Isaiah 58:1-14: a reflection

1“Cry aloud! Don’t spare! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Declare to my people their disobedience, and to the house of Jacob their sins. 2Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways. As a nation that did righteousness, and didn’t forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to God. 3‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you don’t see? Why have we afflicted our soul, and you don’t notice?’ “Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and oppress all your laborers. 4Behold, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You don’t fast today so as to make your voice to be heard on high. 5Is this the fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to humble his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under himself? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD? 6“Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? 7Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh? 8Then your light will break out as the morning, and your healing will appear quickly; then your righteousness shall go before you, and the LORD’s glory will be your rear guard. 9Then you will call, and the LORD will answer. You will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away from among you the yoke, finger pointing, and speaking wickedly; 10and if you pour out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise in darkness, and your obscurity will be as the noonday; 11and the LORD will guide you continually, satisfy your soul in dry places, and make your bones strong. You will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters don’t fail. 12Those who will be of you will build the old waste places. You will raise up the foundations of many generations. You will be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Paths with Dwellings. 13“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of the LORD honorable, and honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, 14then you will delight yourself in the LORD, and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father;” for the LORD’s mouth has spoken it.

Through Isaiah, God confronts a people who were diligent in religious observance, fasting and seeking God daily, yet wondering why their fasting went unnoticed. God's answer exposes the emptiness of their ritual: they fasted while oppressing their workers, quarreling, and ignoring the needy. Is this the fast I have chosen? God asks. And then he describes the fast he actually wants: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to let the oppressed go free, to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the homeless poor into your house, to clothe the naked. True devotion, God says, is not mere ritual, but justice and mercy toward the needy.

Notice the contrast God draws: between empty religious observance and true devotion expressed in justice and mercy. The people had the outward forms, fasting, seeking God, but their religion did not touch how they treated the oppressed, the hungry, the homeless. God is not impressed by ritual that leaves injustice and need untouched. The fast he chooses is one that feeds the hungry, frees the oppressed, and cares for the poor. And to this true devotion he attaches rich promises: then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and the LORD will guide you continually.

That is a searching word about the nature of true devotion. We can be diligent in religious observance, church, prayer, the outward forms of faith, while our religion leaves untouched how we treat the needy and the oppressed around us. God calls us to a devotion that goes beyond ritual to justice and mercy: feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, freeing the oppressed, caring for the poor. Do not let your religion stop at ritual. Let your devotion to God express itself, as he desires, in justice and mercy to those in need. The fast God chooses is not empty observance, but a life poured out for the hungry, the oppressed, and the poor; offer him that.

Lord, through Isaiah you exposed the emptiness of religious observance that left injustice and need untouched, and you described the fast you truly choose: to feed the hungry, free the oppressed, shelter the homeless, clothe the naked. Search my own devotion. I can be diligent in the outward forms of faith, church, prayer, ritual, while my religion leaves untouched how I treat the needy and oppressed around me. Keep me from a devotion that stops at ritual. Help me offer you the fast you choose: a life poured out in justice and mercy for the hungry, the oppressed, and the poor. Let my devotion to you express itself in real care for those in need, not merely in observance. And thank you for the promise that such devotion brings light and your continual guidance. Make my faith one that feeds the hungry and frees the oppressed.