Obedience...

In my quiet time I was blessed with the words of God through Isaiah the prophet...

Isaiah 1:10-20
Hear the word of the LORD,
you rulers of Sodom;
listen to the law of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!

11 "The multitude of your sacrifices—
what are they to me?" says the LORD.
"I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure
in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

12 When you come to appear before me,
who has asked this of you,
this trampling of my courts?

13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
I cannot bear your evil assemblies.

14 Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts
my soul hates.
They have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.

15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even if you offer many prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood;

16 wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds
out of my sight!
Stop doing wrong,

17 learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed. ^[a]
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.

18 "Come now, let us reason together,"
says the LORD.
"Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.

19 If you are willing and obedient,
you will eat the best from the land;

20 but if you resist and rebel,
you will be devoured by the sword."
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

The running theme here, in my eyes, was that the burnt offerings and sacrifices just weren't cutting it for God at that time. Although Sodom and Gomorrah had already passed, Isaiah had just referred to the rulers of Israel as a few "survivors" away from being like Sodom and Gomorrah (verse 9). So now he rebukes the Israelites as these people...

The Israelites, upon hearing what Isaiah had to say, were probably wondering "what's the problem with our offerings and sacrifices? They have worked before!" But God goes so far to say "The multitude of yoru sacrifices- what are they to me? ... I have no pleasure [in them]... Stop bringing meaningless offerings!" God rebukes their sacrifices but more importantly rebukes their "New Moon festivals and... appointed feasts". He says "my soul hates" them!

So the actions that the Israelites were doing were meaningless to the Lord because they weren't backing them up with giving the Lord 100% of their lives. This truth was also revealed through Samuel to King Saul when he said "to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams." (1 Samuel 15:22) King Saul was about to offer a sacrifice of the best of a conquered town's animals, but only after the Lord had specifically commanded him to "totally destroy everything that belongs (to the Amalekites)". Just as Saul had only displayed partial-obedience to the Lord and was then trying to sacrifice, so the Israelites were only partially obeying God by making sacrifices while also having "New Moon festivals" and other unGodly events. They weren't living for God 120% and were blatantly breaking God's commandments given through Moses.

God continues and goes so far to say "When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen." (v. 15) This is awful! I would hate to hear that God doesn't listen to my prayers at all! So how can they rectify the situation?

"Stop doing wrong, learn to do right." I believe this to be something we all need to hear, especially in the darkest parts of our sinful lives. God doesn't just say "stop doing wrong" and therefore define a Godly life by "not sinning" (walking away from hell, as my Dad would say), but also "learn to do right." It's so comforting, too, to know that God knows doing right to be a "learning" process. He could have said "Stop doing wrong, do right." That would leave no room for error and we would always fail. But because He says "learn to do right", He is telling us to be "willing and obedient" (v. 19). Whenever you learn to do something, be it a sport, and instrument, a skill, you will always stumble at certain points. God understands this and so commands us to "learn to do right."

So how can we apply all of this to our lives? If someone were to betray you, speak very poorly of you behind your back, and seemingly do everything he could to ruin your life, and then sent a birthday gift to you with a nice note, how would you react? Would you accept it without thinking twice or about his motives? In the same way, why should God hear our prayers or accept our worship offering when we don't do anything else to glorify Him in other areas of life!? Jesus commanded us to "reconcile" with our brother before offering a gift at the altar (Matthew 5:23-24), for why should the Lord accept a gift from dirty hands?

We will never be perfect, but as long as we show God that we are "willing" to "learn to do right" and strive for "obedience" on top of with the offerings we seek to give (be it playing in a worship band, leading a Bible Study, or going on missions trips), He will be pleased and glorified through our offering.

Fixing my gaze straight ahead...

Hebrews 12:1-2a
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus… who for the joy set before Him endured the cross…”

A father and his young son were both in awe of the beauty of the snow that had recently fallen in their yard. The father offered a friendly challenge to his son, asking him to make a straight line through the snow to the nearest tree. The father and son started towards the tree, with the young boy staring down at his feet, making sure to put one foot directly in front of the other. Every few steps he would look up and see that he was going in the wrong direction, and once he righted his wrong step, he would just begin going in another wrong direction. When he finally reached the tree, he looked at his line and saw how absolutely crooked his was. His father, standing beside him at the tree, had made a near perfect straight line to the tree. When he asked his father how his line was so straight, the father replied “I fixed my gaze on the tree and walked straight towards it, with out looking up, down, left or right.”

This story is a perfect example of what the first three verses of Hebrews 12 are encouraging us believers to do. We each have a race “marked out for us” by our Heavenly Father and we’re called to run it with perseverance! If this race (life) were a cross-country race, would we want to put obstacles that don’t need to be there in our way? Absolutely not! We would want our path, although it is destined to have some obstacles in the way, to be clear of any controllable obstructions in our path.

So it is in our faith! It is easy to fall into sin, and the “race” is so long! The author is encouraging us to “throw off everything that hinders” us… if you have some sort of addiction to the internet, install blockers or just stay away from the internet! If you have a problem with something food/drink related, don’t even go near that section in the grocery store! These are the hindrances that lead to us falling way behind in the race…

Just as the son couldn’t walk in a straight line by staring at his feet, so we can’t walk the “straight and narrow” by constantly checking our own walk, being so concerned about stopping a certain sin in our life that we soon discover another sin. The Bible calls us to “fix our eyes on Jesus”! The father walked in a straight line by staring straight at the destination. Living as Christ did is our goal (1 John 2:6), so how else can we walk the straight and narrow? Stare at the destination! Also, Jesus endured the cross and all the trials of this life because of the “joy set before Him.” If you are having trouble trudging through this life, be encouraged! We have a hope and joy set before US- eternal life with the greatest thing to ever be in this earth: Jesus Christ.

I encourage you all to ask God in His mercy and grace to reveal in your life any controllable hindrances that you need to “throw off” so you can run this race in a straight line with perseverance! Also, don’t worry so much about walking a perfectly straight line; focus on Jesus and the “joy set before” us and you will walk as straight as you possibly can. To God be all glory, honor, power, and praise… forever and ever… Amen!