Fasting - 5

Sermon on the Mount-48

Isaiah 58:1–14 (NLT)

1“Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast. Shout aloud! Don’t be timid. Tell my people Israel of their sins!

2Yet they act so pious! They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to learn all about me. They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its God. They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me.

3‘We have fasted before you!’ they say. ‘Why aren’t you impressed? We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!’ “I will tell you why!” I respond. “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves. Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers.

4What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me.

5You humble yourselves by going through the motions of penance, bowing your heads like reeds bending in the wind. You dress in burlap and cover yourselves with ashes. Is this what you call fasting? Do you really think this will please the Lord?

6“No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people.

7Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

8“Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.

9Then when you call, the Lord will answer. ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply. “Remove the heavy yoke of oppression. Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors!

10Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.

11The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.

12Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities. Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls and a restorer of homes.

13“Keep the Sabbath day holy. Don’t pursue your own interests on that day, but enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight as the Lord’s holy day. Honor the Sabbath in everything you do on that day, and don’t follow your own desires or talk idly.

14Then the Lord will be your delight. I will give you great honor and satisfy you with the inheritance I promised to your ancestor Jacob. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

Isaiah 58:5 (NIV84)

5Is 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?

“Is merely depriving oneself really the kind of fasting that I favor?”

These actions described the typical fast. A person would choose a day to humble and deny himself.

The outward forms the people were going through in the day of their fast did not please God.

The Law never commanded sackcloth and ashes.

It was a way they expressed humility before the Lord, but it had degenerated into putting on an act.

The people followed all the outward forms of fasting.

Many people today also believe: that’s how we should fast.

We are to humble and deny ourselves and bow our heads in mourning.

The Old Testament Library Commentary: No amount of self-mortification can suffice as an action pleasing to God since it all stems from the wrong motivation.

It is, in essence, a pursuit of one’s own affairs, completely self-serving in orientation.

Such extra religious activity is of no value if your conduct stays the same sinful way. God does not command fasts like that.

The people never stopped seeking what they wanted.

They fasted to get God to grant them their desires.

Instead of seeking God and looking to see what He wanted, they went through all the outward forms of fasting in an effort to gain what they wanted.

Always looking to get God’s attention.

Isaiah 58:6 (NIV84)

6“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice (bonds of wickedness, lsb) and untie the cords of the yoke (to release the bands of the yoke, lsb), to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

God does want to bless his people (58:8–9, 10b–12), but that blessing cannot be obtained by cultic manipulation (e.g., fasting to get God to do something).

Only twice in the Old Testament does God command persons to fast.

But in hundreds of places he commands his people to treat other people, especially those weaker than they, with respect, justice, and kindness.

If you want to stop doing something, you can stop oppressing the poor (58:6–7).

Other activities have replaced Israelite rituals, such as church attendance, daily devotions, prayer, tithing, and so on, and these are all liable to the same dangers.

The danger is that we engage in them in order to wring blessings from a God who, we feel, is disinclined to give blessings unless we manipulate him in some way.

Some people mistakenly interpret these verses as a reward for fasting.

Fasting does not result in the loosening of the chains of injustice; fasting consists in the loosening of the chains of injustice.

Isaiah 58:7 (NIV84)

7Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

The traditional practice of fasting is not what God would have chosen, that type of fasting is inward looking and selfish. So what kind of fasting will please him?

True fasting looks outward and is not so much about depriving ourselves as it is about caring for others.

Helping the poor is more important than helping oneself. Feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, and clothing the naked are more important to God than living well oneself.

What is the point of fasting if we do not give what we would have eaten to others?

Self-denial should be for others, not for oneself.

Literal fasting is not excluded, it’s useless when divorced from the spirit of love.

Religion is more than believing in something or being intellectually convinced of a truth. It is actively serving other people.

Your Light

Isaiah 58:8 (NIV84)

8Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

Light = אוֹר ʾôr = it is used of physical light and of God’s light.

The references to light in this teaching refer to God’s light.

Psalm 112:4 (NIV84)

4Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man.

Psalm 97:11 (NIV84)

11Light is shed upon the righteous and joy on the upright in heart.

Matthew 5:14–16 (NIV84)

14“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.

15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.

16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

You are the light of the world.

The light of the world is what we are and not what what we do.

We reflect the light of the Lord by expressing the fruit of the Spirit in our thoughts, words, and actions.

Our behavior must be different from the behavior of other people, just as light is different from darkness. And others must be able to see our light.

Ephesians 5:8–10 (NIV84)

8For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live (walk) as children of light

9(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)

10and find out what pleases the Lord.

Live (walk) = περιπατέω peripateō = to conduct one’s life, comport (conduct) oneself, behave, live as habit of conduct.

to live or behave in a specified manner.

