April 7, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to break the chains of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and tear off every yoke? Isn’t it to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your home, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” (Isaiah 58.6-7)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD TO US:

As we enter what is numbered Isaiah 58, we see the continuing revelation of contrasts between what God intended and what humanity turned it into. It would be easy, I suppose, to take the initial word of God so literally that we missed the spirit of the Word that was the true intent of the commands. Doing so steps a person onto the path of works and self-righteousness. What is the danger of works and self-righteousness? It is the danger of “the lie” which says God has lied. It was first uttered in Heaven by Lucifer. Perhaps it wasn’t so much a lie as a realization that in the wideness of God’s mercy there was always a choice. What was the choice? The choice existed that there was life with God and one apart from God. The choice was never that there was a life without God. But the invitation to live independently apart from God sounded a great deal like living without God. The determination to exist without the guidance, direction and authority (let’s call it protection) of God was and is an option. It isn’t a good option. It isn’t even an option which says that God will have no authority over me. Mighty ones, we have to know that God is sovereign over all of life including life after physical and spiritual death. Even though God is not in Hell, God’s sovereignty rules over it to keep it in place securing all creation from its harm and its residents. Paul wrote to the Christian community in Ephesus concerning the revelation that Jesus, after His crucifixion and burial descended into Hell to preach to the captives there. Those in Hell did not have the gospel presented to them as it was to the world in which Jesus lived. Were there others like the penitent thief on the cross beside Jesus who then relented, repented and were redeemed? That possibility surely exists as it exists today for those who are imprisoned by their own sin and living in the hell which sin propogates on earth. Jesus continues this liberation effort through the work of the Church. The Church is the people of God set aside and sanctified to fulfill the commission which the Resurrected Christ first gave to the disciples before “He who descended into Hell now ascended into Heaven to sit at the right hand of God.” It was not given to them as a singularity or “to them only.” It was given as a legacy to be passed on from generation to generation of believers until the Church attains to the full measure and stature of Christ. This it cannot do until Christ returns again. By that I mean, the Church cannot attain to its full measure and stature until Christ returns to claim Her as His Holy Bride fully sanctified. Until that time, the Church is to proclaim the gospel to the captives and thus fulfill the Great Commission which is built upon the “Jubilee Declaration.” We hear Jesus declare that Jubilee when He goes to preach in His hometown of Nazareth. (Luke 4.14-30) Jesus quotes from the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 58. 6-7; Isaiah 61.1-2) to define His own call to ministry and the impact it is intended to have on the people of the world. It is the earthly meaning expression of sanctification, or to be “set aside for the purposes of God as holy and righteous.”

Such performance of “Jubilee” was not intended to “save” people from their sins. Jubilee is the declaration of freeing the slaves to sin from the penalty of sin. Jubilee was also an economic command to forgive debts and all landowners were to return to their homeland. Not sure how that was really supposed to work which is why it may not have been put into effect. However, we can see a hint of it in the birth narrative of Jesus as the order went out for a census and heads of households were ordered to return to their tribes point of origin. For Joseph and Mary, that was
Bethlehem. The fact that Jesus preached the Jubilee text in Nazareth is an indicator of the value He placed in such “forgiveness of social and spiritual debts.” It demonstrates the act of loving mercy and forgiveness which promotes a life that can be reoriented to God without shame and guilt. The first Jubilee would have been in the Garden of Eden where God made the first sacrifice to overcome the first fast. Yes, in retrospect, we can look at the reaction of Adam and Eve to their great sin as the “first fast.” The hide, under shrubs, in silence until God inquired after them. In some regards, that moment may have been the precursor or foreshadowing of Passover. What is even more telling is that God includes in His word to Israel through Isaiah the “new covenant” which Jesus commanded as “love one another.” The indicator is that works righteousness and maintaining special celebrations would not be sufficient to constitute “salvation.” It would take the work of God alone to effect such an event of global and communal forgiveness, redemption and restoration. God remains in control. We hear this in Jesus’ teaching “I AM the way, the truth and the life; no one may approach the Father save through Me.” There is a way in which we are to live. It is the path of righteousness which Jesus demonstrated with His life, death and resurrection.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness which we know is folly but righteous works which declare Your glory and further witness the truth that can set all who believe free from death. So may we live by the name of Jesus our Christ. AMEN.