Isaiah 58, Fasting Or Renewal?

Isaiah describes Israel's abandonment of true worship. This chapter emphasizes the difference between artificial religion and true renewal. Here artificial religion includes outward acts such as fasting. True renewal includes a commitment to genuinely celebrating the Sabbath.

Grogan sees this chapter as the beginning of a final treatise on God's role as both Judge and Savior. (Motyer includes chapters 56 and 57 in this final portion.)

Isaiah 58:1-2, Is our fasting noticed?

 “Shout it aloud, do not hold back.

    Raise your voice like a trumpet.

Declare to my people their rebellion

    and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.

For day after day they seek me out;

    they seem eager to know my ways,

as if they were a nation that does what is right

    and has not forsaken the commands of its God.

They ask me for just decisions

    and seem eager for God to come near them.

The passage begins with a loud, prophetic call. (See Hosea 8:1 for another example.) The people appear to be fasting and eager to please God. Are they?

Isaiah 58:3-4, Violence in fasting

‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,

    ‘and you have not seen it?

Why have we humbled ourselves,

    and you have not noticed?’

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please

    and exploit all your workers.

Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,

    and in striking each other with wicked fists.

You cannot fast as you do today

    and expect your voice to be heard on high.

The ritualistic fasting seems to be a way to impress God.  Instead of real fasting, ritualistic abstention from food makes people abusive, exploitive, violent. The employer takes a day of fasting but still abuses his workers (who, Motyer suggests, are not given that day off.) 

Isaiah 58:5-7, True fasting

 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,

    only a day for people to humble themselves?

Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed

    and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?

Is that what you call a fast,

    a day acceptable to the LORD?

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:

to loose the chains of injustice

    and untie the cords of the yoke,

to set the oppressed free

    and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry

    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—

when you see the naked, to clothe them,

    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Fasting should be an opportunity to examine injustice and provide food for the needy. But instead the people of Israel fast without examination or thought, allowing the vulnerable to be oppressed. Indeed, these ritualistic fasters deny the needs of their own family.

Isaiah 58:8-10, From oppression into true light

Then your light will break forth like the dawn,

    and your healing will quickly appear;

then your righteousness will go before you,

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

Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;

    you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,

with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry

and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,

then your light will rise in the darkness,

    and your night will become like the noonday.

Fasting should be associated with genuine reliance on YHWH and genuine righteousness. Righteousness is associated with the removal of oppression and malicious talk, with care for the hungry and the oppressed. Done correctly, this genuine righteousness leads to true light and healing.

Isaiah 58:11-12, A well-watered garden

The LORD will guide you always;

    he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land

    and will strengthen your frame.

You will be like a well-watered garden,

    like a spring whose waters never fail.

Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins

    and will raise up the age-old foundations;

you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,

If, instead, Israel concentrates on righteousness and taking care of the vulnerable, they will prosper like a well-watered garden in a sun-drenched land. The ancient ruins will be rebuilt.

Isaiah 58:13-14, If you honor the Sabbath

“If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath

    and from doing as you please on my holy day,

if you call the Sabbath a delight

    and the LORD’s holy day honorable,

and if you honor it by not going your own way

    and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,

then you will find your joy in the LORD,

    and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land

    and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”

For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

For the Jew, honoring the Sabbath implied a full holy day of delight in God. If the people of Israel honor the Sabbath, they will find joy in YHWH, they will triumph in the land.  In that way, honoring the Sabbath may represent honoring all of the covenant law.