“Wash yourselves! Become clean!
Get your evil deeds out of my sight.
Stop doing evil.
Learn to do good.
Seek justice.
Arrest oppressors.
Defend orphans.
Plead the case of widows.”
Isaiah 1:16-17
It’s not unusual for Believers to genuinely desire to do things that will please God and help to build His Kingdom during our time on earth. Everywhere we look (if we’re really looking) there are opportunities to get involved in “ministry.” God-followers usually sincerely desire to know what they can “do” as they walk through life in relationship with Him.
Long, long ago, God spoke these words to His prophet Isaiah. The people who had come to
faith through Isaiah’s messages needed some guidance of the practical applications of their faith. Isaiah was the key “voice” for that.
Partnering with God begins with focus and work on their own lives . . . our hearts and actions. God gave these words to Isaiah to pass along to the people who were choosing to follow God. The message applies to all people who have chosen to follow God throughout the ages. Including, you and me.
● First, there’s a mess to clean up in our own lives. “Wash yourselves” is very practical.
There are obvious things we each can identify that we know we can clean up by our own
choices. If we keep going to the mud puddle and splashing in it, we’re going to keep
getting muddy! “Step away from the mud puddle.”
● Once you’ve left the Puddle, and had your bath, you probably need to clean up your
room. The traces of the dirt you’ve dragged into your room will need to be cleaned up as
well, so that it will be most useable for its true purpose.
● Then God lays out some practical priorities from His own heart . . . tasks and service that
He entrusts us to do:
●Seek justice. Actively identify injustice, and step into the wrongs with actions
that help to stop or weaken its effects on people’s lives.
●Arrest oppressors. Don’t look the other way. Look for ways that you can stop or
at least slow down or disrupt the actions that are hurting other people.
●Defend orphans. Our cities are filled with children and youth who do not have
adults in their lives who are watching out for them . . . protecting them . . .
involved and investing in their lives. They are in the schools, in government
services, in care facilities . . . Their birth parents may still be living, but the children are largely “on their own.” Maybe it’s a neighborhood child who would
love to have a safe place to go after school for a little while until their parent gets
home from work. Maybe it’s through foster care. Maybe it’s simply giving a
single parent some “pause” in their 24-hour, 7 days a week parenting role alone
in their home.
●Plead the case of widows. Widows, by their very “title” , had a husband who had
married and cared for her needs. And then he died. There are new
vulnerabilities, complications, and needs which had previously been handled by
her husband. Those needs continue. His death has created an entirely new
reality for the widow….new realities which her loved one had always handled.
Thousands of years ago, God brought these priorities to the attention and responsibility of God’s people through his prophet Isaiah… from His own Heart. He saw these earthly “special vulnerabilities” of life, and used His Prophet Isaiah to bring them to the attention and active involvement of His people. God did not give a layout of a “program” to handle these realities…He brought it to the attention of His Own people. There are the practical details of the needs of the people that He Sees….He Cares about, and He cares.
But God chose to use His people . . . His followers….to be involved as His Hands, His Heart,
and His Feet to care for the priorities of His most vulnerable created ones.
“Learn to do good” becomes a reality. Begin with the specific examples He gave.
desertspring.blog 