Read & explore together
True Fasts and Sabbaths
Isaiah 58:1–14 challenges outward religion that ignores other people. The passage contrasts fasting that looks humble with the kind of worship God chooses, then adds teaching about honouring the Sabbath.
Understanding the passage
The setting of this message
In this passage, God tells the speaker to announce Jacob’s sins, even though the people seem eager to seek God and ask for his judgments. They complain that their fasting is unnoticed, and the answer exposes oppression, quarrelling, selfish pleasure, and misuse of the Sabbath.
Isaiah 58:1–14Main takeaway
This passage teaches that the worship God chooses joins humility before him with justice, mercy, and honouring his holy day.
Explore the message
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01A sharp message to religious peopleThe passage begins with a command to speak loudly about sin. The surprise is that these people still seek God daily and delight to know his ways.
Explanation
The passage begins with a command to speak loudly about sin. The surprise is that these people still seek God daily and delight to know his ways. Their outward behaviour looks serious, but God says disobedience is still present. The problem is not lack of religious action, but hypocrisy within it.
02Why their fasting is rejectedThe people ask why God has not noticed their fasting. The answer is direct: on the very day they fast, they pursue their own pleasure, oppress their labourers, and stir up strife and violence.
Explanation
The people ask why God has not noticed their fasting. The answer is direct: on the very day they fast, they pursue their own pleasure, oppress their labourers, and stir up strife and violence. Bowed heads, sackcloth, and ashes do not make a fast acceptable by themselves.
03The fast God choosesGod describes the fast he has chosen in practical terms. It includes releasing wicked bonds, undoing yokes, freeing the oppressed, sharing bread with the hungry, welcoming the poor, clothing the naked, and not hiding from one’s own flesh.
Explanation
God describes the fast he has chosen in practical terms. It includes releasing wicked bonds, undoing yokes, freeing the oppressed, sharing bread with the hungry, welcoming the poor, clothing the naked, and not hiding from one’s own flesh. This is worship expressed through justice and mercy toward people.
04What follows true mercyAfter these commands come repeated promises introduced by “then” and “if”. Light, healing, answered prayer, guidance, strength, and refreshment are linked with removing oppression, accusing gestures, wicked speech, and caring for the hungry and afflicted.
Explanation
After these commands come repeated promises introduced by “then” and “if”. Light, healing, answered prayer, guidance, strength, and refreshment are linked with removing oppression, accusing gestures, wicked speech, and caring for the hungry and afflicted. The images of a watered garden and rebuilding ruined places show restoration and steady help.
05Honouring the SabbathThe passage closes by teaching about the Sabbath. God calls his people to turn from doing their own pleasure and their own words on his holy day, and instead call the Sabbath a delight and honour it.
Explanation
The passage closes by teaching about the Sabbath. God calls his people to turn from doing their own pleasure and their own words on his holy day, and instead call the Sabbath a delight and honour it. Then delight in Yahweh is set before them, because Yahweh himself has spoken.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What shows that the people were religious, yet still sinful?
Notice how they seek God daily and ask for his judgments, yet God still tells that their disobedience and sins must be declared.
02Which actions make their fasting unacceptable?
Look for the behaviours named on the day of the fast, including oppression, strife, violent striking, and selfish pleasure.
03How does the passage connect honouring the Sabbath with delight in Yahweh?
Compare the instruction not to do their own ways, pleasure, or words on the holy day with the closing promise about delighting in Yahweh.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Isaiah 58:1–14
1“Cry aloud! Don’t spare! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Declare to my people their disobedience, and to the house of Jacob their sins.
2Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways. As a nation that did righteousness, and didn’t forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to God.
3‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you don’t see? Why have we afflicted our soul, and you don’t notice?’ “Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and oppress all your laborers.
4Behold, you fast for strife and contention, and to strike with the fist of wickedness. You don’t fast today so as to make your voice to be heard on high.
5Is this the fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to humble his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under himself? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Yahweh?
6“Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?
7Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?
8Then your light will break out as the morning, and your healing will appear quickly; then your righteousness shall go before you, and Yahweh’s glory will be your rear guard.
9Then you will call, and Yahweh will answer. You will cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away from among you the yoke, finger pointing, and speaking wickedly;
10and if you pour out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise in darkness, and your obscurity will be as the noonday;
11and Yahweh will guide you continually, satisfy your soul in dry places, and make your bones strong. You will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters don’t fail.
12Those who will be of you will build the old waste places. You will raise up the foundations of many generations. You will be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Paths with Dwellings.
13“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of Yahweh honorable, and honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words,
14then you will delight yourself in Yahweh, and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father;” for Yahweh’s mouth has spoken it.