Bad Gifts
Have you ever gotten a gift for someone that, when the gift was given, both of you knew that it was something you hoped to use yourself? Â This happens just about every year at Christmas. Â I give Katrina kitchenware, hoping against hope that I receive the benefits of that gift time and time again. Â Yeah, she asked for it – but somewhere deep down that gift was really all about me, not her.
Why give someone a gift they aren’t asking for? Â You waste time and money, and feel slighted, forgotten. Â No bueno. Â What about God? Â If you give a gift to God that he’s not interested in, are you really giving that gift to him, or are you giving it to another god, a cleverly disguised version of yourself that you’ve constructed in your mind?
The Jews remain in a fragile place in their geo-political situation halfway through the 5th Century BCE. Â Several thousand Jews have returned to Jerusalem, and under the watch of the benevolent dictator-king Cyrus, they are rebuilding the walls of the city. Â In other words, they are exposed – vulnerable to attack. Â In order to finish the work quickly, they are beating and oppressing each other for fear of not getting it done before a hungry empire comes to swallow them up. Â And they are using religious means too – they have instituted a nation-wide fast to keep God on their side…but God sees right through their “gift.”
Yahweh’s wishlist may have included fasting…but not this brand. Â You got this fast at the wrong store. Â He’s interested in a fast that leads to right living, the kind that promotes one’s fellow human beings, and does not oppress them.
58:5 You humble yourselves
by going through the motions of penance,
bowing your heads
like reeds bending in the wind.
You dress in burlap
and cover yourselves with ashes.
Is this what you call fasting?
Do you really think this will please the Lord?
6 “No, this is the kind of fasting I want:
Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;
lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Let the oppressed go free,
and remove the chains that bind people.”
Outwardly, the Jews are eager to please Yahweh with signs and commitments, but in daily life they exploit all their workers. Â God wants your fast to include breaking the chains of injustice, to share the food you are not eating with those who have no food, provide shelter to the homeless… Â The Jews wanted their wall built, and they were dealing fiercely with themselves to see it accomplished ASAP.
Some might think God was unduly interested in high and lofty morals in a time when these folks were in dire straits. Â Maybe once they were safe behind their city walls they could get on to practicing decency and transcendence and all that mushy stuff.
But God sees it another way.
Treat your neighbor right, shelter the homeless, feed the hungry… and you’ve just enlisted a larger and more loyal workforce! Â Instead of beating fear into people, invite them to join you on a mission to rebuild the broken walls of a society that caved in on itself. Â The old way of violence and oppression didn’t do much for your city’s walls, that’s what brought them to the ground. Â God is trying to set the tone for a God-centered people…this is what is on God’s wishlist – and believe me; its something he knows we’d benefit from too.
Acid 9 4:07 am on January 24, 2011 Permalink
I was once told that the word “fast” in this text (IS 58) is the hebrew word “tsum”. This literally means “to cover one’s mouth”. That could mean abstaining from food. But could also mean to shut up and listen…and in the case of IS 58…shut up so you can hear the plight of the poor.
Never knew if that word study was true. But listening to others is definitely serving.
Mark W 3:38 pm on January 24, 2011 Permalink
The Hebrew word “tsum” yields some interesting word study results. The concept of “self-limitation” (whether its food gorging your pie hole, or words coming out…) it seems that we have a fixation in our culture with consumption and expression – and we downplay the importance of their inverses.
May God shut us up and keep us hungry! Think of the “other side” we are typically blind to in our rage to consume and spew out expression…
Thanks for the comment Acid9. Never thought about (tsum) as a “shutting the mouth to listen” – but to throw another Hebrew word study in, I was learning the other day that there is no difference between “hearing” and “obedience” in the word “listen” (shema). If you don’t respond to what you’ve heard, you obviously didn’t hear it in the first place!