Isaiah 58:12

Fasting, tsôwm, means going without food, and in Israel it was a serious act of worship, kept in times of national crisis, in repentance, and when the people sought God’s help. At Mizpeh the people fasted and confessed, “We have sinned against the LORD” (1 Samuel 7:6). Like any act of worship, a fast could also become an outward performance while the heart stayed unchanged. The people of this chapter fasted diligently and still lived in strife and exploited their workers (Isaiah 58:3–5). So the LORD asks in Isaiah 58:5, “Is it such a fast that I have chosen?”, and in verse 6 he gives his answer as a second question: “Is not this the fast that I have chosen?”

The four phrases that follow all speak of release. The verb “loose”, pâthach, means to open or loosen, and here it opens the bonds that wickedness has tied around people. “Undo the heavy burdens” pictures loads lifted from those who are crushed under them. “The oppressed” are the crushed and bruised, and the LORD wants them to “go free”. The list ends with “break every yoke”. The yoke, môwṭâh, was the wooden bar across the necks of a pair of oxen at the plough, and it also meant a load carried by a person, so it became a picture of servitude and control. With the word “every”, no form of oppression is left in place.

These bands, burdens and yokes were most likely the forms of exploitation found in Judah: debts pressed without mercy, people sold into slavery for debt, labour forced from the weak, and corrupt courts where the powerful used the vulnerable. God asks his people to undo them actively, and to stop taking part in them.

The words of release also recall the Exodus, when God brought Israel out of slavery in Egypt. The God who set his people free asks them to set others free, and his concern for the oppressed belongs to who God is and to the covenant he made with them.

Verse 7 turns the release of verse 6 into everyday acts of mercy, still in the form of a question that expects the answer yes: “Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry?” The word for bread, lechem, means bread or food, and here it stands for the food a household lives on. To “deal” it is to share it out with the hungry.

“The poor that are cast out” are the destitute who have lost their homes. The word mârûwd means an outcast, and also destitution and misery, so these are people both poor and displaced, perhaps refugees or exiles, or people pushed aside by misfortune or injustice. God asks his people to bring them “to thy house”, which gives them shelter, safety and a place to belong. “When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him” asks us to notice need and to meet it. Clothing protects from the weather and restores a person’s dignity.

The Law had always taught this. Moses told Israel to open their hand wide to a poor brother and lend him what he needed (Deuteronomy 15:7–11). Proverbs promises, “He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack: but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse” (Proverbs 28:27). Jesus names the same works as the mark of his own people: “For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me” (Matthew 25:35–36). He counts bread given to the hungry as given to himself. James asks what good it does to tell a brother or sister who is naked and without daily food to go in peace and be warmed and filled, while giving them nothing they need (James 2:15–16).

With “Then” the promises begin, and the first is light. The word ʼôwr means illumination or a luminary, and it can stand for daylight, morning and happiness. Here the light is God’s favour, joy and clear understanding breaking into his people’s lives. “Break forth” translates bâqaʻ, to split, cleave or break open. The dawn splits the dark open, and the people’s light will come the same way, as surely and as beautifully “as the morning”.

“Thine health shall spring forth speedily.” The word for health, ʼărûwkâh, means wholeness, something made up or perfected. It pictures restoration, with what was broken knitted together again and new growth coming in, and it reaches every part of life. “Speedily” promises that this healing will come quickly. Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

The last two promises picture the people on a march. “Thy righteousness shall go before thee”, like a vanguard clearing the road, so that their just dealings go ahead of them and open the way. “The glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.” Rereward is the old English word for the rearguard. The Hebrew verb is ʼâçaph, to gather, and in its rare intensive form it is used for the rearguard, the troops who gathered up the back of an army and guarded it from attack from behind, which was where a marching column was most exposed. The glory of the LORD, kâbôwd Yᵉhôvâh, is his majestic presence, and here it guards his people’s back. When Israel came out of Egypt, the angel of God and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of the camp to behind it, between Israel and the Egyptians (Exodus 14:19–20). God goes before his people and behind them.

Scripture describes the same growing light and the same protection elsewhere. “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18). The shepherd psalm says that God leads in paths of righteousness and is with us in the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:3–4). Jesus told us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you (Matthew 6:33).

