“A deep social conscience, and a life poured out in service to others, especially the poor, is the inevitable sign of real faith, and justice is the grand symptom of a real relationship with God.”

Isaiah 58 tells us about the importance of justice, the meaning of justice, and how to become people who do it.

Let’s start by looking at verse two, where God describes a particular group of people, who, the passage says, “day after day … seek me out.” The Hebrew Scriptures, when they talk about seeking the Lord, are talking about worship; they’re talking about going to temple and the sacrificial system: prayer and tithes. This is describing people who are diligent; who “day after day [they] seek me out.”

The passage goes on to describe them as people who “seem eager to know my ways.” The language here means to be passionate. In Hebrew it actually says (in spite of the fact that verse one says they’re in rebellion) that “they seek me diligently; they’re passionate to know my laws.”

These people want to know how to live. They’re looking at the Ten Commandments. Their personal morality is practically perfect. Their worship—at least their fulfillment of the worship ordinances—is fastidious.

And yet, they come to God, and in verse three they say, “Why have we fasted?”

Read More: http://byfaithonline.com/page/in-the-world/the-beauty-of-biblical-justice

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