NOT SO FAST

‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You have not seen?'

Isaiah 58:3

Fasting is a fairly popular practice among Christians. It is a religious observance during which one abstains from food or drink, and more recently, things or habits. While fasting can be a helpful or even restorative practice for oneself, the practice of a fast is done quite differently when it is for God.

When a person fasts, the removal of a certain thing allows a space in which a person can focus on God or an aspect of personal character that requires improvement. The meaningfulness of the fast is dependent on fulfillment of the vow made to God; but still, this type of fast is not for God. God described the type of fast that is acceptable to Him in Isaiah 58.

When a personal fast is undertaken with wholehearted and genuine intention, it does not displease God. Character growth is important and somethings things need to be resisted in order to re-align ourselves with the word of God. However, God does not appreciate public, superficial fasting. It was such a fast that caused Him to speak out and describe to us exactly what He expects from a fast we expect to receive His attention from.

• THE CONDITION OF FASTING

It must be understood that God requires any fast to be a private practice of which only oneself and God is aware. If it is done for attention or any other selfish motivation, it will not be acknowledged by God. Jesus explained in Matthew 7:21-23 that there are many people who think they are known by God, because they go through the motions of religious practices, but actually are not:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

This is because some people turn religion into a business or a series of superficial rituals. What they do they do to gain money, followers, attention or power. Even if they truly believe in God, their selfish motivation negates the purpose of their plan. How then do we fast with unselfish motivation? Jesus explained in Matthew 6:16-18:

Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

Do not be a hypocrite. A person who begins a fast meant to be acceptable to God, they cannot be a hypocrite. That means that if they identify themselves as children of God, they must observe and follow the commandments of Him. A hypocrite announces their fast and informs everyone of their progress throughout it. They seek attention and sympathy; they want people to know that they are resisting something so that they will receive praise from their peers. Unfortunately for them, God has decided that those who seek and receive the praise of men will not receive the praise of God. In their heart, they wanted the attention of humans not God and so they received their reward.

But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: ...

Instead, Jesus taught us to fast privately. He instructed children of God to fast so privately that they even put effort into keeping it private. By keeping a fast private, one announces to God that their fast is for Him exclusively. They do not want or need or value the attention of people, their striving is done because they want, need and value the attention of God. They have chosen to resist something in order to prove their strength of faith, their dependence on God, and their willingness to remove anything from their lives but God.

... and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

Ironically, a private fast results in a public reward. Much better than the attention or praise of people, divine rewards from God are permanent, extraordinary, meaningful, purposeful, heartfelt.

• "IS IT A FAST THAT I HAVE CHOSEN?"

The truth is that God does not chose for His children to deprive themselves of food or water. If such a fast helps a person with their faith or mindset, well and good, Jesus explained how to undertake such a fast in a godly manner. But God always teaches His children to look outward, beyond ourselves. If one is going to fast something, God prefers that it be their personal pursuits. 

“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?

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?

Isaiah 58:6-7

As it turns out... God requires quite a bit of effort from His children in the process of their fast.  He requires vigilant observation, active compassion, and unselfish dedication. God wants His children to be trained in the art of recognizing injustice and dismantling its grip on His children. He wants His children to assist people who are overburdened in life, pushed beyond their limits, inadequately equipped to handle their situation. He wants His children to confront oppressors and subsequently free their captives. God wants His children to break the bond between not just a person and their oppressor but a person and their addiction or depression. 

God wants His children to feed the people who are hungry. There are many hungers: hunger for food, hunger for the word of God, hunger for friendship, hunger for compassion, hunger for opportunity, knowledge, peace, hunger for a reason to have hope. As a child of God, equipped with the Word of God, one is prepared to fill each of these types of hunger. 

God wants His children to befriend the lonely, the ostracized, the meek. Like Jesus did, He wants His children to seek out not the people they can benefit from, but the people they can be a benefit to. Not as martyrs or angels or saints but as servants of the Lord, sharing the blessings they have that came from Him. God wants His children to bring their house to the uncovered. Include people, invite people, host people in your heart in your prayers, plans and intentions.

If one notices someone who is naked, bared to vulnerability and loneliness and the cruelty of the world, cover them. Arm them with the strength and love of God, first through acknowledgement, then through assistance, friendship and finally faith. God instructs humanity not to hide themselves from their own flesh, to be present and involved in lives and well-being of the people around.

“If you take away the yoke from your midst,

The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,

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.

