Observances of Fasts
“aCry aloud, do not hold back;Lift up your voice like a trumpet,And declare to My people their btransgressionAnd to the house of Jacob their sins.Is 40:6Is 43:27; 50:1; 59:122 “Yet they aseek Me day by day and delight superficially to know My ways,As if they were in reality a nation that has done brighteousnessAnd chas not abandoned the ordinance of their God.They ask of Me righteous judgments,They delight in the dnearness of God.Is 1:11; Titus 1:16Is 48:1; Jer 7:9, 10Is 1:4, 28; 59:13Ps 119:151; Is 29:13; 57:3; James 4:83 ‘Why have we afasted,’ they say, ‘and You do not see it?Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?’Hear this O Israel, on the bday of your fast when you should be grieving for your sins you find something you desire to do,And you force your hired servants to work instead of stopping all work, as the law teaches. Lev 16:29Mal 3:14; Luke 18:12Is 22:12, 13; Zech 7:5, 64 “The facts are that you fast only for astrife and brawling and to strike with the fist of wickedness.You do not fast as you do today to bmake your voice heard on high.Is 3:14, 15; 59:6Is 1:15; 59:2; Joel 2:12-145 “Is a fast such as this what I have chosen, a day for a man to humble himself with sorrow in his soul?Is it only to bow down his head like a reedAnd to make asackcloth and ashes as a bed pretending to have a repentant heart?Do you call this a fast and a day bpleasing to the LORD?1 Kin 21:27Is 49:8; 61:26 “Rather is this not the fast which I choose,To aundo the bonds of wickedness,To tear to pieces the ropes of the yoke,To blet the oppressed go freeAnd cbreak apart every enslaving yoke? Acts 8:23Neh 5:10-12; Jer 34:8Is 1:17Is 58:97 “Is it not to adivide your bread with the hungryAnd bbring the homeless poor into the house;When you see the cnaked, that you cover him,And not to dhide yourself from the needs of your own flesh and blood?Job 31:19, 20; Is 58:10; Ezek 18:7, 16Is 16:3, 4; Heb 13:2Matt 25:35, 36; Luke 3:11Deut 22:1-4; Luke 10:31, 328 “Then your alight will break out like the dawn,And your bhealing will quickly spring forth;Your crighteousness will go before you leading you to peace and prosperity,The glory of the dLORD will be your rear guard. Ex 14:19, 20; Is 52:12Is 58:10Is 30:26; 33:24; Jer 30:17; 33:6Ps 85:13; Is 62:1Ex 14:19; Is 52:129 “Then you will acall, and the LORD will answer;You will cry for help, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’If you btake away from your midst the yoke of oppression,The finger cpointed in scorn toward the oppressed or the godly, and every form of dwicked speech, Ex 3:14Ps 50:15; Is 55:6; 65:24Is 58:6Prov 6:13Ps 12:2; Is 59:1310 And if you aoffer yourself to assist the hungryAnd satisfy the 1need of the afflicted,Then your blight will rise in darknessAnd your gloom will become like midday.Lit soul.Deut 15:7; Is 58:7Job 11:17; Ps 37:6; Is 42:16; 58:811 “And the aLORD will continually guide you,And bsatisfy your soul in scorched and dry places,And cgive strength to your bones;And you will be like a dwatered garden,And like a espring of water whose waters do not fail.Is 49:10; 57:18Ps 107:9; Is 41:17Is 66:14Song 4:15; Is 27:3; Jer 31:12John 4:14; 7:3812 “And your people will arebuild the ancient ruins;You will braise up and restore the age-old foundations of buildings that have been laid waste;You will be called Repairer of the cBreach,Restorer of Streets 1with Dwellings.Lit to dwell.Is 49:8; 61:4; Ezek 36:10Is 44:28Is 30:13; Amos 9:11
Keeping the Sabbath
13 “If you aturn back your foot from 1unnecessary travel on the Sabbath,From doing your own pleasure on My holy day,And call the Sabbath a spiritual bdelight, and the holy day of the LORD honorable,And honor it, not going your cown wayOr 2engaging in your own pleasureOr dspeaking your own idle words,The ancient rabbis established strict limits for travel on the Sabbath, excepting unintentional violations and religious errands. This verse became a rabbinic proof text to rule on whether a person who had put one foot beyond the Sabbath limit for his city could reenter the city. But the Hebrew text may not refer to travel at all; turn back your foot from the Sabbath can be interpreted as an idiom referring to keeping oneself from violating the Sabbath in other ways.Lit finding.Ex 31:16, 17; 35:2, 3; Is 56:2, 4, 6; Jer 17:21-27Ps 27:4; 42:4; 84:2, 10Is 55:8Is 59:1314 Then you will take apleasure in the LORD,And I will make you ride bon the high places of the earth,And I will feed you with the promised heritage of Jacob your father;For the cmouth of the LORD has spoken.” Gen 27:28, 29; 28:13-15Job 22:26; Is 61:10Deut 32:13; 33:29; Is 33:16; Hab 3:19Is 1:20; 40:5