The Jesus Institute Forum

The Gospel and Isaiah 58:
What is our calling in the eschatological Jubilee Day of Atonement?

Lee Greer
Loma Linda, CA
© 2004

Introduction

The latter part of Isaiah (ch. 40-66) is especially rich in references to the eschatological themes of messianic Covenant redemption of God's people in a Jubilee Day of Atonement setting. This is particularly true of Isaiah 58. Here we find what repentance, forgiveness, and true Sabbathkeeping in the eschatological, Jubilee Day of Atonement really mean.
 

Isaiah 58 (cf. ch. 55-56)
References / comments
1Cry out aloud [lit. with the throat]! Do not spare.
Like the trumpet [shophar] Iift up your voice!
And show to My people their trespass [pesham],
and to the house of Jacob their sins [chatta'am].
2Yet day (by) day they seek Me,
and desire knowledge of My ways.
As a nation that has done righteousness [tsedaqah], 
and forsakes not the judgment of their God.
They ask of Me judgments of justice [tsedeq];
to draw near to God they desire.
3(They say) 'Why have we fasted and you did not see?
We afflicted our soul and You did not know?'
Look, on the day of your fast you find pleasure;
and all your laborers you drive hard.
4Look, for strife and debate you fast,
and to strike with the fist of wicked injustice.
Do not fast as today, 
to make your voice heard in the high place!
5Is this like the fast I will choose?
A man to afflict his soul (for) a day?
To bow down his head like a bulrush?
And he spreads sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast?
And a day of acceptable delight for YAHWEH?

6Is not this the fast I have chosen?
To open the bands of wickedness?
To undo the thongs of the yoke,
and to let the oppressed go free?
And that you pull off every yoke?
7Is it not to break your bread to the hungry?
That the wandering poor you should bring home?
When will you see the naked and cover him?
And from your own flesh will not hide yourself?

8Then your light shall break as the dawn!
And your healing shall spring up quickly.
And your righteousness shall go before you – 
the glory of YAHWEH shall gather you. 
9Then shall you call and YAHWEH shall answer.
You shall cry and He shall say, 'Here I (am)!'
If you turn away from your midst the yoke,
sending out the finger and the speaking of vanity;
10and if you let out your soul to the hungry,
and satisfy the afflicted;
then shall your light arise in the darkness,
and your gloom as the noonday.

11And YAHWEH shall guide you always,
and satisfy your soul in dry places,
and brace up your bones!
And you shall be like a watered garden,
and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail!
12And (those) from you shall build the wastes of forever,
the foundations of many generations shall you raise up.
And one will call you 'the repairer of the breach,
restorer of paths to live in.'
13If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath,
(from) doing what you please on My holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight 
glorified to the holiness of YAHWEH
and shall glorify it, away from your own ways,
from finding your own pleasure [see v2-5],
or speaking (your) word;
14then shall you delight yourself in YAHWEH!
And I will make you ride on the high places of the earth,
and make you eat (with) the inheritance of Jacob your father.

For the mouth of YAHWEH has spoken it.

 v1 – cf. Mic. 3:8 "But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the LORD, And of justice and might, To declare to Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin." The shofar was associated with God's presence and judgment and special worship before Him: Exod. 19:16, 19; 20:18; Lev. 25:9 "Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land" cf. Feast of trumpets and Day of Atonement in the 7th month, 1st and 10th days respectively (Lev. 23:24, 27).

v2 – Description of hypocrisy: They delight in worship and seeking God as if they had done righteousness and not forsaken the judgment of God.

v3 – Reference to the Day of Atonement fast when they were to 'afflict your souls': Lev. 16:29, 31; 23:27; Num. 29:7; and the time of judgment, Mal. 3:13-18.

v4 – cf. the fast and the stolen vineyard of murdered Naboth (I Kings 21:9, 12-13).

v5 – cf. Day of Atonement fast and ceasing from laborer both yourself and the stranger sojourning among you (Lev. 16:29) and other fasts in times of distress and judgment (Est. 4:3; Job 2:8; Dan. 9:3; Jonah 3:6; Zech. 7:5).

