One of the main themes of Isaiah is that God is a just God, one of a series of superlatives Isaiah ascribes to God. What is absolute justice?
We can learn some of this from the well known verse in Micah, to “do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.” Justice is a combination of action, attitude and right relationships with others and God. God’s mercy invites us to act justly to make relationships right. If we are out of right relationship with God, then we are going to be falling down on the other two.
In order to make that relationship right, we must understand our own brokenness and dependence on God – and that brokenness itself impacts the world around us. We are to be poor in spirit, not, as Tim Keller puts it, “middle-class in spirit.” Being middle-class in spirit means we feel like we have earned or are owed our relationship with God and resulting blessings. We are more likely to look down on those in poverty, whether spiritual or material poverty.
But God sees and cares for the impoverished. Isaiah uses terms like “poor,” “needy,” “widows,” “fatherless.” Today, we may think of “homeless,” “refugees,” “victims of sex trafficking,” “victims of domestic violence,” “victims of racism and sexism.”
There are so many opportunities to work justice in the world around us, so if we are poor in spirit and open our eyes to the world, we will see those around us who need the presence of God in the Body of His Church – which is to say, us.
— Sermon Notes, Phil Assink, First V Reformed Church of Oak Harbor, WA, October 9, 2022