Isaiah 58-59: What About Us?

It's interesting when you read these chapters, that God is cataloging the sins of his people and throwing them in their faces, but the sins he holds against them are not the sins that we as a church most readily decry or confess.  These are not the sins that get you pulled over by the police or shunned by the religious right.  These are the sins that we are easily guilty of ourselves:  finger pointing, malicious talk, ignoring the hungry and oppressed, letting the needy fend for themselves, worrying about our own future at the expense of others and the one we all ignore anymore, breaking the Sabbath.

No good is going to come of this.  We can whine and wale about all of the sin around us, the lasciviousness, the crime, drugs, and violence, but until we clean up our own act, nothing good will ever come of it.  Even our prayers and fasting  will fall on deaf ears until we become obedient as God asks us to be.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
   with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
   and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
   and your night will become like the noonday.
The LORD will guide you always;
   he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
   and will strengthen your frame. - Is. 58:9-11 NIV

2010 Post - Isaiah 58-59:  A Rebellious People