In the first part of this chapter the people are asking why God is not recognizing their fasting. The answer is revealed in the second half of verse 3 and verse 4. The people were fasting in order to please only themselves and while they were fasting they were oppressing and fighting other people. This was why God was not paying attention to them. However, Isiah goes on to point out the kind of fasting that will get God's attention in the following verses.
6"Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? 8Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. 9Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am. 'If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, 10 if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. 11And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. Isiah 58:6-11
Here Isiah shows what true fasting is all about. He says that helping people in need is the form of fasting that the Lord desires. This is what is going to get the Lord's attention.
I recently read the book, "Unchristian" by David Kinnaman. He did extensive research to figure out exactly what people outside the Christian faith thought of Christians. One of the six most common responses was that Christians are judgmental. He explains one of the possible reasons for this in the following statement.
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"What if Christians are perceived as judgmental because we are trying to be popular with the wrong audience? Scripture makes it clear that we exist only to please God. But what if our judgmental attitudes are just posturing to look good to other believers? Are we trying to please God or polishing our holy credentials in front of fellow insiders? Is it possible that part of the reason that Christians have lost their appeal to outsiders is they have lost passion for people outside the church?"
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I can see this in my own life all the time and I agree with Kinnaman that this can be a big problem in the church today. I know that there are times when I can become obssessed with my own righteousness and try my best to appear perfect to others, which always causes me to forget about the people around me. But this is not the goal of the Christian life. The goal is to get out of yourself and to start thinking about others. Obviously, we should still continue to strengthen our personal relationship with Christ but a lot of the time the best way to do that is to reach out and fill the needs of others. This is what Isiah is talking about in the verses above and this was also one of the things that Christ stressed the most. Jesus had quite a few harsh words for many of the Pharisees because they were pursuing their own righteousness and forgetting about the people in need around them. One of the best ways to grow in Christ is to start thinking more about other people and less about yourself.
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