Isaiah 58: Fasting and Sabbath

So, this chapter is really interesting. I decided to open up to it today on kind of a whim, but I'm really glad I did. God lays out some hardcore sarcasm right in the beginning:

"...declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God." vv. 1b-2

It almost sounds like the Israelites are doing pretty well, until you notice that God is being totally sarcastic about their "righteousness." The people are confused about why God hasn't honored their righteous requests:

"'Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?'" v. 3a

To me, this already sounds like a selfish complaint: "God we've done all this stuff! Why haven't we received anything in return?" God answers and points out the full extent of the people's selfishness:

"Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. 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." vv. 3b-4

Ouch. God point out that the people's fast was purely for their own pleasure, and they were even oppressing others during that time! The LORD, however, has more words regarding this:

"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?" v. 5

This is really interesting to me. It seems like God is still laying on the sarcasm regarding the people's fasting, but aren't the things listed here what we often view as good fasting: to humble ourselves and be broken before God and open to His leading? I think the answer to this lies not in the actions themselves, but in the people's motivation behind them. The Israelites were being totally selfish in their fast: they looked devout on the outside, but they were using the fast as a tool for their own pleasure, and they were harming others while they did it. They "humbled" themselves and bowed their heads because they wanted a reward, not because they wanted to know God better. Even if they did want to know God better, it was still for selfish purposes. Jesus faced the same problems with the people's fasting when He was on earth, and He explained how it should truly be conducted in public:

"And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." Matt. 6:16-18

The Israelites in Isaiah's day were probably "humbling" themselves and sitting in sackcloth and ashes in the sight of all, which is another reason God condemned their actions. God makes it clear in Isaiah 58 that the focus on fasting should never, ever be yourself:

"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? 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 hide yourself from your own flesh? 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. 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, if you pour out yourself 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. 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. And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in." vv. 6-12

Wow. So, that's a little dissertation on what God thinks about and wants with fasting. I'm sure there's more, though. I'll leave all that alone and move on to the last part of the chapter, which is about Sabbath:

"If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken." vv. 13-14

God point out here that pursuing your own desires and pleasures is to be avoided on the Sabbath. Noticing a trend in this chapter? These two practices are solely for seeking God and serving others. God actually says you should not do what you want or think you need to do during these times. If you do, your focus will be far from where it should be.

This is something I don't think I have right yet. I try to have a Sabbath rest on Saturdays, staying away from homework and just chilling in general. However, if this is going to be a true Sabbath day, I need to focus a lot more on God and not on myself anymore. Fasting is also hard, because often I want to just shut myself away from others and be by myself all day. This doesn't necessarily seem like the right way to go about it after reading Isaiah 58. Both of these practices are for God's glory and the benefit of others.

Just my thoughts.

Peace.

A short thought on being set apart

So, I've been thinking lately that it would be hilarious if people would recognize Christians on the road because they follow every speed and traffic law and are always courteous drivers.

Side thought: If you don't do this, but you have an Icthus or something else on your vehicle identifying you as a Christian, take it off, because you're not helping anyone by showing the world you're a Christian who has bad road rage.

I know there's plenty more to following Jesus than this little thing, but I've been thinking about it nonetheless.

Peace.

Romans 8:7

"For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot."

I was reading this verse the other night, and what it's saying finally hit me. I'll paraphrase it:

"The mind that is focused on worldly things does not and CANNOT obey God, therefore it is opposed to Him."

The whole passage surrounding this verse relates the black-and-white difference between living "in the flesh" and living "in the Spirit." Paul doesn't really give much middle ground in this whole part of the chapter. You're either living for worldly things and yourself, or you're living for God. Jesus Himself made it clear that we can't serve two masters. In Romans 8:6, Paul reveals the end results of either direction one may take:

"To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace."

Some food for thought as we enter the most consumeristic season of the year.

In other news, I'm really glad it's finally Christmas Break. I miss having time to talk about Scripture like this...a sad thing to say since I go to a "Christian" university.

I'm also glad that I can catch up on my reading. Not only do I want to finish memorizing Romans chapter 8 over break, but I also have a stack of classic literary stories I want to get into. I'm pretty excited for all this!

Peace.

