Isaiah is a topic we could spend months and months studying. The New Testament is chock full of Isaiah quotations and allusions. It’s rich and challenging material. I’m going to spend several posts on Isaiah — and will hardly do a comprehensive job.
Modern scholars enjoy debating whether Isaiah had one, two, three, or more authors, but those debates do nothing to help us follow Jesus and so are, quite frankly, uninteresting and unhelpful. We’ll not worry with such things.
Rather, we need to consider where Isaiah fits into the flow of God’s story. Judea is caught up in sin, especially idolatry and lakc of concern for the poor and needy. It’s wealthy, the people offer sacrifices and conducts fasts, but God is none too pleased. Ritual isn’t nearly enough to please him.
Indeed, things are so bad that God will soon allow Babylon to conquer Judea, to destroy God’s Temple, and to take the Jews into captivity for 70 years. At first glance, it looks as though God’s people are so sinful that God won’t honor his promises to Abraham. And yet … God is not that kind of a god. God keeps his promises, but not necessarily the way anyone expects.
Social justice
Isaiah has several interests. As we saw in the last post, social justice and care for the poor and defenseless are major concerns —
(Isa 10:1-3 ESV) Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression, 2 to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey! 3 What will you do on the day of punishment, in the ruin that will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth?
A “decree” is a law. Isaiah is upset that those in power are using the law to harm the poor, the widows, and the fatherless — when God intended for government to protect those very people! Thus, the prophet cries out for justice for those who have no voice.
Indeed, in chapter 1, God compares Jerusalem and Sodom and Gomorrah — about to suffer a similar fate for even worse sins — because of their lack of concern for the poor! We think the homosexuality of Sodom was an abomination before God — and it was — but God sees a failure to help those in need as far worse.
(Isa 1:10-17 ESV) 10 Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! 11 “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. 12 “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? 13 Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations — I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. 14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. 16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.
Similar is —
(Isa 3:14-15 ESV) 14 The LORD will enter into judgment with the elders and princes of his people: “It is you who have devoured the vineyard, the spoil of the poor is in your houses. 15 What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor?” declares the Lord GOD of hosts.
God is especially outraged at those who take a advantage of the poor to become rich.
Now, Isaiah’s concern for the weak and needy is not new. Rather, he is applying the principles of the Law of Moses broadly. The Law doesn’t say, “Don’t pass laws to cheat the poor,” but it does say, “Love your neighbor” and —
(Deu 15:11 ESV) 11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’
Isaiah won’t allow the rulers to rationalize. The Law applies to kings, too.
(Isa 58:3-11 ESV) 3 ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. 4 Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. 5 Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the LORD?
6 “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? 8 Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. 9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, 10 if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. 11 And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.”
Much later in the book, God condemns the fasting of the people, declaring their fasts unacceptable because there is no genuine humility. God condemns those who fast because they oppress their workers and quarrel. Rather, God insists that a true fast is to “to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.” Merely refusing to oppress is not enough. The command is to “break every yoke.” It’s a call for action on behalf of those in bondage, under a yoke, or oppressed.
God then calls on Isaiah’s readers to share food with the hungry and to “bring the homeless poor into your house” and to provide clothes to the naked. These are tough, tough commands, and we see them reflected repeatedly in the Gospels.
Wealth/Idolatry
But Isaiah sees that the present is a time of confidence in wealth and idols —
(Isa 2:6-7 ESV) 6 For you have rejected your people, the house of Jacob, because they are full of things from the east and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners. 7 Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots.
(Isa 2:10-12 ESV) 10 Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty. 11 The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. 12 For the LORD of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up–and it shall be brought low;
The Exile will come because of pride, arrogance, and idolatry.
A “decree” is a law. Isaiah is upset that those in power are using the law to harm the poor, the widows, and the fatherless — when God intended for government to protect those very people! Thus, the prophet cries out for justice for those who have no voice.
Sounds strangely fimiliar in America today.
Isaiah's concern for the poor is not the same thing as what people call "social justice" today. Isaiah called on individuals to use their resources to help the poor, emulating the compassion of God toward the needy. Today the notion of "social justice" is for government to take money from the unwilling and non-generous rich people and give it to a variety of people including those who are truly poor, but also to others who have luxuries like cable television, cell phones and video games.
