Facing the Giants
Isaiah 58
Introduction
A. This past week has confirmed to us once again that there are giants in the land. We often forget about them until they raise their ugly head and shout out to us from the street.
a. Like Goliath starred down the Israelites in the valley of Elah (1 Samuel 17), there are some enemies that seem unbeatable. They are well armed with the weapons far too advanced for shepherds.
b. This past week it was the giant of violence that voiced her hatred in the hallowed halls of Virginia Tech University. Video tape revealed the underlying evil, a young man full of rage systematically orchestrating the worst act of gun violence in our nation’s history.
i. After killing two people in a Virginia University dormitory — but before he slaughtered 30 more in a classroom building — the gunman, Cho Seung-Hui, mailed NBC News a long, profanity-laced diatribe and dozens of photographs and videos Monday morning, boasting, “When the time came, I did it. I had to.”
ii. Cho, 23, a senior English major at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, killed 32 people in two attacks before taking his own life.
iii. We’ve always heard the old adage, “violence is a weapon of the weak.” But after events like the Virginia Tech massacre, it’s easy to think that violence has ultimate power. After all, most of us have learned history through the lens of war. And we read the news through acts of violence rather than the hidden acts of love that keep hope alive.
iv. But there is a common thread in many of the most horrific perpetrators of violence that begs our attention – they kill themselves. Violence kills the image of God in us. It is a cry of desperation, a weak and cowardly cry of a person suffocated of hope. Violence goes against everything that we are created for – to love and to be loved – so it inevitably ends in misery and suicide. When people succumb to violence it ultimately infects them like a disease or a poison that leads to their own death.
1. Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus with a violent kiss, ends his life by hanging himself with a noose.
2. After his notorious persecutions, the Emperor Nero’s story ends as he stabs himself.
3. We see the same in the case of Columbine, the 2007 Amish school shootings, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and this recent Virginia Tech massacre – each ends in suicide.
B. Violence is suicidal. Violence becomes societal. It kills a society. It can take over a culture to the point of no return. Witness God’s commentary in Genesis on the reason for the flood. (Genesis 6:5)
a. One of the activities that Este and I thought of doing while in Brazil was visit Rio de Janiero. I would have loved to see the Christ our Redeemer stature standing over the city.
b. The missionaries at Palavra da Vida talked us out of this visit because the city is so violent.
i. Sure enough, it was news worthy. In Thursday April 19th News Herald there was a small clip entitled “Bloody Daylight Clash in Brazil”.
ii. Gangsters with automatic weapons had a shoot out with police in broad daylight near downtown.
1. Parents used their bodies to shield their children on the way to school. Passengers on buses stuck in traffic hit the floor as bullets shattered windows.
2. Brazilians are grappling with a shocking image of how far Rio has sunk into violence.
3. Violence has begun the suicide of a great city.
C. Of course events like these will spark all kinds of debate about who is to blame, the availability of guns and the influence of violence in our culture. The conversations will probably produce more smoke than light. The debate will spark more anger than comfort, blame than healing and division than love. Increasing violence is just one of the many giants we face.
a. Depending on the latest news cast we could highlight such giants as:
i. Disease
ii. Starvation
iii. Poverty
iv. corrupt leadership
v. the breakdown of the family
vi. racial division
vii. greed
viii. terrorism
ix. environmental problems
x. unemployment
xi. substandard education
xii. fair trade
xiii. abortion
xiv. human rights violation
xv. alcohol and drug addiction
xvi. sexual addictions and gender confusion
xvii. spiritual darkness
xviii. Teenage pregnancy, depression and suicide
b. While these problems are fresh fodder for drive time talk shows, the giants extend back to the very soul of mankind from the beginning of time. There is something deeply wrong within the spirit of man. The heart is desperately wicked. (see Isaiah 57:20-21)
i. Most of our problems come from within. All we really care about is ourselves. My needs, my wants, my goals, my fears, my opinions and my demands.
ii. It is the ever present sin sickness that causes us to move away from God’s desired purposes for the world. We are separated from the Living One who designed life to be lived without violence, hatred, strife and oppression.
D. What is really amazing is that mankind is incredibly religious. In fact, we are so religious that even our religion turns into a weapon.
a. Islamic extremists want to destroy the great white Satan.
b. The Christian West is so divided that we shoot ourselves even though we claim to worship the same God.
c. Much of the watching world becomes increasingly secularized claiming that the worship of God is irrelevant and destructive.
E. Religion becomes a mockery. It goes through the religious motions. It ignores the weightier issues of life like justice, compassion and love while arguing over which version of the Bible to use, which doctrines set us apart as the true people of God and which religious rituals make us God’s favored children.
a. What is the right way to worship, the right way to sing, the right way to pray, and the right way to fast?
b. How can I make myself look right, sound right and appear superior to the rest of the world? In the mean time, the giants continue to run the world.
c. We often use our worship to appear concerned but really we are hiding out from the big bad world out there.
i. Deep down inside we often use God to cover our own fears and insecurities. We attend worship but do not attend to the things God really cares about.
