The Gospel and the Poor

April 6, 2009 in Articles Comments off

God has called His people to be holy as He is holy – to be set apart, consecrated for God and His kingdom purposes (Leviticus 11.44; 1 Peter 1.15-16). So, followers of Christ see things different than the world we live in. When it comes to the way we see our jobs, careers, money, and even our paychecks we think differently.

We know that God owns everything and that He actually signs our paychecks and gives them as a gift for our wages at the job He gave as a gift. We see it as financial grace. Our worldview is different. We have (or should have) a holy view of money, of the poor and the economy. Isaiah addresses our sacred calling to the poor with gospel-shaped giving.

Blow the Trumpet (Isaiah 58.1)
Cry loudly, do not hold back; raise your voice like a trumpet! And declare to My people. God tells Isaiah to raise his voice and blow the trumpet! What does God tell Isaiah to declare? God says, declare to My people (Jews) their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins. So, God is not telling Isaiah to go and preach some message to make people feel good about themselves, instead He wants Isaiah to deliver a message to the Jews about their sin, rebellion, and revolt (1.2) against God. What is their sin and rebellion that God wants Isaiah to speak about?

Delusional People (Isaiah 58.2-3a)
The Jews worship as if they were a righteous and an obedient nation, but they are not. They are living in a state of delusion (false belief, deception). Their lips say that they want God and His ways, but they really don’t. They are delusional. Listen to what they say in Isaiah 58.3a: Why have we fasted and You do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice? They do not see what the real problem is and why the Lord is not responding. They come to the gatherings and they talk the language of the nearness of God. They are even fasting.

Some people believe that this sermon might have been delivered on the Day of Atonement, which was annually observed by people humbling themselves and refraining from work (Leviticus 16.29). But it is all in vain for these Jews! It is just empty motion. This is their sin. This is worship that is not pleasing to the Lord. They are self-righteous. They are more concerned about rituals and acts than relationship and true obedience.

The Problem Defined More (Isaiah 58.3b-5)
Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire, and drive hard all your workers. Meaning these Jews get what they want, what satisfies them and they even take the day off, but they disregard the needs of their employees. Oh God, thank you for the RECESSION! Thank you for justice for those who do such all over this nation. God surely makes the crooked paths straight!

The problem is that what these do on Sunday or on this special celebration day, the Day of Atonement, is just a sham because Monday is ethically, practically, and relationally a wreck. They drive hard your workers, and you fast for contention and strife and to strike with a wicked fist. They cause quarreling and even fights. You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high. They just want to be heard and go after their own pleasure. It is all about their comforts and what they want. This is not the fast that the Lord chooses. The Jews were literally afflicting (humbling) themselves with hunger. This is not a bad thing, but they were doing it obviously for the wrong reason and neglected others, by not eating food and not giving it to a poor person in need. They are also called out for bowing one’s head like a reed. Spiritually they were merely like a reed bent over in a swamp. What good is such a thing? So God asks through His preacher Isaiah, Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the LORD?

What is the Fast the Lord Desires? (Isaiah 58.6-10)
In February I went to the Desiring God Pastor’s Conference in Minnesota and I got to hear Michael Oh, speak. He is a Korean who is now a missionary in Japan. He spoke about fasting and world missions. In his message he defined fasting as, the forsaking of things present for the exaltation of Christ.

So, fasting is forsaking of comforts and earthly pleasures, so that the things of this earth grow strangely dim and we can see Christ as all satisfying. John Piper says, Fasting is a spiritual attack on our own sin. This should be part of our daily worship. We should see fasting as the daily attack on our own sin for the sake of holiness. This is what Sunday morning should be as well. For these Isaiah is speaking to should have been fasting as an attack on their sin of injustice and hardheartedness.

According to this text, the fast God desires is, that you make the poor less hungry and afflicted. God desires a fast to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke (social oppression), to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke. And to remove the yoke (social oppression) from your midst. We are called to free people from burdens and to not oppress them with burdens. Not only this, but we are to do what we can to do away with the yoke (social oppression). God desires a fast in which one divides your bread with the hungry, brings the homeless poor into their house, sees the naked, and cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh. We have the same flesh as the poor and afflicted, so we are to be sympathetic toward their needs and respond. God desires a fast that removes the pointing of the finger. This is probably close to our day’s rude gesture of giving the finger. God also desires a fast that removes speaking wickedness. God wants contempt toward the poor and afflicted to be put away. God desires a fast as well in which one gives themselves to the hungry and satisfies the desire of the afflicted. We are called to give our self, not just food or handouts, so that their stomach is not the only thing satisfied, but that their soul is. John Hayes says, Ministry to the poor is not merely giving things. It is giving self. It’s not just relief. It’s relationship. This is the fast the Lord desires for Israel who is full of hypocrisy and hard heartedness against the poor and afflicted. Jonathan Edwards called such burden bearing the rule of the gospel. Richard Longenecker says, such prescriptive principles stem from the heart of the gospel.