What the government does for political reasons does not bring glory to God. But what Christians do out of love and compassion does bring glory to God.
Alan, You keep preaching that, give a small amount to your poor neighbor with one hand (to sooth your conscience) and then vote for a government that not only takes what you gave, but everything else as well. Isaiah did not accept that excuse, and neither will Jesus. I believe it was James who said, just wishing one well, will not fill the belly, or cloth the body. I don't see where Jesus turned down help from anyone.But, like the law makers who said the law applies to kings as well, if it soothes your conscience, have at it.
Pride, Arrogance and Idolatry….Makes you wonder how many Exiles God might have up his sleeve… scary…
I fight like crazy to keep folks who are otherwise Christian from conflating what the government does with our duty to be Jesus in our community. I mean think about this – we have allowed the government to get into the helping people business and they are obviously lousy at it. So instead of leaving our buildings and meeting needs we get busy trying to change the government all the while remonstrating on how these are things the government shouldn't do.
Forget the R and the D and get busy with the Kingdom. I think Lipscomb was onto something when he questioned how deeply a Christian should get involved in the political world. It is a deadly worldly poison that disctracts and divides the Kingdom, let it alone and get back to work.
Todd said "we have allowed the government to get into the helping people business and they are obviously lousy at it"
Spoken like someone who don't know what they are talking about. Compare the US Government's help to that of the CoC and see how it stacks up, How many food stamps, housing and fuel vouchers, how much medical care, how much foreign aid to the poor. how much to aids research and medication. I think the government's stack is much higher.
by the way, Todd what is the government for?
My point was that we cannot keep from doing our bit for the poor as Christians by hiding behind the government. If the Church did its job government programs would be unnecessary. We need to get politics out of the Church and to get the Church out of politics.
As for not knowing what I am talking about, perhaps I do, perhaps I don't. Perhaps my family has had to rely on such help (or tried to) and seen its horrors, institutionalized racism and negative social engineering up close. Perhaps my wife provides assistance to others through a government agency which cuts off coverage at a set point without regard to the actual needs of her clients.
Perhaps I have actually worked in a law firm trying to protect people from government agencies that treated them as guilty until proven innocent or to help them get their earned benefits from agencies and watch them suffer unbelievably because of a bureaucracy that could not care less about them personally. Perhaps my mother has witnessed multiple generations of unwed mothers who chose their lifestyle because of the welfare rules and use men only for stud before chasing them from their society and into the streets. Perhaps my best friend works in a public health clinic where every every transient from every country under the sun is given free care without regard to status while equally needy citizens are turned away. Perhaps I have helped a member submit disability paperwork repeatedly only to have their case do-nut carted for months until having to resubmit the paperwork because the rules had changed. Twice. But perhaps not.
My point is that modern "social justice" involves forcibly giving someone else's money. Isaiah was talking about people voluntarily giving their own money (and time and other resources.) There's a world of difference between the two.
Todd, after reading your experinces and your reaction, it seems to me you have nothing against the government being involved, seems you believe they should do more quicker, and I agree, we should.
Alan said, "modern "social justice" involves forcibly giving someone else's money."
Mat 22:21 They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.
(once you render to the government, it is not your job to determine how it is spent)
But you are right if you begrudge the poor what they receive, it does you no good, but harm.
Mat 25:42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
Todd,
Thanks. There’s no substitute for the testimony that comes from experience.
No Laymond, I stand by my earlier post. I am deeply against the government being in this business. That is what we should be doing. But since we don't or won't the government has to give it a shot. I have people who need help beyond what a single congregation can do, so I have to help them find government assistance. Even then the basic idea behind everything we are tryong to do is to help them get to the point where the government assistance is no longer needed. I work within "what is" while trying to bring into being "what should be."
As for your post on rendering to Caesar I am not sure you are quite right. I am very much against federal funding for abortion so I will do everything I can to change the laws pertaining to that funding. In a democracy it is and remains my job to watch what is happening. At the same time we must keep an eye on our priorities so we do not get sucked into the vortext of our hyperpoliticized world. Kingdom first.