F. There is a perfect example of this in the book of Isaiah. In chapter 58, the people of Israel are going through the religious motions of fasting but failing to fast from those things that ruining the world God created.
a. Look at Isaiah 58:1-2. Isaiah is shouting out an oracle to his people. He is raising his voice like a trumpet. He is declaring the true intension of fasting. It is not to do without food. It is to do without dynamics that endanger the human race.
b. It is easy to confuse a religious ritual for the greater truth it represents. In this case it is fasting. It is easy to think God is well pleased with the discipline of going without food when he is really calling upon his creation to go without fury.
c. The Israelites were very diligent to keep the religious fast. Verse 2 tells says that day after day they seek God in religious details. They go through the motions but have not made real changes that really help change the way the world works. While they are resisting their consumption of food, they are not fasting from injustice.
G. In chapters 58 and 59, Isaiah mentions the treachery of injustice several times (58:6; 59:4, 8, 9, 11, 14, 15). In 59:16 Isaiah makes a sweeping statement that there is no one to intervene.
a. There is no David stepping into the Valley to challenge the giant. There is no one who fasts from what really matter – the resistance to the powers that produce problems in the world.
b. *** We often refuse to give up that which brings ruin in the world. In Isaiah 58:2 we see that what we want is justice for ourselves but not for others. While we want what is just, we continue to exploit (58:3), quarrel and fight (58:4), oppress (58:6), horde (58:6) and selfishly consume (58:7).
c. There really is a better way. There is a fast that can refresh the world like a well watered garden (58:11). It will require us to face the giants around us.
H. God usually uses a voice to make us aware of the giants in our midst.
a. He did so with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960’s with civil rights.
b. He did do with me with a video featuring the rock star Bono. He has been the voice God has been using to call people to the giants consuming the land in Africa.
c. He did so with Desmond Tutu in South Africa. Jim Wallis tells the story of a visit he made during the days of apartheid.
i. I see it happening all over the country and I’ve learned a lot about hope from the streets and I’ve learned a lot about hope in other places. I saw hope happening in South Africa in ways I had never seen it before, and I learned about hope through the churches in South Africa. I remember the difficult times when Nelson Mandela was still in prison and the only voices left standing were the church leaders. And I remember when they issued a call for help and I went over there. I was snuck into the country to support church leaders like Archbishop Desmond Tutu. I’ll never forget my first day at St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa. A political rally had been called and canceled by the government, so Archbishop Tutu said, "Okay, we’re just going to have church then." And church he had. They gathered together in that Cathedral and the police were massing by the hundreds on the outside and they were there to intimidate, to threaten, to try and frighten all the worshipers. I will testify, being on the inside, that I was scared. You could feel the tension in that place. The police were so bold and arrogant they even came into that Cathedral and stood along the walls. They were writing down and tape recording every thing that Archbishop Tutu said. But he stood there to preach. And he stood up, a little man with long, flowing robes, and he said, "This system of apartheid cannot endure because it is evil." That’s a wonderful thing to say, but very few people on the planet believed that statement at that point in time. But I could tell that he believed it. Then he pointed his finger at those police standing along the walls of his sanctuary and said, "You are powerful. You are very powerful, but you are not gods and I serve a God who cannot be mocked." Then he flashed that wonderful Desmond Tutu smile and said, "So, since you’ve already lost, since you’ve already lost, I invite you today to come and join the winning side!" And at that the congregation erupted. They began dancing in the church. They danced out into the streets and the police moved back because they didn’t expect dancing worshipers.
I. For the time we have remaining, I want to come back to Isaiah 58 and talk about facing the giants in our world.
a. In the first three verses God brings an indictment against his people. He tells Isaiah to cry loudly and declare to the house of Israel the danger of substituting religious fervor for righteous living. Their sin is cloaked with an amazing veneer of religious fervor; This is what is so amazing and sobering.
b. In other words they worship as if they are a righteousness nation. They have themselves persuaded that they really want God and his ways. They have deluded themselves. They want God to intervene for them with justice but they do not seek it for others.
c. In verse 3 they say to God, “we have fasted and you do not see?” In verse 2 it says they are (1) seeking God, (2) delight to know his ways, (3) ask God for just decisions and (4) delight in the nearness of God. They fast as a declaration of their faith. They have forgotten one thing – what they want for themselves is also what God wants for others.
d. Here is the issue. The ethical, practical, relational accompaniments of fasting are the test of the authenticity of the fast and the worship. MONDAY IS THE PROOF OF SUNDAY. God lists the religious forms of their fasting (humbling and afflicting themselves with no food) but fail in the ethical and relational dynamics of the religious dimension. God asks “is this the fast that I choose?” the answer is no.
e. Remember Jesus said that if you are fasting to be seen by others you have your reward. That’s it. Isaiah says, if your fasting leaves you self-indulgent, harsh, contentious and controlling, then your fast is not acceptable to God. It is not what he chooses. GOD IS WARNING US AGAINST THE DANGER OF SUBSITUTING RELIGIOUS FERVOR FOR RIGHTEOUS LIVING.
i. Isaiah says that if your fasting on Sunday is genuine, your action on Monday would be to alleviate the hunger and affliction of others. There is a great irony here that God wants us to see. The poor are hungry and afflicted, verse 10 says. These well-to-do religious people are also hungry and afflicted with fasting. But what are they fasting for? HERE IS THE IRONY.
