Shalom Aleichem...
Reflections is a weekly Christian Teaching Ministry. Each week we will talk about the Bible and lessons we can put to use in our daily life. We will try to, on a weekly basis, provide to you stories, thoughts, and just easy ways to live your life on a straight path.
THIS WEEK'S TEACHING....April 2, 2018
We have been teaching over the past several weeks about the various denominations in the church of today. During my research, it became evident to me that we, in America, are in the middle of some very historically dreadful times.
Whenever, in the past, America found itself in dreadful times, it took the true believers to demand a "revival" of some sort. These revivals were designated, Great Awakenings, when the church demanded that we as a Christian nation, get back to the basics of teaching the Bible as it was meant to be. These usually started strong, grew and then eventually died out, primarily because of our own lackadaisical attitude about how we live our lives. I have come to the conclusion that we are again at that juncture when we need a Great Awakening. I have entitled this Reflection:
The Sixth Great Awakening: Out Only Hope
I recently read a bleak assessment on Christianity in America: “Look at how the glory is departing. You that are aged can remember 50 years ago when the churches were in their glory. What a change there has been! Time was when the churches were beautiful. Many people were converted and willingly declared what God had done for their souls, and there were added to the churches daily such as should be saved. But conversions have become rare in this day. Look into the pulpits and see if there is such a glory as there once was. The glory is gone. The special design of providence in this country seems to be now over. We weep to think about it.”
Those words (I’ve condensed and paraphrased them) came from a sermon by Rev. Increase Mather in 1702. It reminds us that every generation is jeopardized by spiritual lethargy, yet God has a way of sending periodic revivals. Five of these awakenings have shaped the moral foundation of our nation, and we’re in need of a sixth.
First came the Great Awakening, which dates to around 1740. The writings of the French skeptics and the Enlightenment thinkers so pervaded the Colonies that churches struggled to remain open. Colleges became hotbeds of humanism, and Christian students, what few there were, practiced their faith secretly. But New Jersey Dutchman Theodore Frelinghuysen began preaching the simple Gospel, electrifying young adults in his area. The revival reached New England under Jonathan Edwards. George Whitefield continued the drumbeat, and this Great Awakening turned America from a collection of godless colonies into a God-fearing nation, setting the stage for independence and establishing the moral foundation for a new country conceived in liberty.
After the Revolutionary War, Christianity lapsed into another decline as large numbers of Americans pressed into unchurched territories west of the Appalachians. In the East, too, the work of the Lord declined as people busied themselves with building a new nation. By the 1790s, only one in 10 Americans attended worship. Chief Justice John Marshall told Bishop Madison, “The church is too far gone ever to be redeemed.” Voltaire said, “In 30 years time Christianity will be forgotten.” Voltaire’s disciple in America, Thomas Paine, wrote, “Of all the systems of religion that were ever invented, there is nothing more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory in itself, than this thing called Christianity.”
But another revival came, the Second Great Awakening. It started near Cain Ridge, Ky., where immense crowds gathered in repentance and prayer. In the East, colleges like Hampton-Sydney in Virginia experienced dramatic spiritual renewal. Charles Finney and other evangelists continued the cause, and a generation of young people was swept into the church and into missions.
Just as America was yet again sinking into spiritual sluggishness, a Third Great Awakening seized the nation. It was called the Prayer Revival because of prayer meetings started by business people like Jeremiah Lanphier on Fulton Street in New York City in 1857. Thousands of people gathered daily for prayer in New York. The revival spread from city to city, and between 1 million and 2 million confessed Christ as Savior. Sailors aboard ships docking in New York Harbor experienced onboard revival even before disembarking.
The effects of the Prayer Revival lasted a generation, but around the turn of the 20th century Christianity again evidenced decline. That’s when an awakening started in the nation of Wales after a sermon preached by a young coal miner named Evan Roberts. It’s as though the literal presence of God came down and settled on Wales. One man later described it as the “universal, inescapable sense of the presence of the Lord.” The Welsh revival spread around the world. My grandfather, W. L. Morgan, was an itinerant preacher in the Tennessee mountains who saw hundreds of conversions during this era. On the West Coast, the Azusa Street Revival catalyzed the Pentecostal Movement. In many ways, the Welsh Revival prepared the 20th century for the greatest period of global expansion in the history of Christianity.
The fifth revival occurred in the 1960s and ‘70s. I’ll never forget those days when an entire generation of young people “turned on, tuned in, and dropped out,” as Timothy Leary put it in 1967. In 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated. Richard Nixon became president, and the war in Southeast Asia divided the nation. Riots erupted in the streets, students took over campuses, bombs went off, and institutions of all kind were attacked.
