“Fasts, the Sabbath, Frustration” Isaiah 58:1-14

Introduction

For those who grow up in the church or a religious setting, it doesn’t take long to learn the rites and teachings of the church. No, it may not be readily evident to the typical child what it means to hold to a doctrine such as the priesthood of the believer or the competency of the soul in matters of religion, both strong doctrines of the Baptist church. We may not be able to explain in detail what it means to have a believer’s baptism or the assurance of once saved, always saved. But almost everyone raised in the church can tell you the basic order of worship in the typical church, as well as the basic concepts of the sacraments as practiced by their church. We may not always understand it completely, but we know what they are. We hear the preacher talk about them often enough, we pick up things in Sunday School and Discipleship Training to have an idea.

So it was with the people of Israel. There were certain things that were always expected of them, certain things always practiced. Sometimes, they’d lose the reason for the practice or the intent behind them, but they knew the practices and continued to do them because that’s the way they always did it.

And that’s often when things begin to fall apart for a religious movement or sect or denomination. We continue the rituals without knowing why, other than that’s the way we’ve always done them. And soon that which is supposed to be meaningful and draw us closer to the Father in worship and submission becomes something that has to be done just because. And “just because” eventually turns into “Let’s get this over with so we can get back to more important things.”

It was this problem that Isaiah addresses in this passage that we look at today.

Background

Isaiah had been called by God to go for Him, to be sent by Him. When Isaiah stood and surrendered to the call, God told him, “Go and tell this people: Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull; and close their eyes” (Isaiah 6:9-10). Isaiah asks God how long he should do this, and God’s answer is, “Until the cities lie ruined, and without inhabitants; until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged” (Isaiah 6:11). In other words, success for Isaiah would not be in the number of convers to his message; success would come in his faithfulness to his calling.

Two of the deeply meaningful practices of the Jewish faith was in the observance of the Sabbath and in fasting. Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen why and how God instituted the Sabbath day and the Sabbath year. The purpose is not only to give each person a day of rest each week and the fields time to lie fallow and be replenished, but more importantly was designed to remind us of God the Creator and the Provider. It was intended to remind us that not only is God holy, but that we are also made holy by him. This holiness means we are set apart by God to be His, to do His will and be His people in the world.

Fasting was designed to remind us that we are be submissive, yielded to the God who provides. It was a time to focus on our walk with God and how that walk affects the way we relate to Him and to each other. It was time to rededicate and redirect our steps. It was to be a transformative moment.

As we shall see, though, Israel had forgotten these truths and had replaced the why of the rituals to the what, seeking the bear minimum they had to do to be obedient. In seeing the rituals in this way, they transformed the meaning of them from surrender to God’s will to earning His good graces.

Central Truth: Fasting and Sabbaths are more than rituals. They are a way of living and relating to our God and to each other.

1. Frustration (1-5)

• God’s with us (1-2)

When I want to get someone’s attention, I usually raise my voice so that it can be heard over the din, or I make a motion of some kind, a wave or raising of the hand. Most of us do that. God wanted to make sure Israel knew He was speaking to them, so He told Isaiah to raise his voice like a trumpet. Be loud enough to drown out the accompanying noise that comes with daily living. Get everyone’s attention, and when you do, God tells Isaiah to give them a dire warning:

“Declare to My people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins.”

It’s an interesting thing to say to them in light of the next verse. God acknowledges that His people are seeking Him out daily, that they appear eager to learn from Him. He describes the people as “a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of God.” But the important part of that description is the phrase “They seem.”

You see, the deep religious faith of the people is only a shadow of what it should be. It reminds me of when Toto pulls back the curtain to expose the real Wizard of Oz. God here is pulling back the curtain to expose the true nature of the people’s relationship with Him. They may seem eager for God to come near them, but the reality is they are comfortable in their lives and don’t really want the drastic changes that God requires of them.