Isaiah 58:9b;10

At the very least, do not contribute to the problem. Do not observe but neglect. Fast the habit of mocking, gossip and slander and cruelty. Do not extend a finger to laugh at someone, extend the soul to satisfy an afflicted one. When one does so, their fast is then appreciated by God.

• A WATERED GARDEN

Quite the opposite of "I never knew you" (Matthew 7:23), when God dismissed the culprit of the false fast, God warmly acknowledges the participant of the true fast.

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.

Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;

You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’

Isaiah 58:8;9a

God makes Himself present and available to His children who call on Him from a place of righteousness. When they call on Him, He will answer. God is receptive to the prayers of the righteous and He is diligent to fulfill them: His divine response is an open reward. Access to the storehouses of God's blessings is the open reward of the private, philanthropic fast. The fast, undertaken in privacy, yields blessings so enormous and great that they're visible to everyone around. 

God's attention and compassion and presence and assistance and comfort and guidance and friendship and love and strength in every moment and detail of life is the reward of the righteous. The implementation of God's will, which always works all things together for the good, is the reward of the life of the righteous. 

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.

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."

Isaiah 58:11-12

God never forgets that while His child is out there helping others, they are in need of help themselves. Therefore He becomes their help. When conditions and situations cause them to become as weary and desolate as a desert, He waters them. He tends to them so comprehensively that they are liked a watered garden: blooming, thriving, producing. He is the reinforcement of strength on their bones; the motivation to rise and seek and assist. He restores His child, pours a firm foundation, and builds a safe and strong place for them to dwell.

• SUPERFICIAL FAITH

 “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath,

From doing your pleasure on My holy day,

And call the Sabbath a delight,

The holy day of the Lord honorable,

And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways,

Nor finding your own pleasure,

Nor speaking your own words,

Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord;

And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth,

And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father.

The mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Isaiah 58:13-14 

God wants His children to discard that superficial faith. He does not want them to go through the motions of traditions men have established. Public fasting and abstinence of foods do not make the impact the world desperately needs. Selfish motivations and practices are not acknowledged as evidence of faith. 

It is not one's own way, own pleasure, or own words which capture the attention and appreciation of God. God is honored when behavior is consistent and aligned with His will. And when one's behavior is consistently aligned with God's word and will, one is acknowledged and blessed extraordinarily by Him.

HERE AM I

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,

Because the Lord has anointed Me

To preach good tidings to the poor;

He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,

To proclaim liberty to the captives,

And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 

To console those who mourn in Zion,

To give them beauty for ashes,

The oil of joy for mourning,

The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;

That they may be called trees of righteousness,

The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”

Isaiah 61:2;3

The kingdom of Judah was failing; it was weak and its people were corrupt. It had once been a strong and righteous place, established, reinforced and blessed by God Himself. It had been a kingdom build by divine intervention for the children of God; that is: the twelve tribes which had committed themselves to Him. They followed God and He led them directly into blessing.

Then they began to falter in their commitment to God. They began to neglect their relationship with Him and consequently reject His commandments, choosing instead the lifestyle of the corrupt nations around them. They were immoral and cruel, stubborn and arrogant. Steadily their values changed and descended until they were unrecognizable to the people they once were. 

But God still recognized them; He still claimed them as His own. He still accepted responsibility of them. Knowing that the people had blocked out His voice, God decided to try to reach them through another's: Isaiah. 

• CALLED

God assists us and teaches because He loves us, but His love for us extends beyond self-improvement and well-being. He has also assigned purpose and influence to us and our lives, respectively. In order to receive that purpose, we have to approach God... and the presence of God is a wonderful but peculiar place to be.

For to be in the presence of God is to be juxtaposed perfection. Before God we are completely bared and prevented from being anything but utterly honest. In the presence of perfection, our imperfections are excruciatingly apparent. Such was the case for Isaiah, who when called to stand before God, cried out in a blaze of humility his own unworthiness:

“Woe is me, for I am undone!

Because I am a man of unclean lips,

And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;

For my eyes have seen the King,

The Lord of hosts.”

Isaiah 6:5 

The experience is excruciatingly humbling to us, but we are not called to stand before God in shame. We are called to stand before God to have that shame removed. And that is exactly what God did for Isaiah. The grace of God permeated through Isaiah's humility and qualified him to be a prophet, an agent and messenger of God.

We stand before God somewhat less visually fantastically than Isaiah did, (I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!”) but the experience is the same. 

Just as God restored Isaiah, so is His grace willing to restore us. Daily (and ultimately lifetime) commitment to God qualifies us for the purpose He has called us to. Every day God provides lessons that strengthen us and equip us with the implements we need to be righteously proactive and patiently compassionate. We must be receptive to the voice of God because He will call to purpose, and then He will ask: "whom shall I send?"

