So, having always been told that what we do on Sunday morning is of crucial importance for worship, you can imagine how horrified I was when I read Isaiah 58: here's a verse that puts all of our concerns about Sunday morning in perspective!

"Cry loudly, do not hold back;
Raise your voice like a trumpet,
And declare to My people their transgression,
And to the house of Jacob their sins.
Yet they seek Me day by day, and delight to know My ways,
As a nation that has done righteousness,
And has not forsaken the ordinance of their God."

Do you hear what God is saying here? His people delight in his ways and even seek him, but yet they're separated from God by their sin. And worse, they don't even know it! They assume that because they hold to God's rituals and ceremonies, that they have been obedient! All they can see is that God hasn't honored their prayers--what are they doing wrong?

"'Why have we fasted and Thou dost not see?
Why have we humbled ourselves and Thou dost not notice?'"

Is it not truly frightening to realize that even if we get our worship down pat, it would not be enough to gain God's ear? At first glance, it suggests that even with the best hearts and the most faithful attendance to the liturgy, God could still turn away from us.

But as it turns out, things are not so simple. In the next verses, God reveals to them the source of their problem:

"Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire,
And drive hard all your workers.
Behold, you fast for contention and strife and to strike with a wicked fist.
You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high.
Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it for bowing one's head like a reed,
And for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed?
Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day for the Lord?"

Notice the contradiction in the first line: they find their desire on the day of their fast--but their desire is not God. No, it sounds as if they refuse to extend their fasting into their work lives: they continue pressing their workers. Do you see? They're hedging their bets with God! It's as though they were thinking "We'll implore God to aid us, but we still have to rely on our own strength to get us through". Rather than give up the things they desire--their security, however small it may be--and make a true fast, they give up only the outward objects which symbolize fasting. All the while, their lives continue as before, working to provide for themselves. They trust God only in the ritual and not in their lives.

It could be as well that they are fasting for the wrong objects: rather than fasting in order for God to hear them, they are fasting for prosperity. And once God grants it, they push their workers even harder to reap the benefits. They don't fast that there might be peace and leisure in the land. They fast in order that God might give them more to work on! As a pastor of mine would say, they don't want God, they want God's stuff--and even after they get it, they go to work to increase it for themselves!

Notice from the last half of this passage what God's idea of a fast is: humility, bowing our heads, sackcloth and ashes. This is what God chooses, but it is not what the people are willing to perform. The first attitude of true fasting is that of humility: it is not enough merely to abstain; we must also humble ourselves in acts of contrition. We can boast in our ability to abstain from things, but what God wants is for us to confess our ultimate reliance on him and on him alone. Only when we admit that we are not in control of our lives can God find enough room to work his goodness in us.

But humility is not all--it is only the first step. Look at the next passage:

"Is this not the fast which I choose,
To loosen the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the bands of the yoke,
And to let the oppressed go free,
And break every yoke?
Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry,
And bring the homeless poor into the house;
When you see the naked, to cover him;
And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?"

This doesn't sound like a fast does it? It sounds much more like social activism! But if you look at it from the perspective of radical faith in God's provision, you'll see that it really IS a fast in the way we normally think of it: God really is asking us to give up something. While we usually think of fasting in terms of food, God sees it in two much deeper ways: First, we must give up our pride; this we saw above. Second, and more importantly, we must give up all of our notions about self-reliance. We must not use other people to help us earn more, nor may we hoard what we have earned at the expense of those who are in need of it. In both cases, we must let go of our accustomed ways of thinking about our security. It is not up to us to achieve it, nor is it up to us to hold on to it; both of these things rest in t he hand of God. And if we trust God's promise of provision, we will never be in want, no matter how much we give away!

In the remainder of this passage (through v. 12), God describes the result of this kind of fast. I will simply quote the next verse (v.8) as a summary of the whole:

"Then your light will break out like the dawn,
And your recovery will speedily spring forth;
And your righteousness will go before you;
The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard."

A wonderful promise, yes? THIS is what true worship is! It begins not in the sanctuary, but in the workplace and at home. It is a way of looking at others, and of looking at God. It is acts of faith and acts of love. It is humbling ourselves and lifting up others. It is something we practice throughout the week, with everyone we meet, in order that during the worship service we might truly encounter God's sweet presence among us.

To ensure that we understand what he has just said, God reiterates this entire argument in the final two verses of the chapter, this time in terms of the sabbath:

"If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot
From doing your own pleasure on My holy day,
And call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable,
And shall honor it, desisting from your own ways,
From seeking your own pleasure,
And speaking your own word,
Then you will take delight in the Lord,
And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken." (13-14)

If we apply these ideas to the act of fasting, we see its true nature, as revealed above, restated in more compact form: True fasting is not found in the observance of a ritual, but in fully giving up our own desires and our normal ways of doing things. For the fast (which are told to relish!), we are to break the patterns of our lives, return to God, seek his ways, put our trust in his goodness, and carry out his love for others. We must humble ourselves and restore the people around us, setting free the oppressed and aiding the needy. If we do these things, our God will hear our voices, and we shall never lack for any good thing.

It is truly a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the Living God, but there's no safer place to be!

S.D.G.!

in Christ,
steve