This year at Bible Study Fellowship, we studied the book of Isaiah. I had not systematically studied this book, so it was a good discipline. However, some of the reading and homework was too much for me to keep up with. It was time consuming just to get the answers the questions and I didn’t really spend time thinking through what I was reading.
So now that the BSF study is over, I am going to go back and study it again, at my own pace.
Isaiah chapter one – it’s all about worship, not the kind at church, but the worship that God wants.
This hits home:
Quit your worship charades.
I can’t stand your trivial religious games:
Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings—
meetings, meetings, meetings—I can’t stand one more!
Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them!
You’ve worn me out!
I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion,
while you go right on sinning.
When you put on your next prayer-performance,
I’ll be looking the other way.
No matter how long or loud or often you pray,
I’ll not be listening.
What does God look for?
And do you know why? Because you’ve been tearing
people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.
Go home and wash up.
Clean up your act.
Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings
so I don’t have to look at them any longer.
Say no to wrong.
Learn to do good.
Work for justice.
Help the down-and-out.
Stand up for the homeless.
Go to bat for the defenseless.
That’s true worship.