Todd, I believe Henry Hyde, and Bart Stupac, have pretty much taken care of the problem, for now anyway.
The Stupak–Pitts Amendment, an amendment to the Affordable Health Care for America Act, was introduced by Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan. It prohibits use of Federal funds “to pay for any abortion or to cover any part of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage of abortion” except in cases of rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother,[5] and was included in the bill as passed by the House of Representatives on November 7, 2009. However, the Senate bill passed by the House on March 21, 2010 did not contain that Hyde Amendment language. As part of an agreement between Rep. Stupak and President Obama to secure Stupak’s vote, the President issued an executive order on March 24, 2010 affirming that the Hyde Amendment would extend to the new bill.[6]
I could discuss whether or not I trust this government to respect such an order, or to quietly change it, or to publicly change it to gain political support for the next election. I could discuss how government sponsored charity has always been a tool of tyranny – even in Paul's day. But neither point is the purpose of this string.
The point is that Jesus told us to take care of the needy and the hurting and we need to get at it. We cannot let anyone else take that responsibility from us so that we wash our hands of people who are "other" than us.
Laymond, I read your comments and was shocked, and yet not surprised. It seems that the political left's agenda over the last 90 or so years has made lots of headway in co-opting the message of "caring for the poor" for its own selfish purposes. I can assure you, all of those big government programs, though some may have surface concerns for the well fare of the poor, the behind-the-scenes sweetheart deals that line the coffers of both the Republican and Democrat elite are enough to turn the stomach. I agree with the other commentators on here. The teaching of scripture is for us to help the poor. Sure, give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and thank god we live in a political system that still lets us, to some extent vote against those who would increase what Caesar gets. I will pay what I am lawfully supposed to pay, but not a penny more. If the government was such a cheerful giver and if the politicians that you so endorse were so confident in their bureaucratic "charity," then why do they more than the average American as a percentage of their income give the least? Read the statistics. It is a false argument to compare the "giving" of our government to the Church of Christ. it is a false argument. Compare the giving of the government (which is mandated by law, compulsory, and the "giver" has no say what their dollars go for (not to mention all the immorality that Caesar uses it for), and compare that, not with the Church of Christ, but with the existent kingdom of God on the face of the earth. Even the general American public per capita gives more than the U.S. Government. But I digress. Blessings
Paul makes it clear that the government is a necessary evil, given to rein in what would otherwise be the anarchy of man left up to his own sinful devices, where "every man would do what was right in his own eyes." So as it were, the Assyrians were allowed to be a power to "govern" the world, albeit an ungodly one, so with the Greeks, Romans, and yes, even the government of the U.S. As Christians we are looking forward to a monarchy, with the King of Kings, who is the only who who can rule with a rode of iron and perfect justice.
Todd..Amen. I have to agree with you because I myself came out of a lifestyle much like this, created out of the debilitating, hope robbing, future limiting, cesspool that is our Federal Government help programs. They are programs alright–there to program us into mindless idiots.
Alan, good point, for even when the Israelites would give their "tenths," or tithes, if there heart was not in it, then God wouldn't want it. Wish I could say the same for the Federal Government.
Laymond, you are right, that was true in the Roman government. But we do not have an emperor over us (at least not yet). We live in a Republic which has elected officials, set up by an illustrious set of men who decided that enough was enough, the best form of government was one that was just enough to protect the people from foreign enemies and provide infrastructure. Aside from that, let the people determine their own outcomes, including their taxation. So no, in American we have the right to choose what our money is used for. And for that matter, Jesus never said to give it to the government so they can do our charitable giving for us. Modern notions of Social Justice and Liberation Theology are nothing more than the same as that of Sharia law–a religiosity couched in a political ideology with a humanist background.
Except that we live in a Republic, not a Theocracy. Isaiah is upset that those in power are not recognizing that, though they are a king, they have The King over them. I suppose if our system was such that God were speaking directly to our leaders and sending prophets, and that if instead of the Constitution we were living under the Old Law of Moses, then we too might be able to properly deal with social issues, based on the Law itself. But alas, our current president (not to mention a whole lot of previous Presidents) do not recognizes any such authority, only in social custom only. And whatever good will charities that they do put forth, is not because of their zealous desire for the people to return back to God, but because it serves a very humanist agenda.
