First dawn over a Judean hill town: the flat roofs just catching gold light, one door open with a lamp still burning, a pale empty sky above.

New heavens and earth

Isaiah 58

Have you ever done everything right on the outside and still felt far from God?

14 verses≈ 4 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1–5Zion on trialJudah’s sin, the mountain raised, the vineyard’s song
6Holy, holy, holyIsaiah’s call, in the year King Uzziah died (about 740 BC)
7–12ImmanuelAhaz’s fear, the sign, the Child, the shoot of Jesse
13–23The nations judgedBabylon to Tyre: the LORD is Judge of all the earth
24–27The whole earthThe earth laid waste, and death swallowed up
28–35Woe and a KingEgypt’s help or the LORD’s, and the King in His beauty
36–39Hezekiah’s crisisSennacherib, 701 BC: the prayer, the sickness, the envoys
40–48Comfort My peopleTo the exiles ahead: Cyrus, the idols, the Servant
49–55The Servant and ZionPierced for our transgressions; Zion restored
56–66New heavens and earthA house of prayer, the Anointed One, all things newChapter 58

True Fasts and Sabbaths

God

A watchman on the flat walkway of a stone town wall blows a long curved ram’s horn while townspeople in the lane below stop and look up.

“Cry aloud, do not hold back!

Raise your voice like a ram’s horn.

Declare to My people their transgression

and to the house of Jacob their sins.

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God

For day after day they seek Me

and delight to know My ways,

like a nation that does what is right

and does not forsake the justice of their God.

They ask Me for righteous judgments;

they delight in the nearness of God.”

The people

“Why have we fasted,

and You have not seen?

Why have we humbled ourselves,

and You have not noticed?”

God

Noon at the gate of a rich man’s courtyard: the householder in sackcloth over fine wool sits in the shade, while behind him in the glare hired laborers carry heavy baskets of stone.

“Behold, on the day of your fast, you do as you please,

and you oppress all your workers.

God

You fast with contention and strife

to strike viciously with your fist.

You cannot fast as you do today

and have your voice be heard on high.

God

Close at the edge of a still pool: a tall reed bent over until its head touches the water, and on the bank a strip of coarse dark sackcloth with a little heap of gray ash.

Is this the fast I have chosen:

a day for a man to deny himself,

to bow his head like a reed,

and to spread out sackcloth and ashes?

Will you call this a fast

and a day acceptable to the LORD?

Question

Quick question

The people fasted and wondered why God did not notice (58:3). Jesus also taught about fasting (Matthew 6:16–18).

What did Jesus teach about fasting in Matthew 6:16–18?

God

Evening at the open door of a stone house: a householder holds out a round loaf broken in two to a poor family on the step, a thick wool cloak around the mother’s shoulders, warm lamplight behind.

Isn’t it to share your bread with the hungry,

to bring the poor and homeless into your home,

to clothe the naked when you see him,

and not to turn away

from your own flesh and blood?

God

Then your light will break forth like the dawn,

and your healing will come quickly.

Your righteousness will go before you,

and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

God

Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;

you will cry out, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’

God

Night in a narrow lane of a hill town: one open door spilling warm lamplight across the paving stones, a covered bowl of food set on the threshold, the rest of the lane dark.

If you remove the yoke from your midst,

the pointing of the finger and malicious talk,

and if you give yourself to the hungry

and satisfy the afflicted soul,

then your light will go forth in the darkness,

and your night will be like noonday.

God

The LORD will always guide you;

He will satisfy you in a sun-scorched land

and strengthen your frame.

You will be like a well-watered garden,

like a spring whose waters never fail.

Isaiah 58:11

God

Morning at a breach in an old stone wall: returned Judeans fitting new fieldstones into the gap with a wooden lever and baskets of stones, a family walking home along the cleared street behind.

Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins;

you will restore the age-old foundations;

you will be called Repairer of the Breach,

Restorer of the Streets of Dwelling.

God

If you turn your foot from breaking the Sabbath,

from doing as you please on My holy day,

if you call the Sabbath a delight,

and the LORD’s holy day honorable,

if you honor it by not going your own way

or seeking your own pleasure or speaking idle words,

God

A ridge road high over the land at morning: terraced grain fields, vineyards and olive groves falling away below, flocks on the slopes, a calm pale sky.

then you will delight yourself in the LORD,

and I will make you ride on the heights of the land

and feed you with the heritage of your father Jacob.”

For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

0:11

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

LORD, I have fasted to be seen and done as I pleased. Teach me the fast You choose: to untie the yoke, share my bread with the hungry, and not turn away from my own flesh and blood. Make me a repairer of breaches. Amen.

The fast God chooses

Whiteboard

God does not refuse their fasting; He refuses fasting that leaves the neighbor hungry and the worker crushed.

You’ve experienced

Isaiah 58

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A verse to carry with you

The LORD will always guide you; He will satisfy you in a sun-scorched land and strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

Isaiah 58:11

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