Song # 2093 from Our Gospel In Song Collection by Col Johnston. In Isaiah chapter 58 we read that God’s people cannot ‘fast’ as God commands while they tend to do whatever they want. Fasting - going without food was a way of showing sorrow, or of asking for God’s help (NIV).
Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins (Isaiah 58:1). For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for decisions and seem eager for God to come near to them (Isaiah 58:2). “Why have we fasted” they say “and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?” Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers (Isaiah 58:3). Your fasting ends in quarrelling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high (Isaiah 58:4). Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? (Isaiah 58:5). Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free? (Isaiah 58:6).
Thought for today: for eternal life it’s not what you know but who you know.
Thought for the future: face your sins, repent, and put them behind you. Where will you spend your eternity?