer us. While God acknowledges that the people had indeed sought Him through fasting, He notes that their lives had not been marked by the integrity that their fasting purported to show. God noted that their attitudes towards others showed brutality; they could not love God truly and show enmity towards their neighbors and the poor. Indeed, the Great Commandments of Jesus tie together clearly: our love for God comes shining through our love for our neighbor. What a great barometer for our hearts!
　

-- Corporate confession stokes God's heart and brings about true salvation. Isaiah prophesies about the weight of sin and how it has caused separation. Sin brings death and cause God to "have hidden his face from you,/ so that he will not hear." How painful is that separation! The lawlessness of sin has trampled truth and justice in the land and among the people. Realizing that the people cannot bring healing themselves, God's "own arm worked salvation for him.... [In retrospect, we may see that, in Christ,] he put on righteousness as his breastplate,/ and the helmet of salvation on his head... " God appoints His Son as a warrior to bring "wrath to his enemies" and so that:

"From the west, men will fear the name of the LORD,
and from the rising of the sun, they will revere his glory."

　
-- The Spirit brings lasting change. God's promised Spirit, which will come upon the Church, will bring lasting change. God's presence will sustain the Church: "'My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have out in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their decendants from this time on and forever,' says the LORD."

　
QUESTIONS

1. Who or what is your refuge?

2. Have you confronted your sin in humility? Did you feel God draw near to you during that period of contrition?

3. How can you trust God more fully in His provision of salvation or of the Holy Spirit?