Post by Les on Jul 9, 2023 11:56:22 GMT -5
A Cry for Help By: Marvin Williams
Click here for the Audio Message
Loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke . . . set the oppressed free.
Isaiah 58:6
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Isaiah 58:1–9
David Willis had been upstairs in Waterstones Bookshop when he came downstairs and found the lights were turned off and the doors locked. He was trapped inside the shop! Not knowing what else to do, he turned to Twitter and tweeted: “Hi @waterstones. I’ve been locked inside of your Trafalgar Square bookstore for 2 hours now. Please let me out.” Not too long after his tweet, he was rescued.
It’s good to have a way to get help when we’re in trouble. Isaiah said there’s Someone who will answer our cries when we’re trapped in a problem of our own making. The prophet wrote that God had charged His people with practising their religious devotion irresponsibly. They were going through the motions of religion but masking their oppression of the poor with empty and self-serving rituals (Isaiah 58:1–7). This didn’t win divine favour. God hid His eyes from them and didn’t answer their prayers (1:15). He told them to repent and display outward acts of caring for others (58:6–7). If they did that, He told them, “You will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. ‘If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk’ ” (v. 9).
Let’s get close to those in need, saying to them: “I am here.” For God hears our cries for help and says to us, “I am here.”
Reflect & Pray
What behaviour or attitude could prevent you from experiencing answered prayer? Of what do you need to repent?
Dear God, thank You for hearing my prayers. Please help me to be there for others.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
The prophet Isaiah (which means “God is salvation”) wrote the longest prophetic book, which contains sixty-six chapters. Isaiah 1:1 provides some helpful information about Isaiah: “The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.” These kings place Isaiah in the eighth century BC and have caused some scholars to speculate that Isaiah’s prophetic ministry may have lasted for some sixty-four years. Apparently, Isaiah had two sons and was married to a prophetess (7:3; 8:3).
Bill Crowder
Isaiah 58:1-9
King James Version
58 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.
3 Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.
4 Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?
6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward.
9 Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
Click here for the Audio Message
Loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke . . . set the oppressed free.
Isaiah 58:6
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Isaiah 58:1–9
David Willis had been upstairs in Waterstones Bookshop when he came downstairs and found the lights were turned off and the doors locked. He was trapped inside the shop! Not knowing what else to do, he turned to Twitter and tweeted: “Hi @waterstones. I’ve been locked inside of your Trafalgar Square bookstore for 2 hours now. Please let me out.” Not too long after his tweet, he was rescued.
It’s good to have a way to get help when we’re in trouble. Isaiah said there’s Someone who will answer our cries when we’re trapped in a problem of our own making. The prophet wrote that God had charged His people with practising their religious devotion irresponsibly. They were going through the motions of religion but masking their oppression of the poor with empty and self-serving rituals (Isaiah 58:1–7). This didn’t win divine favour. God hid His eyes from them and didn’t answer their prayers (1:15). He told them to repent and display outward acts of caring for others (58:6–7). If they did that, He told them, “You will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. ‘If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk’ ” (v. 9).
Let’s get close to those in need, saying to them: “I am here.” For God hears our cries for help and says to us, “I am here.”
Reflect & Pray
What behaviour or attitude could prevent you from experiencing answered prayer? Of what do you need to repent?
Dear God, thank You for hearing my prayers. Please help me to be there for others.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
The prophet Isaiah (which means “God is salvation”) wrote the longest prophetic book, which contains sixty-six chapters. Isaiah 1:1 provides some helpful information about Isaiah: “The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.” These kings place Isaiah in the eighth century BC and have caused some scholars to speculate that Isaiah’s prophetic ministry may have lasted for some sixty-four years. Apparently, Isaiah had two sons and was married to a prophetess (7:3; 8:3).
Bill Crowder
Isaiah 58:1-9
King James Version
58 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.
3 Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.
4 Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?
6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward.
9 Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;