TRUE FASTING

 Isaiah 58

 

Cry aloud and spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins.

 

They seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteous, and forsook not the ordinance of their God. They ask of me ordinances of justice, they take delight in approaching to God.

 

They say, have we fasted and you do not see?  Have we afflicted our soul, and you take no knowledge of it?  

 

Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure and work all your laborers.

 

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.

 

Is this such a fast that I have chosen, a day for a person to afflict his soul?  Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?  Will you call this a fast, an acceptable day to the Lord?

 

Is not this the fast I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?

 

It is to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless and poor into your home, and when you see them naked, clothe them, and see that you don’t neglect your own flesh.

 

Then you will shine as the morning sun, and your health will spring forth with speed.  And before you will be righteousness, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

 

Then you will call, and the Lord will answer, you will cry, and he will say, Here I am.

 

If you do these things, take away the yoke that is in the midst of you, and not put forth your finger and speak vainly, pour out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will be as the noonday.

 

The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in dry places, and make your bones strong.  You will be like a watered garden, like a never ending spring of water.

 

And those that come after you will build up places that were laid waste and will raise up the foundations of many generations. You will be called, the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in.

 

If you will turn back your foot from the Sabbath, and keep from doing what ever you please on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable, if you honor it, not going your own ways, and seeking your own pleasures, or speaking idle words, then you will take delight in the Lord.  I will cause you to ride upon the high places of the earth.  

 

The mouth of the Lord has spoken it.