IN HIS IMAGE -
DESIGN - PAUL
Isaiah 58
  1. Cry aloud, spare not, vs. 1a

    1. Do not suppress; rather absorb all stimulus and release passion (intensity).

      1. Passion - suffering being acted upon.

      2. Passion - synonyms - fervor, ardor, zeal, enthusiasm.

    2. Motivated to '*reprove for righteousness, because Jesus is with the Father, and we see Him no more.' (John 16:8)

      1. Are to be a record of Jesus, a testimony.

        • Are to be a visual record.

      2. Righteousness - right standing before God.

    3. Motivated to hold fast profession. (Hebrews 4:14)

      • Cling tenaciously to what they hear.

    4. Divides thoughts and intents of heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

      • Detects motivations behind actions and words and attitudes.

    5. Reacts to violations of inner peace.

      • First effect of a broken relationship with God is broken peace.

  2. Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God. vs. 2a

    1. Psalm 40:8 - I delight to do thy will, oh Lord.

      1. Delight - 2654 - to incline, to bend, to be pleased with, desire.

      2. Will - 7522 - from 7521 - delight.

        • 7521 - to be pleased with, to satisfy a debt.

      3. At His right hand are pleasures evermore. (Psalm 16:11)

        • Pleasure - 5273 - delightful, to be agreeable.

      4. Show forth His strength. (Psalm 78:4)

        • Strength through weakness.

        • II Corinthians 12:9 - strength made perfect in weakness,

        • Hebrews 11:34 - out of weakness were made strong,

    2. Make supplication unto God. (Phil 4:6)

      1. Supplicate - 1162 from 1189 - a petition.

        • 1189 - from 1210 - to beg (as binding oneself)

        • 1210 - to bind :- be in bonds, knit, tie, wind.

      2. Supplicate - supple, to make a humble entreaty, to ask ernestly and humbly of.

        • Synonyms - beg, entreat, beseech, implore, supplicate, adjure, importune - to ask urgently, ask submissively of.

      3. Pour out soul unto death.

  3. Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours. vs. 3

    1. Definitions:

      1. Pleasure - 2656 - from 2654 - desire, a valuable thing.

        • 2654 - delight - to incline to, to bend, to be pleased with.

      2. Exact - to drive hard, to harass, tyrannize :- distress, taskmaster.

      3. Masochistic - have pleasure in pain (being abused or dominated) - pleasure derived from being ruled by passion.

      4. Find - come forth, exist, attain, appear.

    2. Given oil of joy for mourning. (Isaiah 61:3)

      1. Mourn when in pain.

      2. Detects things that bring death.

    3. Publish peace. (Isaiah 52:7)

      • Publish - from 8085 - making heard.

      • 8085 - shama - to hear intelligently (cause to tell, attention, obedience).

    4. Comfort all who mourn. (Isaiah 61:2)

      • Comfort - sigh, breathe heavily, to be sorry, console, rue :- repent.

    5. Appoint unto them who mourn. (Isaiah 61:3)

      1. Appoint - to put :- consider, care, regard, give, heap up, impute.

      2. Beauty for ashes.

      3. Oil of joy for mourning.

      4. Garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

  4. Is it such a *fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? vs. 5a,b

    1. Glorify Father - embrace pruning. (John 15)

      • Accept His total rule, dominion - slaves of God - surrender sovereignty of self to God.

    2. Show forth Jesus as High Priest.

      • Illustrate His passion - love because of pain.

    3. For Jesus' yoke is easy , His burden is light.

      • Matthew 12:30 - Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

      • II Corinthians 1:26a,27a,29 - ..how not many wise men after the flesh..But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise..That no flesh should glory in His presence.

      • Confound - shame down.

  5. Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke. vs. 6

    1. Controlled by the heart. (Matthew 4)

      • I Timothy 1:5a - Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart..

      • Very tenderhearted.

    2. Strong in the mind.

      • Mind controls soul.

    3. Effects seen in body, strength is effected.

      1. Ears go deaf, mind closes the heart.

        • Must love God more dearly.

      2. Body manifests illness, panic, etc.

    4. Must see own unrighteousness to know true righteousness.

      1. Arrogance of mind.

      2. Glorying (esteem) in the heart.

        • Isaiah 11:3c,4a,5a - ..he shall not reprove after the hearing of his ears: But with righteousness shall he judge the poor,...And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins.

    5. Easily killed, tempted to kill others.

      1. By withholding love, shutting people and God out, provoking to unrighteousness.

      2. Withholding will yoke and restrain people.

    6. Tempted to cast themselves down, based on the word, to show God's deliverance. Matthew 4 (to prove faith)

      1. Tempt = provoke = call forth.

      2. Tempted to accept false restraint - suppress reaction - mourn - die.

      3. Will call forth life from death (provoking to love and good works).

      4. Will call forth flesh that it might be dealt with.

      • I Corinthians 14:24,25 - But if all prophesy and there come in one that beliveth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.

  6. Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily. vs. 8a

    1. Royal priesthood. (II Peter 2:9)

      1. Have a royal mindset.

      2. Isaiah 33:22c - The Lord is our king.

    2. The fruit 'tree' of righteousness. (Ephesians 5:9)

      1. When pure will know what righteousness really is.

      2. Love versus hate.

    3. The way of wisdom. (Proverbs 3)

      1. The Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding. (Isaiah 11:2)

        1. Wisdom - skillful, wisely, to be wise in mind, word, or action :- to show self.

        2. Understanding - knowledge, to separate mentally, or distinguish meaning, perfect knowledge.

        3. Are anatomical - see the parts that make up the whole, see the 'individual'.

        4. Must know are accepted by God.

          • Ephesians 1:6 - To the praise of the glory of His grace, where in He hath made us accepted in the beloved.

