- Isaiah 58 (Contemporary English Version)
- Shout the message! Don't hold back. Say to my people Israel: You've sinned! You've turned against the LORD.
- Day after day, you worship him and seem eager to learn his teachings. You act like a nation that wants to do right by obeying his laws. You ask him about justice, and say you enjoy worshiping the LORD.
- You wonder why the LORD pays no attention when you go without eating and act humble. But on those same days that you give up eating, you think only of yourselves and abuse your workers.
- You even get angry and ready to fight. No wonder God won't listen to your prayers!
- Do you think the LORD wants you to give up eating and to act as humble as a bent-over bush? Or to dress in sackcloth and sit in ashes? Is this really what he wants on a day of worship?
- I'll tell you what it really means to worship the LORD. Remove the chains of prisoners who are chained unjustly. Free those who are abused!
- Share your food with everyone who is hungry; share your home with the poor and homeless. Give clothes to those in need; don't turn away your relatives.
- Then your light will shine like the dawning sun, and you will quickly be healed. Your honesty will protect you as you advance, and the glory of the LORD will defend you from behind.
- When you beg the LORD for help, he will answer, "Here I am!" Don't mistreat others or falsely accuse them or say something cruel.
- Give your food to the hungry and care for the homeless. Then your light will shine in the dark; your darkest hour will be like the noonday sun.
- The LORD will always guide you and provide good things to eat when you are in the desert. He will make you healthy. You will be like a garden that has plenty of water or like a stream that never runs dry.
- You will rebuild those houses left in ruins for years; you will be known as a builder and repairer of city walls and streets.
- But first, you must start respecting the Sabbath as a joyful day of worship. You must stop doing and saying whatever you please on this special day.
- Then you will truly enjoy knowing the LORD. He will let you rule from the highest mountains and bless you with the land of your ancestor Jacob. The LORD has spoken!
Isaiah is here addressing the current situation of his day. If the people are to be restored, they will have to genuinely turn to the Lord. But they have gotten so far away from God they don't realize what is lacking. Their complaint is typical of a people who are going through the motions but whose hearts are somewhere else. They say, "Why have we fasted, but You have not seen? We have denied ourselves, but You haven't noticed!" They think the Lord should be pleased because they are observing the ritual of fasting. But without the heart it has no meaning. If a ritual of any kind is to have meaning, it should be a reflection of what is in the heart. Israel had ritualistically observed the fast in an effort to appease God and gain His favor toward them. But they really didn't know God if they thought He could be duped so easily. Or else they were themselves duped to think they could observe the rituals and everything would be alright even though their hearts didn't change nor did their unjust practices.
The fast that Israel observed was "A day for a person to deny himself, to bow his head like a reed, and to spread out sackcloth and ashes?" (58:5) But the fast that the Lord wanted was, "To break the chains of wickedness, to untie the ropes of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, and to tear off every yoke?" Furthermore, it was to "share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your house, to clothe the naked when you see him, and to not ignore your own flesh and blood?" (58:6-7) A fast is a denial of oneself. If a person is denying himself for the betterment of others, as described in verses 6 and 7, there is no need for the ritual of fasting. God told the Israelites that if they begin to act justly and to care for the hungry and poor, the thing they seek with their fasting, recovery from exile, will come quickly. Their, "righteousness will go before you, and the LORD's glory will be your rear guard. At that time, when you call, the LORD will answer; when you cry out, He will say: Here I am." (58:8-9)
After the fall of Jerusalem fast days were instituted as a means to persuade God to quickly restore Israel to her homeland. But there were many other specific commands God had given them they were not observing, such as those mentioned in verses 6 and 7. Another command they were not observing was the keeping of the Sabbath. Their need to reinstate observance of the Sabbath is mentioned in the last verses of this chapter. If they were going to seriously return to the Lord, not only did they need to do the things outlined in verses 6 and 7, but they needed to return to observing the Sabbath. "Sabbath observance was a barometer of one’s faithfulness to the Mosaic Covenant. By following the rules for the Sabbath a person acknowledged the importance of worshiping God and showed that he depended on God to bless him materially for that time he took off from work." (Bible Knowledge Commentary)
The Christian observes the first day of the week, Sunday, when Christ was resurrected, as their day of worship. But the principle is the same. The observance of this day to worship their Lord and Savior tends to be a barometer of one's faithfulness to the Lord. A true follower of Christ has given Him his life. But how can one claim to have given their life to the Lord and yet not give Him the time to worship Him on Sunday?
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