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Isaiah 58:1-12                                               

Thematic overview of the passage:

1. The hypocrisy of people in their fasts, ver. 1 - 5.
2. A true fast described, ver. 6, 7.
3. Promises for those who puruse a Godly Life, ver. 8 - 12.

The message of verses 5-7 is that God does not want, did not request or require, and will not honor or be pleased with, people who offer religious rituals that are unaccompanied by a deep concern for the neediest within their own community and beyond. “Is not this the fast that I choose…caring, feeding, clothing, sharing, and setting the captives free!” That parallels Jesus who condemned the Pharisees who were equally careful about observing every tiny detail of the religious law, but who “ignored the weightier matters of  the law; justice, mercy and faith.” (Matt. 23:23)

Verses 5-6 offer yet another dichotomy that Isaiah wants us to consider - namely, a focus on personal humility in the presence of God that is not matched by true obedience to what God demands from us. There are many people for whom piety is the be-all and end-all of true religion. They keep an accurate count of the hours they spend in church, in choir rehearsal, in a board meeting, in private prayer, in Bible study, and in attendance at various other church events. That involvement in church life seems to them to be a sufficient investment in a relationship with God. (1)

From John Wesleys Commentary of Verse 12:

Guide thee - Like a shepherd. And he adds continually to show that his conduct and blessing shall not be momentary, or of a short continuance, but all along as it was to Israel in the wilderness.
Satisfy - Thou shalt have plenty, when others are in scarcity.
Make fat - This may be spoken in opposition to the sad effects of famine, whereby the flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen, and the bones that were not seen, stick out.
A garden - If thou relieve the poor, thou shalt never be poor, but as a well - watered garden, always flourishing.
Fail not - Heb. deceive not, a metaphor which farther notes also the continuance of this flourishing state, which will not be like a land - flood, or brooks, that will soon be dried up with drought. (2)

Thou shalt be fed with a spring of blessing, that will never fail.

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(1) Marvin McMickle,African-American Commentary at http://www.theafricanamericanlectionary.org/PopupLectionaryReading.asp?LRID=110

(2) John Wesleys Commentary Notes, http://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/wesleys-explanatory-notes/isaiah/isaiah-58.html