CHAPTER 58
SCRIPTURE: CHAPTER 58, VS 1&2
1 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.
APPLICATION: CHAPTER 58, VS 1&2
There are many people who want to please God, but they haven’t come to a pure, personal relationship with Him. They have been attending church, obeying church laws, but their hearts have not been stripped bear before the Lord.
SCRIPTURE: CHAPTER 58, VS 3
Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.
APPLICATION: CHAPTER 58, VS 3
“We’ve fasted, we’ve sacrificed our pleasures, gone without food, obeyed every church law, gone to services regularly—why doesn’t God find pleasure in that?” “Behold!” God says, “It’s precisely these things that keep you from Me—you rely on these things to please your God. (Psalm 51:16 & 17)
SCRIPTURE: CHAPTER 58, VS 4
Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
APPLICATION: CHAPTER 58, VS 4
God says, “You obey the laws, and make public shows for others, so they think you are holy, but in your heart, you kill others with your unkind thoughts.”
SCRIPTURE: CHAPTER 58, VS 5
Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?
APPLICATION: CHAPTER 58, VS 5
God says, “Is this what I want from you—to act pious on the outside?”
SCRIPTURE: CHAPTER 58, VS 6
Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
APPLICATION: CHAPTER 58, VS 6
This is what God wants from us—to dig deep into our hearts and loose the bonds of wickedness—to be truly honest with ourselves and God so he can undo the heavy burdens of our hearts and set our oppressed souls free.
SCRIPTURE: CHAPTER 58, VS 7
Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
APPLICATION: CHAPTER 58, VS 7
He wants us to give of ourselves to Him and to others, both in material and spiritual goods, and “Hide not thyself from thy own flesh.” —We do this by being truly honest with ourselves, and digging deep and being honest with Him.
SCRIPTURE: CHAPTER 58, VS 8
Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward.
APPLICATION: CHAPTER 58, VS 8
Then, and only then, will we see His light. We will be enlightened and recreated in Spirit—born again—and reap all the rights of a Child of God!!!
SCRIPTURE: CHAPTER 58, VS 9
Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
APPLICATION: CHAPTER 58, VS 9
Jesus is there when we speak honestly to Him. He will always answer us, and we will hear Him if we take off the yoke of pride in thinking we can please Him of ourselves, pointing the finger at others and saying that we’re doing more for the church, mankind, community, etc.
SCRIPTURE: CHAPTER 58, VS 10
And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day:
APPLICATION: CHAPTER 58, VS 10
And if we stop thinking of ourselves, both materially and spiritually, and put others first, then we will see the light and we will have no darkness—for selfishness is darkness.
SCRIPTURE: CHAPTER 58, VS 11
And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
APPLICATION: CHAPTER 58, VS 11
God guides us continually. He makes our lives as they should be. He will re-make our minds and souls to become more and more like Him, and the Living Water of Christ nourishes us. He cannot steer us wrong. He is perfect and will guide us to perfection, slowly, day by day.
SCRIPTURE: CHAPTER 58, VS 12
And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
APPLICATION: CHAPTER 58, VS 12
We Christians are the bridges between the people and Christ, Who is their salvation. Through our testimony and our living His Word, putting it into the earth, we help Him restore the breach made by Adam and Eve and help open the door to bring many people to the Lord and Salvation.
SCRIPTURE: CHAPTER 58, VS 13-14
13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
APPLICATION: CHAPTER 58, VS 13-14
When we follow God’s Word in our lives—living only by the Spirit, only speaking what the Spirit leads us to speak, then God will guide us in this life in all our ways and give us the promises in His Word as He leads us through life in His Will for us.
END OF CHAPTER 58