Isaiah 56

‘Beat you to the prayer meeting!’ What God says is important is important! Two things stand out in this chapter as particularly vital:

  • The Sabbath: Although we are not under the law, the Sabbath principle remains an important one for believers now. On this subject I can recommend an excellent book by Pete Scazzero entitled ‘Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.’ God has built into the order of the universe the need for margin in our lives. Without this we will try to cram too much in, and our health will suffer.
  • Prayer: In fact, we could say corporate prayer – the prayer meeting: ‘’…and give them joy in my house of prayer.’’ (7). Because many Christians do not correlate joy and prayer in their thinking, the prayer meeting remains ‘the Cinderella of the church’, as one writer dubbed it. It is unloved, unappreciated and neglected. But what joys await us in God’s ‘’house of prayer’’. Some of them are intimated in this chapter:
  •  The joy of acceptance (3, 6). We Gentile ‘’Foreigners’’ have been ‘’brought near through the blood of Christ’’ (Ephesians 2:13). Because Jesus is our ‘Burnt Offering’; our ‘Sacrifice’ (7), we are ‘’accepted in the Beloved’’ (Ephesians 1:6).
  • The joy of holiness (7a). Between the ages of 17 and 18, because of a house move, I travelled to school every day of the week on the bus, and I liked to go upstairs for the better view. Of course, that was where smoking was permitted. Although I was not a smoker myself, my coat wreaked of tobacco smoke. As we live in this world, even though we try to avoid its filthy, sinful pollution, this is the atmosphere that encircles us; the air we breathe. In some ways we are touched by it. But in prayer we inhale the clean fresh air of God’s Holy presence. It’s like being at the peak of a high mountain where the air is so pure. In holiness there is true pleasure. Compare this with Israel’s blind guides who were seeking their pleasures in fleeting things; in poor and pale substitutes. You might say they weren’t just sitting amid the smokers; they were themselves smoking! God had much better things for them on His ‘’holy mountain’’ ; in His ‘’house of prayer’’. But this they rejected, to their own ruin, and that of their people. It is a part of the church’s very identity to be a temple of prayer.
  • The joy of praying people into the Kingdom (7b, 8). We Gentiles have been joined to believing Jews in the House of God. But the Lord has still more to gather ‘’besides those already gathered’’. We can know the joy of partnering with God to pray them in.
  • The joy of knowledge and understanding (10, 11). There is insight and perspective given to those who seek the Lord. Israel’s ‘’watchmen’’ missed out on this. They were playing when they should have been praying. The need for praying leaders in the church will never go out of date. What joy it is to us when God imparts His wisdom and revelation. If you stay in the smoky atmosphere on top of the bus and never climb prayer mountain your vision will inevitably remain foggy.

The ‘’house of prayer’’ belongs to God, but He calls us to it. Real and lasting joy cannot be divorced from prayer. I have reached a point in my life where I cannot conceive of the joyful life apart from having prayer at the heart of everything. God-centredness and joy go together.

Prayer: Lord pour upon us the Spirit of prayer so that we want to come to your ‘’holy mountain’’.