ISAIAH 58:9b-14
THE BACKGROUND
The large book of Isaiah can be broken into three parts—the time before, during, and after Judah’s exile in Babylon. Today’s reading comes from the last part. God’s people have returned to the Promised Land. It doesn’t take long before they start going astray. Each of the two paragraphs mentions one particular expectation that God has of his people.
THE DETAIL
- God calls his people to turn to him and cry for His help. “The yoke” He is referring to is their sinful nature. He gives two examples—“pointing of the finger” and “speaking of evil”. I’m sure that the real list was longer, of course. (v. 9b)
- Here are two expectations of God; two God-like behaviors that He would like to see. They should offer food to the hungry, and satisfy the needs of the afflicted. (v. 10a)
- The remainder of this paragraph list the blessings they would receive, if they did these things, instead of the above-mentioned bad things. (vv. 10b-12)
- Now, the emphasis shifts to keeping the Sabbath day holy. When God calls working on the Sabbath “trampling on the Sabbath”, you get a sense for His attitude about this. He wants us to put our own interests aside on this day, and take a break. (v. 13)
- Again follow some of the blessings we receive, when we follow this path. (v. 14)
THE TAKEAWAY
It is clearly stated, time and time again in scripture that we are to care for the less fortunate around us. This includes the hungry, the orphans and widows, etc. This is very important to God. Somehow, it is less important to us.
Recently, I learned that the word Sabbath means “stop”. For people of faith, this means stopping work. For the people of that time, and for Jews today, the Sabbath begins on Friday at sunset, and lasts until sunset on Saturday. Christians moved the Sabbath day to Sunday, the day of our Lord’s resurrection. They argue that each Sunday Sabbath should be a “little Easter”. Whichever day we chose, the concept is the same. God wants us to have a break from our labors every week. In our house, we try to refrain from doing chores on this day. Instead, we do “other stuff”, like talk with family, go for a walk, etc. If I’m working on some sort of project, I try very hard to not work on that project on Sunday. It’s impossible to take Sunday off, when your boss orders you to work on Sunday. But the concept is the same. God wants us to take a break and honor him.
HEBREWS 12:18-29
THE BACKGROUND
I’ve already said that this book was written to explain Jesus’ place in Jewish theology. But there are two more things to know about it. First, this is a sermon. It is one very long sermon! More importantly, it’s primary emphasis is about faith, as we will see today. If there’s a third, it is that the writer uses contrast in his sermon. He compares the good vs. the bad, then vs. now, and so forth. Today, it is a Then and Now, a Tangible vs. Intangible comparison.
THE DETAIL
- He starts out by stating that we Christians don’t have a belief based on something we can touch, see, or hear. Back in Moses’ time, they did. Never mind that if you touched Mt. Sinai you would die (according to tradition). (vv. 18-21)
- What we have is the invisible Mt. Zion, the heavenly city of God. Everybody is there—God, Jesus, angels, and those who have gone before us (“the assembly of the firstborn”). This is what we believe in. We believe by faith, not by touch, sight, or sound. (vv, 22-23)
- Jesus’ life-saving blood is contrasted with the death-dealing blood of Abel. (v. 24)
- We should not waver in our faith (“refuse the one who is speaking”), like the Israelites did so many times. (v. 25)
- At Sinai, God shook the earth with his voice. Soon, God will shake both heaven and earth with His voice, as foretold in Haggai 2:6 “For thus says the Lord of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land…” (vv. 26-28)
- So, keep the faith, and give thanks, knowing that “God is a consuming fire”.
THE TAKEAWAY
By definition, faith is the belief in something not seen. Remember what Jesus said, when “doubting Thomas” touched Jesus’ scars? “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” (John 20:29)
LUKE 13:10-17
THE BACKGROUND
Jesus is still on his way to Jerusalem. It is the Sabbath, a day of rest, worship, and teaching.
THE DETAIL
- It was common in Jesus’ day for a traveling teacher to preach the Word in the synagogue on the Sabbath (Saturday). Jesus does just that at some undisclosed place. (v. 10)
- Jesus heals a woman from a crippling illness of 18 years. (vv. 11-13)
- The leader of the synagogue speaks up, objecting to Jesus working on the Sabbath. In most cases, the Law of Moses is clear-cut on this subject. Regular work was not allowed. You weren’t even allowed to travel, except to go to worship. On the other hand, it was OK to work to save someone’s life on the Sabbath. Healing a crippled person was in a gray area. Jesus took one side, the leader took the other. (v. 14)
- The list of work not allowed was very well defined, as defined in a non-biblical text that listed them. One of the verbs listed was “to lead”. You could not lead a farm animal on the Sabbath. Jesus turns the tables on the leader of the synagogue, when he uses the example of leading an ox or donkey to a water trough to water the animal. He knows that they all do this, so he calls them hypocrites. Can they break the law to give their donkey a drink, but we cannot heal this “daughter of Abraham”??? (vv. 15-16)
- The point is made, and his critics are put to shame. (v. 17)
THE TAKEAWAY
Jesus repeatedly ignores the letter of the law when it comes down to showing love and compassion for others. The laws are a good guide, but the Law of Love overrides everything else. Sometimes, it is easier to stick to the rules, and turn our backs to those in need. Jesus is telling us to put love above all else.