The Lord says to the prophet Isaiah: "Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to My people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins." (Isaiah 58:1) The people think they are basically okay because they are still (at least partially) following the laws the Lord gave them. A lot of them are still bringing the prescribed offerings they were commanded to bring. But something has gone very wrong in their hearts. This is like someone who attends church every Sunday but who isn't living according to what they hear in church on Sundays.
Have you ever known anyone who pretty much completely ignores the Lord in regard to how they are living but who call on Him only when they are in trouble or only when they need to make a big decision? That's what we see happening in these next verses. "For day after day they seek Me out; they seem eager to know My ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commandments of its God. They ask Me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. 'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and You have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and You have not noticed?'" (Isaiah 58:2-3a)
They ignore the Lord until trouble comes, then they pause and take a day to fast and call out to God. But they don't acknowledge and repent of the ways they've been rebellious. They don't forsake their wrongdoing. Even while they are fasting, they are sinning, as He points out below.
"Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high." (Isaiah 58:3b-4) They call out to the Lord but they keep on living as they please. They don't repent of anything that may have brought this trouble upon them. They even get angry and irritable while fasting and get into fights with each other and mistreat their workers.
Because their hearts aren't right, no amount of putting on a show of humility is going to help them. Rending their clothing, lying on the ground, and flinging dust on themselves---which are intended to symbolize sorrowful hearts---means nothing if their hearts aren't really sorrowful. The Lord sees through all of this. "Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?" (Isaiah 58:5)
In our next study session we will see what the Lord considers an acceptable fast and an acceptable display of sorrow.
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