Isaiah Goes Hard in the Paint!

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

Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
   Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
   I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.
Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals
   I hate with all my being.
They have become a burden to me;
   I am weary of bearing them.
When you spread out your hands in prayer,
   I hide my eyes from you;
even when you offer many prayers,
   I am not listening.

   Your hands are full of blood!

Wash and make yourselves clean.
   Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
   stop doing wrong.
Learn to do right; seek justice.
   Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
   plead the case of the widow. – Isaiah 1:12-17

Today’s Reading: Isaiah 1-2; Galatians 5

Good gracious that’s some withering heat! I said yesterday that Paul went hard in the paint but this is a whole different level. This is like footage of Shaq when he was in high school terrorizing the minions in his path.

Utterly unfair.

But look at the message. Isaiah spends a bunch of verses lambasting Israel for their wrongs and you’re thinking… okay… but what did they do? Then you get to this part.

Wash and make yourselves clean.
   Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
   stop doing wrong.
Learn to do right; seek justice.
   Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
   plead the case of the widow. – Isaiah 1:16-17

This is amazing to me. Through Isaiah’s revelation we see that God is the champion of the oppressed and downtrodden. God cares more about how we treat our fellow human beings than he does about the number of prayers we offer, the amount of times we repent, or how often and loudly we praise His name.

This rings true to me. I’ve always viewed Jesus’ great commandments as the cornerstone of my faith. We are to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves.

And really this is a circular notion. Given that we are all created in God’s image how can we truly say that we love God when we are willing to stand idly by as our brothers and sisters are oppressed?

It doesn’t work that way.

The prophet books are good for this. Through the gift of their timeless connections to God we can see how we need to improve ourselves. We are no better or worse than Israel was when these words were written; but we do have the benefit of these words to learn from.

If this first chapter of Isaiah is any indication… we are in for a rough and tumble ride!




(P.S. this is the instrumental... I just couldn't bring myself to put the actual song up... that's going entirely too far. Listen along with the second Shaq clip below Enjoy!)

Shaq going hard in the paint like Isaiah in his rookie year. smh...

A Book That Changed My Life

When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. He gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king's attendant: "Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the LORD's anger that burns against us because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us." 2 Kings 22: 11-13

Today’s Reading: 2 Kings 22-23; John 4: 31-54

Whew… I bet that was traumatic. Remember all those crazy laws we read several months ago? Imagine being the king and reading all of that for the first time knowing that for the last several generations no one had followed them.

Not a good look.

But on the flip side… it did provide for a way of life that would lead to blessings. So the question that popped in my head was this:

Are there any books (besides the Bible) that made me look at life differently? This is a hard question for me to answer since I really enjoy reading. If you are facebook friends with me then you know that I’m always posting status updates about some book that I am reading.

I’m such a nerd.

But to answer my own question, the first one that comes to mind is Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire.

It was optional reading before my semester abroad in Brazil but I decided to read it based on the title. I had no idea what I was in for.

The book is about teaching folks how to liberate themselves from whatever dominating situation they are living in. The author developed this theory while growing up and living in Brazil under dictatorships. At the time that he published it he had to go into exile and anyone found with even a chapter of the book risked being killed.

It’s that hot.

But why did it resonate so much with me? It was the first time I came across a book that provided answers. Whenever I read other texts on oppression or slavery or whatnot they did a great job of telling the history of it, or describing the psychological aspects of it or even just making you feel plain depressed about it.

But they never had any answers. Paulo Freire had an answer.

Several months later when I was in Brazil my program visited a farm collective settled by the Landless Workers Movement. They used this book to help come up with a way to fight the crippling poverty of sharecropping that they experienced. A loophole in Brazilian law was discovered that stated that if you squatted on unused land and it was not claimed after a certain period of time, that land became yours.

That movement is millions of people strong.

I was sold when we were taken on a tour of the farm by a young gangly boy named Weberson. He couldn’t have been a minute over 11 years old. He also happened to be well versed in the politics of genetically modified seeds and Nietzsche.

Yes… this Nietzsche.

It’s amazing what happens when we expect people to think for themselves. They tend to step up to the plate.

There is something about Jesus’ message that does this for me as well. Jesus gives us very few rules for how to live our lives. He tells us to love God, love our neighbors as ourselves and to live by faith.

We are challenged to figure out the rest.

It is an amazing challenge, but just like Weberson, I believe that each and every person has the ability to figure out their own best way through life.

It’s up to us to take that challenge to live the best that we can each and ever day.

The goal isn’t to be perfect, but to be better.

Question: Are there any books, songs, works of art etc that have changed the way that you look at life? Chime in here or at the A Convo With God facebook group.