There are many things that it is legitimate for us to desire. They are more than our desires; God promises them to us. Isaiah 58:11 has a beautiful description of them. This text hangs on our living room wall in English and Japanese:
And the Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your desire with good things, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. (KJV)
Here is the condition to God’s promise of continued guidance and spiritual refreshment:
“If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday” (Isaiah 58:9b-10 NKJV).
Earlier in Isaiah 58, we learn that God will answer when we call, that our righteousness will go before us and His glory will come behind us, and that “your light [will] break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily” (v. 8). How could we ask for more? This is a promise of exuberant life, light that “breaks,” and health that “springs”!
What are the conditions?
“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? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” (Isaiah 58:6-7).
• Setting men free from evil
• Removing their burdens
• Delivering men from oppression
• Feeding the hungry from your own supply
• Bringing the poor and afflicted to your own house
• Clothing the naked
• Taking care of your family
This post coordinates with today’s reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us. We would love to have you reading with us.
