Wednesday,
February 17, 2021
“Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast. Shout aloud! Don’t be timid. Tell my people Israel of their sins! Yet they act so pious! They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to learn all about me. They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its God. They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me. ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say. ‘Why aren’t you impressed? We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!’ “I will tell you why!” I respond. “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves. Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers. What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me. You humble yourselves by going through the motions of penance, bowing your heads like reeds bending in the wind. You dress in burlap and cover yourselves with ashes. Is this what you call fasting? Do you really think this will please the Lord? “No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help. “Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind. Then when you call, the Lord will answer. ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply. “Remove the heavy yoke of oppression. Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors! Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon. The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. Isaiah 58:1-10
Isaiah
was a priest to the rich and powerful people who ran things in Jerusalem. His voice stung like a scorpion in the wilderness
as he preached a message nobody wanted to hear.
Truth be told, nobody wants to hear a prophet with a stinger-tail.
Jeremiah
was a weeping prophet because Israel needed someone to weep for their
sins. Amos called the refined ladies of
the king’s palace fat cows[1]. They lived lavishly while the ordinary
citizens were starving. And John the
Baptist? Well, the poor listened, but
the powerful plotted…and had his head on a platter!
There
is little about being a prophet that is attractive to those who value an easy
life, career advancement, and perks.
Mainly, the job description calls for telling those who have those
values that their whole existence stinks in God’s nostrils; and then they kill
you.
And
yet, Isaiah says, don’t be timid…speak the tail of the scorpion out
clearly and don’t hold back! Be like a
trumpet blast…tell Israel of her sins!
For a
prophet there can be no other choice.
·
Jonah found
that out when he tried to run away from his appointment to Nineveh. God arranged a submarine ride back to the
mission field.
·
Elijah
trembled in the face of adversity, hid in a cave, and hoped to die before ever
seeing Jezebel again; he didn’t die, but God’s Word prevailed, and Jezebel’s
corpse was eaten by dogs.
Considering
a prophet’s calling, and that for which God always seems to employ His prophets,
what would today’s prophet say of America?
·
Would he be like Jeremiah, the weeping
theatrical prophet, dressing in swaddling clothes, and hacked to pieces by an
abortion provider?
·
Would he be like Isaiah or Samuel,
marching into the White House and Congress with a list 7 times longer than
Martin Luther’s 95 points of the sins of leaders?
·
Would she instruct like Priscilla,
telling all the so-called pandering preachers, insipid messengers of prosperity
and fluff, to cease their endless petting of evil, and start calling our nation
to repentance?
Would
to God we would see that.
For You Today
If the day of God’s prophets is ended, what hope is
there for humanity and righteousness?
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky
Road; have a blessed day!
[1] Title Image:
Courtesy of Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
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