Page 121 - Isaiah Student Worktext

V. 4-5 To fast for selfish gain is not to fast at all. Although it certainly has benefits, God tells us that
fasting from food is not what He is seeking from us.

V. 6 This may be one of the most important verses in the Bible for understanding the ministry of mercy.
God’s desire is that we fast, not from food, but to lose the bonds of wickedness, to let the oppressed go
free. He goes on to explain further.

V. 7-9 Share your bread, open your house to the poor, your clothing. Then our light will shine, then
healing will spring forth, then righteousness will flourish. THEN you will call, and the Lord will answer.

In an echo of Chapter 6, where the Lord said, ‘Who shall I send?’, Isaiah said ‘Here I am’. Now, we cry
out and He says, ‘Here I am’. He hears us through obedience.

Then He commands once again to take away the yoke, to remove the oppression.

V. 10-11 Extend your very soul to the hungry. Offer yourself…the greatest example of this, of course is
Jesus Himself, who offered Himself for all mankind. We are called to do the same, and the darkness
shall turn to noon day. ‘We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations’.

When we take that story, when we live that story, to the needy, then God will satisfy us continually,
strengthen us, water us like a garden.

V. 12 When we are obedient to His commands here, we will build up usefulness where there used to be
waste. We will build on the foundations of many generations before us. We will be called ‘the Repairer
of the Breach’ and ‘the Restorer of Streets to Dwell In’. There are few things that could be better than
to be called a repairer and a restorer.

V. 13-14 These two verses deal with another commandment…Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy.

In the US, Sundays are no longer very different from any other day. Work continues, shopping
continues, play intensifies on a Sunday.

The Sabbath has its origin in the book of Genesis. Six days of work, a day to rest AND to give worship
and praise to the Creator.

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God rested on the 7 day, not because He was tired, but because He was establishing an example for us
to follow.

God tells the people here not to turn away from, not to desecrate, the Sabbath day by doing whatever
we want, going wherever we choose.

It’s not a new problem. The tendency of Israel was to disregard the Sabbath altogether, OR to get so
involved in the details of just how many steps you could take or how many sticks you could carry.
Numbers 15: 32 They carried it to one extreme or the other.

There are those who are adamant that the Sabbath should be the 7 day, which on most calendars
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today is Saturday. We celebrate on Sunday because it was on the first day of the week that Jesus arose.
The odds of either of those days being exactly the same as either the 7 day of creation OR the day of
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