Is not this the fast that I choose, to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yolk, to let the oppressed go free and to break every yolk? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house?
When you see the naked to cover him and not to hide yourself from your own flesh, then shall your light break forth like the dawn and your healing shall spring up speedily. Your righteousness shall go before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call and the Lord will answer. You shall cry, and He will say, “Here I am.”
If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the moon day and the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire and scorched places and make your bones strong. And you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt. You shall raise up the foundations of many generations. You shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.
– Isaiah 58:6–12
I’m going to read this longer passage, but let me set the context.
God is speaking to his people who have become pretty content with religious rituals, including fasting and other rituals. And in the process, they’ve ignored injustice and the poor, impoverished, and people in need around them.
And I want you to listen to what He says to them. Hear God’s Word speaking to His people. After I’ve read this longer passage, I’m just going to start praying according to it because I think it’ll be pretty obvious how we need to pray based on what these verses say.
Isaiah 58:6–12 is God’s call toward generosity.
God says, Isaiah 58:6–12,
Is not this the fast that I choose, to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yolk, to let the oppressed go free and to break every yolk? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house?
When you see the naked to cover him and not to hide yourself from your own flesh, then shall your light break forth like the dawn and your healing shall spring up speedily. Your righteousness shall go before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call and the Lord will answer. You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the moon day and the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire and scorched places and make your bones strong. And you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt. You shall raise up the foundations of many generations. You shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.
Isaiah 58:6–12 calls us to repent of our selfishness.
Oh God, we confess that we are prone to do exactly what your people were doing in the Old Testament here to offer you religious ritual: observance, routine, to pray, maybe even to fast, to go to church, or worship, to read the Bible, to do a variety of different activities which you have designed for our good.
But to do these things without our hearts truly engaging you and what you have called us to do, how you have called us to live specifically on behalf of people in need. God forgive us for the ways we are currently ignoring people in need around us. God, we pray for specific conviction in each of our hearts. My heart and the heart of every person who’s listening right now.
In any ways, we need your conviction. Spirit of God, help us to search our lives and see any way in which we are contributing to injustice or oppression, any ways in which we are not doing anything you are calling us to do for the sake of people and needs around us.
This verse encourages us to believe in God’s promises regarding generosity.
We pray that you would help us to repent and to pour ourselves out. Isaiah 58:10, according to your Word, four people in need, to satisfy the desires of people in need, trusting that this will be good for them and glorifying to your name and good for us all at the same time. That you’ll guide us, you’ll satisfy our desires that our light will rise in the darkness. It’ll be like watered gardens whose waters never fail.
We praise you for your promises in this passage to your people when they live according to your ways when they do justice and love mercy and walk humbly with you and love you and love others as themselves.
So help us, oh God, to live those kind of lives. We pray, even as I prepare to say amen, God… Show each of us any ways in which you’re calling us to change the way we’re living… To do anything in particular for the sake of those in need around us.
Prayer for the Nai People
And God, we pray for those in need far from us… For the Nai people in India… 15 million of them who have little to no knowledge of the gospel, few known believers among them. God, we pray that the Nai people would be reached with the good news of your grace, your love, and your mercy.
Lord, when we think about injustice… To think that there are so many people in the world right now who still haven’t been reached with the good news of your love and your grace and Jesus. God, we pray that you’d help us to do justice, to proclaim you… The just God and your just salvation, justification of sinners through faith in Jesus.
Help us to spread this good news around us and around the world. As we care for people in need in any and every way you call us to. Oh God, please keep us from religious ritual that ignores your call to live and work for people in need. In Jesus’ name, we pray according to your Word in Isaiah 58, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
