This week I read Isaiah 58, the inscription in my bible labels this chapter “True and False Fasting” . The big question that Isaiah seeks to answer is this: What does real worship of the God of the bible look like? Is it about rituals? Is it about rites? Is the worship of God an outward performance? A checklist to be accomplished? The answer is a resounding NO!
Those that Isaiah was writing about fasted, but only in ways that made them feel righteous, but didn’t actually produce righteousness in them. It was for show and not for real. Matthew Henry once wrote:
“A fast is a day to afflict the soul; if it does not express true sorrow for sin, and does not promote the putting away of sin, it is not a fast.”
When we read this passage, we see that God expected more from His people. He expected them, when they fasted, to reflect His character, to develop in themselves His own heart. Their fasting should have led them to care for others, especially those in suffering. When a Christian reads this passage, we should see the need to cultivate the heart of Christ in each and every one of us. We need to see the world around us through the eyes of our savior. Jesus tended to the needs around Him as an act of his own grace. Our love for what God has done for us in Christ is to live out His mercy, to overflow with His love. As a Christian, I need to seek to ease the suffering of those less fortunate. With the gospel and through physical care. It is interesting to me how many times the bible equates godly character with social care. Theologian F.B. Meyer wrote:
The divorce between outward rites and inward piety has been the curse of every age. When the Pharisees were plotting our Lord’s death, they refused to enter Pilate’s hall. Not the bowed head, but the broken heart; not the sackcloth and ashes of the flesh, but the contrition of the soul!
Why do we care for the needs of others? Because we are broken by our own selfishness and sin. Why do we reach out? Because our savior has already reached out to us in our time of need. He has done so much for us that we cannot help but be moved by the plight of others.
Pastor Jonathan Welch
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