What Does the Lord Require?

A Guide for Preaching and Teaching Biblical Ethics

Walter C. Kaiser

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780801036361
• eBook ISBN: 9781441205308
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

How applicable is the Bible's moral standard to the complex issues we face today--like stem cell research, euthanasia, gambling, and environmental care? How does a person use Scripture to make ethical decisions? And how do we teach people to think biblically about ethics?

Experienced Bible teacher Walter Kaiser answers these questions by demonstrating how, connecting eighteen key teaching Scriptures to eighteen tough ethical issues. Some examples include connecting poverty and orphans with Isaiah 58:1-12, genetic engineering with Genesis 1:26-39 and 2:15-25, and cohabitation and adultery with 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8. The result is a stimulating resource and guide for preaching and a solid foundation for developing Bible studies. Each chapter also includes concluding points, bibliography, and discussion questions.

1
THE POOR, OPPRESSED,
AND ORPHANS

Isaiah 58

It is estimated that in 2003, twelve million children became orphans in sub-Saharan Africa as a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on that continent. It is likewise estimated that sixteen thousand children die of hunger-related complications each day—one death every five seconds. Moreover, in 2004, an estimated one billion people earned less than the subsistence level. 1

The Christian Response to the Disenfranchised

Tender, loving care toward those in the throes of poverty and oppression and those who were recently widowed, deprived, or orphaned are repeatedly identified as the real hallmarks of the Christian church down through the centuries. Thus, to cite an early example, when the Athenian philosopher Aristides was summoned to defend his fellow believers in front of the Emperor Hadrian in AD 125, he testified as follows: “[We] love one another. The widow’s needs are not ignored, and [we] rescue the orphan from the person who does him violence. He who has, gives to him who has not, ungrudgingly and without boasting.”2

That same Christian influence can be traced historically through the life of the church as believers placed a priority on bringing the little children to Jesus (Mark 10:14) and providing care for the fatherless (Deut. 26:12). Christians, for example, influenced the legal protection of children in the Roman Empire of the fifth and sixth centuries. The reformer Zwingli transformed several monasteries in Switzerland into orphanages. And another Christian statesman, Ashley Cooper, led the fight against child labor practices in Britain in the nineteenth century.

No less significant was the Christians’ concern for those who were economically deprived, those individuals who were also the focus of specific provisions contained in the Mosaic law (Exod. 23:11; Lev. 14:21; 19:10). While these persons were not to receive favoritism just because they were poor (Lev. 19:15), neither were they to be avoided and overlooked by the rest of God’s people or by society itself. When they were exploited, their cry to God for help (Ps. 34:6) was often answered by those who showed a helping hand to them by the grace and mercy of God (Ps. 41:1; Prov. 14:21).

Usually the word poverty is used for those who are “income-deficient.” Three definitions are used to show what we mean by “income-deficient”: (1) those who live below the “poverty line,” an “absolute” minimum income needed for an urban family of four to “get by”; (2) those whose income is below 50 percent of the national median income of all workers, ; and (3) those who possess the smallest percent of a “share of the national income.” Regardless of which of these three definitions is used, the “poor” still represent “an island of deprivation in a sea of affluence.”3

Add to this group in the poverty level the class of the orphans, the widows, and those who are subjected to all forms of injustice and tyranny as a result of direct oppression, and the need for the Christian ethic of help and a call for action by believers is all the more dramatic. The Bible constantly calls for social justice (e.g., Exod. 3:9; Deut. 23:15–16; 24:14; Ps. 10:17–18; Jer. 7:5–7; Amos 4:1; Ezek. 45:8; James 2:5–7). In the divine scheme of things, God demanded rulers and those in leadership to exercise fairness, justice, and oversight to make sure that what was right was done for all their citizens and followers. But no less responsible for strong resistance to oppression and help for the poor were God’s people vis-à-vis the whole fabric of society itself. No person or group was to use its power to exploit another (Deut. 16:18–20; Ps. 82:1–4; Prov. 21:15; Amos 5:7–15). Accordingly, the cry of the poor and the fatherless was clear; most people agreed on the need to end all oppression and injustice. How to attack such problems, however, was a point of disagreement. In many instances, what was needed was the phrase used on the original Great Seal of the United States: “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.”4

The biblical way to tackle these ills in our American society and around the world is first of all to examine one or more of the great teaching passages on this problem. One of the best for our purposes is found in Isaiah 58:1–12. While at first the passage seems to address another issue more directly (the problem of religious ritualism and formalism, or to be more accurate, phony spirituality), this text goes on to give one of the most explicit directives to believers who wished to demonstrate the reality of their professed faith by fighting oppression and poverty and by taking responsibility for the needs of the poor, the orphan, the widow, and those in society who had been disenfranchised and deprived of loving concern.

