The Fast God Actually Wants

Israel is fasting hard and asking God why he isn't noticing. Isaiah 58:3 English - ESV Isaiah's answer is not gentle: your fast ends in quarreling and striking each other while you starve yourselves. That is not the fast I chose.

Isaiah 58:4 English - ESV

Then Isaiah names the fast God actually wants: loose the chains of injustice, share your bread with the hungry, bring the homeless poor into your house. Isaiah 58:6-7 English - ESV Real religion, according to Isaiah, looks like a housing plan and a labor policy before it looks like a ritual.

This is not a new idea being invented here. It is the same charge Amos and Micah bring Micah 6:8 English - ESV: God has already told you what is good. The prophets do not add a new command, they keep pointing back at one that everyone conveniently forgot.

Isaiah 58:7 English - ESV

If your spiritual practice never costs you anything toward the person who has less than you, Isaiah says it is not the fast God is looking for.

This is who Isaiah says the fast is for. Not an abstract idea, an actual person in front of you.

Isaiah 58 Berean Standard Bible - Bob Souer