“Shout loudly! Don’t be quiet! Yell as loud as a trumpet! Confront my people with their rebellious deeds; confront Jacob’s family with their sin! They seek me day after day; they want to know my requirements, like a nation that does what is right and does not reject the law of their God. They ask me for just decrees; they want to be near God. They lament, ‘Why don’t you notice when we fast? Why don’t you pay attention when we humble ourselves?’ Look, at the same time you fast, you satisfy your selfish desires, you oppress your workers. Look, your fasting is accompanied by arguments, brawls, and fistfights. Do not fast as you do today, trying to make your voice heard in heaven. Is this really the kind of fasting I want? Do I want a day when people merely humble themselves, bowing their heads like a reed and stretching out on sackcloth and ashes? Is this really what you call a fast, a day that is pleasing to the LORD? No, this is the kind of fast I want. I want you to remove the sinful chains, to tear away the ropes of the burdensome yoke, to set free the oppressed, and to break every burdensome yoke. I want you to share your food with the hungry and to provide shelter for homeless, oppressed people. When you see someone naked, clothe him! Don’t turn your back on your own flesh and blood! Then your light will shine like the sunrise; your restoration will quickly arrive; your godly behavior will go before you, and the LORD’s splendor will be your rear guard. Then you will call out, and the LORD will respond; you will cry out, and he will reply, ‘Here I am.’ You must remove the burdensome yoke from among you and stop pointing fingers and speaking sinfully. You must actively help the hungry and feed the oppressed. Then your light will dispel the darkness, and your darkness will be transformed into noonday. The LORD will continually lead you; he will feed you even in parched regions. He will give you renewed strength, and you will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring that continually produces water. Your perpetual ruins will be rebuilt; you will reestablish the ancient foundations. You will be called, ‘The one who repairs broken walls, the one who makes the streets inhabitable again.’ . . . ” Know for certain that the LORD has spoken. (Isaiah 58:1-14, NET)

There’s been a fair amount of teaching on the subject of fasting in the last twenty years within the church. Many of us know what fasting is supposed to be about, and even how to do so. There are even movements dedicated to the idea of fasting and prayer for specific things. With all the fasting going on, many wonder why we don’t see more breakthroughs. This passage sheds some light on the question.

Confronting God’s People With Their Rebellion

The Lord starts out by telling the prophet to loudly and forcefully confront the people of God (Israel/Jacob) with their sin and rebellion. Yes, He uses the word rebellion for what He is about to describe. Whatever it is, the Lord takes it seriously. In the same way, we must take His words to us as seriously.

The first thing God points out is that Israel seeks Him daily. Surely this is no sin in itself. The Lord acknowledges that Israel wants “to know my requirements, like a nation that does what is right and does not reject the law of their God. They ask me for just decrees; they want to be near God” (v. 2). Sounds like Israel is on the right track there. Israel wants to be near the Lord, but they cry out, “Why don’t you notice when we fast? Why don’t you pay attention when we humble ourselves” (v. 3a), For some reason, God was not hearing their prayers and paying attention to their fasting. Why is that?

God does not keep the reason hidden from them: “Look, at the same time you fast, you . . . .” (v. 3b). Here the Lord begins to lay out a series of indictments. What it comes down to is this: While the people pray and fast, their heart is not pure. They are not doing what He told them to do. He called them to devote themselves to His way, and they are trying to gain His favor while doing what they want. In fact, he says:

Look, at the same time you fast, you satisfy your selfish desires, you oppress your workers. Look, your fasting is accompanied by arguments, brawls, and fistfights. Do not fast as you do today, trying to make your voice heard in heaven (vv. 3-4).

In other words, the Lord was telling Israel, “Don’t keep doing things the same way you have been and expect different results!” He calls such a fast a fake or false fast. He asks the rhetorical question,

Is this really the kind of fasting I want? Do I want a day when people merely humble themselves, bowing their heads like a reed and stretching out on sackcloth and ashes? Is this really what you call a fast, a day that is pleasing to the LORD? (v. 5)

Of course the expected answer to that question is, “No!” Then the Lord tells Israel what they do need to be doing. He lays out His desires in detail:

• to set free those bound in sin
• to work for the freedom of the oppressed
• to share food with the hungry
• to shelter the homeless
• to clothe the naked

These are the things the Lord wants His people to be about. This is not new territory either. In Deuteronomy 10, the Lord reminded Israel:

“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? . . . He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 10:12–13, 18-19, ESV)

Because the Lord was concerned about the fatherless, widows, sojourner, and homeless, Israel was also commanded to care for these vulnerable peoples. They had failed to do that. Not only that, but they were fighting each other! Read again the Lord’s indictment: “Look, your fasting is accompanied by arguments, brawls, and fistfights” (Isa. 58:4). And James tells us where such quarrels come from:

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. (James 4:1–3, ESV)

Is This For Us?

Can anyone who takes an honest look at the church today deny that these words are as much for us as they were for Israel? Do we not see the church embroiled in controversies (which often have little to no eternal value), quarrels, and even fights? Many in the church claim to be followers of Christ while aligning their heart with a political system that is anti-Christ and anti-gospel. Even if we don’t often fast, we do engage in other religious activities–church, prayer, witnessing. And when we do those things without obeying God’s commands to see and care for people, we fall under the same condemnation.

Why are we arguing about masks, vaccines, CRT, and a host of other things (and even making them essentials to the Christian faith) while pushing the very people away to whom we are to be declaring and living the gospel? Why is our only response to the chains of sin and oppression often “Receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior?” It seems that our exercises of orthodoxy, prayer, and witnessing have fallen to the same level as those of the Pharisees.

“Woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You give a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, yet you neglect what is more important in the law—justice, mercy, and faithfulness! You should have done these things without neglecting the others. Blind guides! You strain out a gnat yet swallow a camel! (Matthew 23:23–24, NET)

What must we do? The call to us is the same as the call to Israel:

[T]his is the kind of fast I want. I want you to remove the sinful chains, to tear away the ropes of the burdensome yoke, to set free the oppressed, and to break every burdensome yoke. I want you to share your food with the hungry and to provide shelter for homeless, oppressed people. When you see someone naked, clothe him! Don’t turn your back on your own flesh and blood! . . . You must remove the burdensome yoke from among you and stop pointing fingers and speaking sinfully. You must actively help the hungry and feed the oppressed. (Isaiah 58:6–7, 9-10)

When we do that, we have the same promise that God gave Israel:

Then your light will dispel the darkness, and your darkness will be transformed into noonday (v. 10).

We in the church have cursed the darkness for too long. We have “fought the culture wars” too long. It’s time to instead shine the light of Christ into the world.