The Social Responsibilities of God’s Family

The Christian ethical action proposed to help remedy some of these ills can be found in Isaiah 58:1–12, one of the great teaching texts of the Bible on this issue:

Text: Isaiah 58:1–12

Title: “The Social Responsibilities of God’s Family”

Focal Point: verse 6, “Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?”

Homiletical Keyword: Responsibilities

Interrogative: What are the social responsibilities of God’s family in bringing the love of God to answer the cries of the oppressed, the poor, the widow, or the orphan?

Outline:

I. We must stop our religious pretensions (58:1–2)

A. To correct habits

B. To correct doctrines

C. To correct practices

D. To correct wishes

E. To correct liturgies

II. We must allow God to expose our shallowness (58:3–5)

A. Our wool-gathering on religious days

B. Our irritability on religious days

C. Our devising oppressive tactics on religious days

D. Our pretense at piety on religious days

III. We must respond to our Lord’s redirecting of our service

(58:6–12)

A. To loosen all unjust bonds

B. To relinquish all fraudulent contracts

C. To release the crushed

D. To break every yoke

E. To share our bread

F. To shelter the homeless

G. To clothe the naked

H. To assist our own needy relatives

There is no question that the primary responsibility of believers of the living God is to spread the good news of the gospel. But that gospel—centered on the Messiah’s death, burial, and resurrection as the grounds for all who would come by faith to trust him—is the same gospel that carries the corollary of our social responsibilities as well. It is to this corollary that we now turn in this Scripture passage.

I. We Must Stop Our Religious Pretensions (Isa. 58:1–2)

God commanded the prophet Isaiah to raise his voice to threaten divine action against all religious hypocrites and phony pietists, who pridefully hoped to gain favor and esteem from God because they were so correct in their outward ritualistic forms of worship, to the disregard of matters of neighborly love and concern for the needy. Therefore, God directed the prophet to reprove these religionists as severely as possible with a loud voice that would sound like a trumpet blaring out an alarm that something was out of kilter with those who pretended such devout piety. These phonies must be dragged into the light, since their values were more than slightly distorted. The alarm must be sounded vehemently, for the consciences of these people had been lulled to sleep, and awakening them to action required more than the usual sort of gentle talk. All bases for excuses must be removed from these sorts of people who seemed to have a ready answer for any type of charge.

In their own eyes they had (1) correct habits, for did they not “seek [God] out” “day after day” (v. 2a)? They also alleged that they had (2) correct doctrines, for they were “eager to know [God’s] ways” (v. 2b)—or so it seemed to them. They also judged they were “a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God” (v. 2c–d); that is, they felt they had (3) correct practices. Add to that pretense the fact that they felt that they had “ask[ed God] for just decisions” (v. 2e); therefore, they felt they also had (4) correct wishes. Finally, they felt theirs were the (5) correct liturgies, for “they seem[ed] eager for God to come near [usually a liturgical term, “to draw near” or “come closer”] to them” (vv. 2–3). Their assumption was that their outward performance in their services at the temple had appeased God so that he had to show his favor toward them. They appeared to be saying: “We just love the temple services. We would never miss an opportunity to hold another fast (or meeting) before our God!” What else could God wish from them? But it was all for show. Moreover, it was selective in its areas of service without involving evidence of any social ministries to those hurting physically.

But our Lord had only authorized one day of fasting in the Bible: the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:29), Yom Kippur. On their own, the people had later added four other times of fasting to remember the tragic events of the siege and fall of Jerusalem, as Zechariah 7–8 informs us. What the other fasts mentioned in Isaiah were all about, who knows? Given these additions (and others like them), they wanted to know if God hadn’t indeed been impressed by their religious fervor and liturgical formalism. Surely God had seen all the times when they denied themselves food and water; surely he had seen all their expensive sacrifices, and without a doubt he had witnessed their long prayers. For all this, they felt entirely self-satisfied. Likewise, God must have been extremely proud to have worshipers such as them, wouldn’t you think?

