Hurting or Helping God

And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: (Isaiah 58:10)

He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor. (Proverbs 14:31)

In one of his parables Jesus compared two kinds of his professed followers. He had this to say about those that were saved: Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. (Matthew 25:40b) On the other hand those who were lost were told: Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. (Matthew 25:45b)

This reflects what we learn here in Proverbs: the way we can show love or disdain for God is by the way we treat the most helpless humans. A supposedly helpless person has only God to help him, and God takes responsibility for him. God commands his people to be kind to the helpless on his behalf. Even if you think you are a Christian, the Bible is clear that you will be lost if you do not care for the needy, unless you repent. However, I realise that wisdom must be exercised, but the problem is not that wisdom is exercised but rather that apathy is being exercised.

How can I help the soul rather than just the body? By giving loving care and talking about Jesus and what he has done for me. These two things are not a professional calling, they are a universal calling. I mean it's not just a few particular Christians like pastors and other paid church workers that God wants to do this work; it is every believer, including you.

Bill Gates and You

And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: (Isaiah 58:10)

There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. 25 The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. (Proverbs 11:24-25)

He that despiseth his neighbour sinneth: but he that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he. (Proverbs 14:21)

How is it possible that the man who gives generously can be richer than the miser? Well, if you take Bill Gates for an example you can see that it is a real phenomenon. God has given you money not only for yourself but for others. He wants you to have the pleasure of giving to others so He has given you more than you need to survive. If you hoard everything you will miss out on the goodwill of others and have lower self-esteem. You will make bad decisions for lack of wise counsel and waste money to make yourself feel better. You will commit sin out of a lack of care for other people and be miserable. There has never been a time in history where it was less appealing to be rich. Give generously and wisely and God will give you the things that money cannot buy.

Diabolical Tricks

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. (1 Peter 5:8-9)

Be alert because the devil is your enemy and he is trying to get you. Why should we be alert? Because we must resist the devil by trusting God you aren't the only one that is tempted by the devil.
Why would I be told to be alert if understanding the devil's movements is impossible or cannot help me? Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. (2 Cor 2:11) We should understand how the devil tricks us so that we can resist him better.

How To Be Liked and Be Safe

And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: (Isaiah 58:10)

Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. (Psalm 41:1)

A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with discretion. 6 Surely he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. 7 He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. 8 His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his enemies. 9 He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever; his horn shall be exalted with honour. (Psalm 112:5-9)

Do you wish that people liked you more? Do you wish you had a strong sense of security? God tells us that if we give thought to the poor and help them practically, people will say that we are good people.  He also tells us that if we help the poor to the point that we need to trust in his ability to keep us from becoming poor ourselves, then he will protect us from being destroyed by unexpected emergencies. Give generously to the poor and you will have respect and security. What a wonderful thing!

Welfare Ministry

And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: (Isaiah 58:10)

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? (Isaiah 58:7)

If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother: 8 But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth. 9 Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto thee. 10 Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto. (Deuteronomy 15:7-10)

We ought to give generously to those who need it. This could be food, a room or money depending on the circumstances. But I believe that here in Australia, emotional support and moral guidance are the resources that the poor need. The poor here have money, housing and security, but nobody guides them in the truth and helps them when they need it. To help the poor in the way they need to be helped rather than how the poor needed to be helped over two thousand years ago or even twenty years ago will be the key to effective welfare ministry.

Personalise the Word

And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: Deuteronomy 6:6

Think about God's words. Make them a part of you. Paraphrase, personalise them. e.g. And these words which you command me this day, shall be in my heart. Amen.

Hollow Words

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; (Isaiah 58:9)

Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye have spoken vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, saith the Lord God. (Ezekiel 13:8)

For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because there was no shepherd. (Zechariah 10:2)

False prophets and false religion give people empty comforting lies instead of hard truth. If we refuse to change our speech, to speak about Jesus and about eternal things, God may not give us the blessing of Isaiah 58 to always be there when we call. The only way to be sure of the blessing is to meet its conditions. But to change our habits of conversation so dramatically will be a problem of enormous difficulty, surely I need Jesus' help to even begin.

Idle Words

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 (Isaiah 58:9)

For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. 4 None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. (Isaiah 59:3-4)

They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak. (Psalm 12:2)

These passages make me think of flattering courtiers, people trying to get money and power from the king. They also make me think of the chattering classes; people with ready access to give their opinion through the media but whose opinion may not be very well considered. But in the context of Isaiah 58 I think this is referring to religious people talking about pointless things at church. I would have to be one of the most guilty of this. I do this so much it pains me to think about it. I have heard that the best way to overcome this is to think positive and appropriate things to make conversation about beforehand. I need to start doing that at least a little bit. Lord please help me.

