58:5
Is a fast only for a day? Is it only about outward show? God has much higher standards, and much higher expectations of us. He is concerned about our whole life, about the heart that is within. God wants change on the inside. Now outward disciplines can play an important part in achieving this, but we need to get the order right.
58:6,7
God then describes the kind of “fast” He actually wants. It is to get rid of injustice and replace it with justice. It is usually the poor who suffer most of the injustices. It is to set people free from oppression in general, to break every yoke. It is to share our food with the hungry and to help the poor. It is to care for our own families. It amazes me that so often this chapter is used as a motivation for fasting in the sense of food fasting. Now there is nothing wrong with food fasting, and it can be a very good discipline, but the focus of this chapter is that there is justice and kindness in our lives.
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