Isaiah 10:1-2
(ESV)
Woe to those who
decree iniquitous decrees,
and the writers who keep writing
oppression,
to turn aside
the needy from justice
and to rob the poor of my people of their
right,
that widows may
be their spoil,
and that they may make the fatherless their
prey!
Oppression
of the poor has become a matter of policy in Judah, the final step into the
abyss of national godlessness.
“True compassion
is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which
produces beggars needs restructuring.”
- Martin Luther
King Jr.
The
law of God that Israel followed laid a foundation for a just and equitable
society, one that would care for the most vulnerable and be marked by freedom
and compassion for those who would otherwise be at risk of being marginalized.
At the centre of their law was the first and most foundational commandment,
that they have only one God, and that they are called to love their God with
their whole being (Deuteronomy 6:4-5).
This law is the Hebrew Shema, the law upon which all other laws rest. The first
four of the Ten Commandments repeat the law that the nation may never follow
idols of their own design like the nations around them, but the Creator in
whose image they were made. The last six of the commandments reveal how they
will express their love for God, by living together in loving and just
community. Leviticus 19:18 says most explicitly, "you shall love your
neighbour as yourself: I am the LORD." Christians will recognize this
passage as the golden rule as taught by Jesus, when he paired it with the
Hebrew Shema.
Mark 12:28-34a
(ESVUK)
And one of the
scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he
answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of
all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our
God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The
second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other
commandment greater than these.” And the scribe said to him, “You are right,
Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him.
And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all
the strength, and to love one's neighbour as oneself, is much more than all
whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered
wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
Jesus
was agreeing with his contemporaries when he interpreted the Law this way.
Rabbi Hillel taught at the same time as Jesus, and answered a similar question
by referring to this same passage.
The
law was clear. The manifestation of the community's love for God will be
manifest in their love for each other. When we cease to honour God as God (Romans 1:21-23), we will stop loving
our neighbour as ourselves as well. This is exactly what had happened to the
nation under the kings. Idolatry was introduced, and not long after this the
nation was oppressing the poor and ignoring the needs of the vulnerable among
them.
 |
| Who Is Your Neighbour? by Steve Malakowsky of Hope Thru Art Rest In Peace |
It
is the same for us. When we acknowledge God as our king and provider, than we
are enabled to be generous. We worship a generous God. But if we, like Israel
under its corrupt kings, or the empires that they wished to be like, believe
that by our own efforts or merit we have earned our privileges, we become gods
in our own world, and the only judge and authority that may secure whatever
wealth or power we have.
It's
an ironic twist that binds those who most desire freedom. In the arms of a
loving Heavenly Father, we are free to give and love from the endless supply of
the God who has everything we'll ever need. When we refuse to acknowledge
anyone but ourselves and our own effort as the source of our wealth or comfort,
we will be forever bound by the fear of losing it, ever protective of all we
have, always suspicious that others may try to take it away. This is not
liberty. This is a prison.
We
are but instruments in the hands of the sovereign God who is through us writing
the grand symphony of salvation. Isaiah says as much to the nation of Assyria.
Though they do not even acknowledge Israel's God, it is only by God's hand that
the empire may have victory against them.
Isaiah 10:15
(ESVUK)
Shall the axe
boast over him who hews with it,
or the saw magnify itself against him who
wields it?
As if a rod
should wield him who lifts it,
or as if a staff should lift him who is not
wood!
Even
Assyria's wealth is only theirs because of God's providence. None may boast.
Everything and anything we have has come from God, including the very breath we
breathe so that we may be privileged to go and work for a wage.
Before
Israel was a nation, God had warned them of the temptation to arrogance that
their wealth would cause them once they were established in the Promised Land.
Deuteronomy
8:17-18 (ESVUK)
Beware lest you
say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this
wealth.’ You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power
to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers,
as it is this day.
Now,
Isaiah's condemns Israel for the ultimate evidence of their transgression
against God. Their kings and administrators, arrogant and corrupt, are writing
laws that prefer the wealthy over the vulnerable. These new laws are the exact
opposite of the Torah they received with Moses in the desert when they were
still a generation that remembered their own slavery. Now they write their own
law, and by it they enslave others.
This
is the same great sin that marks all of us. Like Adam and Eve, we eat the fruit
of the tree, demanding that we be the ones who decide good and evil in our own
lives. We write our own policies. We make our own decrees. Kings in our own
world, we may now make the world in our own image, damn the consequences to
others.
As
children of God, our responsibility to the poor and vulnerable is not a matter
of personal charity. One cannot love a neighbour as themselves by writing a
cheque. Such love can only be true in relationships of equality and
reciprocity. The law of God leads not to individual acts of charity, but lives
of radical solidarity. True justice rises above the individual's willingness to
give, and is to be manifest in a community of mutual aid, whose very law
reflects the radical generosity of the individuals within it.
 |
| Dietrich Bonhoeffer |
"We are not
to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are
to drive a spoke into the wheel itself."
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian and Nazi Resister
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian and Nazi Resister
Our
call to act justly according to Isaiah will include our demands that the
governance of our community reflects the same conviction for compassion and
justice that we seek to manifest in our own lives. True love for our poor
neighbours will include our efforts to change a system that keeps them in
poverty.
Isaiah
ends this chapter by once again encouraging the nation that though they will be
judged for their corruption, they will not be abandoned. God freed them from
the empire of Egypt, and taught them from their time in the desert to trust God
to feed them. Now, by their exile in Assyria, they will be freed from the
empire that they have become. They will return to their land. In their return
they will once again be as equal in wealth and power as they were when they
first arrived in the Promised Land. Their merciful God will give them another
chance to live like the just and compassionate God they will once again come to
know.
☠
Tomorrow, June 25, 2014: Isaiah 11 - The Shoot From The Stump Of Jesse
Thursday, June 26, 2014: 1 Peter 2:11-12 - Aliens
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| Click image to read the entire series from Isaiah. |
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