Called To Fight

The other day I was reading through The Abolitionist Church Handbook, and I came across Isaiah 1:17. I decided I needed to take a closer look at this verse. (sorry if this is boring for you...I love this stuff! :0)

Learn to do good;

seek justice, correct oppression;

bring justice to the fatherless,

plead the widow's cause.

This fairly short verse has FIVE commands in it! But don't let that discourage you! Every command is fulfilled as we abide in Jesus.

"Learn" means . . . "to learn"! haha. But that also includes "to study, to be taught" - and - "to teach". So what are we supposed to be students of, and teach others as well? To do good.

"Seek" is pretty self explanatory. We all know what it means to seek after something, whether it's straight A's in school, or a six digit income, or that car we've been dying to have. But included in the definition of seeking is "to require". I get the idea of demanding something. What are we to demand, to seek? Justice; or some translations might say "judgment". This seems to be talking about standing up for those who can't stand up for themselves, fighting for them, demanding that justice be done.

The definition for "relieve" was sort of surprising. It wasn't cut and dry like the other words, but included in it's definition is "to be made happy". The form of this command is a little different than the other four. It is a command concerning a result, an intentional action. This action is toward the oppressed, those who are under ruthless oppression. We are commanded to make them happy! :0)

Judge, or vindicate, the fatherless. Do you know how many orphans there are in the world? 143 million!! Yep, you read that right . . . one hundred and forty three million orphans in the world.

The word "plead" has the primary definition of conducting a lawsuit, and all of the striving, contending, and disputing that are involved in that. But it means to condend or strive for some reason in a non-legal setting as well. The reason that we are given is the cause of the widow.

We live in such a self-seeking world. It's all about me, so they say. It is shocking what some will do to make money. The more I learn about human trafficking (world-wide and right here in Oregon) the more my heart is broken for hurting people everywhere. God has given me a vision, and I will be presenting it to my church board soon. I am gathering as much info as I can, and, with my brothers help, working on a website. I am very excited to see what God does, and I would very much appreciate your prayers. :0)