        5. Must bring identity for unity.

      2. Stand not in the way of sinners. (Psalm 1:1)

        • Must stand in the faith within own heart.

        • Ephesians 6:13 - Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

      3. Know law and testimonies. (Psalm 19:7)

        • Testimony = witness, recorder, martyr.

      4. Forget not His works. (Psalm 78)

        • Rehearse His dealings in their life - shew forth these dealings to the world that Jesus might be seen.

  7. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, vs. 9a,b

    1. Every yoke = restraint, bondage, death.

    2. Hiding behind the trees (withholding love and hiding behind hate) yokes people up. Gen. 3:8-10

    3. Slow to anger. (James 1:19)

      • Anger based on disesteem.

    4. Offended by the 'word.' (Matthew 13:5,20,21)

      • Obedience to the 'word' produces suffering.

    5. Keep not back from God - cease anger, anxiety, and deriding God. (Isaiah 43:6b and Luke 23:35)

      1. Deriding - to laugh at contemptuously, to subject to ridicule, disdain, scorn, despise, hold in contempt, feel superior to, look down upon, defiance, insolence, presume.

      2. Keep not back:

        1. Hide behind the trees - hate.

        2. Suppressing passion.

        3. Withholding love from God and man.

  8. And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday. vs. 10

    1. Satan tries to kill, but God promises life abundant.

    2. Are caused to mourn, but God promises oil of joy. (Isaiah 61:3)

      • Death is reaction to pain.

  9. And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: vs. 12a

    1. Give Him all the glory and open their hearts to passion.

    2. Ministry of Life. (John 14:6)

      • Without the Life, there is no growing.

  10. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, vs. 13a

    1. Love the church, the body of Christ.

    2. Accept chastisement for peace. (Isaiah 53)

      1. Chastisement - restraint.

      2. Luke 2:52 - And Jesus increased in wisdom, and stature, and favour with God and man.

      3. Stature - maturity.

    3. Chastisement:

      1. To correct by punishment or suffering - purify.

      2. To prune of excess, pretense, or falsity - refine.

      3. Punish - to impose a penalty on for a fault, offense, or violation; to deal with roughly or harshly.

    4. Need to accept restraint of an open heart.

      1. Opened to display passion for love sake.

      2. Lifestyle - a broken spirit - Psalm 51:17 - a melted, passionate heart for love to flow to people.

      3. Accept the restraint of passion not suppression.

    5. Smittened of God. (Isaiah 53)

      • To destroy the need for esteem.

    6. Compelled to obey, need to be submissive, yielding.

      1. Need to accept responsibility to exercise authority.

      2. Called to be prisoner of Christ.

    7. Need to know Him as the only truth and believe.

      • Need to hear with the heart.

    8. Submit to God the Father.

      • Need to love Father God with all their heart.

    9. Need to know are loved by God to have faith.

      1. Are their own evidence of faith, their calling, etc.

      2. Suffering and disesteem tell them they are hated - not loved.

  11. And shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, vs. 13d,e

    1. Give Him all the glory, open their heart.

    2. Making melody in your heart to the Lord. (Eph. 5, 19, 20)

    3. Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (Col. 3:16c)

    4. Do what is expedient. (I Corinthians 6:12; 10:23a)

      • Expedient - 4851 from 4862 + 5342 - to bear together, to collect, to conduce, to contribute, espec., advantage.

      • 4862 - union, with/or together.

      • 5342 - to bear or carry :- be, bear, bring forth, carry, endure.

  12. Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; vs. 14a

    1. Delight - 6026 - to be soft or pliable or luxurious :- have delight self.

    2. Designed to be eaten from - broken like bread; drank from - poured out like wine.

    3. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. (Luke 4:9,10,11,12)

      • Lifestyle of calling forth (provoking - pro= forth; voke= call).

    4. Take pleasure in pruning. (II Corinthians 12:10)

      1. Pleasure - 2106 - to think well of, ie. to approve (an act) spec. to approbate (a person or thing).

        • Approbate - approve, sanction, commend, praise, proof.

      2. Pruning opens the heart for Father's love to come forth.

    5. Esteem (glorify) Father by bearing much fruit (embrace pruning). (John 15)

      1. Absorb all stimulus.

      2. Release passion - all forms of passion, love (note - Paul is a very sexual being).

      3. Openly display, demonstrate, manifest all that love is.

    6. At his right hand are pleasures evermore. (Psalm 16:11)



  1. Paul reproves for righteousness. He instinctively understands law - cause and effect, justice, equity, authority, right and wrong.

  2. He desires intimacy, relationships, unity, growth, acceptance, love.

  3. He wants people to know who they are and why they exist.

  4. He is persecuted, rejected, denied, defrauded and hated.

  5. He endures suffering, and knows and feels pain in people and the atmosphere.

  6. He is passionate, intense and deeply feeling.

  7. He is a martyr and enjoys being a sacrifice for God.

  8. He is extremely spiritual and sensitive to anointings and spirit (both angels and demons).

  9. He wants to be wise, instinctively wants to be "boss" and lead - doesn't like to be told what to do.

  10. He will learn obedience to survive but must learn submission and yieldedness in his heart.

  11. He understands "rights" and knows when they are violated.

  12. He understands hate and can easily recognize religiosity.

  13. All this he is but he will not admit it for he wants no one to really know him or see how tender he really is.

  14. Yet he must open his heart and show his heart for he is to manifest openly all that love is.

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BACK TO: Perfecting of the Saints; In His Image; EFI; THE EDIFIER
For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, Ephesians 4:12
© 1992, Jacqueline L. Davis
WWW © 1999, EFI
Created: 7/9/99
Updated: 5/27/2011