Light dispels Darkness

1 John 1:5 (NIV84)

5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

God is light; not the Light, nor a light, but light; that is his nature. (The Pulpit Commentary)

God is absolute light. There is no darkness in God.

We reflect the Lord’s light.

God’s word gives light and understanding to dark hearts. It dispels physical and spiritual darkness.

John 1:1–5 (NLT)

1In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2He existed in the beginning with God.

3God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.

4The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.

5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

God’s light dispels spiritual darkness.

Wherever there is light, darkness flees. Darkness never overcomes light.

John 8:12 (NIV84)

12When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Jesus is the source of spiritual illumination and salvation for all mankind.

The light of the world includes God’s presence. His presence dispels darkness.

Psalm 89:15 (NIV84)

15Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, O Lord.

Exodus 33:14–16 (NIV84)

14The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

15Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.

16How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

God’s presence is what distinguishes us from all the other people on the face of the earth.

Light brings Understanding

Psalm 119:130 (NIV84)

130The unfolding (entrance, nkjv) of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.

Unfolding = פֵּ֫תַח pētaḥ 1x = becoming open or being made open.

the act of opening something.

To carve (words or art) into a hard object.

Understanding = בִּין bîn = to cause to understand; to cause to know and comprehend the nature or meaning of something.

“I saw the light.”

Idea:

Simple = פֶּ֫תִי petî = simple, naive, someone easily deceived or persuaded.

Reading the Bible throws light

on life,

on all its problems and trials,

on the confusing behavior of other people,

on what is important and what is not,

on right behavior,

right goals, and right priorities.

William D. Mounce: If you have not found this to be true, it is because either you are not really studying the Bible or you are approaching it in a superior or vain frame of mind, judging it by your own limited views rather than allowing it to judge you.

Martin Luther: God’s Word’s gives understanding to the simple. The wisdom of the Bible is hidden from those who are wise in their own eyes but disclosed to those who are “ready, prepared, eager always to be taught, judged, and to hear, rather than to teach, judge and be heard.”

1 Corinthians 2:6–14 (NIV84)

6We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.

7No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.

8None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

9However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”—

10but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

11For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

12We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.

13This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.

14The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The apostles spoke words taught by the Spirit. These words were spiritual words that expressed spiritual truths.

God’s wisdom is secret, or known only to God in the sense that talk of spirituality and wisdom comes to nothing unless God’s Holy Spirit activates the message of the cross and brings it home afresh.

This secret language is the language which the Spirit teaches, interpreting things of the Spirit to people of the Spirit (v. 13).

The unregenerate man cannot understand the spiritual words of the Bible.

The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, will help the believer to understand the spiritual truths expressed in spiritual words.

Only the Bible contains spiritual words that express the spiritual truths of the Lord.

Psalm 25:12–14 (NASB95)

12Who is the man who fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way he should choose.

13His soul will abide in prosperity, And his descendants will inherit the land.

14The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him, And He will make them know His covenant.

Secret = סוֹד sôd = council of God.

close friendship: a friendship characterized by social or emotional intimacy.

God has granted to those who fear Him the ability to know and understand the secret, intimate, and spiritual language of the Spirit that is within the pages of Scripture.

John 15:9–17 (NIV84)

9“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.

10If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

14You are my friends if you do what I command.

15I no longer call you servants (doulos, slaves), because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

17This is my command: Love each other.

Servant (slave) = δοῦλος doulos = a person who is legally owned by someone else and whose entire livelihood and purpose was determined by their master.

Friend = φίλος philos = a person you know well and regard with affection and trust.

Confidant, one to whom a secret is entrusted. not only because all things are common to friends, and not only because the master-disciple relationship is elevated to a friendship relationship, but because people entrust their most intimate and precious secrets only to those whom they love and in whom they have confidence.

When Jesus says, "I no longer call you slaves," he's making an extraordinary statement about transformation of status:

Slaves have no choice, no freedom, no access to their master's private affairs, and no personal relationship beyond ownership,

Friends are equals who share confidences, trust, and intimate knowledge.

The contrast is stark: from owned property to beloved confidants.

In the ancient world, the idea that a master would elevate slaves directly to the status of friends, skipping right over servant/hired hand status, would have been revolutionary. And the basis for this elevation?

The sharing of intimate divine secrets (everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you).

2 Corinthians 4:4 (NIV84)

4The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

People are not blinded because they choose to renounce the gospel; rather, they choose to renounce the gospel because they are blind.

And they are not blind because they choose to be so, but because Satan has made them so.

Spiritually blind people can’t see the Light. They have no spiritual understanding or ability to grasp the truths contained in the secret language of the Spirit.

To whom is this special privilege of knowing and understanding God’s secret language bestowed upon?

We’ll dig into this Next Week!!! (The Lord willing)