Appropriately the topic of this chapter follows that of the previous passage. For fasting was a kind of ritual mourning. From early times it was associated with bereavement, repentance, and prayer. The Law of Moses prescribed fasting only in connection with the Day of Atonement, but fasts were also proclaimed in times of national emergency. In later times the trauma which resulted from the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 587 BC gave rise to regular fast days to mark these terrible events.

The fast days were impressive, solemn occasions, when the whole community gathered. This was good in itself, but it was also dangerous, for it created an impression of piety which was often far removed from the real state of affairs. It imposed a uniformity of observance which disguised the difference between those who were genuine and those who were not (vv. 1-2). At its worst it could degenerate into self-righteousness. Religion that drifts into superstition and self-righteousness becomes a hollow thing, lacking integrity and power. This is the inevitable outcome when leaders fail to speak to God’s people about their sins and challenge them with on-going need for repentance. The command of verse 1 is an urgent one, which is still relevant today.

After the exposure of wrong fasting (vv. 1-5) comes a description of the kind of fasting that truly pleases God (vv. 6-12). It is fasting accompanied by genuine repentance, especially turning away from exploitation and quarrelling (vv. 3b, 4a, 6). It is not simply to go without food on the set fast days, but to adopt a lifestyle in which self-indulgence and greed are totally given up and replaced by generosity towards the poor (v. 7). This is the kind of fasting that pleases God and leads to His blessing being released (v. 9). The great paradox of the life of faith to which we are called is that blessing comes through self-denial, which we receive through giving, and that we gain our lives by laying them down. The only repentance that counts with God is the sort that can be seen in the way we live, especially in how we treat other people.

Conditions proved to be very difficult in Palestine after the return from exile. On the fast days the people cried out to God to hear them, and give them the good things He had promised (v. 3). The terms light, healing, righteousness and glory all refer to the same reality: full realization of covenant blessing for which they were longing (v. 8). But Isaiah here warns all who desire these good things, and even back up their petitions with fasting, that they cannot expect to be heard until they change the way they are living.

After this the closing exhortation to keep the Sabbath (vv. 13-14) seems like an anticlimax, until we remember the connection between the Sabbath and justice that was made back in 56:1-2. The exploitation of workers denounced in verse 3 may well have involved denying them rest that the Sabbath provided, and the idle words of verse 13 were perhaps glib rationalizations that justified such behavior. In any case, the call for true Sabbath observance, like the call for true fasting, is a call for a changed heart and life, not just the more meticulous observance of a ritual. There is no shortcut to joy and victory (v. 14); they come through repentance, and a willingness to live God’s way.

Isaiah 58:1-14 Reflection Questions:

Have you ever fasted? If so, what was the focus of your fast?

What is God seeing when He sees how you are living?

Are you willing to live God’s way? If so, what does that mean?

“Blessed are those who mourn,” Jesus said, “for they will be comforted” (Matt. 5:4). There could be no more apt summary of this passage. It follows naturally from this previous one, and is addressed to the same situation. But the focus is different. Now it is the faithful, godly ones who are primarily in view; the wicked are mentioned only in a footnote. We are taken deeper here into what it means to be godly. It is not only to have a robust, indomitable faith in God’s promises, or the heroism of a martyr. It is to be contrite, to be penitent; to be a people who know in their hearts that they are no better than their fellows, and who weep for their own sins and for that of others as well (v. 15). It is the mourners whom God comforts (vv. 18-19). The wicked are never comforted, because they will not weep. They have no humility, and are not sorry for their sins.

There are significant echoes here of earlier passages. The promise of comfort harks back to 40:1; build up…prepare the road (v. 14) recalls 40:3-4, the reference to God as the high and lofty One (v. 15) echoes 6:1. The effect is to assure the faithful that God still reigns, that He is with them, and that His purposes are on track. But the way spoken of here (v. 14) is something rather different from the one back in chapter 40. It is no longer the way back from exile in Babylon; those on view here have already trodden that way. It is the way through the present trials to their final resting place in the kingdom of God which is still to come (v. 13b). In this sense, God’s faithful people are always exiles and pilgrims. They will not be fully at home until God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. Then their mourning will give way to praise from which every tinge of sadness has at last been removed (v. 19).

Isaiah 57:14-21 Reflection Questions:

What’s your definition of being godly?

What is the major difference between the godly and the wicked?

For a community under stress, the quality of its leadership is critical. Leaders are to be watchmen (56:10), alert to dangers that threaten from the outside, and shepherds (56:11), nurturing and strengthening the inner life of the community. Where such leadership is lacking, the sort of situation develops which we see here. Instead of being open in the right sense – to people sincerely seeking the Lord – the community becomes open to evil people who want to exploit it (56:9). Good people are attracted, and no-one comes to their defense (57:1-2). Superstition and false religion flourish and become a cover for all kinds of wickedness (57:3-10). The fear of the Lord is lost, and other, unhealthy fears take over (57:11). And finally, God is left with no option but to judge.

