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Commentary on Isaiah 58 verses 3–7
Here we have, I. The displeasure which these hypocrites conceived against God for not accepting the services which they themselves had a mighty opinion of (Isa 58:3): Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? Thus they went in the way of Cain, who was angry at God, and resented it as a gross affront that his offering was not accepted. Having gone about to put a cheat upon God by their external services, here they go about to pick a quarrel with God for not being pleased with their services, as if he had not done fairly or justly by them. Observe, 1. How they boast of themselves, and magnify their own performances: "We have fasted, and afflicted our souls; we have not only sought God daily (Isa 58:2), but have kept some certain times of more solemn devotion." Some think this refers to the yearly fast (which was called the day of atonement), others to their arbitrary occasional fasts. Note, It is common for unhumbled hearts to be proud of their professions of humiliation, as the Pharisee (Luk 18:12), I fast twice in the week. 2. What they expected from their performances. They thought God should take great notice of them, and own himself a debtor to them for their services. Note, It is a common thing for hypocrites, while they perform the external services of religion, to promise themselves that acceptance with God which he has promised only to the sincere; as if they must be accepted of course, or for a compliment. 3. How heinously they take it that God had not put some particular marks of his favour upon them, that he had not immediately delivered them out of their troubles and advanced them to honour and prosperity. They charge God with injustice and partiality, and seem resolved to throw up their religion, and justify themselves in doing so with this, that they had found no profit in praying to God, Job 21:14, Job 21:15; Mal 3:14. Note, Reigning hypocrisy often breaks out in daring impiety and an open contempt and reproach of God and religion for that which the hypocrisy itself must bear all the blame of. Sinners reflect upon religion as a hard and melancholy service, and on which there is nothing to be got by, when really it is owing to themselves that it seems so to them, because they are not sincere in it.
II. The true reason assigned why God did not accept their fastings, nor answer the prayers they made on their fast-days; it was because they did not fast aright - to God, even to him, Zac 7:5. They fasted indeed, but they persisted in their sins, and did not, as the Ninevites, turn every one from his evil way; but in the day of their fast, notwithstanding the professed humiliations and covenants of that day, they went on to find pleasure, that is, to do whatsoever seemed right in their own eyes, lawful or unlawful, quicquid libet, licet - making their inclinations their law; though they seemed to afflict their souls, they still gratified their lusts as much as ever. 1. They were as covetous and unmerciful as ever: "You exact all your labours from your servants, and will neither release them according to the law nor relax the rigour of their servitude." This was their fault before the captivity, Jer 34:8, Jer 34:9. It was no less their fault after their captivity, notwithstanding all their solemn fasts, Neh 5:5. "You exact all your dues, your debts" (so some read it); "you are as rigorous and severe in extorting what you demand from those that are poor as ever you were, though it was at the close of the yearly fast that the release was proclaimed." 2. They were contentious and spiteful (Isa 58:4): Behold, you fast for strife and debate. When they proclaimed a fast to deprecate God's judgments, they pretended to search for those sins which provoked God to threaten them with his judgments, and under that pretence perhaps particular persons were falsely accused, as Naboth in the day of Jezebel's fast, Kg1 21:12. Or the contending parties among them upon those occasions were bitter and severe in their reflections one upon another, one side crying out, "It is owing to you," and the other, "It is owing to you, that our deliverance is not wrought." Thus, instead of judging themselves, which is the proper work of a fast-day, they condemned one another. They fasted for strife, with emulation which should make the most plausible appearance on a fast-day and humour the matter best. Nor was it only tongue-quarrels that were fomented in the times of their fasting, but they came to blows too: You smite with the fist of wickedness. The cruel task-masters beat their servants, and the creditors their insolvent debtors, whom they delivered to the tormentors; they abused poor innocents with wicked hands. Now while they thus continued in sin, in those very sins which were directly contrary to the intention of a fasting day, (1.) God would not allow them the use of such solemnities: "You shall not fast at all if you fast as you do this day, causing your voice to be heard on high, in the heat of your clamours one against another, or in your devotions, which you perform so as to make them to be taken notice of for ostentation. Bring me no more of these empty, noisy, vain oblations," Isa 1:13. Note, Those are justly forbidden the honour of a profession of religion that will not submit to the power of it. (2.) He would not accept of them in the use of them: "You shall not fast, that is, it shall not be looked upon as a fast, nor shall the voice of your prayers on those days be heard on high in heaven." Note, Those that fast and pray, and yet go on in their wicked ways, do but mock God and deceive themselves.
