Isaiah 58:1-10

Scripture:

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.
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 me righteous judgments;
    they delight to draw near to God.
3 ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not?
    Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’
Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,
    and oppress all your workers.
4 Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
    and to hit with a wicked fist.
Fasting like yours this day
    will not make your voice to be heard on high.
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?

6 “Is not this the fast that 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?
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?
8 Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you;
    the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
    you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you take away the yoke from your midst,
    the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
10 if you pour yourself out for the hungry
    and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
    and your gloom be as the noonday.

Devotion:

Centuries before James wrote to a scattered church, the prophet Isaiah confronted the people of Judah with much the same problem. They were diligent about the outward shape of their religion. They fasted, they sought God daily, and they seemed genuinely delighted to know His ways. Yet God tells Isaiah to cry aloud and hold nothing back, because underneath all that religious activity was a people who oppressed their workers and quarreled with each other while claiming to seek the Lord.

God's complaint in verses three and four is specific and pointed. His people wanted to know why He had not noticed their fasting, and He told them plainly. On the very day they fasted, they pursued their own pleasure and treated the people under them harshly. Their religious devotion and their daily conduct had drifted apart from each other, and God was not willing to leave the two sitting side by side without comment.

Then, starting in verse six, God describes the fast He desires. It has little to do with bowing the head like a reed or spreading sackcloth and ashes underneath yourself. It has everything to do with loosing the bonds of wickedness, sharing bread with the hungry, bringing the homeless poor into your own house, and covering the one who has nothing to wear. This is the same conviction James will press centuries later, that faith which never reaches the hungry, the cold, or the oppressed falls short of what God is looking for, no matter how sincere the fasting or the words that accompany it.

Reading Isaiah 58 alongside James 2 helps us see that none of this is a New Testament invention. It is the heartbeat of God running through the whole of Scripture, from the prophets to the apostles, calling His people to worship that reaches all the way down into how they treat the vulnerable around them.

HEAR about it:

Explain:

What connection do you see between Isaiah 58:1-10 and James 2:14-20? What new light does it shed on the main passage? What does this passage add to your picture of the kind of faith God is looking for, and to your view of who God is?

Prayer and Reflection:

Take a few minutes to sit quietly and reflect on the passage you read today. Let the Holy Spirit bring to mind what stood out to you and why. Then spend some time in prayer. Pray for the people around you, for your outlook on this day, and for the needs you are carrying in your own life.

Lord, forgive me for the times my worship has stopped short of my hands, my wallet, and my calendar. Show me the hungry, the cold, and the overlooked people in my own life this week, and give me the courage to loosen whatever bonds You are asking me to loosen. In Jesus' name, Amen.

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