29:13 ‘‘These people come near to me with their
mouth and honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their
worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.'
Once,
when Jesus was addressing the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law he declared in
somewhat abrupt terms the very words from Isaiah 29:13 (see Matthew 15:8). The
context was set by a question about why the disciples of Jesus didn’t wash
their hands before they eat. Sounds far-fetched today? Not really. Religious zealotry
knows no bounds. It knows how to make a mountain out of a very secondary matter
and make nothing out of something absolutely central. But, before we dismiss
such zealotry as applicable to others we need to examine our own consciences.
Are there times in our lives when we, conveniently, avoid taking a stand
against the type of religious hypocrisy and double-dealing condemned in Isaiah
and taken up by Jesus?
Do we
offer worship with our lips day after day and week after week but our hearts
are from God who is compassion and infinite mercy? Do we engage in the ultimate idolatry of
worshiping human rules designed, interpreted and packaged as God-given rules when, in truth, we serve our own fears
and ideologies.
We can’t
fool God with that sort of worship.
#JourneyIsaiah
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.