What is the Gospel?
The gospel is the good news that out of God’s great love for the world He sent His one and only Son, Jesus to earth to become poor and take on the appearance of a man, being 100% God, yet 100% man. He lived a perfect, sinless life being the perfect sacrifice to bear our sin, and the penalty of our sin, death on the cross. He would be buried, but raise again on the third day conquering death once and for all. He is the ultimate burden bearer becoming the substitute for us so that He could credit to us His righteousness, so that those who trust in Him, receiving the great gift of God’s grace, would stand right before a holy and just God and receive eternal life.

Gospel-shaped Giving
Tim Keller wrote an article for The Gospel Coalition and he speaks of Jonathan Edward’s discourse entitled, Christian Charity saying,

“If it is the gospel that is moving us to help the poor”, Edwards reasons, “our giving and involvement with the poor will be significant, remarkable, and sacrificial. Those who give to the poor out of a desire to comply with a moral prescription will always do the minimum. If we give to the poor simply because ‘God says so,’ the next question will be “How much do we have to give so that we aren’t out of compliance?’” That question and attitude shows that this is not gospel-shaped giving. In the last part of his discourse, Edwards answers the objection “You say I should help the poor, but I’m afraid I have nothing to spare. I can’t do it.” Edwards responds, “In many cases, we may, by the rules of the gospel, be obliged to give to others, when we cannot do it without suffering ourselves . . . else how is that rule of bearing one another burdens fulfilled? If we never be obliged to relieve others’ burdens, but when we can do it without burdening ourselves, then how do we bear our neighbor’s burdens, when we bear no burdens at all?” Keller says, Edwards is arguing “that if the basis for our ministry to the poor was simply a moral prescription, things might be different. But if the basis for our involvement with the poor is ‘the rules of the gospel,’ namely substitutionary sacrifice, then we must help the poor even when we think ‘we can’t afford it.’” Edwards calls the bluff and says, “What you mean is, you can’t help them without sacrificing and bringing suffering on yourself. But that’s how Jesus relieved you of your burdens! And that is how you must minister to others with their burdens.” We are to love our neighbor as Christ loved us, literally entering into our afflictions. “When our neighbor is in difficulty, he is afflicted; and we ought to have such a spirit of love to him, as to be afflicted with him in his affliction.” Keller says, “Edwards teaches that the gospel requires us to be involved in the life of the poor—not only financially, but personally and emotionally. Our giving must not be token but so radical that it brings a measure of suffering into our own lives.”

Now when Isaiah is writing just before 700 BC, he knows that the Redeemer has not yet come, but that He will come, and that when He does come He will bear our sins of injustice. Isaiah 53.5-6 says, But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. Those who have come face to face with the Gospel, receive it, trust it and seek to truly live it out. This is what Isaiah 58 points out. Those who have been changed by the gospel will have a passion produced in them for social justice and practical mercy. Gospel-shaped giving will be present.

Jesus says in Luke 4.18-19, quoting Isaiah 61.1-2, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD. John Piper says, The justice and righteousness and mercy demanded by God for His people, which is communicated by Isaiah is now brought into the world in Christ. So, we have seen mercy, love, justice, and righteousness in Christ and we know that such justice has been bought by Him through His death so that we can do it (live out justice). Oh that we would live out Micah 6.8: And what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness (mercy), and to walk humbly with your God?

The people Isaiah calls out were without such passion and fruit in their lives. They enjoyed self-seeking religion more than gospel living as a result they missed out on the sweet blessings and rewards of gospel-shaped giving. I pray that we would never grow weary of giving, knowing that God never does and therefore as we give, He blesses us so we can give more.

About The Author

Jerry Witham is the Lead Pastor at The Ridge Church in Carrollton, TX.  Besides Jesus his greatest joy is his wife, Annette and their three children, Noah, Grace and Pierce.