Tuesday, March 9
What is the “fast” referred to in Isaiah 58:3?
This must be the fast of the Day of Atonement, the only fast commanded by God (Leviticus 16:29, 31; Leviticus 23:27-32). This is confirmed in Isaiah 58:3 by the parallel expression “afflicted our soul”, which follows the terminology of Leviticus. Humbling/afflicting oneself referred to various forms of self-denial, including fasting (compare Psalms 35:13; Daniel 10:2, 3, 12).
The day of Atonement setting explains God’s command to “Lift up thy voice like a trumpet” (Isaiah 58:1). This kind of ram’s horn trumpet, called a shofar, was to be blown as a memorial or reminder ten days before the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:24). Furthermore, every fiftieth year, on the Day of Atonement, it was to announce the beginning of the Jubilee year of freedom (Leviticus 25:9, 10; compare Isaiah 27:13).
Read Isaiah 58:3-7. What is the Lord complaining to them about? What was wrong with their “fast”?
It seems the people were expecting the Lord to congratulate them for their “piety.” Of course, they had it all backward. Practicing self-denial on the Day of Atonement was to express their gratitude and loyalty to Him on the day the high priest went before God to cleanse the sanctuary and thereby cleanse them from sins for which they had already been forgiven (Leviticus 16; compare chapter 4). Their acts should have been done in thankfulness and gratitude to the God who saved them in the day of judgment, not in order to get God’s approval for their “piety” and “devotion.” After all, it was the sins of the people that had defiled God's sanctuary. It had to be cleansed with blood that was shed because of what they had done.
One of the crucial lessons that come from these texts points to the difference between being merely religious and truly being a follower of Christ. How do we see the difference there? How do we, as individuals, face the same danger as those presented here, which is believing that our religious rituals somehow show we are really following the Lord as He asks us to?