In the middle of San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district, a Christian couple opened an evangelistic coffeehouse where disillusioned young people began finding Christ. Soon Christians everywhere opened coffeehouses and engaged in university outreach. Ministries started, souls were saved, and the winds of revival blew thousands of hippies into the Pacific Ocean to be baptized, and into swimming pools and church baptisteries from coast to coast. Schools like Asbury College in Kentucky felt dramatic moments of revival. The Jesus Movement propelled a generation of young people, including me, into missions and ministries, stoking in us a fire that has never died down in our hearts.
The Great Awakening, the Second Great Awakening, the Third Great Awakening, the Welsh Revival and the Jesus Movement shaped our nation more than most historians admit. They’ve deepened the soul of America, laid moral foundation for happiness and inflamed successive generations of young people into lifelong ministries.
Now it’s time now for another revival. America can’t be saved by politics, and the answer isn’t in being a Republican, Democrat or Independent. Our economists and educators can’t save us. Our entertainers offer diversions without meaning and our technology gives us progress without morality. We’ve seldom been in greater need for inner revitalization, and conditions are urgent. Join me in making Psalm 85:6 a daily prayer for our nation and world: “Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you?”
This is the only hope for our nation and the greatest need of our world. The Sixth Great Awakening is overdue. Bring on the Revival!!!
DID YOU EVER WONDER???
You can learn something new every day if you listen.
There's a story about a Native American walking in New York City with a friend. The streets were filled with people and cars were honking.
All of a sudden the Native American said, "I hear a cricket."
His friend responded, "Are you crazy? You couldn't possibly hear a cricket in all this noise."
The Native American walked across the street to a bush and found the cricket.
“That’s incredible,” his friend said. “You must have superhuman ears!”
“No,” the Native American said. “My ears are no different from yours. It all depends on what you’re listening for.”
He reached into his pocket, pulled out a few coins, and discreetly dropped them on the sidewalk. Even with all the noise of the city people's heads turned to see if the money was theirs.
What we hear depends on what's important to us.
The Bible says, "Ears that hear and eyes that see-- the LORD has made them both." Proverbs 20:12.
What do we hear? The LORD has given us ears and eyes. We can learn something new every day if we will look and listen.
BOOKS OF THE BIBLE...A TEACHING
A comprehensive failure (1:2–31)
In setting the scene for his ministry, Isaiah starts with what must have been obvious—even if the people will not accept his diagnosis, they cannot quarrel with his facts! Nationally (2–9), foreign invasions (7–8) have left a trail of desolation so that the ‘body politic’ (5c–6) is like the victim of a savage mugging. Religiously (10–20), there has been punctilious devotion—sacrifices in abundance (11), temple attendance (12), monthly and weekly observances (13–14), prayers (15)—but it has not got through to God and has done nothing to rectify the national plight. And socially (21–26), the city life is degenerate and dangerous (21), its leaders corrupt and self seeking (23a–d) and its needy uncared for (23ef).
Isaiah sets this three-part analysis of the contemporary scene as if in a court of law. In verse 2ab the witnesses are called, in verses 2c–23 the charges are laid and in verses 24–30 sentence is pronounced. Behind the observable facts Isaiah discerns the hidden causes: rebellion against the Lord (2d) as the root of national calamity (5); personal guilt vitiating religious practice (15); social degeneration through abandonment of revealed norms of justice and righteousness (21). All this gives color to a comparison with Sodom (9–10) and builds a case for divine punitive action (5, 20, 24, 28, 29–31), but, typically of Isaiah, there is also a surprise: hope is affirmed. The Lord has not left his people (9); when he acts it will also be to purge and restore (25–26), and the very justice and righteousness they abandoned (21) will be affirmed in a divine work of redemption (27).
i. The national situation (1:2–9). 2a. Isaiah does not explain why the heavens and earth are summoned to hear. The parallel address (10) to the accused suggests that creation is called to court as the perpetual witness of what happens on earth (Ps. 50:4–6) and is therefore able to affirm the truth of the divine accusations. But it may simply be to affirm the dignity of the One who can convene such a court (cf. 1 Chr. 16:31; Ps. 69:34–35) and the awesomeness of the occasion.
2. But even greater awesomeness is contained in the reason given why creation must pay attention: for the LORD himself has spoken. Here is One whom all creation must obey; it is to him that his people must render account; and in the unique marvel of revelation and inspiration the words of the prophet are ‘verbally inspired’, the very words of the Lord.
3. Israel’s (our) sin is simply unnatural. Look at the instinctive actions of the beasts! The locus of our disloyalty is the mind (know … understand) just as the mind is the focal point of all spirituality (cf. Ps. 119:33–34, 104, 130; Luke 24:27, 32; Rom. 1:28; Eph. 4:17–18, 20–22). While know can extend to include both personal intimacy (Gen. 4:1, NIV ‘lay with’) and lifestyle (1 Sam. 2:12), it retains its base-meaning of knowing the truth.
