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Wednesday 16 May 2012

Isaiah 56:1-3 - Righteousness

The Lord's salvation has implications. Because His salvation is near we are to maintain justice and do what is right. The notion that salvation means since we are forgiven it does not matter what we do is one that finds absolutely no justification anywhere in the Bible. God's righteousness will be revealed, ie the way that things should be will become apparent.
We are blessed when we do the right things. This is not talking about a reward for doing the right things, but when we do the right things we are in a state of blessedness. Keeping the Sabbath and refraining from evil are the two specific things mentioned here. Now when we read of keeping the Sabbath we tend to think of all the things you should not do on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees certainly did their bit to ensure it was seen that way. However, the Sabbath was a weekly sign that the people belonged to God, that He was the source of all that they had, their utter dependency upon Him. Keeping the Sabbath is about recognising where our life comes from.
Then we get a declaration of the extension of the kingdom to all peoples. Foreigners and eunuchs were excluded from the temple. Isaiah declares that those who commit themselves to the Lord will be welcome.

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