2026 Epiphany Devotions
Tuesday, February 3
Isaiah 58:1-5
1 Shout out; do not hold back!
Lift up your voice like a trumpet!
Announce to my people their rebellion,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet day after day they seek me
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness
and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments;
they want God on their side.
3 “Why do we fast, but you do not see?
Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”
Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day
and oppress all your workers.
4 You fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to strike with a wicked fist.
Such fasting as you do today
will not make your voice heard on high.
5 Is such the fast that I choose,
a day to humble oneself?
Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush
and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
“… as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they want God on their side. …”
At one time, there was an outcry for a greater sense of morality in society. Proponents sought to have our nation become “God-fearing”. Unfortunately, while the emphasis was on hot button topics such as the marriage of gays, abortion, and euthanasia, less noticeable but more basic issues such as hunger and food insecurity, growing health care costs, marginalization and oppression of minorities, and lack of housing for the homeless were seldom mentioned.
Isaiah rightly points out that focusing on the “big” issues while neglecting the weightier ones does not make a nation “God-fearing”. It simply shows the absence of justice, mercy, and true freedom. Those, the prophet proclaims, are the true measure of nation whose God is the Lord.
As Isaiah wrote to the people of his time so his words fall heavily upon us today. We want God to be on our side but we are unwilling to care for the basic needs of the people – feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the stranger, and providing for the least of these in society. This is the righteousness God longs for. This is the justice God seeks. This is God’s mercy in action. This is what makes a nation “God-fearing”.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for our nation and its people. Turn our hearts to Your righteousness, Your justice, and Your mercy, that we might truly become Your people. Amen.