Isaiah 58:1-14 The Practice of Letting Go

In Isaiah 56-57, God began a discourse on covenant and community. The peace of the kingdom community is grounded in justice and righteousness, and the community as a whole needs to align itself with God’s version of these. This requires an understanding of Him, His values, His ways, and His way of thinking, which are not the ways and thinking of men. So, a transformation process has to take place in the hearts and thoughts and subsequent actions of those who would enter the kingdom.

In Isaiah 56, the LORD laid out the basic requirements for citizens coming into the kingdom—keep justice, do righteousness, keep from profaning the Sabbath, and keep from doing evil (56:1-2). Isaiah 57 then presented us with a comparison of the righteous and wicked, which was actually a prophetic picture of the rapture and the Tribulation age. The rapture was envisioned in verse 1:


Verses 3-13 then presented a picture of a world without the righteous. It is a world of idolators. It is a world where lusts run rampant, where there is jeering at truth and justice, and no fear of God. That aptly describes the world in the Tribulation age.

God promised at the end of the chapter that there would be redemption for the backsliders, and that He would make His dwelling place with the humble and contrite of heart.


From that statement, it would seem that Israel’s redemption happens automatically, that the sins would be reckoned to her past and the LORD would treat her with grace after her punishment in Babylon was over. There doesn’t seem to be anything that Israel actually has to do to be healed. God just heals her, as if she deserves grace solely on the merit of having endured that time of punishment. This notion is going to be challenged today.

God has promised to make His dwelling with those of contrite heart. Today, in chapter 58, we will see a people contrite of heart—they are fasting and crying out to the LORD—and yet the LORD is still angry with them and brings a charge against those who have seemingly humbled themselves outwardly and yet there has been no transformation of heart. We are returning to a discussion of justice, righteousness, and keeping the Sabbath today as the LORD takes Israel to task over the act of fasting.

Before we start, let’s gather what we know, or think, about the practice of fasting.

So, we have this understanding of fasting. It is abstinence from food for a period of time while you are seeking the LORD’s will in some matter. The experience of physical hunger is meant to express in a limited, earthly way, the experience of spiritual hunger for the LORD, and believers practice fasting, to greater or lesser extents, as a way of drawing closer to the LORD.

Isaiah 58:1-4
God tells the prophet to lift his voice and trumpet Israel’s transgressions and sin without sparing. You can feel the sarcasm in the LORD’s words. By appearance, Israel is doing all the right things—seeking the LORD, seeking His justice. They want to know His ways and be near to Him, as if they were a righteous nation that had not abandoned His commandments. As if. In other words, they aren’t that nation. They have convinced themselves that they are such, and yet, in God’s estimation, they are not. Either they are only putting on the appearance of such, or perhaps, they are doing it in a way that defeats the purpose because they haven’t yet grasped the LORD’s way of seeing things. A transformation is needed.

Notice that He mentions being righteous, keeping the ordinances, and keeping justice. These were all the things that the LORD told them to do to prepare for the coming kingdom back in Isaiah 56, and He said, blessed is the man who does these things. It is good to seek that blessing, but there are right and wrong ways of pursuing it and right and wrong reasons for pursuing it. By all appearances, Israel seems to be doing the right thing, but the heart that is motivating her actions is not aligned with God’s goals and values. And so, she misses the mark, and her actions are reckoned as sin. God brings these charges against her:

• “. . . in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exploit all your laborers.” (v3)
  Israel makes a show of wailing and fasting and afflicting her soul, begging to be delivered from her affliction, and yet, at the same time, she is exploiting and afflicting her own laborers. She makes a show of giving up something, but all the while she is still profiting. She really hasn’t given up anything. And she, who has been forced to serve under Babylonia’s abusive hand, should have more of a conscience toward not oppressing her own servants. It’s the Golden Rule, isn’t it. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. (Read Matthew 7:7-12.) Do you ask, seek, and knock at the LORD’s door, looking for relief, and yet don’t listen to those who are begging for relief from you? That’s a problem.

• “Indeed you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness.” (v4)
  Israel seeks divine intervention in her quarrels with her brethren. She points the finger, shakes the fist, and stirs up strife, then fasts in a grand show of being victimized. She puts on the pitiful face and begs the LORD to take her side and grant her justice in her case. 

