Unlocking Conditional Promises - Isaiah 58 Is Full Of Them
A conditional promise is simply that IF you do such and such, THEN the promise will happen. Scripture is full of them, but I’ve yet to find so many as this crammed in such a small chapter as Is. 58. All these are awesome! With the Fall Moedim coming up, it’s worth looking this over. Do these promises sound appealing to you? I think I’ve rounded them all up -
>Light would break forth like the morning?
>Your healing spring forth speedily?
>Your righteousness shall go before you?
>The esteem of YHUH to be your rear guard?
>When you cry out, He would say, ‘Here I Am.’?
>Light dawning in the darkness?
>Your darkness be as noon day sun?
>Be guided continually?
>Satisfy your being in drought?
>Strengthen your bones?
>Be like a watered garden?
>Be like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail?
>Build the old waste places?
>Raise up the foundations of many generations?
>Be called the Repairer of the Breach?
>Restorer of streets to dwell In?
>Delight yourself in YHUH?
>Ride on the heights of the earth?
>Be fed with the inheritance of Ya‛aqoḇ?
>>For the mouth of YHUH has spoken!” <<
How do you unlock them? Everyone seems quite familiar with the Sabbath verse contained in the chapter, it was this very verse that first got me curious. No pleasure on this Sabbath? I find pleasure in the 7th day Sabbath by setting it apart, by relaxing, by not working! I call that a delight! According to Torah, that is how we esteem the day! A day made just for mankind (Mk 2:27). Is all that wrong? What’s going on here? This particular Sabbath seems much more, well... more ”afflicted”!
“If you do turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My set-apart day, and shall call the Sabbath ’a delight,’ the set-apart day of יהוה ‘esteemed,’ and shall esteem it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words...”
We were married on Sabbath. No intimacy on Sabbath? Too much pleasure? Some say both are wrong. I enjoy putting little studies like this together on Sabbath. Too much enjoyment? A whole list of do’s and dont’s could be made from the verse above. We could build a whole host of Sabbath restrictions on that verse, a wall of Sabbath restrictions just like Judah did. We’d be as guilty as they if we did. No need!
It’s a DIFFERENT Sabbath from the 7th day! This is a Sabbath of REST and AFFLICTION being spoken of. TRADITIONALLY, this particular Sabbath is observed by fasting as the type of “affliction” necessary. But is that correct?
“On the tenth day of this seventh new moon is Yom haKippurim. It shall be a set-apart gathering for you. And you SHALL AFFLICT (anah) your beings, and shall bring an offering made by fire to יהוה. “And you do NO WORK on that same day, for it is Yom Kippurim, to make atonement for you before יהוה your Elohim. “For any being who is not AFFLICTED (anah) on that same day, he shall be cut off from his people. “And any being who does any work on that same day, that being I shall destroy from the midst of his people. “You do NO WORK – a law forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. ‘It is a Sabbath of REST to you, AND you shall AFFLICT (anah) your beings. On the ninth day of the new moon at evening, from evening to evening, you observe your SABBATH.” Lev 23:27-32
And that fits the entire context of Isaiah 58 perfectly, and the particular Sabbath referred to. But what type of AFFLICTION (anah) is YHUH looking for? The type that unlocks all the promises! After tearing into the way they were “keeping” THEIR method of affliction by a fast (tsom), YHUH made it plain that their method wasn’t hitting the mark. Matter of fact, He was pretty mad about it -
“IS IT A FAST (tsom) THAT I HAVE CHOSEN, a day for a man to afflict (anah) his being? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Do YOU call THIS a fast, and an ACCEPTABLE DAY to יהוה? “IS THIS NOT THE AFFLICTION (anah) THAT I HAVE CHOSEN: to loosen the tight cords of wrongness, to undo the bands of the yoke, to exempt the oppressed, and to break off every yoke? “Is it not to SHARE YOUR BREAD with the hungry, and that you BRING YOUR HOUSE to the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, and COVER HIM, and NOT HIDE YOURSELF from your own flesh?"
It's NOT about OUR stomachs being deprived! Going without food for a day isn’t really much of an achievement if you think about it. He focuses in and is wholly concerned that we step up and "afflict" our wallets however - food, clothing, breaking yokes of the oppressed - caring for others! Literally to ‘bring your house to them’ in the Paleo! THEN the promises are unlocked! That’s the key to the IF’s and THEN’s -
"IF you extend your being to the hungry and satisfy THE AFFLICTED (anah) BEING" THEN...
I’m certainly not against a traditional fast (tsom) on Kipperim, or any day, we just cannot neglect what YHUH’s intent is focused on here, what He truly desires from us. A “no work” day never excludes doing good works. I think that carries through all of Scripture -
Then יהושע said to them, “I ask you, is it right to DO GOOD on the Sabbath, or to do evil, to SAVE LIFE or to destroy it?” Luk 6:9
Try out the key.
"The one who says he stays in Him is indebted to walk, even as He walked." 1Jn 2:6
Without Torah, His walk is impossible - it's Rome's walk without Torah.
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