Isaiah 58-60

“Why have we fasted, and you see it not?” (58:3).  Through Isaiah, God declared that He didn’t respond to the Israelites “fasting” because it was self-centered religious ritual.  Real worship includes following God’s compassionate heart: giving food to the hungry, freedom to the oppressed, and refuge to the homeless (v6-7).  If you will do this, God declared to Israel, “Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily” (58:8).

In Christ, we are called to live as ambassadors of God’s coming kingdom, where “violence shall no more be heard in your land … you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise” (60:18).