“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.” Isaiah 58:8 ESV
Reflection: since Jesus has atoned for our sins, does it matter how we live our lives?
Yesterday we looked at hypocrisy, of seeking God and His ways, but never really having an intention of doing anything about it, of actually walking in His ways. And we saw that He clearly defined some of His ways here, which include to 1) remove wickedness, 2) lift heavy burdens on people, 3) free the oppressed, 4) feed the hungry, 5) house the homeless, 6) clothe the naked, and 7) care for all your family. Did you notice how practical His ways are? Interestingly, it doesn’t say here to pray, to study the Bible, or to go to church (to fellowship). That is kind of assumed, right? I mean, that we have a desire as a follower of Christ to actually spend time with Him. And, when we study the one we say we follow, that we say we want to be more like, what is typically the first thing He did when He interacted with people?
He healed the sick, fed the hungry, etc.
It was very practical. We see again the heart of God, is to care for others as He cares for us. It is not about accumulating power and wealth for ourselves. To be clear and transparent, I have no issue with power or wealth per se, but we all know that worldly success and wealth can easily consume us, can easily take the place that is reserved for God. In today’s focus verse, and in the verses that follow, we see a whole lot of promises from the Lord, sort of in the form of cause and effect. He says over and over,
“Then shall”…
In other words, “do this, and then shall”. At first, that can sound a lot like a religion of works, you might say. But, let’s be very careful here. If you think about what the Lord has told us to do here, it has nothing to do with earning righteousness, or earning anything for our salvation, nothing to do with atonement for our sin. That is already done, by Jesus Christ, and it is finished. Hallelujah! But the Lord here is instructing His people to do His will. To be His hands and His feet in the world, removing wickedness, freeing the oppressed, feeding the hungry, etc. We can clearly use our power, influence and wealth to do that, not for (just) our own indulgence. And, what the Lord is saying in the following verses is what will happen as a result of us following His ways, doing His work. Notice carefully the words “then shall”, “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.” Isaiah 58:8 ESV
Remember He asked us to be “the light of the world”? Well, that makes total sense if you think about it. Doing His work will cause “our light to break forth”. And, not to miss the second part that shall happen, described in this verse. We remember Jesus was the great healer. Here the Lord says that “your healing shall spring up speedily”. And He continues “your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.” Amazing. Those are all resulting from doing the Lord’s work. But wait, there is even more! Let’s read, and I encourage you to try to spot the “then shall”, or “you shall”, and the following promises behind those.
“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 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. 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.” Isaiah 58:9-12 ESV. Amazing, right?
There are so many Bible promises that we somehow seem to forego. As if we don’t understand the inheritance we have in the Lord, an inheritance He wants us to have. We focus a lot on learning and memorizing scripture, but not much on doing the work of the Lord. He says, if you do, “then shall”…
