Not so fast
Day 339, Wednesday, July 16
Isaiah Chapters 58-59
Yesterday we talked about the choices that need to be made to enter into the temple—and into the kingdom. Today those choices get more explicit.
In verses 2 and 3 of chapter 58 God speaks of how we keep asking him about his will and his ways, then wonder why we don’t get the response we’re looking for.
In the end of verse 3 and the beginning of verse 4 he provides a powerful answer: “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists.”
In short, our words ask God into our lives, but our works are far from what he would have us do and our lives far from how he would have us live.
“You cannot fast as you do today,” he says, “and expect your voice to be heard on high.
Verse 6 continues the thought: “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?”
The solution is simple, and simply stated beginning in verse 9. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like noonday.”

-Rev. Mark Fleming

Wednesday meditation

Job 6:24-7:5
“Teach me, and I will be quiet; show me where I have been wrong. How painful are honest words! But what do your arguments prove? Do you mean to correct what I say, and treat my desperate words as wind? You would even cast lots for the fatherless and barter away your friend.
“But now be so kind as to look at me. Would I lie to your face? Relent, do not be unjust; reconsider, for my integrity is at stake. Is there any wickedness on my lips? Can my mouth not discern malice?
“Do not mortals have hard service on earth? Are not their days like those of hired laborers? Like a slave longing for the evening shadows, or a hired laborer waiting to be paid, so I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of misery have been assigned to me. When I lie down I think, ‘How long before I get up?’ The night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn. My body is clothed with worms and scabs, my skin is broken and festering.

Prayer focus
God, let us listen to and respond to honest words, no matter how painful they might be.