Justice and Righteousness

Yesterday’s sermon from Isaiah 5 focused on the image of a God’s people as a vineyard. He says they were producing bad fruit instead of good. Isaiah wrote:

“The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the nation of Israel,

and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in.

And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;

for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.” (Isaiah 5:7, NIV)

God was looking for justice and righteousness from his people. This is the “good fruit” that he desired. Righteousness is talking about the way we live our lives in step with God’s character. It’s the way we are trusting the Holy Spirit to make us more like Jesus. Justice is about the way that we treat others—especially those who are unable to care for themselves. It’s being concerned for the welfare of those who are in difficult circumstances and also being willing to do what we can to help. I think there are some important lessons for us to learn in the book of Isaiah.

I would imagine there will be a lot of farm equipment on the roads in the next few weeks, so let’s be praying for the safety of the farm workers in our congregation and in our community. We’re praying for good weather that will allow them to finish their planting in a timely manner.

It’s graduation season. GLAPS graduation is Thursday. Some of our graduates have already had their ceremonies, I know that others are coming up this weekend. We’ll be taking some time to honor all of our graduates on May 29th.

God bless, Brian

Scripture readings for next Sunday Isaiah 6—Why do you Isaiah is given this vision when God calls him to be his prophet?

Isaiah 7:1-17—What is the message of this prophetic statement to Ahaz?

2 Timothy 4:1-5—How does this teaching apply to our current situation?

Luke 10:1-12—What does Jesus’ instruction to the disciples teach us?