Isaiah 58 27/2/21 4 Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one.[a] 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all Pray your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them Today we are continuing with our series in Isaiah when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you but by way of introduction lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands please turn with me to Mark 12.28 on page 1018 and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the door-frames which is the great commandment - and it says this of your houses and on your gates.
28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. So the command which Jesus taught us comes from the Old Testament Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, ‘Of From the book of Deuteronomy which was written by Moses all the commandments, which is the most important?’ About 1300BC
29 ‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: “Hear, O Israel: And this prayer is still prayed by the Jews – it is called the Shema the Lord our God, the Lord is one.[e] 30 Love the Lord your God with And is in every Phylactery = a little box worn on the forehead all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with And it is in every Mezuzah = a little scroll at the side of ever front door all your strength.”[f] 31 The second is this: “Love your neighbour as And the idea is you pray it every time you go in or out of your house yourself.”[g] There is no commandment greater than these.’ To remind you God is with you
These are familiar words to us all --//-- They come in our service order and they are Jesus words But where did Jesus get them from? So with that background lets turn now to Isaiah Well if you look at the text there is a little superscript – an f Hopefully you now know the contest of Isaiah And if you look for the f at the bottom of the page The book comes in three parts You will see it says Deuteronomy 6.4,5 Before the exile = chapters 1-39 = gloom and doom So let’s turn to Deuteronomy 6 on page 185 Because God is angry that the Jews were oppressing the poor During the exile = Chapters 40 – 55 = full of HOPE Because God is promising he will restore his people After the exile = Chapters 56-66 = messages of warning
And today we are looking at Isaiah 58 Which is about True Fasting And is one of the Ash Wednesday readings And I have 3 points to make about Isaiah 58
1 Faith without actions is Rebellion 2 Lets love our neighbours in action And I know that is strong And there are 3 parts to HOW we love others But v1 says in as many words Declare to my people their rebellion verses 6-12
And the faith of Gods people is described in verses 2+3 And the first part of True Fasting is V2 = For day after day they seek me out; 2.1 Campaign for social justice they seem eager to know my ways, So in v6 God continues to speak through his prophet And that is good news ‘Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: V2 continues = They ask me for just decisions v6 = to loose the chains of injustice and seem eager for God to come near them. V6 = to set the oppressed free That is also good news v9 = ‘If you do away.... with the pointing finger + V3 says thta they have fasted V9 =‘If you do away.... with malicious talk, And humbled themselves Which are also good And the second part of True Fasting is 2.2 A Call to Social Action But in verses 3 - 5 God responds And this is one of my favourite verses + talks about their inappropriate actions Because for me this is the heart of what Lent and advent are about V3 = You exploit your workers = you don’t pay a living wage V7 = 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry V4 = quarrelling and strife + V7 = to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – V4 = striking each other with wicked fists = Physical violence + v7 = when you see the naked, to clothe them,
Isaiah’s first point about True Fasting is And so that is what we did in Advent 1 Faith without Actions is Rebellion we tried to clothe the naked By donating clothes to the Salvation Army And they came to empty their collection bins 5 days a week
And that is what we are doing now in Lent We are trying to feed the hungry By donating to Foodbank one item a a week And the Foodbank are giving out tons of food each week
And the third part of True fasting is 2.3 Love your family V7 = do not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Which may be as simple phoning or zooming your family each week
So Isaiah’s second point about true Fasting is about 2 Let’s love our neighbours in action 3 Let’s BOTH Love God and Love our Neighbours and half of this verse is about not being selfish V13 + 14 V13 = If you keep your feet from .... doing as you please on my holy day, V13 = ‘If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath v13 = and if you honour the Sabbath by not going your own way and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and this is a reminder of verses 6 and 7 and the LORD’s holy day honourable, about and if you honour it by not going your own way 2.1 Campaigning for social justice 2.2 Social Action Half of this is about keeping the Sabbath 2.3 Loving our family And half of this is about not being selfish So Isaiah’s third point is For the Jews the Sabbath was Saturday 3 Let’s BOTH Love God and Love our Neighbours It began on Friday evening about 6.00pm with evening meal And it finished on Saturday evening at 6.00pm with the evening meal It was a day when no work was done And it was the day when worship took place
For me my Sabbath is Thursday It begins with a glass of wine on Wednesday about 9.00pm And it finishes after breakfast on Friday morning And during my Sabbath I don’t answer the phone or the emails Instead... Ali and I eat together + we do what we enjoy which in our case is probably play in the garden and I want to encourage ALL of us to take one day off a week even if you are retired – please make one day different perhaps have some special food and do what you enjoy – it might be visit somewhere - when its allowed
The Sabbath is a key spiritual practice because it teaches us that God is God and I am not the world does not rotate about you or me the world rotates about God and his will being done
So now you cans see why we began with Jesus Great Commandment And why we looked back to Deuteronomy Because the same God inspires all of the bible The Old Testament and the New Testament
So the command = to Love God and Love our Neighbours comes in the first 5 books of the bible written by Moses about 1300BC the same command comes again here in Isaiah about 550BC And the same command comes in the teaching of Jesus about 30AD And the same command comes in Common Worship communion written in 2000 AD God is the same yesterday today and for ever
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Let’s keep Gods commands
Let’s love God = by keeping the Sabbath + Let’s love our neighbours = by feeding the hungry housing the homeless + clothing the naked
Let’s Pray