Spiritual Disciplines and Moral Behavior: Some Comments on Isaiah 58

 

Isaiah 58:1-14 (NKJV)
¹  "Cry aloud, spare not; Lift up your voice like a trumpet; Tell My people their transgression, And the house of Jacob their sins.
²  Yet they seek Me daily, And delight to know My ways, As a nation that did righteousness, And did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; They take delight in approaching God.
³  'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?' "In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, And exploit all your laborers.
⁴  Indeed you fast for strife and debate, And to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day, To make your voice heard on high.

Note:  Behavior can make spiritual discipline useless, and we can fool ourselves into thinking that we are right with God without considering how we treat those vulnerable to us.  They love the Word, and love to pray, but still seek pleasure, exploit laborers, strive and debate each other and "strike with a fist of wickedness."

 

BK-Cf. Deuteronomy 24:14-15

"You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether one of your brethren or one of the aliens who is in you land within your gates.  Each day you shall give him his wages, and not let the sun go down on it, for he is poor and has set his heart on it; lest he cry out against you to the Lord, and it be sin to you."

           

Cf. also James 5:1-6

"Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are  coming upon you!  Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.  You gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire.  You have heaped up treasure in the last days.  Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth (Lit. "the Lord of hosts")  You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.  You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you."

Note:  Se we see this continued to be a problem in the days of the New Testament as well.

⁵  Is it a fast that I have chosen, A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, And to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, And an acceptable day to the LORD?
⁶  "Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke?

JFB-to "dissolve every unjust bond", such as slavery, or fraudulent contracts.  Cf. Human trafficking and predatory loans.

 

⁷  Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh?

K&D-“There is a bitter irony in these words, just as when the ancients said, “not eating is a natural fast, but abstaining from sin is a spiritual fast.” During the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans a general emancipation of the slaves of Israelitish descent (who were to be set free, according to the law, every three years) was resolved upon and carried out; but as soon as the Chaldeans were gone, the masters fetched their liberated slaves back into servitude again (Jeremiah_34:8-22). And as Isaiah_58:6 shows, they carried the same selfish and despotic disposition with them into captivity.”

⁸  Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily, And 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 extend your soul to the hungry And satisfy the afflicted soul, Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall be as the noonday.
¹¹  The LORD will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
¹²  Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.

Note:  People like this are like this not because they have charmed lives, but because they are living their best.  They are life-giving to others and are builders of people as well as places.

 

References:

BK-Bible Knowledge Commentary

K&D-Carl F. Keil and  Franz Delitzsch