Choose to Serve Another – Isaiah 58

A text – Isaiah 58:9b-14

58:9b If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
58:10 if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.
58:11 The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.
58:12 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 live in.
58:13 If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs;
58:14 then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

A reflection:

This prophesy of Isaiah is being offered to people who have really been through the mill, who have ruins all around them and broken-down walls, whose irrigation systems have broken down and whose people are starving, and they are all blaming one another for the mess. Have you ever been in such a situation – a calamity for which everyone is blaming everyone else and nothing is improving?

Isaiah gets the people’s attention and tells them to focus on something else – offering what food they have to the hungry and meeting the needs of those who are afflicted. Just do that, Isaiah says, and you will begin to see a light rise in the darkness.

This picture I get in my head when reading Isaiah’s prescription looks like a moment of magic: a person tends to the needs of someone worse off than herself and suddenly a glowing light appears, maybe a sound issues forth like angels humming, maybe the screen goes from black and shades of grey to colors. Can you picture it? Then we see broken down buildings being rebuilt by people who are deciding to “play nicely” with one another. We see water trickling down furrows and beautiful green things starting to emerge from dark soil.

The Lord’s instructions continue – delight in the Sabbath and don’t follow your own interests on that day – then you shall take delight in the Lord. This healing of people and walls and fields all springs from deciding not to be selfish. It all springs from considering and working for the needs of others. It all springs from being a loving giving person who reflects the image of our loving, giving God.

So any time today or tomorrow when you have a choice between satisfying yourself or someone else who needs it more, opt for the someone else who needs it more, who is suffering more. And then watch for that glow and listen for that music.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you showing us the way to reflect your goodness and light into a world that needs to see and feel it!  Amen.