April 10, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and malicious talk, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will go forth in the darkness, and your night will be like noonday.” (Isaiah 58.9b-10)

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

Jesus said, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I AM meek and lowly and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11.29) It is important that we have the two posits of the spectrum before us when we listen to the word of God from Isaiah. Of course, as mighty ones of God we know that Jesus Christ isn’t actually an “end” of the spectrum. But for a moment let us see what is presented to the people of God when it comes to “the yoke.” When Peter was addressing the Council of Jerusalem on the matter brought before them by Paul, it was on the issue of how Gentiles could become Jewish Christians. Of course, Paul would declare by faith alone in Jesus Christ professed as their Lord and Savior. The “Law” proclaimed by the Sadducees and Pharisees may or may not have served or was serving the nation of Israel well. Obviously, the interpretation of the “Law” had become a millstone upon the necks of the dispossessed be it by poverty, disease or circumstance. It was not enough that they were “circumcised.” They must emulate the image projected by the leadership of Israel who themselves sought to please “the neighbor” more than God. Perhaps it was that they believed that “pleasing the neighbor,” the foreign powers and rulers over the land of Israel was their way of honoring God in the place of honoring God first. They had put a yoke on themselves which was one of tyranny, fear and immorality. In the company of Paul and those Gentiles from many nations who had given themselves to faith in Christ Jesus, Peter had come to understand more about “faith alone.” He was no stranger to the priority of “having faith” nor of keeping it. Jesus had led him into such experiences which had nothing to do with the Law. Even Abraham believed in God and followed Him all the days (well most all of them) well before there was “the Law.” We might even say that Abraham accepted the “yoke of God” upon his own shoulders and around his neck. He was called to be a servant of God and to raise up a nation of people who would serve God only.

By the time we see Israel in the autumn of its existence having fallen into captivity and servitude to foreign nations, the yoke had transferred from fealty to God to that of anyone who would help them to survive. How many would believe that God had forsaken them? How many would believe that faith in God had become merely a practice and no longer a promise? What did the yoke of “the Law” provide but the opportunity to live a life of blame instead of claiming the life which God had given them; the life He had shown them was holy and satisfying? This is the world in which Isaiah, a man of unclean lips in the midst of a people of unclean lips, existed. Faith was “lip service.” It was a faith in word only. Their actions betrayed the tenets of the faith of their forefathers. They went through the motions to say “I believe,” but their motions spoke of a different way, truth and life. It is into that reality we hear Jesus speak the truth already mentioned at the beginning. His invitation to take His yoke upon our own shoulders was actually a call back to the spirit of the Law which God had given in covenant. God’s requirement simply implied “have faith.” Having faith meant trusting God to lead, guide and direct in the paths of righteousness. It meant to see and hear Him when the evidences in the world appeared contrary. Those evidences were the deceptive lies of the enemy of God. The enemy promised freedom when, in fact, it was a different kind of slavery. It enslaved the heart, mind and soul under the guise of freeing the flesh. Paul taught that the body is merely a shell in which the Spirit of God is poured into. Our true identity is bound in the spirit and there we have our hope and life in God. The very life of Jesus on earth declares this reality. His invitation to be yoked with Him is to be united in “spirit and in truth.” This is the same invitation extended to the woman at the well, a Samaritan. She herself was not only an outcast to Jews but in her own life she had married five men and now had settled to live with one man. Under his roof she would have shelter but no less bound to him for her existence. We can do the math, right? 5 + 1 = 6. Six days we shall work for our existence; what I call Adam’s “toil in the soil.” But on the seventh day, we are called to rest from those labors and find our true rest in God alone. Is there no wonder why the value placed on the Sabbath is there? Whom did the woman find as “that man of righteousness”? It was Jesus who was unlike any other man she had met. What did Jesus do but liberate her from the yoke placed on her, by herself and others, and invite her to worship God “in spirit and in truth.”

As we remember from yesterday’s reflection which included the promise of God to a repentant and faithful Israel upon the blessing and consecration of the Temple in Jerusalem built by David and Solomon, “If you will…then I will hear your prayers, answer them and heal your land…,” so we hear a parallel of similarity in today’s passage. And now we can add, because of the promise of the Messianic Kingdom which is revealed as fulfilled in The Book of Revelation, a similar picture where “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” is presented. The message here is the holistic call to “walk by faith” in the presence of Heaven and earth. That walk of faith is characterized by a clean heart, right spirit and aligned mind. Is that walk our walk?

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.