Putting Devotion into Motion
It was at it has been a constant problem throughout Bible history; people who claim to be right with God but simply don’t care about other people. We might just say it is a problem when one doesn’t put their devotion to God into motion toward others. Isaiah noticed this. He saw people going through their religious ceremonies with great emotion and yet they turned away from helping others. He addressed it this way; Isaiah 58:6-7 “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?”
Isaiah wants us to “loose the bonds of wickedness.” That means that we are to do something about the wickedness and injustice that keeps people down. Can we sit back and allow families to live in substandard housing? Or not do something about the hopelessness that pervades their life? Or watch unborn children be murdered? Or not address the addictions to gambling, alcohol and drugs that swallow up the weak?
Isaiah also wants us to “undo the straps of the yoke.” The yoke is a type of harness that ties two animals together in order to subjugate the weaker of the two. Many people are yoked or harnessed with things that are killing them. Some cannot read or write. Some are stuck in generations of poverty, or divorce, or abuse, or despair and can’t see a way out of it. Can we turn a blind eye to this because it doesn’t touch us directly?
This is where we are to put our devotion into motion. Jesus followers cannot be content to live in their own little spiritual cocoon watching Christian television, reading Christian books, listening to the Christian radio station, hanging around their Christian friends while their kids are in Christian schools and we take Christian cruises to be entertained by other Christians. Our hands should be untying yokes and loosening the knots that have people all messed up. We should be using our advantages for those who have very few advantages.
Who needs you to step up to the plate right now? What are you ignoring that you can’t ignore any longer?
