AP

Isaiah 29:13    The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.

As Jesus walked and talked among his Father’s chosen people, and interacted with their ‘spiritual’ leaders, it is little wonder that this very prophetic word of Isaiah came into his mind: “So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, ‘Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?’  He replied, ‘Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.  They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.”’” (Mark 7:5-6).

Before I start to reflect too much on the incongruence of the spiritual blindness of these leaders – men who prided themselves on their knowledge of their Scriptures – I need to do a bit of self-examination!  If it was so easy for them to read Isaiah and not see how it applied directly to them, why should I think the effects of  the Fall on my mind would be any different from its effect on theirs?

All of this is a good warning for every generaton, incuding us.  How much is the depth of my heart fully involved when I sing God’s praise with my lips?  Do I feel the words I am expressing?  Or am I just ‘going through the motions’?  I remember hearing the definition of a university lecture: ‘The process of information being transferred from the notebook of the lecturer to the notebook of the student without having any involvement with the minds of either!’  How much is my heart/mind involved in my participation in corporate worship each Lord’s Day?  And how much do I allow old ‘traditional’ concepts and ideas block my heart from hearing-and-obeying what God is really saying to me when I read his inspired Word or sit under the faithful teaching of it?

When the well-read, highly educated, religious Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus, who became the apostle Paul, had his spiritual eyes opened on the Road to Damascus. it made such a difference to him that he realised the truth of what he would later write to the Corinthians about his still unconverted colleagues: “Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.  But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away” (2 Corinthians 3:15-16).  May my earnest prayer always be: “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law” (Psalm 119:18).  And may that be true for Jewish people throughout the world.

“Open my eyes that I may see glimpses of truth thou hast for me; place in my hands the wonderful key that shall unclasp and set me free.  Silently now I wait for thee, ready, my God, thy will to see; open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit Divine!” (Clara Scott)

– Bruce Christian