Readings:
Isaiah 57-58
Proverbs 25
Romans 14

Isaiah 57-58

The people who Isaiah is talking to in this chapter that condemns idolatry are those that worshiped Molech Baal, a Phoenician god that was offered child sacrifices across the Mediterranean from Carthage to Lebanon. The devotees of this god included a few kings of Judah, one of which is said to have killed Isaiah for his repeated condemnations. Jewish tradition tells us that king Manasseh had Isaiah sawn in two, but he is one of the only kings to start of evil (extremely so) but repented in the end. Most are evil the whole way through or start out good and then turn to be evil because of temptations and the corruption of power. It’s interesting that Manasseh might’ve been redeemed in the end.

The valley mentioned here is the valley of Hinnom that runs just to the south of Jerusalem and is also called Gehenna. It’s interesting that Jesus uses the name of this valley, that was synonymous in the Jewish mind with the evil child sacrifices of some of their most wicked kings, as another word for the eternal hell of the damned.

God asks them where are the gods to which they’ve spilled innocent blood and pounded out offerings to? He tells them to go call on them in their time of distress, but to those that turn back he will rescue them and forgive them.

The focus in chapter 58 is on inward disposition during a religious observance. The main thing spoken of is fasting, and in the Old Testament that usually is shorthand for the temple festivals, especially the day of atonement, where the people fasted during the day and offered sacrifices. But God tells them that it’s no good if they’re doing these outwardly religious things but still inside they’re plotting to defraud people or just turning a blind eye to the suffering of widows and orphans.

This is the same as Jesus’ later condemnation of the Pharisees’ practices of announcing that they’re fasting but not having any kind of inward conversion of the heart.

Romans 14

This first part of chapter 14 Paul is talking about Jewish Christians who still observe the old covenant feasts and still abstain from certain foods. He sees these observations as unnecessary but essentially harmless for those that are so used to doing them their whole lives that to change now would be a burden, and they’re not inherently wrong, so he thinks they should be allowed to continue unhindered and not mocked or derided by other Christians.

But at the same time, Paul is adamant that these restrictions and observances not be placed upon the gentile converts to Christianity. These converts have not held these observances their whole lives and to place such a burden on them now would be unfair, especially since these observances are completely unnecessary.

Paul’s calculations would be different if the things that converts brought along were not harmless like keeping kosher. Say a gentile convert wanted to continue to visiting the sacred prostitutes in a pagan temple. He may have done this his whole life, but this kind of former religious observance is far from harmless and violates many principles and standards that Jesus personally laid out. That may be an extreme example, but it’s essentially why Jewish converts continue for the rest of the temple’s existence (till AD 70) to go to the temple to pray, they practice circumcision and they mostly kept kosher dietary restrictions. But gentile converts were expected to shed almost all of their former religious observances.

Paul further tells us not to be stumbling blocks for our brothers in Christ. If eating meat offended some believers then Paul would go vegetarian while in their presence, not because he believes eating meat to be wrong, but because he doesn’t want to offend over such a non issue. Save the arguments and strife for when it’s necessary, like fighting against a heresy, not for harmless personal choices.

I see this in my own life when there’s many personal preferences that I hold to, but for the sake of peace I keep these opinions mostly to myself. They’re not important enough to get in the way of spreading the message of Jesus and fidelity to the church he founded.

Tomorrow’s Readings:
Isaiah 59-60
Proverbs 26
Romans 15:1-13