When I was youth, some of the youth group presented a brief act around the concept of picking up one’s cross and following Christ. One of the youth was holding a golf club. He picked up the cross, looked at it for a while, then placed it in his back pocket so that the cross he was to carry wouldn’t interfere with his golf swing. One of the young women placed her cross in her purse, so it would be easy and out of the way. In various other ways, each of them found a way to “carry” their cross without really inconveniencing themselves.

But when Jesus says, “Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27). The cross Jesus expects us to carry is similar to the one He carried through the streets of Jerusalem to Calvary. To pick up one’s cross and follow Him is to be willing to die to self and let Christ live through us.

The people to whom Isaiah spoke were willing to “carry their cross,” so to speak, as long as it didn’t inconvenience them. And as much as God can be frustrated, this attitude of seeming to want to follow Him but not really unless it was convenient frustrated God.

• Us with God (3a)

And the frustration was mutual. Perhaps it should be better understood as confusion or uncertainty, but certainly it included frustration with God.

The people fast, but their prayers are unanswered. Their fasting is unseen by God. To them, it’s as if God is ignoring their commitment to the rituals and to the consistency of their practices. Why go through the motions if God isn’t going to pay attention? Why put in the effort is God is not going to respond in kind? After all, isn’t the mutual response the reason for the fasting? God commands it as a show of our obedience, and He will bless us if we obey. So we do. But He doesn’t.

Anyone would find that frustrating.

• The reason for the frustration (3b-5)

So it is up to God to explain the reason for the frustration. God gets right to the heart of the matter with, “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers” (v. 3b). He goes on to say they end the day in quarrels and strife, even to the point of punching each other.

Of course, God doesn’t respond to the fasting that is simply going through the motions. It’s like sitting in church during the worship service, with my mind far away on work or a hobby or anything other than the worship of God. I sing the songs, mouthing the words, but I fail to pay attention to them. Are the hymns’ lyrics drawing me closer to God? Am I using them as a form of prayer, or am I just going through the motions? When I leave the worship service at its end and tell the pastor I enjoyed his message, can I tell him what he was talking about, which of the points I thought were strongest?

You see, there’s a real disconnect between true worship and going through the motions. That’s where Israel was. Their fasting, though consistent and timely, was simply a ritual they practiced without having one iota of change in their lives, in the way they related to God and to one another.

So God asks them the question in v. 5: Is this the kind of fasting I chose? He points out to them that there really is no meaning in what they’re doing. The disconnect is real, because they have disconnected themselves from fasting’s true purpose.

1. God’s expectations (6-12)

Having explained the reason for the frustration, God now reminds His people what He truly expects from His people.

God wants the fasting to be a time to be aware of the downtrodden, to be mindful of those who are less fortunate than themselves. God expects His people to come to Him and, as a result of that encounter, to feel compassion and to see the world through His eyes. The God who loves us enough to have sent His only Son to die for us and set us free expects us to have that same world vision—to free the oppressed, to feed the hungry, to provide for the poor. He expects us to minister to those in need.

It is significant that God is speaking to Jewish society. It is true that the nation of Israel was interwoven with the faith of Israel, but it is also true that how society acted toward God and toward others determined their relationship with God. A quick glance through the other prophets lets us know that the rituals and rites of the Jewish worship were immaterial if there was not genuine love and compassion toward one another. In other words, God is reminding Jewish society that they have a duty to care. The expression of our love for God is seen in how we treat one another (cf. Luke 10:25-37; John 13:34-35; James 1:27, 2:14-17; 1 John 4:19-21).

God tells His people that if they want to benefit from the results of their fasting, then they must put it into practice in their daily living. And when they do, “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’” (vs. 8-9).

It’s not that God doesn’t want to bless His people. It’s that a society that is self-centered and ignorant of God and His ways cannot be given the blessings God wishes to give. To reward such behavior would be a mockery of the relationship we are to have with God, and God, who is faithful, cannot and will not overlook the disobedience of His people.