Some of the details are elusive, but the overall impact is very clear. Sin will not be eradicated from God’s people until the very end. In the waiting time the struggle against it goes on unabated at both the personal and corporate levels. And where godly leadership is lacking, old evils come flooding back, even after a remarkable experience of God’s grace. It proved to be so in the period following the return from Babylon, and it is still so in the church today.

After the ideals laid out in 56:1-8, this passage comes as a shock like the shattering of a dream. But that is not the whole story. Not all fall away in the waiting time. Isaiah speaks of those who cherish the dream and would rather die that give it up (57:1-3); they take refuge in the Lord, and will finally inherit all things (57:13b). The contrast between them and the apostates whose attitudes and behavior we have already seen could hardly be more stark. As the pace quickens, and history hurtles more and more rapidly to its end, the difference between the true and false, between those who really are God’s people and those who are not, will become more and more obvious. The waiting time is a time of sifting.

This sifting involves pain, and can be very alarming, but it should not cause us despair. The failure of leadership which in fact happened in the post-exile community, and the resulting divisions and apostasy on the part of many, did not frustrate God’s plan to send Jesus when the time was right. Nor will similar failings in the church today prevent God’s purposes from reaching their final goal when Christ returns. The dream will not die, because it is God’s dream, and those who remain true will share in the fulfillment of it.

Isaiah 56:9-57:13 Reflection Questions:

Where are you spiritually, during our waiting time before Christ’s return?

Where are you with your relationship with Christ? How will you improve on it?

Can you see the leadership qualities in today’s study apply to our personal life? In what ways?

Chapter 56 launches us into the seventh and final part of Isaiah’s vision (chapters 56-66). It relates to the period following the arrival of the first returnees from Babylon. Isaiah saw that time in prophetic vision; we see it in the clear light of history (see the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai and Zechariah). The Judah to which they returned had been incorporated into the Persian Empire, so they were home but still not their own masters. Their numbers and resources were limited, and neighboring groups viewed them with suspicion or outright hostility. But the most serious problems arose from the fact that this small community lived “between the times”, so to speak. The return from exile had begun but was far from complete (v. 8). The community lived in the tension between the “now” and the “not yet”. They had the beginnings of what God had promised but not the fullness of it. It was a time in many respects like our own, between the first and second comings of Christ. The kingdom of God has come, but is yet to come. It is an exciting time but also a difficult one, when (as Paul puts it) “we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we await eagerly for …the redemption of our bodies” (Rom. 8:23). Waiting tests our patience and our faith. This final part of the book is about life in the interim – waiting for a new world.

These first eight verses are a fitting introduction to what follows, serving as a kind of charter for the restored community. Those whom God has freed from condemnation and despair have an obligation to do His will, and these verses set forth very clearly the ideals God has for them. They are to be marked by two things: justice and openness.

Justice (vv. 1-2): It was injustice that had brought Israel to ruin. God had looked for justice, but found only bloodshed and cries of distress. Religion had become divorced from social responsibility, ritual from right living, and so God destroyed Jerusalem and drove His people out of it rather than permit such monstrous dishonoring of His name to continue. Now those who will wake on the other side of this nightmare and have the opportunity to make a fresh start are reminded that God has the same passionate commitment to justice that He always had, and that He expects them to share it. They are to maintain justice and do what is right because His righteousness is about to be revealed (v. 2). Their life together is to be a visible sign that the kingdom of God – His reign of perfect justice and righteousness – is just around the corner, breaking in and already making its presence felt.

Openness (vv. 3-8): There is no direct command here, but the implication of what is said is very clear: the Lord accepts the foreigner and the eunuch who sincerely seek Him, and His people must do the same. This was a very difficult and sensitive issue, for there were specific statements in the Law of Moses excluding emasculated men and foreigners, especially Moabites and Ammonites. These were powerful reminders to Israel that the holiness God demanded of His people was totally incompatible with physical mutilation (as practiced in pagan cults), and that His love for them was no casual thing. He was adamantly opposed to those who sought to harm them. These laws had never been meant to exclude genuine converts, as the stories about Rahab and Ruth show quite plainly. They were to be an open community, warmly embracing all who genuinely bound themselves to the Lord (vv. 3, 6). Eunuchs in particular were to be treated with compassion. Isaiah had foreseen that members of the royal family would be made eunuchs in Babylon. This passage makes it clear that God does not intend to exclude them from His coming kingdom, nor should His people, who await its arrival.

Isaiah 56:1-8 Reflection Questions:

Where in the gospels does Jesus speak on this thought in verses 1-2?

