grant justice;
make your shade like night
at the height of noon;
shelter the outcasts;
do not reveal the fugitive;
let the outcasts of Moab
sojourn among you;
be a shelter to them
from the destroyer.
When the oppressor is no more,
and destruction has ceased,
and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land,
then a throne will be established in steadfast love,
and on it will sit in faithfulness
in the tent of David
one who judges and seeks justice
and is swift to do righteousness.”
(Isaiah 16:3-5, ESV)
I was sitting in church yesterday when I turned to this chapter of Isaiah. I had spent all day Saturday marking exams, and on Saturday night was so tired and in need of the two-day weekend I was not going to get, I wrote myself a reminder note for the next morning: "Remember -- it's Sunday, not Saturday." Long story short, before leaving for church, I didn't have nearly as much time to spend with the Lord as I normally like to.
This may be why, during the reflective first service, I felt the Lord drawing me to open my bible. I turned to Isaiah 16, where I was struck by the beauty of the admonition in verses 3 through 5. How had I never noticed this passage before? Perhaps the ESV's lovely translation here is what made the passage seem new and desperately important. Listen to the passage again. This is what I heard (I'm paraphrasing the injunction in the first half):
"Help your fellow human beings, by offering them kind counsel and showing them fairness. Be so strong in your defense and good will towards others that your treatment of them feels not just like shade from the sun, but like the darkest, coolest night during the most stiflingly hot summer day. Be a safe place of retreat to those whom others judge, belittle, reject, and disregard. Keep the runaway safe; protect from harm the one who is fleeing from danger or self-destruction. Let those who are trying to turn their lives around find a peaceful place in your midst, where they can re-establish hope. Be, each of you, a shelter to hurting souls -- protecting them from the enemy, whose goal is to utterly destroy lives."
Then the passage comes in for the grand finish (verses 4b-5):
"When the oppressor is no more, and destruction has ceased, and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land, then a throne will be established in steadfast love, and on it will sit in faithfulness in the tent of David one who judges and seeks justice and is swift to do righteousness."
The oppressor will one day be obliterated. The chaos he has so long wrought will be forever ended! Then, as God promised through His great love for us, Jesus, the eternal King, will assume the throne, ruling over humankind in love. He will judge faithfully, going out of His way to make sure there is perfect justice and righteousness for all people. No one will ever again have to worry about being oppressed, judged unfairly, put down, cheated, lied to, beaten, manipulated, belittled, forgotten.
If those sound like nice promises, they are. Yet they are so, so much more to those who have ever lived under oppression, in fear, or in turmoil. To the tossed aside of this world, this promise is the anticipation of release from an endless prison.
But we are not to sit around waiting until His eternal reign of justice begins! We've been given instructions. Are we obeying them? Is our shade like night at the height of noon to those who are hurting? Or do we just wish for pity's sake that they would go away and sort out their lives -- come back and let us know when you've got it all straightened out. Outcasts? No, we don't want those either -- there's surely a reason they were cast out. Anyway, they're not like us -- what would we say to them?
Oh, let me read those three wonderful verses of Isaiah 16 again, because here's the deal: He wants His eternal reign of justice to begin with us. To begin now, while the war with the oppressor is still on. To begin one step at a time as we allow Him to be Lord, now living His earthly life through us, His post-Pentecost body.
This is not something we can do through religion. Not only can we not do it through religion, to do it "for real" we'll sometimes be taking the risk of being rejected and despised by religious people, even by a few of the nice people who pray alongside us in church. Are you ready yet to go that much out on a limb? I'm pretty sure I'm not.
Perhaps it helps to remember that we're not being asked to do these things alone. This is His reign, not ours. The agenda is His, too -- let's just let Him show us what to do, day by day. Let's let Him teach us in baby steps (we're babies, after all). Let's let Him lead us to like-minded others, so that we can share the burden. But oh, let us offer Him the chance to have this prelude to His glorious eternal reign! Heaven will be richer; life on earth will be richer, too.