Season 6, Podcast 117, Isaiah 58:1-14, “Then Shall Thy Light Break Forth as the Morning.”

Season 6, Podcast 117, Isaiah 58:1-14, “Then Shall Thy Light Break Forth as the Morning.”

Three themes dominate the Book of Isaiah: The Scattering of Israel, The Coming of Christ, and The Gathering of Israel in the last days. In addition to those three themes, Isaiah is concerned about the daily life of the House of Judah. He teaches how to become more Christ-like and how to keep the commandments of God. Isaiah 58 addresses the issue of Fasting and Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. These are major themes throughout the Old and New Testaments.

First Isaiah is commanded to tell the House of Judah of their sins.

Isaiah 58:1

1 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. 

One of their primary sins is that they have perverted the purpose of the fast. Fasting is an ordinance. An ordinance may refer to religious rites, rules, practices, statutes, precept or observances commanded by God. Fasting is an ordinance. Baptism is an ordinance. Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost is an ordinance, The Lord’s Supper or Sacrament is an ordinance. Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy is an ordinance. It was Isaiah who condemned Israel for changing the ordinances.   

Isaiah 24:5

5 The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.

That is a very serious charge. In Isaiah the Lord condemns the House of Judah for changing the ordinance of fasting. It is a testimony of how precisely Christians as well as Jews are required to follow all the ordinances. To change the ordinance is as bad as disobeying or ignoring the ordinance. 

Isaiah 58:2-4

2 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.

3 Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.

4 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.

It was the Jews who criticized God. They were fasting as commanded in the days of Moses. They thought they were doing everything the Lord required. They complained, “Wherefore have we fasted and God does not see them. Why have they afflicted their souls—a reference to fasting—yet the Lord takes no notice. The Lord answers their question. They are fasting for the wrong reason. They fasted for ‘strife and to smite with the fist of wickedness.’ The Lord asks the question.

Isaiah 58:5

5 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?

As in the days of Christ, they focused on the act rather than on the purposes of the Lord. For example, their focus fell upon sackcloth and ashes which were outward signs of fasting rather than the fast itself. It is not that sackcloth and ashes were bad. The fast had always been associated with sackcloth and ashes.

1 Kings 21:27 When Ahab heard those words, he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted…”

Daniel 9:3 

And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.”

The ritual became more important than the ordinance. In other words, they began to fast for show rather than to show humility before God. Christ, when he lived among the Jews condemned them for that same reason. Remember the Sermon on the Mount