4. Four nouns of privilege: the unique nation; the redeemed people; the ‘seed’ or brood (the word used for the line of descent from Abraham in 41:8); and children (or the Lord’s ‘sons’). Four descriptions of the lost ideal: sinful, from the participle ‘going on sinning’, or missing God’s target; loaded with (possibly ‘heavy with’, hinting that the Lord who carried them felt the burden; cf. 46:3–4; Exod. 19:4) guilt, i.e. ‘iniquity’ (‘āwôn), meaning sin as corruption of character and nature; of evildoers, i.e. the chosen seed has become those who commit evil; and, lastly, given to corruption, ‘acting corruptly’, from Heb. šāḥat, to spoil, ruin. They have forsaken … spurned … turned their backs: here is the basic principle of spiritual decline, a sustained rejection of the Lord. Maybe we should translate ‘turned themselves back into aliens’, i.e. reverting to what they were prior to their redemption. On the Holy One of Israel see Introduction, pp. 28–30. The height of their privilege, to know the Lord in the fullness of his holy nature, became the benchmark of the depth of their fall.
5–8. What is important in these verses is not which historical invasion they reflect. The choice probably lies between the Aram-Ephraim incursion, c. 735 BC (2 Kgs 15:37–16:6; 2 Chr. 28; see Introduction, p. 23; cf. on 7:1–2) or the Assyrian attack in 701 BC (chs. 36–37; 2 Chr. 32; see Introduction, p. 24). The important thing is Isaiah’s view of history as the arena of divine moral judgment. The enemy depredations (7–8) which have left the nation crippled (5–6) from top (head) to toe (foot), inwardly (heart) and outwardly (head … foot), and without remedy (not cleansed … bandaged), were a divine chastisement, with more to come if they persist in rebellion. None of Isaiah’s kings (1:1) was inept. They managed a sound economy and followed clever policies, yet the land was devastated (5c–7), fragile internally (8bc) and threatened externally (8d). The key to national well-being is righteousness, i.e. what is right with God (Prov. 14:34), and in this the prophet records dismal failure.
9. But for the Lord’s people there is another factor, the surprising element of hope. Merit says one thing; mercy says another. As far as desert is concerned the Lord must either apologize to Sodom or visit judgment on Israel! But he is the Lord Almighty, literally ‘the LORD of [who is] hosts’—where the plural indicates that in himself he is and has every potentiality and power. Consequently he is sovereign to act in whatever way accords with his nature. The same Lord (2) who judges also acts in forbearing preservation
Because of the Lord’s love, we are not terminated, for his compassion's do not fail (Lam. 3:22). Thus Isaiah rounds off the section.
The religious situation (1:10–20). Isaiah turns now to the religious life of the nation. The placing of this topic between his review of national fortunes (2–9) and social conditions (21–23) is significant. The kernel of every national problem is how people relate to God. They cannot be right anywhere if they are wrong here. Religion determines everything.
But the people were extremely religious: they expended time on monthly, weekly and other observances (13); the financial cost of sacrifices and offerings (11) was considerable. It would be strange if they did not ask why, since they did so much for him, the Lord seemed to be doing nothing for them. But that is just the point: their religion was ‘what we do for God’ and not ‘how we enter into the grace he offers to us’.
These verses have been the center of a difference of opinion. Some note how in verse 11 the Lord denies the significance of sacrifices, in verse 12 their divine authorization, and in verse 13 issues commands to end them. On this view, Isaiah is calling for ‘morality without religion’, an ethically focused walk with God devoid of ritual observance. But it can be questioned whether this understanding is true to Isaiah. Is it likely that he was so revolutionary as to repudiate the tradition in which he had been nurtured and which he would have traced back to Moses? Such a conclusion would require more than the ‘say so’ of a brief passage like this!
Furthermore, if the passage repudiates temple rites, then it repudiates equally the Sabbath (13) and prayer (15)! Rather, Isaiah invites us to recall that in the Mosaic system redeeming grace (Exod. 6:6–7; 12:13), the gift of the law (Exod. 20) and the forms of religious observance (Exod. 25–Lev. 27) followed one another in that order as parts of a single whole. The law was given so that those who had already been redeemed by the blood of the lamb would know how their Redeemer (Exod. 20:2) wished them to live.
The sacrifices were provided to cover lapses in obedience (cf. 1 John 1:7). But as Isaiah looked around he saw people long on religion and short on morality. They were as morally negligent as Sodom (10), their offerings were meaningless (13; lit. ‘a gift of nothing’) because the Lord cannot bear wickedness coupled with religious punctiliousness. The hands they raised in prayer were blood-stained from wrongdoing (15). Like all the prophets Isaiah operated squarely within the Mosaic revelation, and his charge in this passage is that his contemporaries had put asunder what the Lord, through Moses, had joined together, namely, the means of grace (the sacrifices) and the obedient life which they were intended to sustain. The act—the ritual, divorced from its source in a heart grateful for redemption, and from its function in the obedient life—was meaningless and abhorrent to the Lord (13).