• WHOM SHALL I SEND?

... Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, 'The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.'

Matthew 9:35-36

Think of that moment in a dramatic, action-packed war movie when the protagonist is elbow-deep in chaos. Suddenly everything is in slow motion and soundless as the protagonist surveys their surroundings and realizes precisely how inadequate their forces compared to what needs to be done. Jesus experienced that moment. He was tirelessly teaching, preaching and healing day after day after day, an agent of God working without any fellow-workers. He looked up and saw multitudes of people who needed and there were simply not enough people working to fill their needs. 

Then He said to His disciples, 'The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.'

Matthew 9:37-38

We naturally wonder ourselves "whom will God send?" We wonder when we read that scripture and we wonder in our own lives today. We witness injustice and disparity and we want to know who God will send to combat it? Well, returning to the book of Isaiah, God asked the same question: "Whom shall I send?" And the answer is: the person who elects to go. 

Isaiah did: "Here am I! Send me." Elect to be the person sent forth by God. God will reveal His purpose to each individual who asks and their potential portion within it. Once received, one must then accept it. When one experiences what Jesus experienced, that there is need in the world that needs to be, but is not, filled, once must elect to be sent into the field.

• WALK WORTHY OF THE CALLING 

Isaiah elected to go forth into Judah with a bold and ominous warning from God for them. But Isaiah was not sent to judge them or punish them. It was not even God's intention that Isaiah should threaten or frighten them. Isaiah was sent to inform them. Isaiah's job was the re-introduce principles of righteousness and to remind of the subsequent consequences of unrighteousness.

They had neglected and then forgotten the laws and commandments of God. "Laws and commandments" seem heavy and fearsome but ultimately it means that they forgot the importance of living righteously. The forgot how to be kind and wise and fair. They forgot the value of honesty and patience and mercy and loyalty.

So much of our purpose here is to embody the Word of God, to emulate Jesus as best as we can. After all, the influence of what one does contributes more to the fulfillment of their purpose than much of what one could say. Words of the apostle Paul reiterate this point: 

I, therefore,...beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Ephesians 4:1-3 

Isaiah was equipped with the word of God, and so must any sent one be. Because of his knowledge and familiarity with God's principles, he was readily able to discern between righteous and unrighteous behavior. He was able to speak truth and therefore contend with injustice, properly forewarn iniquitous behavior, and separate his own behavior from from it. We cannot be effective or anointed agents of God without those skills (but if we are with Him, we have them). 

But in order for Isaiah's words to have any traction or impact or credibility at all he needed to walk worthy of the calling to which he was called. In other words, he needed to practice what he preached. He needed to live and thus exemplify the lifestyle and doctrine he brought to the people of Judah. To be a leader or speaker within or for the Kingdom of God is foremost to serve as a participant of it. 

In order to walk worthy, one must learn to think worthy:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Philippians 4:8 

The efficacy and fulfillment of our purpose is wholly dependent on our self-disciplined ability to remain steadfastly committed to the alignment of our body, mind, and soul with God's word and will. Our relationship with God and every lesson from Him retrains our brain (and subsequently our behavior) to produce righteousness from precisely before even the inception of any thought, word or action. 

Paul continued the above verse with this:  

Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4:9 

 Whom will God send? The one who elects to go. To do what? To put into practice the Word of God.

God did not call Isaiah or even Jesus to speak caustically or judgmentally. The basis of everything God does is not to frighten but to soothe, not to punish but to correct, not to harm but to heal. Caustic, hateful, judgmental speech is frightening and serves only as a barrier between a person and their potential relationship with God (or restoration to him). Hypocritical speech does even worse damage, even if it is not outwardly caustic or judgmental in nature.

God sent them to be informed examples of the Word of God. The intention is not to lambaste (though in cases of extreme evil and injustice it cannot all times be avoided) but to teach. God did not send Isaiah to doom them but to rescue them. God did not send Isaiah to shame them but to re-introduce to them to opportunity of redemption. God did not send Isaiah to vex or scare or flaunt or condemn... He sent Isaiah to re-gather His children. He sent Isaiah to remind them of the lifestyle that would heal and bless them. He sent Isaiah to, essentially, put up road signs so that the people would stop getting lost or harmed on meandering, unsafe, paths.

When God asks whom? Answer: Here Am I. When God calls, answer: Send Me. Once sent forth, endeavor to embody the word of God and surely, nearly inadvertently, your purpose will be fulfilled.