Isaiah 58:1-11,
Observances of Fasts
1 “Cry loudly, do not hold back;
Raise your voice like a trumpet,
And declare to My people their transgression,
And to the house of Jacob their sins.
2 “Yet they seek Me day by day, and delight to know My ways,
As a nation that has done righteousness,
And has not forsaken the ordinance of their God.
They ask Me for just decisions,
They delight in the nearness of God.
3 ‘Why have we fasted and Thou dost not see?
Why have we humbled ourselves and Thou dost not notice?’
Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire,
And drive hard all your workers.
4 “Behold, you fast for contention and strife and to strike with a wicked fist.
You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high.
5 “Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it for bowing one’s head like a reed,
And for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed?
Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the LORD?
6 “Is this not the fast which I choose,
To loosen the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the bands of the yoke,
And to let the oppressed go free,
And break every yoke?
7 “Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry,
And bring the homeless poor into the house;
When you see the naked, to cover him;
And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 “Then your light will break out like the dawn,
And your recovery will speedily spring forth;
And your righteousness will go before you;
The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
9 “Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you remove the yoke from your midst,
The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
10 And if you give yourself to the hungry,
And satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
Then your light will rise in darkness,
And your gloom will become like midday.
11 “And the LORD will continually guide you,
And satisfy your desire in scorched places,
And give strength to your bones;
And you will be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.
12 “And those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins;
You will raise up the age-old foundations;
And you will be called the repairer of the breach,
The restorer of the streets in which to dwell.
Keeping the Sabbath
13 “If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot
From doing your own pleasure on My holy day,
And call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable,
And shall honor it, desisting from your own ways,
From seeking your own pleasure,
And speaking your own word,
14 Then you will take delight in the LORD,
And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
In verses 1-5, God gives Israel a reason their fasts have not produced results. Although they seek Him and delight in His ways, at the same time, they are seeking Him for selfish reasons, presenting themselves with sackcloth and ashes to use as a bed. But God saw right through them and said they fast for contention and strife, and not to have their voices heard on high. In other words, they fasted to be seen by men rather than God.
In verse 6, He began to explain a fast He chooses, which is one that is done for the sake of others., to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke. It is a fast to divide your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into the house; and when you see the naked, to cover him; and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?.
If we fast in this way our light will break out like the dawn, and our recovery will speedily spring forth; our righteousness will go before us and the glory of God will be our rear-guide.
If we give ourselves to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, our light will rise in darkness, and our gloom will become like midday. Then we will call, and the LORD will answer; if we give ourselves to the hungry, and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, our light will rise in darkness, and we will be like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.
So a fast is giving of ourselves and our possessions to help the needy. Isaiah 58 says this is the fast the Lord our God chooses. Is there any reason to go on a fast without food? Personally, I don’t know. I do both – I go without food and give of myself and my belongings, sometimes at the same time, and sometimes separately. It depends on the nature of the burden.
In verses 13 &14 the Lord takes His explanation of a fast a little further and adds the Sabbath. He says the Sabbath Day is a day to refrain from doing our own pleasure and to desist from our own ways and speaking our own word. Are we to keep the Sabbath? Absolutely! However, the Sabbath that began as God’s day of rest has, in the new covenant, become the rest of the children of God.
Hebrews 4:3–9 speaks of this, ‘For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He said, “As I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has thus said somewhere concerning the seventh day, “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; and again in this passage, “They shall not enter My rest.” Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience.’
So the Sabbath corresponds with entering God’s rest in the new covenant. And it is not when we die; it is Today; as verse 3 says, ‘For we who have believed enter that rest…’ In other words, we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus, and not of works. We celebrate the Sabbath by trusting in Jesus. For this reason, Paul said to the Colossians, “Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day —- things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ,” 2:16, 17.
We are to enter the rest of God by leaving our pleasures and our own ways through the denial of ourselves and following Jesus. Abiding in Him, we fulfill the will of God, doing the works He has prepared beforehand for us to do, rather than our own works.
Matthew 12:28-30,
28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
29 “Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and YOU SHALL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.
30 “For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.”
Please weigh everything I say on the scales of the word of God,
Jon David Banks, God’s most unworthy servant
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org
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