Last week we walked through the Beatitudes. For the next three days, we are going to look at what God expects of us…and has for nearly three thousand years. In Isaiah 58, is a proclamation, response, and counter-response—God, his people, and God.
God tells the prophet to proclaim to Israel their rebellion and false attempts to seek him. The prophet is to proclaim it loudly to everyone. Isaiah was a prophet to the king and spent much of his time in Jerusalem. Therefore, he would have first proclaimed the message from God to the king.
God sees their actions and behavior, which opposes their spoken intent. He sees deep in their hearts, which reveals their selfish desires. Though the say the right words, likely what they had learned from childhood, their hearts revealed their contrary motives. Though they performed the rituals they had been taught, their passion was for earthly gain rather than God.
They had been taken captive by Babylon. God had brought them back to rebuild Jerusalem. However, not many years afterward, many of them had turned to idolatry again. Those who continued to adhere to the sacrificial rituals did so out of habit or obligation or for self-seeking reasons. Their rejoicing and gratefulness for being released from captivity did not last long. They returned to their old ways.
Do we go through the motions? Do we attend worship services out of habit? Have we become like the Jews of the seventh century before Christ came, worshiping out of rote behavior? Or are we honestly seeking God? Are we seeking to know him with our all our heart? We cannot fake it until we make it with God. He sees into our hearts. He knows our true motives. He sees every action and our behavior. We need to periodically look deep within ourselves, examining our hearts desire.
I pray we all reflect on our motives for worshiping God. I pray we do not simply go through the motions. I pray each one of us will seek God with all our heart, worshiping him in spirit and truth. Take time to reflect. Evaluate your motives. Seek God only. Worship God truthfully.
Isaiah 58:1-2
Shout out; do not hold back!
Lift up your voice like a trumpet!
Announce to my people their rebellion,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
Yet day after day they seek me
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness
and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments;
they want God on their side.
Marty Pressey 