By Dr. Jim Barnette
Professor, Samford University
Senior Pastor, Brookwood Baptist Church
How Can God Use Me When Others Suffer?
Isaiah 58:3–11
Outward religious rituals by themselves are not the way to please God. (3–5)
Self-proclaimed religious people were presenting their complaints to God. They were fasting, yet God did not seem to be paying any attention to them. They were depriving themselves of food in order to gain things from God, but the ritual was not working. Nor will such ritual ever work in finding God’s favor.
Those who were fasting saw it as a transactional cause and effect rather than a personal, sacrificial relationship with the Almighty God.
All of this was being done in the pharisaic spirit of Luke 18:12. Indeed, these exilic Hebrews were acting like the Pharisees whom Jesus lambasted centuries later.
Such empty rituals with wayward motivation were nothing more than paganism in pious clothing. Before we condemn these Hebrews, let us confess with open eyes that we can fall into such paganism in one garb or another.
“Bowing your heads like a reed” exposes how their routine acts of self-centered piety were as meaningless as bowing one’s head in a robotic religiosity. Without cultivating our own sanctification, our spiritual lives can degenerate to hollow tipping of our hats to the Sovereign God who deserves so much more from us.
God commands us to help others in need of justice. (6–7)
In response to the wayward fasts of the Hebrews, now the Lord clarifies “the fast that I choose.” This passage presents His different idea of fasting: to rescue the oppressed and provide for the needy.
The four verbs in verse 6 all have to do with liberation. We are to help the deprived break through the layers of oppression that have robbed them of hope.
The images of restorative ministry in verse 7 encapsulate the ministries of the sheep in Jesus’ parable in Matthew 25. All of our acts of worship should lead to liberation of suffering souls.This passage is a clarion call to eschew self-serving religion and to reflect the self-sacrificing love of God, revealed most fully through His Son.
If God’s people want to deprive themselves, let them do it for the sake of the poor, the oppressed and the marginalized, but not for their own gain.
The loving God’s nature is to give Himself away to human beings who can never begin to repay Him.
We are called to emulate this very motive so that the hopeless of the world can see the love our God has for them.
Our obedient response to what God desires leads to His blessing. (8–11)
God’s people are called to put away contempt for other people. “Remove … the moving of the finger” (literally the “sending” of the finger) is likely similar to crude gestures that we see in our own society.
If persons will live out God’s example of self-giving love to others, then the satisfaction they have been seeking will be theirs.
Four elements are mentioned here: light, healing, guidance/healing and God’s presence.
When we make our spiritual lives ends in themselves, the results are the opposite of these four: darkness, sickness, defeat and separation. “The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard” is a reference to the pillar of cloud and fire in the wilderness that guided the children of Israel after the exodus from Egypt (see Ex. 13:21; 14:20).
The phrase “your righteousness” is important because it combines two foundational ideas of this entire passage of Isaiah. On the one hand, it points to the righteousness of the Lord, the One who delivers His righteousness by saving His people in accord with His ancient promises.
On the other hand, the possessive pronoun highlights the righteousness of God’s people when they follow His way of true religion, which serves others with the motive and the goal of leading them to new life in Jesus Christ.
Share with others: