Regarding Isaiah 58

Today is a Bible study of Isaiah 58. It's certainly not comprehensive, but will take more than your usual time of reading my blog post. I hope some of you post a comment after you take a little excursion into this chapter.

Perhaps one of the strongest admonitions in the Bible regarding serving others is found in the book of Isaiah chapter 58. God had a lot to say through the prophet Isaiah about people who missed the point about what it truly meant to be his people through caring for others.  

Before we direct our attention to the theme of dying to self/serving others, let’s learn a little bit about the book of Isaiah.

Actually, I should say books of Isaiah, since biblical scholars divide this tome-like body of scriptures into three distinct prophetic works.The last “book” of Isaiah includes chapter 58. Scholars identify Isaiah 56 through 66 as a separate collection of oracles spoken by a group of unknown prophets.

Here they speak dual messages. One is of a heartbreak that cries against the sin of hypocrisy and the other contains hope of restoration for a struggling people.

 And what is this hypocrisy? It is the people of God being concerned about looking good to God through their religious performance while not looking compassionately toward others who need their care.

Let’s stop for a moment and let that last statement soak in.

Looking good to God through religious performance while not looking compassionately toward others who need our care . . .

We’re going to take a closer look at chapter 58 that speaks of this hypocrisy by dividing it into three parts.

          Beliefs that are distorted

         

Behaviors that God challenges

Behaviors that God desires

         

In part one, the belief systems of God’s people are questioned.

In part two, the behaviors of God’s people are challenged.

In part three, the behaviors God desires from his people are presented.

I’m guessing there are times when your own beliefs and behaviors are such that you miss God’s design for loving service to others. Sometimes we hold onto religious beliefs that get in the way from embracing the true nature of a loving God. Sometimes our religious behaviors don’t reflect the character of a compassionate Christ.

When have these stumbling blocks of religious beliefs and behaviors been true for you?

Part One Isaiah 58:1-3a Beliefs are questioned.

(vs. 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.'"

Isaiah is summoned to let the people of God know what’s on God’s mind: their sin!

And what is that sin? Their particular sin to which God refers unfolds in the next several verses.

Continue to read God’s complaint with his people, the house of Jacob.

(vs. 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 the righteous judgments;

They delight to draw near to God.’"

Now the Israelites start complaining to God.

(vs. 3a) "Why have we fasted, and you see it not?

Why have we humbled ourselves,

And you take no knowledge of it? “

God is directing his admonition toward their belief system.

They believed in the importance of a strict adherence to the spiritual discipline of fasting. But God knew they believed loving rituals was more important than loving relationships. This is their transgression, their sin.

One Bible scholar explains it this way:

"The people of Israel, during Old Testament times, as well as into the early New Testament times, were an extremely "religious" group. They placed tremendous emphasis on ritual, ceremony and tradition. Over the course of time, however, the externals of religious practice had become the totality of their experience (at least for most of them); they had lost sight of the spiritual side of their relationship with their God. Outwardly, they appeared to be a people devoted to God. Their love of ceremony made them visibly appear to be righteous to the casual observer (Isaiah 58:2). The problem was: they loved the ritual, but not God or one another." (The Expositor’s Bible Commentary)

Part Two Isaiah 58:3b-5 Their behaviors are challenged.

God continues to speak through Isaiah.

(vs. 3b)“’'Behold in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,

And oppress all your workers.

(vs. 4) Behold you fast only to quarrel and fight

And to hit with a wicked fist.

Fasting like yours this day

Will not make your voice to be heard on high.

(vs.5) Is such the fast that I choose,

A day for a person to humble himself?

Is it to bow down his head like a reed,

And to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?

Will you call this a fast,

And a day acceptable to the Lord?’”

What the prophet is trying to say to the people is: “Have a heart! You’re so preoccupied with showing off religious behaviors, you’ve overlooked what it means to be spiritual. The evidence of true spirituality is your attitude and care for one another.  Herein lays the hypocrisy that God was addressing.  

While you are fasting, proclaims the Lord, you fast from work but make your workers pick up the slack (vs. 3b).

Your fasting is causing irritability amongst you and fighting ensues (vs. 4a).

What good is fasting like this; it will not make me hear your voice, says the Lord (vs. 4b).

 How can your religious behaviors of bowing down, spreading the sackcloth and ashes, be acceptable to me, the Lord implores (vs. 5).

These religious behaviors, the Lord contends, do not make up for how you behave toward your fellow men and women!

Part Three Isaiah 58:6-7 Behaviors that God desires

(vs. 6)“’Is not this the fast 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?'"

“The yoke” was a description of the heavy spiritual and physical burdens the Jews were placing upon each other.  

(vs. 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?’”

“To hide yourself from your own flesh” meant the Jews were not even paying attention to your own families’ needs and the family of God to which they belonged.

God examined the fast in which the Jews were engaging. Biblical scholars call this a religious fast. Yet God desired a spiritual fast. He redefines the practice of fasting. Then he lists the behaviors that are true signs of a spiritual fast. Bring freedom to those in bondage, share your food and share your homes. In other words, share your life! 

"Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it."

 Proverbs 3:27
                                                                                                                                 

This seems like a good place to wrap up this brief study. Perhaps a good challenge for today is:

In what ways can you pay better attention to the needs around you?

May blessings abound,

Donna