Will Your Light Rise in the Darkness?

Isaiah 58 is amazing, in part because it proves the timelessness of God. It reads as if it applies RIGHT NOW, because it applies RIGHT NOW. Mere proof that people haven’t changed in however many years you want to argue we’ve been around.


The text is below, in case you’re not familiar, but here’s the overarching theme: Don’t mock God. Do justice among the people, and then He will honor and bless you.

Put another way: Honor God first, for HIS purposes and HIS glory, instead of honoring yourselves first.

When we got up this morning, each of us had a decision to make: honor and glorify the person in the mirror, or honor and glorify God. Please Him, or please me. So the simple question each day – each moment – is, ‘What does my Father want?’ Then do it.

It will all be well with our soul if we do.

Following the text is my more detailed teaching notes on 58:6-10, in case you want to study further.

1 "Cry aloud, spare not; Lift up your voice like a trumpet; Tell My people their transgression, And the house of Jacob their sins. 2 Yet they seek Me daily, And delight to know My ways, As a nation that did righteousness, And did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; They take delight in approaching God.


3 'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?' "In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, And exploit all your laborers. 4 Indeed you fast for strife and debate, And to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day, To make your voice heard on high. 5 Is it a fast that I have chosen, A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, And to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, And an acceptable day to the Lord? 6 "Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh?


8 Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily, And your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. 9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, 'Here I am.' "If you take away the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, 10 If you extend your soul to the hungry And satisfy the afflicted soul, Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall be as the noonday. 11 The Lord will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. 12 Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.


13 "If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, From doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, The holy day of the Lord honorable, And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking your own words, 14 Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken."

Isaiah 58:6-10
“If we put away the yoke from our midst, the pointing of the finger and malicious talk, and if we extend our souls to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then our light will rise in the darkness, and our gloom will become like the noonday.”

Construction → If ‘A’ then ‘B’

If ‘we put away the yoke from our midst’

What is a ‘yoke?’ A heavy burden. Something that constrains us.

In this case, the yoke is:

1. accusing others
2. talking badly about others

The Word says these things are ‘yokes.’ They are ‘heavy burdens.’ They constrain us.

How much of this do you hear in your household?

It doesn’t say these yokes constrain other people! But us. Twice the passage references ‘darkness’ or ‘gloom.’ Clearly, it means that when we are accusing others and talking badly about others, we are living in darkness. Darkness is a euphemism for ‘sin.’

How do we affect the hearts and minds of those we influence to stop or curtail such talk. Point out the damage it does; point out the Biblical mandate. Don't be a wimp -- graciously but clearly CALL PEOPLE ON IT.
And if we ‘extend our souls to the hungry
And ‘satisfy the afflicted soul’
Extend our ‘soul’

Soul is ‘substance or being’; the very core of you. YOU. Who you are. The heart of you.

This is inreach to hurting in the body and outreaching to hurting who don’t know what they need to eternally fill the hunger. They don’t know what they hunger for!

We must choose to quit talking about so-and-so and reach out to them. This is calling us to do the hardest thing sometimes – minister to someone we don’t like.

Satisfy the afflicted soul

To ‘satisfy’ indicates not to merely ‘reach out’ but to stick with until completion. This is not always in our control, but our effort to do this is. What satisfies? (Christ)

Hurting people need attention

THEN (transition, contrast)

Our light will rise in the darkness; Our gloom will become like the noonday

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” – Matthew 5:16


In summary:
If ‘A’ then ‘B’

If (‘A’)(A precondition, a prerequisite)
we put away the yoke
       the pointing of the finger (accusing others)
       malicious talk (talking bad about others)

(and)

we extend our souls to the hungry (give to hurting people)
satisfy the afflicted soul (stick with hurting people)

THEN (B)(the result of meeting the prerequisite)

Our light will rise in the darkness
Our gloom will become like the noonday

What do you desire to be? If the answer is ‘lights in the darkness’ – which the answer must be if you claim to be Christ’s – then this verse has meaning for us and demands obedience.