3 ‘Why have we fasted, and you see it not?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ – Isaiah 58:3
Fast
Quite a few years ago I had to do a medical fast. For at least a week every meal, including breakfast, consisted of the same soup. With each passing day this bland broth became more difficult to stomach. But I had no choice. It was the soup or nothing. With the first few days of fasting I craved fudged striped shortbread cookies; I ended my fast with scrambled eggs and green beans. Amazing how things change as you experience hunger pangs. I’m talking more about perspective than diet. Too often our minds live in a fudged striped shortbread world when they belong in a scrambled eggs and green beans one. If only we could maintain a proper perspective.
Not So
In today’s passage from Isaiah, we hear the Israelite’s lamenting that God is ignoring their fast. They complain that despite their humility, God is not cognizant of their self-denial. But God sees much more clearly than the complaining Israelites do. While they profess humility, God charges them with arrogance and presumption.
The charges God brings against the “fasting” Israelites are quite condemning. While they claim to be denying themselves, God says that they are in actuality seeking their own pleasure. At the same time they are oppressing all of their workers. Humble?
In addition, they are guilty of “fighting and quarreling and hitting with a wicked fist”. Does this sound like humility? Not to God. He tells the Israelites that this behavior will not make their voices heard. At least not by Him.
God then tells the Israelites that no amount of show can cover such an attitude. He warns them that bowing their heads like a reed and spreading sackcloth and ashes under them will not make their actions acceptable. This is no fast!
Humble Beginnings
In Leviticus chapter 16 God decrees the Day of Atonement. It is a day in which the Israelites are to afflict (deny) themselves and do no work. It is a special day to meditate on the seriousness of one’s sins and, by way of contrast, the greatness of God in making a way of atonement for them. When the Day of Atonement was initially decreed, I don’t think the seriousness of sin would have been easily overlooked. Certainly not by Aaron.
Aaron’s two sons, Nadab and Abihu, had put incense in their censers and offered “unauthorized” fire before the Lord. They tried to approach God in a manner contrary to His command and were immediately consumed from a fire that came out of the presence of the Lord. Upon the death of his two son, Moses reminded Aaron of the words of God.
“‘Among those who approach me
I will be proved holy;
in the sight of all the people
I will be honored.’” – Leviticus 10:3
Specific Instructions
Now, as He decrees the Day of Atonement, God gives very specific instructions in regards to how the anointed and consecrated priest is to enter the Holy Place behind the veil. Great caution was to be taken by the priest as he came before the mercy seat over which the presence of God was manifested in a cloud. God specified to Aaron what he was to wear, the fact that he was to bathe, what and how he was to sacrifice, etc.
Further, included in what Aaron was to offer on the Day of Atonement were instructions on what he was to put into the censer. I am sure that as he received these instructions his heart was heavy as he was reminded of the death of his two sons who offered the unauthorized fire before the Lord. Aaron must have been greatly humbled as he was reminded of the sins of his sons. Precisely the effect the Day of Atonement was to have on the Israelites.
Fast Lessons
I am all for discipline. I certainly recommend the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, meditation, etc. But I believe we can learn a lesson from Isaiah chapter fifty-eight in which God condemns the Israelites for their hypocritical fasting. I believe it is in many ways an Old Testament parallel of Matthew chapter 23 in which Jesus condemns the Pharisees for their hypocrisy. What good was their tithes of mint, dill and cumin when they were neglecting the weightier matters of the law; justice and mercy and faithfulness. Unfortunately, tithing dill is much easier than showing mercy. But as I mentioned earlier, we often have a difficult time with perspective. To our shame we need to be reminded that justice, mercy and faithfulness are “weightier” matters than mint, dill and cumin.
Whereas Jesus shamed the pharisees for making a mockery of tithing, Isaiah shamed the Israelites for making a mockery of fasting. Read Isaiah chapter fifty-eight and look at how God describes the fast He would choose. Instead of false humility evidenced by a bowed head and the spreading of sackcloth and ashes, God desires that His people deprive themselves for the benefit of the needy. They are to do such things as “loose the bonds of wickedness”, “share their bread with the hungry”, “bring the homeless poor into their homes”, “cover the naked”, etc. (vs. 6 & 7).
So What?
How easy it is to be serious about “religion” and miss what is most important. While the Israelites and the Pharisees may have been sincere about their fasting and their tithing, their actions were met not with Divine pleasure but Divine disgust. They misunderstood the heart of God. His heart that wants to be loved and worshiped for His greatness in making a way of atonement for us.
The Israelites complained that God was ignoring their fast. God responded by showing them that they weren’t truly fasting. To them fasting had become a tool of manipulation. If only they would deprive themselves, God would owe them; much like putting money into a vending machine. This is not only far from the humility God wanted displayed when He instituted fasting; it is paganism. It is idolatry; worshiping our desires instead of conceding to God’s.
God doesn’t need our tithes. He certainly doesn’t want the false fasting condemned in Isaiah chapter fifty-eight. Why do we think we need to manipulate God for gifts when He has given us everything in Christ?
Fragrant Incense
Nadab and Abihu were killed because of the unauthorized fired they brought before God in their censers. The Israelites and Pharisees were condemned for putting religion and ritual before relationship(s). I realize that we will not be condemned because we are covered by the blood of Christ, but I can’t help but wonder how much of our “religion” is nothing more than a stench before the face of God.
I am thankful that we live in an age of grace, but the real question is this: Does the grace of God flow out of us and onto those around us? After all, isn’t that why the Israelites and Pharisees were being condemned? God’s concern is with relationships and not formal religion. As Christians we have experienced the grace and mercy of God and are expected to extend the same to others. God not only tells us such in Isaiah chapter fifty-eight, but Jesus tells us the same in Matthew chapter twenty-five, shortly after He condemned the Pharisees for their hypocrisy.
We need the spiritual disciplines. We need to pray, fast, meditate, serve, etc. in true humility. We need to remember the purpose of the Day of Atonement; reflecting on our sins and God’s infinite grace. When we practice the spiritual disciplines may we do so not to manipulate God but to be conformed to the image of Christ. When His nature is so much a part of ours that it overflows from us in the form of sincere love and service for our fellow man, especially those that are weaker than us, our sacrifice will be a pleasing aroma to God. Such is worship, the most important Christian discipline.
15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ. – 2 Corinthians 2:15-17