III. Plain instructions given concerning the true nature of a religious fast.
1.In general, a fast is intended, (1.) For the honouring and pleasing of God. It must be such a performance as he has chosen (Isa 58:5); it must be an acceptable day to the Lord, in the duties of which we must study to approve ourselves to him and obtain his favour, else it is not a fast, else there is nothing done to any purpose. (2.) For the humbling and abasing of ourselves. A fast is a day to afflict the soul; if it do not express a genuine sorrow for sin, and do not promote a real mortification of sin, it is not a fast; the law of the day of atonement was that on that day they should afflict their souls, Lev 16:29. That must be done on a fast-day which is a real affliction to the soul, as far as it is yet unregenerate and unsanctified, though a real pleasure and advantage to the soul as far as it is itself.
2.It concerns us therefore to enquire, on a fast-day, what it is that will be acceptable to God, and afflictive to our corrupt nature, and tending to its mortification.
(1.)We are here told negatively what is not the fast that God has chosen, and which does not amount to the afflicting of the soul. [1.] It is not enough to look demure, to put on a grave and melancholy aspect, to bow down the head like a bulrush that is withered and broken: as the hypocrites, that were of a sad countenance, and disfigured their faces, that they might appear unto men to fast, Mat 6:16. Hanging down the head did indeed well enough become the publican, whose heart was truly humbled and broken for sin, and who therefore, in token of that, would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven (Luk 18:13); but when it was only mimicked, as here, it was justly ridiculed: it is but hanging down the head like a bulrush, which nobody regards or takes any notice of. As the hypocrite's humiliations are but like the hanging down of a bulrush, so his elevations in his hopes are but like the flourishing of a bulrush (Job 8:11, Job 8:12), which, while it is yet in its greenness, withers before any other herb. [2.] It is not enough to do penance, to mortify the body a little, while the body of sin is untouched. It is not enough for a man to spread sackcloth and ashes under him, which may indeed give him some uneasiness for the present, but will soon be forgotten when he returns to stretch himself upon his beds of ivory, Amo 6:4. Wilt thou call this a fast? No, it is but the shadow and carcase of a fast. Wilt thou call this an acceptable day to the Lord? No, it is so far from being so that the hypocrisy of it is an abomination to him. Note, The shows of religion, though they show ever so fair in the eye of the world, will not be accepted of God without the substance of it.
(2.)We are here told positively what is the fast that God has chosen, what that is which will recommend a fast-day to the divine acceptance, and what is indeed afflicting the soul, that is, crushing and subduing the corrupt nature. It is not afflicting the soul for a day (as some read it, Isa 58:5) that will serve; no, it must be the business of our whole lives. It is here required, [1.] That we be just to those with whom we have dealt hardly. The fast that God has chosen consists in reforming our lives and undoing what we have done amiss (Isa 58:6): To loose the bands of wickedness, the bands which we have wickedly tied, and by which others are bound out from their right or bound down under severe usage. Those which perhaps were at first bands of justice, tying men to pay a due debt, become, when the debt is exacted with rigour from those whom Providence has reduced and emptied, bands of wickedness, and they must be loosed, or they will bring us into bonds of guilt much more terrible. It is to undo the heavy burden laid on the back of the poor servant, under which he is ready to sink. It is to let the oppressed go free from the oppression which makes his life bitter to him. "Let the prisoner for debt that has nothing to pay be discharged, let the vexatious action be quashed, let the servant that is forcibly detained beyond the time of his servitude be released, and thus break every yoke; not only let go those that are wrongfully kept under the yoke, but break the yoke of slavery itself, that it may not serve again another time nor any by made again to serve under it." [2.] That we be charitable to those that stand in need of charity, Isa 58:7. The particulars in the former verse may be taken as acts of charity, that we not only release those whom we have unjustly oppressed - that is justice, but that we contribute to the rescue and ransom of those that are oppressed by others, to the release of captives and the payment of the debts of the poor; but those in this verse are plainly acts of charity. This then is the fast that God has chosen. First, To provide food for those that want it. This is put first, as the most necessary, and which the poor can but a little while live without. It is to break thy bread to the hungry. Observe, "It must be thy bread, that which is honestly got (not that which thou hast robbed others of), the bread which thou thyself hast occasion for, the bread of thy allowance." We must deny ourselves, that we may have to give to him that needeth. "Thy bread which thou hast spared from thyself and thy family, on the fast-day, if that, or the value of it, be not given to the poor, it is the miser's fast, which he makes a hand of; it is fasting for the world, not for God. This is the true fast, to break thy bread to the hungry, not only to give them that which is already broken meat, but to break bread on purpose for them, to give them loaves and not to put them off with scraps." Secondly, To provide lodging for those that want it: It is to take care of the poor that are cast out, that are forced from their dwelling, turned out of house and harbour, are cast out as rebels (so some critics render it), that are attainted, and whom therefore it is highly penal to protect. "If they suffer unjustly, make no difficulty of sheltering them; do not only find out quarters for them and pay for their lodging elsewhere, but, which is a greater act of kindness, bring them to thy own house, make them thy own guests. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for though thou mayest not, as some have done, thereby entertain angels, thou mayest entertain Christ himself, who will recompense it in the resurrection of the just. I was a stranger and you took me in." Thirdly, To provide clothing for those that want it: "When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, both to shelter him from the injuries of the weather and to enable him to appear decently among his neighbours; give him clothes to come to church in, and in these and other instances hide not thyself from thy own flesh." Some understand it more strictly of a man's own kindred and relations: "If those of thy own house and family fall into decay, thou art worse than an infidel if thou dost not provide for them." Ti1 5:8. Others understand it more generally; all that partake of the human nature are to be looked upon as our own flesh, for have we not all one Father? And for this reason we must not hide ourselves from them, not contrive to be out of the way when a poor petitioner enquires for us, not look another way when a moving object of charity and compassion presents itself; let us remember that they are flesh of our flesh and therefore we ought to sympathize with them, and in doing good to them we really do good to our own flesh and spirit too in the issue; for thus we lay up for ourselves a good foundation, a good bond, for the time to come.