v6-7 – The Jubilee Day of Atonement and the year of redemption and liberation: Lev. 25:9-12 "Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine. For it is the Jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat its produce from the field" and laws against usury, oppression, and providing for debt-forgiveness, redemption of houses, lands, and liberty (cf. Neh. 5:5, 10-12; Jer. 34:9; Job 31:19; Ezek. 18:7,16; Matt. 25:35). Isa. 61:1 "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable-delightful year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn" (cited by Jesus in part in Luke 4:18-19). Isa. 63:3-4 "I have trodden the winepress alone, And from the peoples no one was with Me. For I have trodden them in My anger, And trampled them in My fury; Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, And I have stained all My robes. For the day of vengeance is in My heart, And the year of My redeemed has come." Isa. 34:8 "For it is the day of YAHWEH's vengeance, The year of requital for the cause of Zion." cf. Jesus' kingdom prayer (Matt. 6:9-13 = Luke11:2-4).

v7cd – Prov. 24:9-12; Jas. 5:1-6.

v9 – Ps. 12:2. 

v10 – Throughout scripture, the righteousness of God is justice especially for the poor and oppressed for whom He is guardian, and the day of the LORD is a day of deliverance and justice for the poor: Ex 22:25; 23:3, 6; Lev 19:10, 15; 23:22; 25:25, 35, 39; Deut 15:4, 7, 9, 11; 24:12, 14-15; I Sam 2:7-8; II Sam 12:1-4...; Est 9:22; Job 5:15-16; 20:10, 19; 24:4, 9, 14; 29:12, 16; 30:25; 31:16, 19; 34:19, 28; 36:6, 15; Ps 9:18; 10:2, 8-10, 14; 12:5; 14:6; 35:10; 37:14; 41:1; 68:10, 29, 33; 69:33; 70:5; 72:2, 4, 12-13; 74:19, 21; 82:3-4; 86:1; 107:41; 109:16, 22, 31; 112:9; 113:7; 132:15; 140:12; Prov 10:4, 14; 13:7-8, 23; 14:20-21, 31; 17:5; 18:23; 19:1, 4, 7, 17, 22; 21:13, 17; 22:2; 28:3, 6, 8, 11, 15, 27; 29:7, 13-14; 30:9, 14; 31:9, 20; Eccl 5:8; 9:15-16; Isa 3:14-15; 10:2, 30; 11:4; 14:30, 32; 25:4; 26:6; 29:19; 32:7; 41:17; 58:7; 66:2; Jer 2:34; 20:13; 22:16; 39:10; 40:7; 52:15-16; Eze 16:49; 18:12, 17; 22:29; Dan 4:27; Am 2:6-7; 4:1; 5:11-12; 8:4, 6; Hab 3:14; Zep 3:12; Zec 7:10; 11:7, 11; Matt 11:5; 19:21; 26:(9) 11; Mr 10:21; 12:42-43; 14:(5) 7; Lu 4:18; 6:20 (cf. Mt 5:3); 7:22; 14:13, 21; 18:22; 19:8; 21:2-3; John 12:(5-)8; 13:29; Rom 15:26; I Cor 13:3; II Cor 6:10; 8:9; 9:9; Gal 2:10; Jas 2:2-9(-26); (cf. Rev 3:17; 13:16). And these texts do not  even include all that might be found under the listing of texts referencing the oppressed, fatherless, widow, and stranger....

v12 – Lev. 25-26; cf. Isa. 61:4 "And they shall rebuild the old ruins, They shall raise up the former desolations. And they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations."

v13 – Lev. 25-26; eschatological setting of Isa. 56:1-2 "Thus says the LORD: 'Keep justice, and do righteousness, For My salvation is about to come, And My righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, And the son of man who lays hold on it; Who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, And keeps his hand from doing any evil" and Covenant promises to the eunuchs, strangers, and outcasts who lay hold of the Sabbath and the Covenant (vs. 3-8).

v14 – Deut. 32:13; 33:29; Job 22:26; Isa. 40:5; 61:10; Mic. 4:4
Many quotes from NKJV and found using Power BibleCD 3.7.


Freedom
James Russell Lowell

Is true freedom but to break
Fetters for our own dear sake,
And with leathern hearts forget
That we owe mankind a debt?
No; true freedom is to share
All the chains our brothers wear,
And, with heart and hand, to be
In earnest to make others free.

They are slaves who fear to speak
For the fallen and the weak;
They are slaves who will not choose
Hatred, scoffing, and abuse,
Rather than in silence shrink
From the truth they needs must think;
They are slaves who dare not be
In the right with two or three.

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