Isaiah 29:13
The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.” (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Isaiah 29:11-16 and Mark 7:1-16
Isaiah is frustrated with Jerusalem. They weren’t listening to him. They were ignoring his warnings to turn back to God or else destruction was coming. They were going through the motions of performing the rituals God had prescribed but their hearts were not in it. The word of God was available to them but they would either claim to not understand it or simply just refused to read it for themselves. They had no desire to draw close to God.
Jerusalem knew how to talk the talk and make themselves appear Godly. But their hearts were actually far from God. This is a common problem that plagues the human race even today. You can’t always tell a person’s heart by what they say and do. We have set up rituals like going to church and praying before meals that we can perform regardless of the condition of our heart. We say and do the right things so that the world around us will think we are Godly people, but are our hearts really in it?
Jesus obviously encountered this during his ministry. Exposing the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders was one of his main tasks on a daily basis. They were great at following all the rituals and rules of their traditions and holding the people accountable to the same. But their hearts were far from God. Jesus quoted our passage today in Isaiah to the Pharisees telling them that it was about them:
“He replied, ‘Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
‘”These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.”
You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions’” (Mark 7:6-8).
People can only pretend for so long. Eventually their words and their actions will reveal who they really are and what they really believe. Jesus also said to the Pharisees at another time:
“You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him” (Matt 12:34-35).
It’s important for us to not just go through the motions lest we turn into Pharisees and the people of Isaiah’s day whose hearts were far from God. Isaiah was frustrated at his people for not reading the Word of God for themselves. He likened them to illiterate people. Reading God’s word is how we stay close to Him. God’s word formed all of Creation:
“But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water” (2 Peter 3:5).
If God’s word can create the heavens and earth from nothing, it can change our hearts.
“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Heb 4:12).
God’s word penetrates our soul and influences our thoughts, feelings and actions. It changes us from the inside out. It’s how we keep our hearts chasing after Him.
Christ in the Old Testament 
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