College & Life

So, I hear college-age people talk all the time about relationships, life goals, dreams jobs, etc. I have, along with these people, often felt like if I don't find my future spouse, if I don't visit another country, if I don't do whatever RIGHT NOW, then I will never get a chance once I'm out of college. We often think that if we don't immediately find out what we're supposed to be doing with our lives and start living it, something is wrong. Nowadays, I've been wondering why we think like this. None of these ideas are true. I think the problem is that we lack patience. We think the here and now is the only time we've got. In a sense, this is true; you never know when your end will come. However, these ideas reveal the mindset we have that there is no life after college. I think this discontentment and lack of patience comes right from consumerism. "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die." We have subjected ourselves to this system of buying and constantly needing more in such a way that we haven't even realized the longer-ranging effects it's had on the way we think, even if we don't constantly buy or want new physical items. It's gone beyond that. We're no longer content to wait on key life moments; we want everything for our lives right now. That's irresponsible and foolish. We think we're ready for it all right now, when there's a reason we don't have it yet: we're still being prepared. If you can't be responsible and content with what you have right now, then why do you think you will be responsible and content once you have all these "things?" If you're reading this, I'm going to guess you have already gone beyond the basic human "wants" in life. You probably have a roof over your head almost everywhere you go, access to more than one set of clothes and the means with which to clean them, food which is easily accessible and in such abundance that you can have more than one meal every day, plenty of clean water, and friends or family to share these things with. That's more than what a lot of people in the world have. Yet you probably want more, right? That's consumerism: wanting more than what is necessary. In short, consumerism really is just greed, which is thinking you deserve more than what you have. Greed, then, boils down to pride. Consumerism is pride, the most basic and all-encompassing of human sins, which everyone has in some form or another, including myself.

Brothers and sisters, let's live our lives in humility and contentment, not seeking our own benefit above others', but putting others' needs above our own. Let's live with patience in our time of preparation, not seeking to have its fulfillment before the proper moment.

Peace.

Follow the Star 2010

So, I'm at Center Lake Bible Camp right now for the whole weekend. I'm helping with a free living nativity they run every December known as Follow the Star. I'm playing the prophet Isaiah all weekend. I stand by a fire and read from the book of Isaiah, chapter 9, verses 6-7 when prompted. It's pretty cold here at night, and it's hard not to get a faceful of smoke next to the fire, so I ran circles around the A-Frame to keep warm. Also, at the end of the event tonight, I failed at finding the right knob to turn my lantern off, and I got some really nice burn imprints from a metal piece on the top of the lantern. Pretty nice patterns.

I'm highly amused by what my boss Don has been wearing since I've been here. Along with normal warm-looking clothes, he has some big ol' boots, a pointy cap that trails halfway down his back, and rabbit-fur mittens that go halfway up his arms and look like bear paws. He kind of looks like a big angry elf.

I have a good bit of work to do while I'm here beside volunteering in the evenings. I have to research my camp's history and write an 8-10 page paper by the middle of this coming week, so I have to focus on that in the day. A couple of my friends here are going to see the new Narnia movie tomorrow, but I don't think I'll be able to go because of my homework. Oh well. Camp is really peaceful when no one is around, and it's really beautiful in the winter.

On a side note, I'm really happy that school is almost over for the semester. It's gone by pretty fast, but it's been pretty frustrating at the same time. Christmas break should be good, even though I'll be working ahead on homework for my January class. Being at home will make it much better.

Peace.

Footprints

So, I was walking back from class this morning in the snow. I decided I wanted to walk where there weren't other tracks in the snow; I wanted to make a distinct path that was my own, a path which was different from all the rest, and that would maybe even become used by others. Then I thought about how when spring comes, my tracks are going to disappear, never truly remembered by anyone else. The snowy path I thought was my own will melt away to reveal the glory of the green grass thriving again in the sun.

Food for thought.

Peace.

A Dream

So, I have a certain professor for two of my classes this semester. They're a newly hired ministry professor at Spring Arbor. At the beginning of the semester, I thought this professor was pretty cool and a good professor. After spending most of the semester learning under this person, though, I've been seeing more of their "faults" and teaching methods which I don't particularly like. It's been really getting to me the past couple weeks, in fact, and I started to lose respect for this person at one point because of my dislike of certain classroom activities and the fact that they grade work slightly harsher than many other professors here.

Last night, I had a dream that this professor personally asked me something to the effect of, "How am I doing as a professor?" In my dream, I scrambled to come up with answers which would encourage this person, because I realized they really were a good professor, and were trying hard. WOW. That was a mindset change for me. I realized this morning in class (ironically, the only class I have today, AND with this same professor) how poorly I have been regarding this person, not necessarily in class, but in my words outside of class and in my thoughts.

I can't really continue acting and thinking this way after that dream. Thank you God for showing me where I was going wrong in my relationship with this person.

Peace.