10. Like all the prophets Isaiah held that he was the mouthpiece of the Lord, the channel of the divine word. Law means ‘teaching’, the imparting of truth, within which, of course, there is a place for authoritative direction, command and prohibition. But the Lord’s law first of all is the loving instruction that a caring father gives a loved child (cf. Prov. 4:1–2). Apart from mercy they would have been judged like Sodom and Gomorrah (9), but it surely is mercy, for they are like Sodom and Gomorrah in fact.
11. The standing error of the ritualist is that if all depends on performing the ceremonial act, then the more you do it the better. Says is a continuous tense: ‘keeps saying’—as something he presses home upon us. Apart from Psalm 12:6 only Isaiah (1:18; 33:10; 40:1, 25; 41:21; 66:9) uses this verbal form referring to divine speech. To the Lord the ritual act means nothing (11ab), adds nothing (11cd) and does nothing (11ef). No pleasure: 53:10 uses the same verb (‘it was the LORD’s will’) of a mighty sacrifice which delighted him.
12. Appear before me (or ‘meet with me’) may also be translated ‘see my face’, depending what vowels we supply to the consonants of the Hebrew text. The two ideas taken together express the reality and wonder of true worship (cf. e.g. Exod. 23:15, 17). Trampling: a religion of ritual is only the noise of feet on a pavement.
13–15. The denunciation continues. Become a burden (14): i.e. the rituals are not themselves a burden, for the Lord commanded them to start with. It is not the use but the abuse of divine ordinances that vexes him. This is true even of prayer (15), for we can ‘pray on Sunday and prey on our neighbors for the rest of the week’. Hide my eyes: the opposite of the shining face of approval and blessing (Num. 6:25; Ps. 4:6). What makes prayer unavailing is unrepented personal wrongdoing (hands … full of blood). Not only the Lord’s eyes but his ears too are alienated from such praying: literally ‘I am not even listening’.
16–20. But there is a way back and through to God: actions they can take (16–17, nine commands), a promise they can experience (18), a blessing they can find (19) or lose (20). In verses 16–17 the nine commands fall into three groups of three. First, ‘make yourselves clean before God by the cleansing ordinances he has provided’ and this will take your evil deeds (lit. ‘the evil of your deeds’) out of my sight. The cleansing offered is effective before God. Now follow three commands to reorder personal life: stop, a decisive abandonment of sin; learn, the cultivation of a new mind; and seek, set different objectives.
Justice (mišpāṭ from √šāpaṭ), ‘to determine authoritatively/judicially what is right’, is often used, as here, to express the sum total of what the Lord judges right, the will of God for his people’s conduct (cf. 42:1, 3–4). The third triad of commands calls for the reformation of society: encourage the oppressed translates an altered Hebrew text: literally ‘reform/set straight the oppressor’. Society must be transformed both at the point of the one inflicting—the oppressor—and at the point of the one suffering hurt—the fatherless … the widow.
In verse 16 the Lord called his people to resort to his cleansing ordinances. In verse 18 he pledges their effectiveness. Scarlet is the color of guiltiness (cf. 15). Reason (Heb. √yākaḥ, sometimes used of arguing a case in court, e.g. 2:4): the Lord calls his people to the bar of his justice where, of course, they can only be found guilty. But it is there that they hear words of free pardon based on the substitutionary death of a divinely appointed sacrifice. The Lord’s pardon, like all his actions, accords perfectly with his justice. See below on 49:24–26. Snow … wool: both naturally white, not made so by bleaching. The promise, therefore, is of a new, holy nature, not just the cleansing away of the past.
Obedience is a serious matter (19–20). It is a ‘means of grace’ bringing the best. They must ‘obey willingly’ (be willing and obedient), not just offer conformism. The commands of verses 16–18 are backed by serious divine sanctions: obedience is the key virtue of God’s people and disobedience their worst calamity. Sword: the forces at work in history are at the Lord’s command in the interest of his just punishments, see on 10:5–15. For the mouth …: a very emphatic attribution of Isaiah’s words to the Lord himself.
Motyer, J. A. (1999). Isaiah: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 20, pp. 53–54). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Motyer, J. A. (1999). Isaiah: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 20, pp. 52–53). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Motyer, J. A. (1999). Isaiah: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 20, pp. 51–52). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Motyer, J. A. (1999). Isaiah: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 20, pp. 50–51). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
Motyer, J. A. (1999). Isaiah: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 20, pp. 49–50). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
HAVE A SAFE AND BLESSED WEEK:)
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