(Vers. 4, 5.) Do not fast as you do to this day, to make your voice heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? LXX: Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?' And when you have bowed your neck like a circle, and have put sackcloth and ashes under you: do not call this an acceptable fast. He teaches not to reprove fasting itself which he had commanded, but how one should fast: moreover, before he teaches what they should follow, he instructs what they should avoid: That it may be heard, he says, in high places. Do not bring your clamor to prayer, praying in synagogues and corners of the streets, so that you may be seen by men (Matthew 6), and raise your voice on high, and with the Pharisee, who is condemned by the judgment of the Lord, proclaim your fasts and works (Luke 18). Because of these things, the Lord, reproving the prayer of the Pharisees, teaches the disciples how they should pray (Matthew 6). They should enter into the hidden chamber of their hearts, to speak to God alone, who can hear the silence of the heart; so that they may cry out in their hearts, 'Abba, Father' (Romans 8:15); and not make their faces disfigured, but wash with water and anoint their heads with oil. John the Evangelist also writes about this: 'And you have an anointing from the Holy One' (1 John 2:20): that by being anointed, they themselves may become holy. For God does not seek only affliction and humiliation of the soul through injury to the body, as if to twist the body in the manner of a circle and bow the neck, and to walk in sadness. According to what is said in the Psalms: I am afflicted and bowed down to the end; I was mournful all day long (Psalm 37:9). Nor does He seek for one to be clothed in sackcloth and sleep in ashes, as we read of David and Ahab (2 Samuel 3; 1 Kings 21); but that one should do these things along with those that follow. Moreover, the Apostle frequently says that he fasts (2 Corinthians 6 and 11), and the Lord, when he is taken away as a bridegroom from his disciples, teaches them to fast (Matthew 6). And in the Psalms, speaking of repentance, he says: I ate ashes like bread and mixed my drink with tears (Psalm 102:10). And when they were troublesome to me, I put on sackcloth (Psalm 34:13). From this, we learn that these are the things that the Lord wants to be done first, and not to overlook them for anything else.
If you have fasted two or three days, do not think yourself better than others who do not fast. You fast and are angry; the other eats and wears a smiling face. You work off your irritation and hunger in quarrels. He uses food in moderation and gives God thanks.
You see then that fasting is certainly not considered by the Lord as a thing that is good in its own nature, because it becomes good and pleasing to God not by itself but by in conjunction with other works. Again, in light of surrounding circumstances it may be regarded as not merely vain but actually hateful, as the Lord says: “When they fast, I will not hear their prayers.”