The people had complained, “Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not?” (Isaiah 58:3–5). Verse 9 is God’s answer to that complaint. “Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer.” To call, qârâ, is to cry out to God in prayer and to call on his name. The one who answers is Yᵉhôvâh, the LORD, the covenant God of Israel, and to answer, ʻânâh, is to respond to what someone says. “Thou shalt cry” uses shâvaʻ, which means to call out for help, the cry of someone in trouble. To that cry God replies with one Hebrew word, hinneni, “Here I am.” He is present, he is listening, and he is ready to act.

The promise comes with a condition: “If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity.” To take away, çûyr, is to turn aside, remove or put away. “From the midst of thee” makes it the whole community’s task to clear these wrongs out of their common life. Three are named.

• The yoke. The same môwṭâh as in verse 6, the burden of unjust labour, debt and exploitation laid on the poor.
• The putting forth of the finger. The verb shâlach means to send or stretch out, most often the hand, and ʼetsbaʻ is the finger. Pointing the finger at someone was a gesture of scorn, mockery or malicious accusation, often aimed at the weak or the unfortunate, and it may even have been a way of cursing. It stands for a contemptuous, condemning spirit, the opposite of the help God asks for.
• Speaking vanity. The verb dâbar means to speak, mention or tell, and ʼâven means nothingness, trouble, wickedness or iniquity. Speaking it covers false and empty words, slander, deceit and malicious gossip.

Verse 10 returns to the hungry and goes deeper. “If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry” uses pûwq, to bring out or furnish, with nephesh, the soul. Nephesh comes from a word meaning to breathe, and it means a breathing creature, life, self, person or appetite. So to draw out your soul to the hungry, râʻêb, is to give yourself along with your bread: your attention, your time and your sympathy for someone whose own appetite is going unmet. “And satisfy the afflicted soul” adds the result God wants. To satisfy, sâbaʻ, is to fill until there is enough. The afflicted, from ʻânâh, are those who are humbled and bowed down by suffering. God wants them filled.

Then the light comes again, brighter than in verse 8. “Then shall thy light rise in obscurity.” The verb zârach is used of the sun rising. “Obscurity” is chôshek, darkness, a word that elsewhere also stands for misery, sorrow and death. “And thy darkness be as the noonday”: the word for darkness here, ʼăphêlâh, means gloom, and the noonday, tsôhar, is the full brightness of midday. The darkest parts of a person’s life will become as clear as noon.

A psalm says the same of the righteous: “Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous” (Psalm 112:4). Proverbs gives the generous the same promise in the language of verse 11: “The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself” (Proverbs 11:25). In the judgment scene of Matthew 25:34–40 the King welcomes those who fed and clothed the least of his brethren, and James reminds us of the hungry brother left without food (James 2:15–17). The light is God’s own, for “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).

Verse 11 piles one blessing on another. “The LORD shall guide thee continually.” To guide, nâchâh, is to lead, guide or bring, and tâmîyd means always, regularly, constantly. His leading goes on without a break. A psalm gives the same promise in God’s own voice: “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye” (Psalm 32:8), and the shepherd psalm adds, “he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul” (Psalm 23:2–3).

“And satisfy thy soul in drought.” The same verb sâbaʻ and the same nephesh appear here as in verse 10, so the person who satisfied the afflicted soul now has his own soul satisfied by God. The drought, tsachtsâchâh, is a dry, parched place. In a land that depended on seasonal rains and natural springs, drought meant famine and desolation, and it pictures every hard and barren season of life. God promises to satisfy his people in the drought itself.

“And make fat thy bones.” The verb is châlats and the bones are ʻetsem. This is a Hebrew idiom for strength and health from deep within, the opposite of the weakness and wasting that come with hardship. It has nothing to do with gaining weight. It means vigour that goes down to the bones.

The verse ends with two pictures from that dry land. “Thou shalt be like a watered garden.” The word for garden is gan, and râveh means watered, soaked through. A watered garden in an arid land is a picture of life, beauty and fruit. “And like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.” The word for spring, môwtsâʼ, means a going forth or a source, the place where water, mayim, comes out of the ground. “Fail” is kâzab, which means to lie or deceive, and so to fail or be in vain. This spring will never prove deceptive or unreliable, and it will never run dry. Jeremiah gives the same picture of the man who trusts in the LORD, who is like a tree planted by the waters that keeps its leaf and bears fruit in a year of drought (Jeremiah 17:7–8).

A spring also flows out to others. The generous person of verses 7 and 10 becomes a source of refreshment, and God keeps the source full.

