skip to Main Content

March 25, 2022

Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.

Reading along with us in Isaiah? Here’s today’s reading:

Isaiah 58 (NIV)

True Fasting
1 “Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
2 For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them..............Continue Reading

Next: Isaiah 59

Back: Isaiah 57

This Post Has 6 Comments
  1. Yet another reminder that God sees our heart! He knows our motivation and when we are just going through the motions without the true love of Christ behind our actions. We are to be His hands and feet here on earth putting others before ourselves. We can do all the right things with the wrong heart and then it means nothing. We need to be spiritually feeding people by spreading God’s love through the meeting of people’s physical and emotional needs and bringing glory to God in all we do and all we say.

  2. God wants us to have a heart that is willing to give to the needs of the poor and the oppressed. He wants us to keep our mouths from gossip and malicious talk; he dislikes it so much that he calls that type of behavior “the yoke of oppression”. When we make it a delight to honor the Lord on Sunday, we honor God and that pleases him. We do not go our own way and have nothing to do with him. When we do what the Lord says, we find joy in Him, He will be with us, and He will answer us when we call out to him. Thank you God for instructing us in the way we should go.

  3. The people of Israel wonder why God is not hearing them, after all they have done outward acts like fasting and humbling themselves. But God wants their hearts and not just religious acts. He calls them (and us) to consider how they have treated people even as they perform acts of obedience to God. To do such things, while treating people poorly or unfairly, is not acceptable to God. So if they truly want to hear from God and have the fullness of His blessings expressed towards them, then they have to fast in the way God most wants, not in terms of food, but what they sacrifice for others. They need to help the poor, the hungry and naked, the oppressed and hurting. It sounds very similar to Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats, doesn’t it. If you really know me, you will do these things to help. And as they (and we) do these things, we will see God’s heart and blessing poured out on us. All the things we would look to Him for He will provide in abundance. So if you are wondering the things that are close to God’s heart..they are laid out right here.

  4. They are performing the technical tenets of fasting and wonder, why isn’t God near to us? Fasting is a state of the heart AND obedience, but not just obedience to not eating…as a social competition it seemed to have become, but rather to actual perform God’s fast of caring for others, etc.

    Man’s fast vs. God’s fast:

    Man’s fast:
    in the day of your fast you find pleasure,
    And exploit all your laborers.
    Indeed you fast for strife and debate,
    And to strike with the fist of wickedness.
    A day for a man to afflict his soul?
    Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush,
    And to spread out sackcloth and ashes?

    God’s fast:
    To loose the bonds of wickedness,
    To undo the heavy burdens,
    To let the oppressed go free,
    And that you break every yoke?
    Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
    And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
    When you see the naked, that you cover him,
    And not hide yourself from your own flesh?
    Then your light shall break forth like the morning,
    Your healing shall spring forth speedily,
    And your righteousness shall go before you;
    The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
    Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
    You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’

    It reminded me of Jesus’ rebuke to the Pharisees in Matthew 23
    Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.

    Also, Matthew 6, when Jesus tells His disciples how to behave when fasting:
    Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back To Top