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SUMMARY
Isaiah 58:5 presents a powerful rhetorical challenge from the Lord, directly confronting the superficiality of Israel's religious practices, particularly their fasting. It exposes the stark contrast between their outward displays of humility—such as bowing their heads and donning sackcloth and ashes—and the absence of genuine spiritual transformation, righteous living, or compassionate action. The verse underscores God's profound rejection of mere ritualism, setting the crucial stage for His subsequent revelation of what truly constitutes a chosen and acceptable fast: one rooted in justice, mercy, and a heart authentically aligned with His divine character and purposes.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Isaiah 58:5 masterfully employs several Rhetorical Questions to convey God's profound indignation and to forcefully challenge the people's misguided understanding of true worship. The repeated interrogative structure ("Is it such a fast...?", "wilt thou call this a fast...?") is not designed to elicit information but rather to assert a forceful negative judgment, compelling the audience to confront the inherent emptiness and hypocrisy of their religious practices. The verse also utilizes a striking Simile in "to bow down his head as a bulrush." This comparison vividly illustrates the superficiality of their humility; just as a bulrush passively bends without volition, their outward displays of piety were presented as lacking genuine, active, and heartfelt contrition or submission. Furthermore, the entire verse is imbued with profound Irony, particularly evident in the final question, "wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?" The people genuinely believed their actions were pleasing to God, but God's piercing questions reveal the stark opposite, exposing the profound disconnect between their self-perception and divine reality.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Isaiah 58:5 stands as a critical theological statement on the very nature of true piety, asserting with divine authority that God unequivocally prioritizes genuine heart transformation and ethical action over mere ritualistic observance. It powerfully challenges the pervasive human tendency to equate outward religious performance with authentic spiritual righteousness, exposing the utter futility of external displays when they are divorced from internal integrity and a commitment to social justice. This passage profoundly shapes the biblical understanding of worship, demonstrating that God's delight is not found in the mechanics or frequency of religious practice but in the character and conduct of His people, particularly their compassion for the vulnerable and their unwavering commitment to justice. It serves as a timeless and essential reminder that authentic faith must manifest itself in tangible acts of love and righteousness, thereby reflecting the very character of God Himself in the world.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Isaiah 58:5 serves as a piercing mirror for contemporary believers, urging us to scrutinize the sincerity, depth, and genuine motivation behind our own spiritual disciplines. It challenges us to move far beyond mere outward conformity to religious practices and to cultivate a heart that genuinely seeks God's will and faithfully expresses His character in the world. We are compelled to ask: Are our prayers, fasts, Bible studies, or church attendance primarily performative, designed for human observation or self-satisfaction, or do they truly lead to a transformed inner life that overflows into tangible acts of justice, compassion, and sacrificial love for our neighbors? This verse calls us to embrace a holistic faith where our internal devotion is seamlessly integrated with our external actions, especially in how we engage with the marginalized, the oppressed, and the forgotten. True worship, according to Isaiah, is not just about what we abstain from, but what we actively embrace: a life of righteousness and sacrificial love that profoundly reflects the very heart of God.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
What was wrong with the Israelites' fast in Isaiah 58:5?
Answer: The fundamental problem was not with the act of fasting itself, which was a legitimate and commanded spiritual discipline, but with the spirit and behavior accompanying it. The Israelites were meticulously performing all the outward rituals of humility—bowing their heads, wearing sackcloth and ashes, and physically "afflicting their souls"—but their hearts were far from God. Their fasting was a mere performance, a superficial display of piety, while simultaneously they were engaging in widespread injustice, oppression, and self-serving behavior, as vividly detailed in Isaiah 58:3-4. God rejected their fast precisely because it lacked genuine repentance, a compassionate heart, and an authentic desire for righteousness. It was a ritual without relationship, a form without the transformative power of true devotion.
How does this verse define "acceptable" worship to the Lord?
Answer: While Isaiah 58:5 primarily defines what is unacceptable worship (outward ritual devoid of inward transformation and ethical action), it implicitly and powerfully points towards what truly constitutes acceptable worship. An "acceptable day to the LORD" is not merely one marked by physical self-denial or mournful displays. Instead, as the subsequent verses brilliantly clarify in Isaiah 58:6-7, true and acceptable worship involves concrete acts of justice, mercy, and compassion: it means loosing the bonds of wickedness, undoing heavy burdens, letting the oppressed go free, sharing food with the hungry, providing shelter for the poor and homeless, and clothing the naked. Thus, acceptable worship is holistic, seamlessly integrating spiritual discipline with ethical living and profound social responsibility.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Isaiah 58:5, with its incisive critique of superficial religious practice, finds its ultimate fulfillment and most profound clarification in the person and revolutionary teachings of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament prophets consistently pointed to the inadequacy of external ritual apart from a transformed heart, and Jesus perfectly embodied and taught this very truth. He vehemently condemned the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who meticulously observed outward religious laws while tragically neglecting "the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness" (Matthew 23:23). Jesus Himself did not merely "afflict his soul" in a performative sense; rather, He truly and profoundly humbled Himself, taking "the form of a servant" (Philippians 2:7), ultimately offering His very life as the perfect, once-for-all sacrifice that truly atoned for sin—a feat no amount of human fasting or sackcloth could ever achieve (Hebrews 10:10). His life, death, and resurrection demonstrate that true righteousness is not found in outward displays of piety, but in a radical, self-giving love that perfectly fulfills the law and the prophets, leading to genuine inner transformation and a life of devoted service to God and neighbor. Through Christ, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to live out the "true fast" of Isaiah 58—not by our own strength or ritualistic adherence, but by His indwelling grace and transformative presence.