Devotional: Isa. 58:6-7

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-
When you see the naked to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood."
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God's patience amazes me! He is giving the Israelites - and us - through Isaiah and very strong message ... one He wants proclaimed loudly. He doesn't hesitate to declare the errors of their - and our - ways. And yet if you look at the chapter, the majority of the content addresses what is RIGHT and GOOD ... what should be done. He is teaching them - and us - the way out of pathetic self-centeredness. What patience.

If you're like me, you look around at the world and especially our culture and despair at the selfish individualism. It's easy to think we are so steeped in it that there is no way out. Yet God reveals through these verses and the ones to follow that there IS a way out. It's to become other-centered through practical acts of servant love.

It's interesting that even secular psychology recognizes now that morbid introspection is not the way out of depression and other such issues. Where the problem is not clinical in nature, "do something for someone else" has become a common prescription. God knew this a long time ago and these verse reflect a shift of thought that will ultimately remove the root of self-centeredness and as we will soon see, result in true wholeness.

The first thing that struck me was how much of this passage references freedom. Loosing chains, untying cords, setting free, and breaking yokes are all freedom-centered phrases. I think of Chris Tomlin's "Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)" ... truly His amazing love and grace sets us free. But what God says through Isaiah is that we play a role in such freedom! True fasting isn't just about spiritual rituals but about practical actions. It's about having an agenda that promotes freedom.

How can we do this? Spiritualizing this passage is easy - and we can and should pray for spiritual freedom from the enemy's bondage. That is the priority. Yet this passage is such a contrast to the spiritual rituals preceding it, and comes in conjunction with such practical ministries as feeding, clothing, and sheltering, that I can't help but see God intending this in very practical ways.

When we keep Isa. 58:6 on a spiritual shelf, to be taken down and prayed fervently over a wayward child in spiritual darkness, we see some results - but miss the full impact of the verse. Passages like this fueled the anti-slavery movement. They encouraged those fighting against apartheid. They convicted Christians to get involved in the Civil Rights Movement.

What injustices do you see? What oppressions have stirred your heart? What yokes do you long to see broken after the cords are untied? Maybe, just maybe, God would use this passage to stir you to get involved in a practical way IN ADDITION TO praying for those chains to be broken.

For example, based on this and numerous other passages, I can say unequivocally that God does not want children trafficked in sex slavery. Sure, He wants them saved. But He also wants them FREE. He wants the judges of this world to line up with His justice to end this horrific injustice. So I look for ways to raise awareness of this issue; bills that might make it easier to bring these people to justice; and missionaries who are going to areas where this is a special problem that need to be supported and prayed for. I can honestly say that if I found out a trafficking house was in my area I would be contacting every law enforcement person I could find, rallying women I know to help meet the needs of the girls when they are rescued, and lobbying for asylum so they wouldn't be shipped back to their countries only to be cast aside or sold again.

What stirs you? Maybe it's freedom from drug addiction. Perhaps it's fighting for the unborn. You might cry yourself to sleep thinking of hungry kids on the street. Take what stirs you to God, and see what action steps He might give you to be part of His freedom agenda.

Verse 7 is one of those easy to interpret, hard to apply passages.
+ Share your food. When you have an abundance, Paul teaches in 2 Cor. 8-9, it's to share with others.
+ "Provide shelter to the poor wanderer" - some translations read "homeless person". The KJV captures the sense of "refugee" in the phrase "cast out". The word is not used much in the Old Testament but comes from a root word meaning wandering, in the sense of maltreatment. Basically, it's someone who is both poor and homeless, probably due to someone else's mistreatment.
+ "When you see the naked, clothe him." Provide basic needs - that's the heart of this message.
+ Don't "turn away from your own flesh and blood". "Turn away" can also be translated "hide yourself" or "look the other way". Paul wrote that true ministry begins at home - widows with families were to be cared for by them, partly so they could learn how to minister! (That puts a whole different light on our treatment of the elderly, doesn't it.) He also said failure to provide for one's household makes a man worse than an infidel. In a society without any private or public health insurance, where believers were frequently outcast and expendable. these commands were crucial. The group - Israel here, the church in Paul's day - relied heavily on families to do what was right. Thus, in such a group-oriented society, turning away from one's family was dumping responsibility somewhere else and failing to follow basic commands of Scripture. We can't minister well until we learn to minister to our families.

Upside down thinking. We hear traces of the Sermon on the Mount in this brief but deep passage. But the resulting fruitfulness will be beyond compare!