Isaiah 58:1-5

E. WHOLENESS TO THE WISE WHO KEEP CONVENANT WITH THE LORD, CHAPTER 58
1. HEARKEN

TEXT: Isaiah 58:1-5

1

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

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 righteous judgments; they delight to draw near unto 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 your own pleasure, and exact all your labors.

4

Behold, ye fast for strife and contention, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye fast not this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high.

5

Is such the fast that Ihave chosen? the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Jehovah?

QUERIES

a.

Why is the prophet not to spare in his crying?

b.

How could they smite on a fast day?

PARAPHRASE

Shout this message to the whole nation. Do not relent when they try to justify themselves. Shout clearly to the nation this warning so the wise will acknowledge their sin and hypocrisy. Most of the people go right on tramping into the courts of the Temple daily as if they really were sincere in knowing My will. They pretend they are concerned about righteousness and obeying My commandments. On the one hand they say they want Me to give them holy guidelines for living because they enjoy doing them. And on the other hand they say, Why should we afflict our souls in fasting and obedience since it appears Jehovah is not taking notice of our righteousness and rewarding us?
Hearken to what I have to say, says the Lord: I know exactly why you fast! The truth is that you are not really afflicting your souls in penitence when you fast. You use your fasts to indulge yourselves in carnal pleasures and to defraud the poor and powerless. You do not prepare your mind and heart to worship God when you fast. Your indulgence and oppression cause you to bicker and fight one another when you are pretending to fast! Do you actually think this is the kind of fasting I have commanded? Is this what you think I call afflicting one's soul? Do you think by such an outward show of extreme humiliation (bowing yourself double like a reed and lying down on a bed of sackcloth and ashes) that you can hide your hypocrisy? Is this what you call fasting? Do you believe I will accept your hypocrisy?

COMMENTS

Isaiah 58:1-3 a HAUGHTINESS: Isaiah is told to cry a throaty call. The Hebrew words kera-' vegaron mean literally, call with the throat. The Jerusalem Bible translates, Shout for all you are worth. Apparently the Lord knew there would be a few in Judah who would hearken to the prophet's call and wisely repent. There were some who would become covenant-keepers. Presently, however, the majority of people were covenant-breakers. Not only so, they were hypocrites as well. The Hebrew word thakhesek, translated spare not, means do not withhold. The point is that Isaiah is not to hold back declaring the hypocrisy of the majority even when they may appear to be righteous by their great show of religiosity or their attempts to justify themselves (as in verse three) or by their threats against the prophet himself. Isaiah is to become a shophar (ram's horn or trumpet, the instrument used to sound a warning).

For the most part, the nation went right on, day after day, haughtily tramping into the courts of the Temple (cf. Isaiah 1:12 ff), pretending to seek Jehovah and pretending to find satisfaction in obeying His appointed fast days. Publicly they have a finely practiced facade of not being caught disobeying the rituals and ordinances of the Law. They have put on an ostentatious show. Then they reasoned that Jehovah should reciprocate with goodness toward them (material goodness, no doubt) and judgments upon their enemies. It appears they think they have fooled God with their outward show and now expect Him to reward them accordingly. They took pleasure in their religiosity because they had deceived themselves into thinking Jehovah's righteousness could be compromised by their hypocrisy. They believed they could have their sin and Jehovah's blessing at the same time. But obviously, Jehovah had not responded to their sham-fasting as they had expected. He had not healed the social depravity of the day; He had not removed the growing threat of Assyrian or Babylonian invasion of their country. They had so thoroughly calloused their own consciences they blamed Jehovah for what was very evidently about to befall them. They accuse God of insensitiveness, of carelessness and unconcern. Usually, the hypocrite plays his part so well, he fools himself more than anyone else. These haughty hypocrites had so deceived themselves they were incredulous that God should not be impressed with their self-righteousness!

Isaiah 58:3-5 HYPOCRISY: Now Jehovah exposes the hypocrisy of their religiosity. Jehovah makes it plain that He does indeed know what they are doing! They are not fasting to afflict their souls. While they pretend to fast, they are really indulging in their favorite occupationmaking money. The Hebrew words -atzevyekem negoshu are from root words that literally mean, grieve and oppress respectively, but translated labors and exact respectively. Obviously, these people were not gathering at fasts to grieve and oppress their own souls so they must have been plotting business deals that would grieve and oppress one another or the poor.

A word about fasting may be in order here. The Hebrew word used for fast in the Pentateuch is -innah and means literally to afflict (the soul) (cf. Leviticus 16:29). The Hebrew word most often used after the Pentateuch (and not used in the Pentateuch) is tzum meaning literally to abstain. Both words are used in verse three. Actually, fasting was commanded in the Law of Moses only once (Leviticus 16:29) and that on the Day of Atonement. Apparently, the Hebrew people amplified this command and extended it to most any time of sorrow or need for repentance. The nation and individuals were capable of fasting with proper motives (cf. 1 Samuel 7:6; 2 Samuel 1:12; Judges 20:26; 1 Kings 21:12-29; Psalms 109:24; Jeremiah 36:9; Esther 4:1-3; Esther 4:16; Nehemiah 1:4). The Jewish people who came back from the captivities had doubts about the efficacy of so many fasts and inquired of the prophets and priests whether they should keep them all or not (cf. Zechariah 7:1-6; Zechariah 8:13). In Isaiah's day these fasts were being exploited for mercenary purposes.

The fasts, rather than providing an opportunity for men to abstain from worldly pursuits, afflict their souls and concentrate on God's holiness, provided opportunities for them to haggle, strive, contend, argue and even physically strike one another over profiteering. Leupold visualizes these verses: The prophet follows them to their place of assembly on a fast day. There, off in a corner, two men are not evaluating their own conduct and that of their nation; they are not seeking the face of God in true repentance. They are carrying on a business transaction. Or. while they are publicly engaged in holy exercises, at home the laborer who is working for them is slaving under heavy burdens and is being oppressed.
Rhetorically the Lord asks, Do you think this is the kind of fast I would approve? Their humility was mockery. The long, tender rush-was easily bent double without breaking and furnished a graphic figure for the bent-over false humility of these hypocrites. Jesus described the false humility of the fasting hypocrites of His day as skuthropos (Greek for sad, dejected, sullen, morose). Jesus said the hypocrites of His day made their normal faces to disappear (aphanizousin, Gr.) so they might put on faces (hopos phanosin) of fasting, (Matthew 6:16-18). These men of Isaiah's day were extreme in their pretentions even to spreading under themselves a bed of sackcloth and ashes. But none of it fooled God! Let every man who reads this be forever impressed with thisGod is not mocked! Religious ritual (no matter how scriptural and orthodox and correct) if it is coerced, psyched, or played-at, if the heart is not right, is an abomination to God! We cannot put on a sad face and fool God; we cannot put on a happy face and fool God; we cannot put on any face and fool God!

QUIZ

1.

How emphatic is Isaiah to be in crying his message to the nation?

2.

What made these people continue to haughtily pretend to worship Jehovah?

3.

What made them criticize God for not being aware of their religiosity?

4.

What was fasting originally instituted for?

5.

How were these people profaning the matter of fasting?

6.

What should we all learn about pretending from this passage?