Tim Brown said " the best form of government was one that was just enough to protect the people from foreign enemies and provide infrastructure. Aside from that, let the people determine their own outcomes"
It is strange how one not effected by disaster, can sit smugly and spout nonsense. Tim Ask the ranchers in my county in Texas, or the residents in Jay's tawn, if they think their elected government has no business gettin involved in their wellfare. Oh what a tangeled webb we weave when we don't know what the heck we are talking about.
Tim, I hope you never fall upon hard times so that you need to depend upon the gifts of others, but I will fight to keep the programs for the needy, in case your children and wife need them.
Laymond, why are you needlessly antagonizing those who disagree with you. You said I didn't know what I was talking about, except I did. You did not acknowledge that. Tim told us in his post that he escaped these programs, obviously he isn't ignorant of their effect. Also is there not a difference between helping people in an emergency and institutionalizing whole segments of our populace?
"Tim told us in his post that he escaped these programs," Most of these programs are designed to help those in need to escape the situation they find theirselves in that caused them to apply to the program in the first place, therefore being able to leave the safety of the program, are there people who try to take advantage,? of course there are, but just because some people rob banks does not mean we should do away with banks.
First Laymond I was pointing out your immediate dismissal of other viewpoints that diasgreed with your own by saying we don't know what we are talking about.
Second, what "la-la" land do you hail from? My experience is of a country of multiple generations of lower class folks enslaved to the welfare state with no hope of escaping mostly because politicians have a vested interest in keeping them ignorant of any hope whatsoever. The only ones who do escape seem to be those who get involved in a Church program designed to lift them out – it is never through government action. Government welfare is the "why" of much of our urban decay. Government social engineering (the qualifications necessary to receive welfare) is the reason our prisons bulge with a disproportionate minority population. Men with no othe rpurpose and no other place to go or belong. Reading your comments I believe your politics seems to have overcome your ability to weigh facts.
The government cannot enter into any individual's life and make things better in the long run. The government can help in emergencies and should, but to create systems where any portion of the population is permanently reliant on government aid is wrong – period – and it will always end in disaster and the loss of dignity and of liberty.
"Second, what "la-la" land do you hail from?" Well I wouldn't say I was raised in a world without reaility, but we got by with work and saving, and helping others where we could. This was the days after the "Great depression" during world war II, and the Korean action. I don't ever recall being told if you fail blame it on someone else. Or say I never had a chance. No I would not call it unrealistic at all, but I would say it was different than how you were brought up.
And it is evident that our youth does have an effect on our thinking as an adult. I am sorry you had a terriable childhood, but I still trust the government of the greatest country in the world, ever. God works in mysterious ways.
But Laymond, you cannot deny that the social programs that camre into being in the mid-1960's have nothing to do with what you depression children experienced. You are not seeing the difference between emergency measures and the welfare state.
Tell me how the welfare system works to lift people out of poverty.
(And my childhood was fine thank you very much, but I have had much experience with those trapped in the system.)
by Delia K. Cabe
IN HIS TELEVISION ADS IN 1992, presidential candidate and then-governor of Arkansas Bill Clinton said: “For so long government has failed us, and one of its worst failures had been welfare. I have a plan to end welfare as we know it — to break the cycle of dependency. We’ll provide education, job training, and child care, but then those who are able to work must go to work…. It’s time to make welfare what it should be — a second chance, not a way of life.”
Welfare As We Knew It
President Clinton signed a welfare reform act in 1996, and today, “welfare as we know it” has become “welfare as we knew it.” This legislation, which is up for renewal later this year, is regarded by many conservatives and liberals alike as a success story. At the bill’s signing, however, liberals found some of the provisions more restrictive than they wanted. Fortunately, their worst fears never materialized. Welfare rolls are down by nearly 57 percent — about 7 million people — according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The work requirements that terminated open-ended entitlements have helped to increase job rates among the poor and to decrease poverty. Moving the responsibility for welfare programs from the federal to state governments also proved to work well.