Isaiah 1:10–17
“Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” – Isaiah 1:17
Click to read passage
Last week, I was baking a cake with my children. I didn’t turn the fan on because it would blow the flour and sugar all over the counter (The ants would’ve had a party.). So it got quite stuffy in the kitchen, and my son complained it was hot. Then when it was his turn to whisk the batter, he complained it was too tiring. Frustrated and feeling hot myself, I impatiently said, “If you’re going to complain, you can go into the living room.” Did I really mean for him to go off? No, I wanted him to stop complaining and help me bake. But my son, perhaps feeling relieved, headed off to the air-conditioned room. And when asked by my husband why he wasn’t baking, he quickly replied, “Mum told me to go to the living room.” Okay, perhaps I could’ve phrased my remark to him differently, but at that time, it felt like he had totally missed my point.
We are also in danger of doing a similar thing if we read today’s passage as God actually saying, “I don’t want you to offer anymore sacrifices to me!” If we remember, God was the one who instituted them at Sinai.
So the issue wasn’t the offering of sacrifices. It was that these sacrifices and acts of worship were contaminated by the people’s guilty hands. It was that their Sabbath day holiness did not go further to motivate everyday holy living. If an Israelite had heard this prophecy and walked away saying, “God told me to stop offering the sacrifices,” he would have missed the whole point, just like my son had.
God is a much more communicative and patient parent than I am. He spelled out what the people must do in order for their worship to be properly accepted. “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause” (v16-17). This was part of the Law since Sinai, and it was well known to the people. But somewhere along the way, they had fallen into the wrong thinking that they could do one part without keeping the other. And despite God’s many warnings, they just couldn’t be faithful.
We also hear so often—Let your Sunday worship match up with your weekday living. Show your love to me by loving your neighbours. Be the Light and shine into the dark world. But again and again we find ourselves guilty of keeping worship confined to Sunday. We’ve got to figure out why.
Reflection:
What is the biggest obstacle for you in living everyday as worship, matching up to your Sunday worship?
Are you too busy, tired, or distracted? Are you simply too focused on yourself, your career, your family? Do you feel you’re already doing quite enough serving in church?
Sit a while with the Lord on this. Allow the Lord to reveal to us if there is anything holding us back from growing more in our worship everyday.
Prayer:
Father, speak to us today how we may live out our Sunday holiness in our everyday lives. May we heed your warnings and be intentional in loving others the way you commanded us to. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Click to read passage
Last week, I was baking a cake with my children. I didn’t turn the fan on because it would blow the flour and sugar all over the counter (The ants would’ve had a party.). So it got quite stuffy in the kitchen, and my son complained it was hot. Then when it was his turn to whisk the batter, he complained it was too tiring. Frustrated and feeling hot myself, I impatiently said, “If you’re going to complain, you can go into the living room.” Did I really mean for him to go off? No, I wanted him to stop complaining and help me bake. But my son, perhaps feeling relieved, headed off to the air-conditioned room. And when asked by my husband why he wasn’t baking, he quickly replied, “Mum told me to go to the living room.” Okay, perhaps I could’ve phrased my remark to him differently, but at that time, it felt like he had totally missed my point.
We are also in danger of doing a similar thing if we read today’s passage as God actually saying, “I don’t want you to offer anymore sacrifices to me!” If we remember, God was the one who instituted them at Sinai.
So the issue wasn’t the offering of sacrifices. It was that these sacrifices and acts of worship were contaminated by the people’s guilty hands. It was that their Sabbath day holiness did not go further to motivate everyday holy living. If an Israelite had heard this prophecy and walked away saying, “God told me to stop offering the sacrifices,” he would have missed the whole point, just like my son had.
God is a much more communicative and patient parent than I am. He spelled out what the people must do in order for their worship to be properly accepted. “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause” (v16-17). This was part of the Law since Sinai, and it was well known to the people. But somewhere along the way, they had fallen into the wrong thinking that they could do one part without keeping the other. And despite God’s many warnings, they just couldn’t be faithful.
We also hear so often—Let your Sunday worship match up with your weekday living. Show your love to me by loving your neighbours. Be the Light and shine into the dark world. But again and again we find ourselves guilty of keeping worship confined to Sunday. We’ve got to figure out why.
Reflection:
What is the biggest obstacle for you in living everyday as worship, matching up to your Sunday worship?
Are you too busy, tired, or distracted? Are you simply too focused on yourself, your career, your family? Do you feel you’re already doing quite enough serving in church?
Sit a while with the Lord on this. Allow the Lord to reveal to us if there is anything holding us back from growing more in our worship everyday.
Prayer:
Father, speak to us today how we may live out our Sunday holiness in our everyday lives. May we heed your warnings and be intentional in loving others the way you commanded us to. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.