By Eugene Garner

ISAIAH - CHAPTER 58

THE CHALLENGE OF JEHOVAH TO A
THOUGHTLESS PEOPLE
(Isa. 58:1-66:24)

CONDITIONS FOR DIVINE ACCEPTANCE AND BLESSING

    In this final section of Isaiah's prophecy considerable stress is laid on practical righteousness, (comp. Rom. 12:2; Jas. 1:25-26). Outward conformity to religious rules and regulations, without the devotion, adoration, and worship of a loving and joyful heart, is not acceptable before God. Until the heart-attitude toward God is right ALL ELSE IS FUTILE!

   Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.
   Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge?

    1. Here, as in 40:1 and 49:1, is a two-fold command wherein Isaiah is to "cry out" against the sins of His people (vs. 1; comp. 40:6-8; 43:27; 48:8); their rejection is the just reward of their faithlessness, (50:1; 59:12).
    2. Their actions are ritualistic and hypocritical (vs. 2) - outward; not from the heart.
      a. With brazenness they enter God's courts as though they delight to know His way's, (comp. 1:11; Titus 1:16).
      b. They act as if they were a righteous nation that had never forsaken the law of its God, (1:4; 48:1; 59:13; Jer. 7:8-11).
      c. Outwardly, they show great delight in drawing near to God, and ask Him to deal righteously with them, (29:13).
    3. They have even dared complain of Jehovah's UNFAIRNESS! (vs. 3).
      a. He has not seen their fasting's - which were certainly designed to impress Him, (Mal. 3:14; Lk. 18:12).
      b. Nor has He taken knowledge of their humility, wherein they afflicted their own souls - such as, they thought, should obligate Him to bestow special favor upon them.
      c. Fools still imagine that, somehow, they can obligate God by self-prescribed pieties designed to win the commendation of men!

   Behold, in the day of your fast, ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours. Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is It to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?

    1. God answers their complaint: He has not been pleased with them because they have PLEASED THEMSELVES, while oppressing those who served them (vs. 3c; Rom. 15:1-3; Isa. 3:13-15) - extorting from them a full days' labor, which was contrary to the law, (Lev. 16:29).
    2. This self-prescribed fasting of theirs only made them quarrelsome; it was not such as to make their voice heard on high, (vs. 4; 59:2, 6; Joel 2:12-14).
    3. How could they imagine that God would be pleased with such a mechanical fast as theirs - one which used their religion as an instrument for oppression? (vs. 5).

   Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
   Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy reward. Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am.

    1. The fast that the Lord chooses involves opposite characteristics from those manifested in Israel;
    It will break every enslaving yoke of wickedness, so that the oppressed may go free, (vs. 6; 1:19; Neh. 5:10-12; Jer. 34:8-9; comp. Acts 8:21-23).
    2. Verse 7 sets forth the POSITIVE ACTION of a true fast, (Ezek. 18:5-9).
      a. It will feed the hungry, (vs. lOa; comp. Job 31:19-23).
      b. It will provide a home for the outcast, (Heb. 13:2; comp. Isa. 16:3-4).
      c. It will clothe the naked, (Malt. 25:34-36; Lk. 3:11).
      d. Nor will it hide itself from the needs of one's own flesh and blood, (Deut. 22:1-4; comp. I Tim. 5:8).

   If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

    1. Again, Isaiah reminds the people of God that fellowship with the Most High requires them to renounce and put away such things as are contrary to His holiness, (vs. 9b); specifically, this involves: slavery, bribery and perjury, (59:13).
    2. Then (vs. 10) he reiterates the necessity of unselfish care for others - bestowing on the hungry that which would be a delight to themselves (vs. 7; Deut. 15:7-8) - with the promise that their light shall arise in obscurity, and their darkness shall be turned into noon-day brightness, (vs. 8; 42:16; Psa. 37:5-6).
    3. Thus would they enjoy perpetual blessings from the Almighty, (vs. 11).
      a. Jehovah will be their constant guide, (4~:10; 57:18).
      b. Their souls will be satisfied - even in the midst of drought and barrenness, (41:17; Psa. 107:9).
      c. Divinely strengthened, they will become effective instruments in the accomplishment of God's purpose, (66:14).
      d. The effect of the Spirit's being poured out upon them is likened to a watered garden and a fountain of water that never fails, (27:2-3; Jer. 31:12; Jn. 4:14; 7:37-38).
      e. All this is available NOW - not to Israel only, but to ALL who will trust in the Lord and yield their lives to His service.
    4. Great indeed will be the glory of those who restore and rebuild the Holy City, (vs. 12; 49:8; 61:4; Ezek. 36:10-11; Amos 9:11-12).

   If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

    1. The fourth commandment (Ex. 20:8) was always an important cornerstone in the life of Israel - whether they remembered it or not.
      a. The Sabbath was designed for man's good - physical and spiritual, (Mark 2:27; Ex. 23:12; Deut. 5:14-15).
      b. Judah's failure to observe certain sabbath-responsibilities was a basic factor leading to her 70-year captivity in Babylon, (II Chron. 36:20-21).
      c. One's attitude toward the sabbath, which God ordained, manifests his real attitude toward God Himself!
      d. The true "rest" of New Testament saints is found in a Person - Jesus Christ, the Son of God, (Heb. 4:9; Matt. 11:28-29).
    2. If Israel would truly seek to honor the Lord (with regard to His appointed sabbaths), instead of seeking her own pleasure, then the Lord would marvelously bless her, (vs. 13-14).
      a. She would learn the blessedness of joying IN THE LORD HIMSELF! (vs. 14a; comp. Rom. 5:2, 3, 11).
      b. The Lord would then exalt her in the earth - enabling her to feast on the covenanted heritage of her father Jacob, (vs. 14b; Gen. 27:28-29; 28:13-15).
      c. Such is the word of Jehovah Himself - whose promise NEVER FAILS! (vs. 14c; comp. 1:20; 40:5; Josh. 23:14).