Positively Honest

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; (Isaiah 58:9)

Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood (Isaiah 57:4)

He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers; (Proverbs 6:13)

Body language in the Bible. I suppose pointing the finger has always meant the same thing. If we want God's blessing on our lives we ought to stop accusing others. The context of the Isaiah 57 passage suggests that it refers to more than body language, but it is a similar idea. The proverb seems to be referring to shifty people using secret sign language as an accessory to hypocrisy. The idea is as if I were to catch someone's eye and tilt my head towards the door when I want us to leave someone's house. But there are all sorts of uses of body language to communicate secretly or to say one thing and communicate something else. We can use our tone to do this as well. So although there is hardly a clear scripture that body language is bad; it does suggest that there is something wrong with such subtlety that requires this kind of communication. We should be able to speak openly to each other without fear of betrayal or rejection. We also should not be quick to accuse or focus on the faults of others. We can always vent to the Father in prayer.
As I said though, there should be a simple frankness among Christ's followers, but nine parts positive for every one part negative. Being really positive is the hard thing for me. I am a critical thinker and a linear thinker: I try to improve systems incrementally by eliminating inefficiencies. So it is natural for me to give constructive criticism nine parts for every one praise. I need to change this though, so that I can continue to be open and transparent as I should, without being divisive and discouraging.

May Jesus Christ change my heart and yours.

Yoke

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; (Isaiah 58:9)

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? (Isaiah 58:6)

So what is a yoke, that we should take it away and break it?

Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee. (Deuteronomy 28:48)

A yoke seems to represent enslavement or oppression. On the other hand Jesus has a yoke:

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:29-30)

So a yoke represents servanthood or slavery, not necessarily oppression. A slave will be miserable if his master is cruel, but can be very happy if his master is kind. It is a modern misunderstanding of slavery to think that it was always dreaded.
We are naturally slaves of Satan, through our addiction to sin. He is like a drug baron who tempts us to try his lies and when we become addicted to them he makes us pay for them. We pay for Satan's lies through nature catching up: sickness and failure. The best way to avoid this is to quit taking Satan's lies now. But how can we quit taking Satan's lies when we are already addicted? We need to switch from slavery to one drug to slavery to another. We need to our old master to a new one. We cannot be our own master, but if we choose Jesus for our master he will give us freedom to do good however we think best. We need to take Jesus' yoke of bondage, submit to him in all that we do, and thus we will be free from Satan's destructive leadership.

My memorising Matthew 11:29-30 and meditating on it I wish to remind myself that Jesus is my master now. By doing this I anticipate that I will continue to be transformed into his image.

Knowledge

Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land… My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children… Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone. (Hosea 4:1, 6, 17)

Here is a message of judgment. There are places further along in Hosea where God offers pardon to the people of Israel, but God is making it clear that his promise to Abraham will not stop him from removing Israel from its privileged position. Because of their rejection of the true knowledge of God the people of Israel lost their status and national identity, they are lost forever. In the same way the Jewish nation lost their status and national identity after rejecting the greatest knowledge of God ever given, in the person of Jesus Christ.
Do not reject the knowledge of God to follow after knowledge that will make people think you are smart or help you get rich.

But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. 15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. (James 3:14-15)

Let yourself be thought a fool for Jesus sake. I don't say make a fool of yourself, but let yourself be thought a fool for not only doing what is right but learning about God as your should and not following after fascinating philosophy.

Known

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; (Isaiah 58:9)

And he came unto his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I; who art thou, my son? (Genesis 27:18)

That the Lord called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I. 5 And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he said, I called not; lie down again. And he went and lay down. 6 And the Lord called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again. 7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. 8 And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child. (1 Samuel 3:4-8)

Who answers when you call? A person that  knows you answers when you call. Blind Isaac did not know which son was speaking to him. God is not blind, he knows. Young Samuel did not know which spiritual leader was speaking to him, he thought it was Jehovah's representative not Jehovah himself. God is not naive, he knows. If we trust Jesus enough to follow his instructions we can know that he knows us and so he will hear us.

Accepting Action

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; (Isaiah 58:9)

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8)

Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. (1 John 3:21-22)

If I am doing everything as God has commanded me then he will listen to me. There are some things that are not within my power, I cannot change my heart, my attitude, only Jesus can do that. When the farmer goes out to sow seed for a crop, if he commands the seed to germinate it will not pay attention, only God has that power. But if he never plants the seed he will never get the crop. Our victory over sin and salvation from guilt are things that only Jesus can give us, they are a gift of grace accepted through faith. But if I do not reach out my hand I will not obtain the gift. If I do not act on what I know and can do today God will not give me more knowledge for me to neglect. I must take action in the small way that I know I should and trust that the Holy Spirit can change me to come up higher in my experience.

Gender

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Genesis 1:27)

This is prompted by a news story about a push for putting a third option on forms in addition to male and female. What can I say? How far we have strayed from the path of wisdom as a society?
The Bible is our firm foundation, our anchor on the swirling seas. God made a husband and a wife, a man and a woman, a male and a female. That is all.