But God had not viewed all of their efforts in the same light as these worshipers had. The prophet was to remind Israel of its “rebellion” and “the house of Jacob [of] their sins” (v. 1). That is why the prophet had to sound out his message louder in his clarion call, to show them and to show us what was wrong with what outwardly seemed to be so commendable.

II. We Must Allow God to Expose Our Shallowness (Isa. 58:3–5)

The question of Isaiah’s audience was twofold: (1) “Why have we fasted . . . and you [Lord] have not seen it?” and (2) “Why have we humbled ourselves and you [Lord] have not noticed?” (v. 3). God was supposed to be grateful and fully impressed by such ardor and devotion to himself and the worship of his person. So what was wrong?

Their attitudes and the state of their hearts had exposed the motives of all the hard work they had put into their worship of God. Not only had they fasted in order (falsely) to atone for their sins, such as cheating and robbing others (cf. Jer. 7:9–11), but even during the time of their fasting they were contriving ways to improperly gain control of property that was not rightfully theirs. Instead of focusing on God and their need for repentance and change, they were busy thinking about how they could pull off other business schemes that would enrich their pockets to the disadvantage of the poor and the disenfranchised. It was necessary, then, for the prophet to bring up the injunctions of the second tablet of the law of God to help them see that what was being done in the temple was more show than it was real substance.

It is verses 3b–4 that exposed the shallowness of their liturgies in worship. Did not this congregation do as they pleased (v. 3c) even on the day of their fasting? It was not a day for concentrating on God and their sin, but one of having quiet times to reflect on how to be more aggressive in their businesses. Was that not enough to expose the emptiness of their formalism? Did that not show that their hearts were not pure and that they were not living rightly or abstaining from deceit and injustice? How could such double-standard living be the basis for God’s acceptance of any or all of their proposed fasts (v. 5)? It was not, in fact, what God wanted, and it was not what their neighbors needed either.

The only thing that happened on their fast days was that they grew irritable and quarrelsome. They were pugnacious and ready to start a fight at the drop of a hat. So how could they expect their voices to be heard in prayer with all of that going on (v. 4d)? Of course God could see that they walked around with their heads bowed down and their backs bent over like a bunch of reeds in pretended humility. Sure, God could see that they were “lying on sackcloth and ashes” (v. 5d), but the question remained: “is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord” (v. 5e–f)?

The lack of purity from the heart and the lack of concern for others polluted all their efforts at serving and worshiping God. The link between fasting and all acts of helping was that both required doing without something; it meant restricting their lives, as we must also restrict our rights and our desires for the sake of others. But it was easier to limit that restriction to their days of fasting, even if they were self-imposed, than to reach out to others in need of help.

III. We Must Respond to Our Lord’s Redirecting of Our Service (Isa. 58:6–12)

If Isaiah’s audience was so hidebound on fasting, then here was another...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Introduction: Living and Acting as God Would Have Us Live and Act: (Psalm 15)
• 1. The Poor, Oppressed, and Orphans: Isaiah 58
• 2. Racism and Human Rights: Genesis 9:18–27; James 2:1–13, 25–26
• 3. Gambling and Greed: Matthew 6:19–34
• 4. Media, Entertainment, and Pornography: Philippians 4:4–9
• 5. Adultery: Proverbs 5:15–23
• 6. Cohabitation and Fornication: 1 Thessalonians 4:1–8
• 7. Divorce: Malachi 2:10–16
• 8. Abortion and Stem Cell Research: Psalm 139:13–18; Exodus 21:22–25
• 9. Homosexuality: Romans 1:24–27
• 10. Crime and Capital Punishment: Genesis 9:5–6; John 8:1–11
• 11. Suicide, Infanticide, and Euthanasia: Job 14:1–6
• 12. Genetic Engineering and Artificial Reproduction: Genesis 1:26–30; 2:15–25
• 13. Alcoholism and Drugs: Proverbs 23:29–35
• 14. Civil Disobedience: Acts 4:1–22
• 15. War and Peace: Romans 13:1–7
• 16. Wealth, Possessions, and Economics: Deuteronomy 8:1–20
• 17. Animal “Rights” and Factory Farms: Isaiah 11:6–9; 65:25
• 18. Care for the Environment: Psalm 8:1–9
• Notes