1. The fast that God chooses is not that your religiously make yourself hungry and afflicted, but that you make the POOR LESS HUNGRY AND AFFLICTED. If you want to fight sin by taking bread from your own mouth, then put it in the mouth of the poor.
2. GOD’S CHOSEN FAST:
a. Don’t make the mistake that the fast is a good way to manipulate God for your own ends. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that this is a job description that God has given to his people to earn wages from him. What God calls the people to do is fast from the sin of the soul. THE ONLY WAY TO FACE THE GIANTS IN THE WORLD IS TO CONFRONT THE GIANTS IN OUR SOUL.
b. We must face the giants within before we can conquer the giants without.
3. Here is God’s chosen fast:
a. Beginning in verse 6: "Is not this the fast I choose,
i. To loosen the bonds of wickedness,
ii. To undo the bands of the yoke,
iii. And to let the oppressed go free,
iv. And break every yoke?
v. Is it not to divide your bread with the
hungry,
vi. And bring the homeless poor into the house;
vii. When you see the naked, to cover him;
viii. And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?"
f. Now, if we trust God enough to follow him in this prescribed, what will happen in our lives and in our church?
i. If we fast like this the darkness in our life will become light:
1. Verse 8 - Then your light will break out like the dawn (verse 8).
2. Verse 10 (at the end):Then your light will rise in darkness, And your gloom will become like midday.
3. Do you want light in your life instead of gloom? Look to the gracious resources of God—listen to your Doctor—and pour your self out for another person in need.
ii. If we follow this fasting there will be physical strengthening.
1. Verse 8: "And your recovery will speedily spring forth . . ." Verse 11: "And [he will] give strength to your bones." Who knows how much weakness is in us because we may not be pouring our energy into the weakness of others?
iii. If we follow this fasting God will be in front of us and behind us and in the midst of us with righteousness and glory.
1. Verse 8, at the end: "And your righteousness will go before you; the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard." So God will be in front of you with righteousness and behind you with his glory. Verse 9: "Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; You will cry, and He will say, ’Here I am.’" Whenever the role is called, he always says, "Here!" When we are doing what his Son did—in the power that the Son gives—"becoming poor that others might become rich," (2 Cor. 8:9) then God moves in on us and behind us and in front of us and surrounds us with omnipotent love and protection and care.
iv. If we follow this fasting, God promises to guide us continually.
1. Verse 11: "And the Lord will continually guide you." O what a precious promise that is for us now as a church and a Master Planning Team. I wonder how much confusion and uncertainty there may be in some of our lives that comes from the neglect of ministry to the poor? It seems the Lord gives his most intimate guidance to those bent on giving themselves to the needs of others—especially the poor.
v. If we follow this fasting, He will satisfy your soul.
1. Verse 11: "And [he will] satisfy your desire [literally: your soul] in scorched places." Our souls are meant to be satisfied in God. But we have learned again and again that this satisfaction in God comes to consummation when we extend our satisfaction in him to others. Pouring ourselves out for the poor is the path of deepest satisfaction.
vi. If we follow this fasting, God will make you
a watered garden with springs that do not fail.
1. Verse 11, at the end: "And you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail." It is a paradoxical spiritual principle in Scripture: as you pour yourself out you become full. As you give away you get more. When you are watered with God’s grace you do not merely become a wet, moist, living garden; you also become a spring.
2. This promise comes to its fulfillment in the New Testament when Jesus used this verse in John 7:38,
3. "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ’From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.’ [a spring of waters that does not fail] 39 But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive." So you can see that trusting Jesus is the issue: "He who believes in me. . . ’ The Spirit bestirs himself most fully when we by faith give ourselves with Jesus in the path of love and mercy toward the destitute.
vii. Finally, if we follow this fasting, that is, if we give ourselves to the poor, God will restore the ruins of his city—and his people.
1. Verse 12: "And those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will raise up the age-old foundations; and you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets in which to dwell."
Conclusion
A. The point of Isaiah 58 is this: Piety that does not produce a passion for God-exalting social justice and practical mercy is worthless. Or to put it positively: God promises that we will break forth like the dawn if our piety produces a passion for social justice and practical mercy.
B. Verses 10-11 make a promise. If we pour ourselves out for others, God promises to make us like a watered garden – that is, we will receive the water we need for refreshment. But even more: we will thus be a spring of water that does not fail – for others, for the demanding, exhausting, draining ministry of facing the giants.
The prophets will not allow us to become a privatized assurance club. They call us to engage with the world around us.
How?
1. Get informed (read, listen, converse)
2. Get involved (by prayer, by participation)
3. Get interactive (brainstorm with others)
4. Take initiative (choose an area you fell passionate about and start to do something). Become a red letter Christian. Live out the words of Jesus.
A TRUE FAST IS TO RESIST THE POWERS THAT PRODUCE PROBLEMS IN THE WORLD.