The last promise looks at a ruined land. “And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places.” Those “of thee” are the descendants and people of the faithful who keep God’s fast. To build, bânâh, is to build literally or figuratively. The waste places, chorbâh, are ruins left desolate by war, neglect or judgment, and Strong’s traces the word to one meaning drought, so the desolation of this verse echoes the drought of the last. “Old” waste places have lain in ruins a long time. “Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations” speaks of deep, stable foundations that will support many generations to come, so the work is lasting.

Then God gives his people two names. “Thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach.” A breach, perets, from a root meaning to break forth, is a gap broken in a city wall. Walls were a city’s safety, so mending the breach was vital and honourable work, and the title also pictures healing divisions and restoring what has been torn apart. “The restorer of paths to dwell in” means someone who makes the roads safe again, so that people can travel, settle and live in peace.

These ruins were real. Jerusalem fell to Babylon and its walls and temple were destroyed (2 Kings 25), as God had warned through Jeremiah that the land would become a desolation (Jeremiah 25:9). Long afterwards Nehemiah heard that the wall of Jerusalem was broken down (Nehemiah 1:3), and he called the people, “Come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem” (Nehemiah 2:17–18). The returned exiles laid the foundation of the temple with praise and weeping (Ezra 3:10–13). God is the great builder behind all such work: “The LORD doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds” (Psalm 147:2–3). Amos also promised that God would raise up the fallen tabernacle of David and “close up the breaches thereof” (Amos 9:11).

The physical rebuilding grows from the spiritual change that the rest of Isaiah 58 describes, and the chapter goes on to further promises of restoration and delight in the LORD (Isaiah 58:11–14). A people who loose the yoke and feed the hungry become builders of a whole society, and the honour of their name comes from the mending they do.

Jesus lived this fast perfectly and carries it to its fullest meaning. In the synagogue at Nazareth he read from Isaiah 61:1 and said that the Scripture was fulfilled in him that day (Luke 4:18–21). Among the words he read is “to set at liberty them that are bruised” (Luke 4:18–19), which takes up the “let the oppressed go free” of verse 6. He breaks the yoke of sin and bondage through his death and resurrection, and he gives the weary his own yoke instead: “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30). “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36), and Paul tells believers to stand fast in that liberty and be “not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1).

He fed the hungry and reached out to the poor, the sick and the outcast, moved with compassion for the crowds (Matthew 9:35–36). His parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37) and his teaching on the judgment of the nations (Matthew 25:31–46) tie mercy to the poor to our relationship with him. He also kept faith with “thine own flesh” in the deepest way. The Word was made flesh (John 1:14), shared our human nature, and gave his body for us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8).

He drew out his soul to the hungry by giving “his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), who “hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4–5). He is the light of verses 8 and 10, the light of the world, who promises that whoever follows him “shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). By his stripes we are healed (1 Peter 2:24), and he is made unto us righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30). Where the prophet condemns the pointed finger and empty words, Jesus met a woman caught in sin with grace and truth (John 8:1–11), and Peter said to him, “thou hast the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). Through him we receive the Spirit of adoption and cry “Abba, Father”, and God answers his children (Romans 8:15–16).

He is the spring whose waters never fail. He told the woman at the well, “whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:10–14), and he promised that out of the one who believes “shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37–38). The Spirit who raised him from the dead gives life to our mortal bodies (Romans 8:11), a strength that reaches the bones.

He is also the repairer of the greatest breach of all. “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God” (Isaiah 59:2), and in Christ God reconciled the world to himself (2 Corinthians 5:18–19). He builds his people into a holy temple with himself as the chief corner stone (Ephesians 2:19–22). He restores the path to dwell in, for he is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and his resurrection lays the foundation of a new heaven and a new earth in which God makes all things new (Revelation 21:1–5). Christ lives in those who trust him (Galatians 2:20), so his followers carry on this same work of freeing, feeding and rebuilding.

God still asks his people for this fast. Prayer, fasting and worship are good gifts, and he wants them joined to open hands. Look around at the people near you, including your own family, and ask who is hungry, who is without a home, who carries a burden someone else has laid on them. The answers lead to plain, practical things: sharing food, opening your home, dealing honestly, lifting a debt, speaking up for someone who has no voice.

Watch your finger and your tongue as well. Scorn, blame and empty or cruel words are among the yokes this passage tells us to take away, and they are close at hand for all of us.

And take the promises to heart. The God who asks you to give yourself to the afflicted promises to guide you continually, to satisfy you in your own dry seasons, and to answer your cry with “Here I am.” He makes the generous into a watered garden and a spring, and he gives his people the honour of mending what is broken in the world around them.