• “You will not fast as you do this day, to make your voice heard on high.” (v4) 
  This is the irony. Israel abases and afflicts herself as a way of lifting herself up and making her voice heard on high. She is trumpeting her victimhood. We talked about the stumbling block of self-pity several lessons ago. A victim can ask the LORD to lift them up and act on their behalf. That is one way of finding relief. Or they can turn, instead, to other people and demand that those people lift them up, and they do this by putting on a pitiful face. When I put on the pitiful face, it is a cue to the people around me that I need lifting up. But that pitiful face is for the people’s sake, not God’s. God doesn’t need the pitiful face as a cue. He already sees, He hears, He knows my situation, and He doesn’t need goading to act. This is why Jesus said,

This is Israel’s grievance in verse 3. She has wept and fasted and afflicted herself, and God has not noticed. Isn’t that irksome, when someone doesn’t take notice?


Isaiah 58:5-7
God responds to Israel’s complaint by challenging her over the way she is going about fasting and the reason for it. There are right and wrong ways and reasons to do this.

She wants relief from her oppression, but also to know His ways and His laws—His ordinance of justice—and be near Him. She is preparing herself for the kingdom, as instructed, by humbling herself in a contrite manner. She is fasting because, in her mind, the act itself pleases the LORD. A day of fasting is deemed an acceptable day of the LORD, a day in which He delights and approves and shows favor.

The LORD asks, Do you really think I delight in seeing My people afflicted and bowed down, especially in the day of their redemption and salvation?

Israel missed the mark in her understanding of peace and what makes for peace. He doesn’t want this kind of posturing in His citizens. She is a royal citizen of the kingdom, and yet she is still in the posture and mentality of a Babylonian slave. And she is under the erroneous thinking that a show of contrition equate to making peace with God. But the outward show is not what makes peace with God. What makes peace with God is the change in the heart and thinking, and that has yet to be demonstrated.
Think of fasting as letting go of something in a way that achieves God’s goals of peace and rest.

• "Loosen the bonds of wickedness" . . . This hearkens back to the last chapter, which ended with this statement, “There is no peace for the wicked.” (Isaiah 57:21) Wickedness is what is keeping God’s people from entering into peace and rest. Sin is a bondage. It causes wars and strife within the community that should be free of that bondage. The wars and strife come from grasping after fleeting, earthly things that we crave but are actually just lusts of that old nature. How do we respond when we feel we have been wronged? Do we point the finger at each other? Do we go to the LORD seeking divine intervention and ask for a verdict that will grant our desires? What if we just let go of those desires? Wouldn’t that also achieve peace?

• Undo the heavy burden, let the oppressed go free, break the yoke . . . If you are going to deny yourself, then truly do it. Let go of your pleasures and your profit. Let the workers go home and enjoy a day of rest.
  
  
• Share your bread with the hungry, open your house to the poor, clothe the naked . . . Don't just give up food. Put it in someone else’s mouth. Put your roof over someone else’s head. Put your clothes on a person who has none. Don’t hoard these things to yourself. Let them go. These last commands should be familiar to us because Jesus used them to describe how the He will judge the righteous when He comes in His glory to establish His kingdom. (Read Matthew 25:31-46.)

This is fasting that is acceptable to the LORD. It is not about abasing or afflicting yourself, but letting go of self and doing what pleases the LORD and pursues His goals of peace and rest—and not just for you but for the community as a whole.

Isaiah 58:8-12
Godly “fasting” creates a people of light (v8-10). This is not a foreign theme for us. The New Testament speaks of our commissioning in this. Some New Testament passages that build on this chapter in Isaiah are Acts 13:44-49, Ephesians 5:8-14, 1 John 1:5-7, and 1 John 2:9-11.

Those who let go of their flesh-bound cravings, their grasping and hoarding of earthly things, are the ones who understand the LORD and truly enter into the task of building a highway for return to the LORD and laying the foundation for the kingdom. The LORD even gives them new names (v12). He calls them Repairers of the Breach, and Restorers of Streets to Dwell In.

Isaiah 58:13-14
We began with a discussion of keeping justice and righteousness, and turning one’s hand from evil. It now concludes with a comment on the Sabbath. Sabbath embodies the experience of rest and peace in the kingdom. We can look at keeping the Sabbath the same we look at fasting, as merely giving up something for a period of time and go about it with a sober face. But the LORD sees it from a higher plane.


For Reflection: