The Gospel of Isaiah: Ch. 58:8-12, Light and Glory in Your Garden
The Gospel of Isaiah: Ch. 58:8-12, Light and Glory in Your Garden.
WANTED: An imaginative scribe who can write exquisite poetry. A faithful, articulate believer in Yahweh who can switch from one extreme to another at the Lord’s command… from a sublime vision of God’s glory, to a ridiculous demonstration of shameful nakedness; from confronting the people over their sinfulness, to comforting people with hopefulness; from being an outspoken messenger one minute, to a living object lesson the next; from having one foot in the immediate surroundings one minute, to one foot in the future messianic realm the next. Must be adaptable, thick-skinned, and extraordinarily brave. Person who answers, “Here I am. Send me!” will be especially considered. (from The Jerusalem Post, 740 BC).
“Then shall your light break forth like the dawn bursting through a dark night, and your healing shall suddenly spring up; your righteousness shall march out before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard, protecting you from all harm. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry out, and He will say, ‘Here I am!‘ If you banish every form of oppression and the unfair systems in your midst, the malicious finger-pointing, the blaming of victims, the spreading of slanderous and vicious rumors, the gossiping about other people’s sins. If you pour yourself out in compassion for the hungry and satisfy the desires of those in misery, then your dawning light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom will turn into noonday splendor. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your needs in a parched land, in a dry and difficult place. The Lord will renew the strength in your limbs; and you shall flourish like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring of blessing whose waters do not fail.” (58:8-11).
Glory of the Lord. The biblical meaning of God’s glory tends to emphasize the weighty splendor of God’s personal Presence; God’s supreme worthiness to be honored and praised; the overwhelming greatness of God’s beauty and power; the eternal weight of God’s substance; the heaviness of God’s inherent majesty. The weight of God’s presence outweighs the world; His presence is more substantive and heavier than the universe. His eternal glory remains constant, whether or not He decides to reveal Himself to us. God’s essential glory is forever Real in the heavens, whether or not we experience Him here with our senses on earth. When God’s glory makes an appearance, we can get everything from angels and trumpets and fire and earthquakes, to lightning and clouds and wind and thunder, to smoke and voices and blinding lights and foreign languages, to open graves and resurrected bodies and torn curtains and noontime darkness, to miracles galore. In light of all this, how do we go about glorifying our God? We acknowledge and applaud the awesome reality of God’s presence in the world; we make His presence heavier and more obvious; we magnify Him by enlarging His name and reputation in the world; we live in a way that strengthens God’s credibility; we honor God in a way that reveals His truth and makes Him less hidden; we live in a way that preserves God’s glorious Name and Personhood; we follow God in a way that helps others to recognize God as the ultimate Person of Substance; we publicize and promote His glorious name by demonstrating His character; we seek to remain a guardian of God’s goodness and spiritual power in the world; we recognize the true and eternal status of God in a life-changing way.
The Big IF. If you live your lives like that, says Yahweh, if you release the oppressed from their burdens, and establish systems of justice and mercy, and share your bread and homes and clothes with the needy… then I promise I will bless you in many wonderful ways. Your light will increase, spreading your spiritual influence everywhere; old wounds will heal; My glorious presence will guard you as you move forward, keeping you safe in righteousness; I will guide you and protect you and strengthen you; your discouragement will be replaced by joy; I will make you flourish in shalom like a lush garden, always fruitful and beautiful; I will help you rebuild your lives, building on the foundation of your spiritual heritage. And most importantly, I will hear your prayers. I will be approachable and say to you, Here I am! I will listen to you and honor your words of faith, and I will respond to the cries of your heart.
“Here I Am!” (Hebrew word, Hineni, literal meaning, “Behold, I am!” but is generally translated in Scripture as “Here I am!” In the Bible, Hineni is a response of someone to someone else asking for attention. It could be a response to God, to an angel, a response of a child to a parent, or a servant to a master. Sometimes it is even a loving response of a parent to a child. It is in that spirit that we find this unusual situation in the Bible in which God is the one saying Hineni. The Scriptural Here I Am means you have my full attention; I am at your service; I am completely available to you; whatever you want, I am all in; I am in total readiness to listen to you; I will have no hesitation in responding to you. It’s amazing that God is saying that to sinful Israel, and to us, when we pray. In Isaiah we see this profound response of God to our pleas for His attention. In this particular Hineni we see God’s humility, His readiness to listen, His availability, His being at our service. The mighty God, at our service? To see that God is One who says Hineni to us speaks of His self-giving love for us.
Light of the world. Jesus declared that followers of Him were lights in the world. And He followed that up by saying, “Let your light shine before people, so that they may see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matt. 5:14,16). Jesus was the light of the world, He still is the light of the world, through us. And Peter says in Acts 10:38 that Jessus “went about doing good.” What good things are believers to do to remain a light in the world? A good place to start would be right here in Isaiah 58… Acts of justice and mercy; a lifestyle of fairness and compassion. And sure enough, in Isaiah 58:8, the Lord promises that if we live our lives in that way, “Your light will burst forth like the morning.” And later in 58:10 the Lord says that, by being generous and compassionate, “your light will rise in the darkness, and your gloom become like noon.” Our lives as children of the light (Eph. 5:8) will brighten as we develop lifestyles of justice and mercy and kindness. Let there be light!
Be Light. We human beings, created in the image of God, have the responsibility to discover what will enable our light to shine in the world. What will turn on God’s light in us, despite the Fall? Simply put, in order to be a child of the light, we need to love the Father of lights (James 1:17). He is the ultimate light of the world, the personal uncreated light. We know from scripture that God Himself is light (1 John 1:5), that He dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16), that He is the sun of righteousness (Mal. 4:2), and that He wraps Himself in light as with a robe. (Ps. 104:1). There is no question God is the source, the very presence of ultimate light, now and forever. So how do we flip the switch, how do we become children of the light? Not so we can shine like a light bulb, but so we can do what light does… heal wounds, reveal truth, warm what is cold, sustain life, show the way, dispel darkness, clean out impurities, and clarify one’s vision. Light’s properties are needed in the world, and we need to let our little light shine.
Participating with the Ultimate Gardener in Tending the Garden of the Heart. Jesus clearly demonstrated and spoke of what it takes to flourish in the Faith, what it means to follow Him in His royal law of love. The fervent believer who enjoys maintaining the heart-garden goes out of his way to bear the burdens of others faced with overwhelming loads to carry. God helps us water the garden of our heart when we come alongside others in need and help to shoulder their burdens. We participate with the Lord when we join Him in His work on earth… when we befriend those on the margins; when we are happy to be a friend of sinners; when we show compassion to the needy and grace to the undeserving; when we fearlessly touch the untouchable; when we invite the outcasts to join God’s in-crowd and the down-and-out to become the up-and-in; when we practice the physical acts of mercy such as feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, visiting the sick and those in prison; when we practice the spiritual works of mercy such as admonishing the unrepentant, teaching the untrained, counseling the troubled, comforting the sorrowful, forgiving the hurtful, bearing with those who are difficult, praying for everyone in need. When we reflect the heart of Jesus in this way, we are intentionally inviting the Gardener to help us tend our heart-gardens and turn them into ones that prove to be just like heart of Christ.