Isaiah 58 English Standard Version

True and False Fasting

1 “Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins.

2 Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.

3 Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers.

4 Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high.

Why have we fasted? Now that is a loaded question. The assumption being that the issue of the fast is a choice we make with the intent to make ourselves heard.

6 “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?

7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house;

when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

8 Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily;

your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

When the Lord chooses our fast, we will discover what we have hidden from ourselves.

Let’s face it. We choose to do what we think is right without taking into account what the Lord would have us do. 

The reed that bows itself down has not responded to the breath of God.