But if they will repent and see society as God sees it, “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become the noonday. The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame” (vs. 9b-11a). God’s point is that when His people act in obedience to Him, when they let Him live through them, then the light of the Lord shines forth through them, and others will see Him and want to find Him as well.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that Christians should live in such a way that those who don’t know God will want to know Him. We should live in such a way that those who question God will have no other choice but to acknowledge Him.

God’s expectations are that His people will act in such a way that others will find His love being extended to them through His people. It was true in the Old Testament; it is true in the New Testament church. When Jesus tells us we are the light of the world, the salt of the earth (cf. Matthew 5:13-16), He means that those who follow Him must first have such a firm faith in Him that we will acknowledge His ways are the best ways, and we will give ourselves to Him, so His light can shine through us. It is no accident that the blessings that are poured out to us are in direct correlation to how closely we walk with Him. The closer we walk, the clearer our vision, the greater our understanding, the more keen our acceptance and our faith. And as a result, others see Jesus in us.

If we want to find God’s blessings upon our nation and upon ourselves, then we must be a people who look beyond the superficial things that separate us, and must reach across the divides and begin the healing. And the only way we can hope to do that is by first making our worship genuine, by drawing close to God, by seeing His world as He sees it, and acting accordingly. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

1. Keeping the Sabbath (13-14)

As it was with fasting, so is it with the Sabbath. Again, God reminds us that Sabbath is a day set aside by Him for His glory. It is a day of rest and remembrance, of reflection and celebration. It is a day that we are spend as much in contemplation of God as we are to simply rest.

But, again, the people have misplaced the Sabbath’s purpose. We see that in God’s warning to them. Instead of a day of reflection, rest and remembrance, it has become a selfish day. Instead of being set apart for God—being a holy day—it has become a self-centered day. God warns them against “going your own way, doing as you please, speaking idle words.” Instead, God wants the Sabbath to be a time to recommit ourselves to the Lord, to re-charge our batteries of service and dedication to Him. He wants us to use the Sabbath to “find our joy in the Lord.”

When we resume the Sabbath for what it was and is intended for, we find ourselves in right relationship and able to walk in His ways. Again, this is not to say that our works will result in His blessings. We do not work to “earn” God’s grace. We work because we have been given God’s grace. We work because we put our faith into action, we express our faith by the way we act in our world with other people. The Sabbath reminds us that we are stewards of God’s creation. Our lives are not to be spent in the massing of material things, but in storing up for ourselves treasures in heaven. For where our treasure is, there will our hearts be also (cf. Matthew 6:19-21). Our work is to do the will of Him who has saved us and called us His children. We express our love for Him in the way we love others.

Conclusion

Kim and I went to the grocery story this week. We do that every week. Every week, we park in the same area of the parking lot, on the right side of the building, near the front. Every week. Except this week. This week, we found it easier to park on the left side, so we did. We walked across the store to enter where we usually enter, and did the route we always do. When it came time to check out, we got in line, got our groceries sacked, paid the bill, and began to walk out of the store. It was half way to the door before we realized we were going the wrong direction. We had to make a u-turn in order to go to our car in its new location.

In our world, it’s easy to let that which is done repeatedly to become blasé. It’s easy to let it become too familiar, and then to be taken for granted. It’s easy to think that the things we’ve always done can be done without much thought, without much commitment.

It was easy to make that mistake in Isaiah’s time; it’s easy to make it in our world. In today’s world, our distractions are more numerous. The demands on our time are more pressing, and we find ourselves easily distracted, easily moving into automatic rather than thinking things through. When we let it become automatic, then it becomes easy for us to lose our way, go the wrong way.

It’s time for us to rediscover the meaning of the Sabbath. It’s time for us to rediscover the joy of worship and surrender, the peace and rest that comes from being in fellowship with our Lord and our God. It’s time to once again sound the trumpet and call ourselves back to Him.