Fasting in the Bible Day 7: Isaiah Part 1

God says to Isaiah,

“Announce this out loud and do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet, and declare to My people their wrongdoing. Uncover the sins of these people of Jacob. They pretend to seek Me every day and desire to know My ways. Just like a nation that is righteous and does not forsake the rules of their God, they ask Me for just decisions. They claim that they are near to Me. They say to Me, “Why do we fast? You do not pay attention to us. Why do we humble ourselves? You do not notice us.”

I say to them, “Because when you fast you seek your own desire. You still drive all your workers too hard. You get embroiled in contention and strife and you strike them with a wicked fist. This way of fasting does not encourage Me to hear your request.“

“This is not the kind of fast that I want.”

“Don’t pretend to humble yourself. Don’t bow your head when others are around and display the sackcloth and ashes you sleep on at night. How is this hypocrisy a true fast that I can accept?”

“This is the kind of fast that I’m after:

Break the chains of injustice. Lighten the burden of those who work for you, free the oppressed and cancel debts. Divide your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into a home. When you see the naked, cover them. Do not hide from those who need your help. Be available to your own families.” Isaiah 58: 1-7

Reading this section of Isaiah 58 started me on a personal journey toward a new understanding of what spirituality means to God. I had only dabbled with the spiritual habit of fasting. I had participated in many diet-to-lose-weight fasts. I do not think I truly valued or felt God’s compassion for the oppressed worker, the hungry, the homeless, and my own struggling relatives.

In 2020, during Covid, this passage showed up everywhere! God brought it to my attention multiple times: as a reference in a devotional I was reading, in an article that caught my eye, in a Bible Study I was preparing for my group, in a sermon podcast I listened to! So I knew that He was speaking directly to me and this was important for the way I was to move forward in life with spiritual fasting, compassionate serving, and writing about it for others.

At first reading, you might think that God does not agree with fasting and seeks to replace it with serving. Reading it again, I hope you can see how it highlights that the heart of God is searching for His true fasters and His humble servants.

Most of the Israelites in Isaiah’s day had fallen away from a personal relationship with the God of their fathers, their LORD who rescued them from Egypt and brought them into the Promised Land. They still adhered to the forms of religion, but their heart was focused elsewhere.

Your wrongdoings have caused a separation between you and your God. Your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. Isaiah 59: 2

They fasted, they bowed their head and they slept on sackcloth and ashes. But this was not the sign of a humbled heart that wants to connect with God. Their words said they sought God, but their hearts and their actions showed otherwise. They thought they deserved God’s attention and positive answers to their selfish prayers. They pretended to be religious. But during their fast, they got involved in violent arguments and they mistreated their workers.

In Matthew 6, Jesus talks about fasting and true humility. It is not about walking around with a gloomy face because you are denying yourself some food or drink but about washing your face and acting normally so that people will not notice what you are doing. The reward for fasting does not come from people, but from connecting with God in secret.

The results of fasting that He prefers is a stronger willingness to serve His poor, naked, hungry, and homeless people.

What kind of fast have you participated in before?

How might you fast differently next time?

Identify an opportunity to connect with God through fasting and follow through.

Journal about your spiritual and practical objectives. Write about how God fulfills them.

God of Justice, hear me as I fast! Hear my innermost thoughts. Hear my prayer. I will listen to You and I want to know Your heart. I want to serve You and Your people. Show me how. Amen.