Yesterday we read perhaps the most important passage regarding the Messiah in the Old Testament, Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12, with its graphic account of what Christ suffered for our sins and why he did it.

In today’s reading, Isaiah 58 just might be the most important passage in the Old Testament for a nation that wants God’s favor. It was written to Israel, but it applies to all of us.

Isaiah 58

Buried deep in Isaiah 58 is a description of the blessings any nation hopes to have from God.

“. . . your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called the Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings . . . then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.” Isaiah 58:10-12, 14

Isaiah wrote his prophecies for the nation of Israel, but we can apply what he wrote to any nation in the world. This chapter of Isaiah is a manual for national success inspired by God himself. If we want to live in the peace and freedom only God can provide we need to know what he says here.

The Troubles of a Nation

When we are in trouble as a nation, we grieve and lament and want to know why. We remember our noble heritage; we believe we are basically good people, and that we deserve better than this. We start to think that something sinister has crept in among us and wants to overthrow us.

But is it really something “outside” that is attacking us? Or is there something wrong “inside” that undermines us? And does God have a remedy for our national troubles? Isaiah 58 has answers for these questions.

But the biggest question of all is, are we willing to do what God asks of us in order for him to bless us?

Fake Worship

God wasn’t ready to bless Israel at the beginning of Isaiah 58. He told Isaiah to make an announcement in a voice as loud as a trumpet that his people were in trouble.

“Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.” Isaiah 58:1

Then God listed the things Israel did that offended him.

First on the list was hypocrisy. The people showed up at the temple as if they wanted to know the Lord, but their hearts were far from him. They inquired of him and they even fasted to show their obedience, but they didn’t get a reply from the Lord.

“‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’” Isaiah 58:3

Apparently they were not receiving the blessings found in Isaiah 58:11-12. Instead their experience was more like Isaiah 59:9-11:

“So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows. Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way like people without eyes. At midday we stumble as if it were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead . . . We look for justice, but find none; for deliverance, but it is far away.” Isaiah 59:9-11

Why would worshipers of God have that experience? And why did God think his people were hypocrites?

The Reason for God’s Displeasure

When God looked at his fasting people on the Sabbath he remembered what he had seen them doing all the rest of the week.

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling 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 58:3-5

Selfish, greedy people who exploited their workers were running the nation and they made God angry. He was disgusted with their posturing and displays of piety at the temple when they used the rest of the week to practice injustice.

“Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?” Isaiah 58:5

God used this time of displeasure and estrangement from his people as a teachable moment. Instead of punishing them, he decided to instruct them so they could avoid punishment. The lesson was all about God’s views on justice.

God’s Idea of Justice

“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 and break every yoke?” Isaiah 58:6

Who are the oppressed God talks about here?

It’s not hard to locate the people who are oppressed and held down by heavy yokes in a society. They are the people born into poverty, deprived of education, and denied opportunities throughout their lives. As targets of all kinds of prejudice, we see them among the homeless, poor, and hungry people on the streets of our cities.

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen . . . Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” Isaiah 58:6-7

Sometimes it’s hard to connect to these people because they have a lot of problems. Often their families don’t function very well; they may have fallen into addictions, and they don’t seem to be responsible enough to hold down a job and live a normal life. They don’t look or act the way we think they should. They come from messy backgrounds and might even have criminal records.

God Forbids Finger Pointing

When a bound black man died under the knee of a police officer recently it provoked a lot of rage and public debate. Many people felt the death was a murder and that the man died unjustly. However, after citing various petty crimes the man had committed in the past, someone on Facebook concluded, “He did it to himself.”

God doesn’t allow that kind of finger pointing. He says that the way for a nation to escape their darkness is to stop accusing and condemning the oppressed and become active in helping them.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing of fingers and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will be like the noonday.” Isaiah 58:9-10

We make a mistake when we think that the problems of others are not our problems. God points out that hunger, oppression, poverty, and injustice darken the life of the whole nation. The light we do have gradually fades to black as we fail to care for the oppressed, especially after God brings it vividly to our attention.

God wants to end oppression. Fortunately, Jesus Christ followed God’s plan for that, so we can get in line behind him as his disciples and walk in his footsteps.

Good News for the Oppressed

The day Jesus launched his public ministry he went to a synagogue and used Isaiah 61:1-2 to announce his mission.

“The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4:17-19

Israel had always expected the Messiah to come as a conquering king and end their oppression. They thought he would take on the Roman government with a divine display of power and set them free. They actually tried to force Jesus into that role, but he walked away from their efforts to crown him.

Jesus didn’t go to the center of power to fulfill his mission; he walked dusty roads through remote villages, looking for the sick, the demon-possessed, the blind, and society’s outcasts. The disciples who followed him learned how to serve God by doing what he did.

If we want to heal our whole nation, we need to do what Jesus did: Start by caring for one oppressed person – and then just keep going. That is what will bring light to our darkness and make us a nation worthy of God’s blessing.