Fulfil Your Duty To Your Kinsmen!
by PJ
 Yesha'yahu/Isaiah 58:1-7 AMP "Cry loud, spare not. Lift up your voice like a trumpet and declare to My people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins!
Yet they seek, inquire for, and require Me daily and delight (externally) to know My ways, as (if they were in reality) a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God (in visible ways).
Why have we fasted, they say, and You do not see it? Why have we afflicted ourselves, and You take no knowledge (of it)? Behold (O Israel), on the day of your fast (when you should be grieving for your sins), you find profit in your business, and (instead of stopping all work, as the law implies you and your workmen should do) you extort from your hired servants a full amount of labor. (Lev. 16:29.)
(The facts are that) you fast only for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness. Fasting as you do today will not cause your voice to be heard on high.
Is such a fast as yours what I have chosen, a day for a man to humble himself with sorrow in his soul? (Is true fasting merely mechanical?) Is it only to bow down his head like a bulrush and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him (to indicate a condition of heart that he does not have)? Will you call this a fast and an acceptable day to the Lord?
(Rather) is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every (enslaving) yoke?
Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house -- when you see the naked, that you cover him, and that you hide not yourself from (the needs of) your own flesh and blood?"
Yesha'yahu/Isaiah 1:16-17 AMP "Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes! Cease to do evil.
Learn to do right! Seek justice, relieve the oppressed, and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless, plead for the widow."
The joy of Rosh Hashana, the elation of Sukkot, and the deep truths and teshuva of Yom Kippur mark this season. So many times we focus on the joy and don't look deeply into ourselves to see just how far off the mark we really are. The High Holy Days of Judaism are not for Jews alone, but for all men to see and learn. We have a responsibility, an awesome responsibility, as followers of Yeshua to be the upright.
There is no doubt after the past year of scandals, struggling economy, disease, environmental changes, violent storms, earthquakes, etc. that humanity is far off the target of the above scriptures. So let us stop and examine what is wrong.
First on the list in Yesha'yahu/Isaiah 58 are the sins of the house of Ya'akov. Have we abandoned the rulings of our G-d? Is it possible that as a people, the House of Ya'akov is in such a state?
Sorcery in Yisra'el? Shameful parades in Yerushalaim? Brothels in Tel Aviv? Giving away lands? Nearly half of all Israeli children are impoverished and don't eat 3 meals a day? A holocaust victim sleeping on a park bench? Murders, rapes, road rage, child abuse....the House of Ya'akov has it all but not only in Yisra'el. The House of Ya'akov in the USA isn't much better.
Jews stealing from one another. This is a pathetic state of affairs. The lifelong savings of Jews and charitable institutions stolen by another Jew. Who would have ever thought the House of Ya'akov could be in such a state?
Is the House of Ya'akov in Russia any better? Elderly and sick Jews starve and the orphanages are full of Jewish children. Who helps them?
Recently the Rabbis of Israel got together and asked the people to pray about the sin level of Israel. They understand that it is the sin level that is bringing the swine flu and killing people. But the so-called "enlightened elite" don't believe the Word of G-d. They rationalize those words of the Rabbis away. They think that the Word of G-d is just something man made up to explain things earlier men didn't understand. They think G-d doesn't really exist and if He does that He doesn't care about the affairs of individual men so they can do whatever they want without penalty of their actions. It's a willing refusal to acknowledge that G-d's Word is true. It's this refusal to obey G-d that is precisely the complaint of ADONAI.
It is time to wash ourselves clean and stop the evil. It's time to do good, seek justice, relieve the oppressed, defend the orphans, help the widows and take an interest in the welfare of one another.
We have a rare opportunity as the followers of Yeshua, to stand in the gap and do these things. It's time to take care of the poor and disadvantaged. It's time to help people who don't have as much as we do. It's time to share what we have been given. And I don't ask for Jews alone but all peoples.
ADONAI makes a very specific promise for a proper fast in Yesha'yah/Isaiah 58: 8-12 AMP. "Then shall your light break forth like the morning, and your healing (your restoration and the power of a new life) shall spring forth speedily; your righteousness (your rightness, your justice, and your right relationship with God) shall go before you (conducting you to peace and prosperity), and the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, Here I am. If you take away from your midst yokes of oppression (wherever you find them), the finger pointed in scorn (toward the oppressed or the godly), and every form of false, harsh, unjust, and wicked speaking. And if you pour out that with which you sustain your own life for the hungry and satisfy the need of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in darkness, and your obscurity and gloom become like the noonday. And the Lord shall guide you continually and satisfy you in drought and in dry places and make strong your bones. And you shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not. And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of (buildings that have laid waste for) many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In."
I urge you to be generous in your giving to the poor this season. If you don't have a place to join in giving to the poor, you are invited to make a donation to Signs and Wonders and be a part our giving to the poor this season. If it is within your power, forgive and cancel debts of others. Help the poor and disadvantaged in some way, whether it be money, time or just yourself. Do what YOU can to bring the proper fast before ADONAI. Fulfil your duty to your kinsmen!
“Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified Bible."
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