Isaiah 58-59: Fasting and Sabbath

Isaiah 58 hits on two spiritual disciplines that are of great importance - fasting and Sabbath rest. We'll look briefly at the section on fasting, but the passage on Sabbath is what garnered most of my attention.

3 'Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?'

Many people were very disciplined in their fasting, and believed that they should be favored in the eyes of the Lord. However, they were missing the purpose of the discipline:

Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. 4Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist.

The act of fasting was not meant to allow one to swell with pride in their own righteousness or to justify the unfair treatment of workers and servants - the purpose of fasting was to remind us of our dependence on God and to give up something essential to life in acknowledgment of our greatest need.

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?

The practice of fasting as an act of worship should bring freedom to others, and reflect the love of God himself. By abstaining from something out of worship, that allows us to use that resource to serve others. If we spare our food during fasting but do not give it to one who is hungry, how is it a discipline in line with the spirit of the gospel? If we see someone lacking clothing, how can we leave them be and continue to "hide our self from our own flesh"?

Sabbath Rest

In addition to condemning the abuse of fasting, Isaiah convicts the people of butchering the Sabbath.

13 "If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure 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, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; 14 then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth...

For many people, the Sabbath had become a day of nothing but worldly pleasure - a day to dwell on the things of the world, enjoy the delights of food and recreation, and pursue whatever the heart desires. While those pleasures are of God and are not inherently wrong, they are not the full intent of the Sabbath. Is a day of mindless entertainment and pleasure-seeking really worthy of being called a day set apart unto the Lord? Does it fulfill the purpose He intended?

God commanded his creation to observe a Sabbath, a day that is blessed and sanctified, to bless us as we worship him. The blessing of the Sabbath comes from focusing on Him - He is the ultimate source of blessing. Setting aside our work, house projects, and all forms of labor to return to the ultimate source of life is both an act of worship and source of blessing and life. 

The idea of Sabbath rest is often taken very lightly in our modern church - that was great for people back then and all, but we're too busy to take a day off. Besides, we would feel less stressed by getting ahead on those projects anyways. If we do convince ourselves to take rest, it can often be a very pragmatic and worldly form of rest - if I take a lazy day every once in a while, I'll be more productive in the long run and won't burn out as easily. This is really a mere shadow of the gift that God intends for us - he commanded us to observe the day set aside for Him so that we may be blessed abundantly, not as some obligatory religious ritual that hurts our productivity.

As a final thought on this subject of Sabbath rest, here is a description more elegant and profound than anything that I could write, penned by John Piper:

He is saying in effect, "Let my highest creature, the one in my image, stop every seven days and commemorate with me the fact that I am the creator who has done all this. Let him stop working and focus on me, that I am the source of all that he has. I am the fountain of blessing. I have made the very hands and mind with which he works. Let one day out of seven demonstrate that all land and all animals and all raw materials and all breath and strength and thought and emotion and everything come from me. Let man look to me in leisure one day out of seven for the blessing that is so elusive in the affairs of this world."