If we are to reunite our Selves to God, we must learn to Value and Embody what God Values, and to not Value or Embody what God does not Value.
As the opening chapters continue, we begin to get a sense for what God truly values, and does not value.
One thing that God does not value is empty and performative religion.
"What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings..."
“When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them."
Here we see God tired of performative religion, ceremonies, offerings, and feasts by a people whose hearts are far from God.
Next, we begin to see articulated the essence of what God truly values and desires: right heart, right action, and right relationship, mediated by the Spirit and now by the Law:
"Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean" "Remove the evil of your deeds" "cease to do evil" "learn to do good" "seek justice" "correct oppression" "bring justice to the fatherless" "plead the widow's cause"
We can then begin to derive the relative Value, or Goodness, of each potential Way of Being, and begin to Progressively Articulate the things that are God Values, and which are therefore Good, and the things that God Does Not Value, which are therefore Anti-Good.
In scripture, God is described as a consuming fire. Isaiah asks the Profound Question: "Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire?"
Here are some Word Tools from Isaiah that point at the Wise, the Right, and the Good:
*Truth
Love
Justice
Intercession
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean
Remove the evil of your deeds
Cease to do evil
Learn to do good
Seek justice
Correct oppression
Bring justice to the fatherless
Plead the widow's cause
Righteousness
Faithfulness
Full of Justice
Firm in Faith
Returning
Resting
Quietness
Trust
Abundance
Salvation
Wisdom
Knowledge
Fear of the LORD
Creation
Formation
Redemption
Walking Righteously
Speaking Uprightly
Speaking the Truth
Declaring what is Right
Pursuing Righteousness
Seeking the LORD
Giving Attention to the LORD
Giving Ear to the LORD
Keeping Justice
Doing Righteousness
Despising the Gain of Oppressions
Knowing the Way of Peace
Walking in the Path of Justice
Making the Way straight
Justice for the weak, the oppressed, the fatherless, the widow, the orphan
Justice to the nations
Faithfully Bringing Forth Justice
Judging the Poor with Righteousness
Deciding with Equity for the Meek of the Earth
Bringing Prisoners out from the Dungeon
Opening the Eyes that are Blind
Opening the Ears that are Deaf
Not judging by what eyes see, nor deciding disputes by what ears hear
The Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding
The Spirit of Council and Might
Striking the Earth with the rod of the mouth, and with breath slaying the wicked
Loosing the bonds of wickedness
Undoing the straps of the yoke
Letting the oppressed go free
Breaking every yoke
Sharing your bread with the hungry
Bringing the homeless poor into your house
Covering the naked
Removing from your midst the yoke, the pointing of the finger, and the speaking of wickedness
Pouring yourself out for the hungry
Satisfying the desire of the afflicted
Calling the sabbath a delight, and the Holy Day honorable
Not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly
Going before the law with honesty and justice
Looking to God
Consulting the LORD
Regarding God over man
Regarding Spirit over flesh
Planning and standing upon Noble Things
Keeping the sabbath
Keeping your hand from doing any evil
Putting on Righteousness as a breastplate
Putting on Salvation as a helmet
Putting on Zeal as a cloak
Putting on Garments of salvation
Putting on a robe of righteousness
Joyfully working righteousness
Being humble and contrite in spirit
Trembling at the Word of God
This list of what is Wise, Right and Good could stretch out the heavens, encompassing every potential situation, problem, opportunity, and need. However in the New Covenant, it is not the Rules or The Law that reigns, but the Spirit.
Elsewhere in Scripture, the long lists are simplified. For example:
He has shown thee, O man, what is Good and what the LORD requires of thee: but to Do Justly, and to Love Mercy, and to Walk Humbly With Thy God.
Can the Spirit within you feel how that simple statements encompasses the entire list above, and how if you truly understood Justice, Mercy, and Humbly Walking With God, you would naturally do everything described above?
Or again:
You shall Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as your Self. On these two commandments hang all The Law and The Prophets.
Can the Spirit within you sense how if you truly understood what it was to Love God, to Love your Self, and to Love those around you, you would naturally and spontaneously do all the Wise, Right, and Good things listed above?
Once we understand the Spirit and Values of God, we do not even need to list out the Anti-Good, for we already know in our Spirit what it is.
If we know that the entire Universal Law is summed up by omni-directional Love, then we naturally know that we cannot do anything insincerely, or anything that would harm rather than help Creation.
Here are some words from Isaiah on things that God does not Value:
Trampling my courts
Vain offerings
Incense
Ceremonies
Convocations
Appointed feasts
Unfaithfulness
Hurting or Destroying
Murderers
Thieves
Companions of Thieves
Rebels
Drunkards
Betrayers and Betrayal
Ruthlessness
Scoffing
Rebellion
Insolence
Lies
Falsehood
False witness / false testimony
Deceit
Concealing deeds in the dark
Leaving the Way
Turning aside from the Path
Sinners
Unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD
Watered down wine
Watered down money
Rebellious leaders
Bribes and gifts
Evil devices
Wicked schemes
Ruining the poor
Lack of Justice for the fatherless
Failure to hear the widow's cause
Idolatry - worshipping the work of their hands
Bloodshed
Sins
Iniquities
Deeds of violence
Turning to your own way
Turning to your own gain
Gaining from oppression
Gaining from injustice
Seeking your own pleasure
Oppressing workers
Entering suit and going to law with dishonesty and injustice
Feet than run to evil
Hands that shed innocent blood
Thoughts of iniquity
Highways of desolation and destruction
Transgressing
Denying the LORD
Dealing falsely
Grieving the Holy Spirit
Seeking oppression and revolt
Conceiving and uttering lying words
Joining house to house, and field to field, until there is no more room
Running after strong drink, and being inflamed with wine
Not regarding the work of the LORD, or seeing the work of His hands
Calling evil good, and good evil
Those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight
Those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant in mixing strong drink
Those who acquit the guilty of a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right
Rejecting the Law of the LORD
Despising the Word of the Holy One
Decreeing iniquitous decrees
Writing oppression
Robbing the poor people of their right
Making widows their spoil, and the fatherless their prey
Inquiring of idols, sorcerers, mediums, and necromancers
Beneath the articulated list, that could be expanded into a thousand other like things, can the Spirit within you feel what is Wrong or Anti-Good about these things? Can you sense and Discern what is the spirit or essence that is characteristic of each item on this list, that unites them and makes them Anti-Good?
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