Where in the gospels talks about a eunuch?

Does this study affect your view on a convert to Christianity from the LGBT community?

Peace (Shalom) is perhaps the richest word in the Old Testament. “Shalom” stands for complete wholeness, the sum total of covenant blessing, the full enjoyment of all that God has promised. But in practice such peace is an elusive thing, because it depends on being in a right relationship with God. Where the relationship is wrong, peace is lost. The problem of their sin had to be dealt with to God’s total satisfaction. And that, as we saw in chapter 53, is what the Servant achieves. The witnesses in 53:5 are aware that their relationship with God has been fully restored, not by anything they have done, but by what the Servant has done for them. So as we come to chapters 54 and 55 the blockage has been removed. The flood gates of divine blessing have been flung open, and peace begins to flow like a river. Notice the references to peace in these chapters. Peace, then, is the key that links these two chapters together, and connects both of them to the Servant Song in chapter 53. And the promised realization of this peace in all its fullness is the reason for the joyful singing with which the whole section begins (54:1) and ends (55:12-13).

Every promise fulfilled (54:1-17): Isaiah, then, saw the ideal future for which he and all God’s faithful people longed in terms of a covenant of peace that would be the culmination of all that was promised in the covenants that had marked Israel’s history from the very beginning. In chapters 54 and 55 these covenants come under review. First, there was the covenant with Abraham (54:1-4). The barren woman (v. 1), the tent (v. 2), and the mention of descendants (v. 3) all recall Abraham’s circumstances and the promises that were made to him.  The covenant with their father Abraham long ago about their promised land will stand. With the reference to the Lord as Israel’s Maker, Husband and Redeemer in verses 4-8 the focus shifts to the Sinai covenant. As the Lord then took Israel as His bride and entering into a covenant with her at Sinai, so He would take her again and renews His relationship with her. The Sinai covenant would stand. The covenant with Noah is the next to come into view in verses 9-17. The covenant with Noah was a covenant with the entire human race. God’s commitment to Israel is as firm and unshakeable as His commitment to the world He has created (v. 9). He will not destroy them because He is committed to preserving and blessing His world, and they are the means He has chosen to do it. Finally a grand vista opens up for us in verses 11-17 – a whole renewed universe! And at its center is the city of God, the point where heaven and earth meet and God is present with His people forever (vv. 11-17).

The banquet spread (55:1-2): The invitation; “Come, all you who are thirsty” must be seen against this background. It is a call to all to come and share in “the heritage of the servants of the Lord” that has just been described. The gates of the city of God stand open. A banquet is spread. All that remains is for the invited guests to come. No money is needed; the rich fare is free. And when the metaphor gives way to explicit statement in verses 6-7, we are told precisely what that delightful and satisfying food is. It is mercy and pardon, and it is freely available because it has already been paid for in full.

The everlasting covenant (55:3-5): The phrase “an everlasting covenant” means the fulfillment of all that was promised to David. And, like the earlier covenants, this final covenant will have a sign to confirm it which will be nothing less than a permanently renewed universe (v. 13). Here is the climax of the whole movement of these two chapters with their review of the various covenants. The final covenant between God and His people will not cancel out the earlier covenants but fulfill them, perfectly and completely. The final outcome of the work of the Servant will be the full realization of all that God has promised from the beginning. All the promises of God will find their “Yes” and “Amen” in Him.

Sin, pardon, and glory (55:6-13): All of these words must have been very hard to grasp for people whose world has been turned upside down. To them it must have appeared too vast to comprehend, too ambitious, like a fantastic dream. But if so, it was because their human minds, like ours, were limited and sinful. God’s thoughts were as high above their as the heavens were above the earth (vv. 8-9). And God is insistent; it is no dream, no mere fancy He has set before them. His plans will shoot and blossom as surely as parched ground when rain pours upon it (v. 10). His Word, which once spoke the universe into existence, has gone forth again, and has lost none of its power. Nothing can frustrate it, or divert it from its course (v. 11). There will be a new creation, a new world, and the return from exile will be the first step towards it (vv. 12-13). No wonder chapter 55 throbs with excitement.

It also rings with certain urgency, however. There are decisions to be made. There is a banquet spread, but the guests must come. There is pardon available, but the wicked person must forsake his own way and seek the Lord while he may be found (vv. 6-7). No-one need be an outsider, but neither will anyone be forced to enter, and the invitation to do so will not be extended indefinitely. In the end, the vision of Isaiah has a sharp evangelistic edge to it. We will see this even more clearly in our study of chapters 56-66.

Isaiah 54:1-55:13 Reflection Questions:

How is your relationship with God and, what are you doing to build on your relationship?

Where in the gospels is a parable about a “banquet”?

Have you been inviting guests to the “banquet”?