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For our offenses are many in your sight,
    and our sins testify against us.
Our offenses are ever with us,
    and we acknowledge our iniquities:
¹³ rebellion and treachery against the Lord,
    turning our backs on our God,
inciting revolt and oppression,
    uttering lies our hearts have conceived.
¹⁴ So justice is driven back,
    and righteousness stands at a distance;
truth has stumbled in the streets,
    honesty cannot enter.
¹⁵ Truth is nowhere to be found,
    and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.

We are, apparently, now living in a ‘post-truth’ world. Or so we are told. Isaiah’s words, then, have a contemporary ring to them: a prophetic relevance to our own times. I think there will be many people who have never read this ancient prophetic work, who would nevertheless entirely agree with the statement: ”truth is fallen in the street” (King James Version). The ‘English Standard Version’ renders this: ” for truth has stumbled in the public squares”.

As I write this, we are approaching a General Election in the UK, and I believe many people will be feeling: ”Truth is nowhere to be found” (15a). We may be right; we may be wrong about this, of course. My perception is that many good-hearted people want to believe their politicians, but can’t help but think that they are repeatedly and regularly lied to. Politics sometimes seems like a sophisticated ‘sleight of hand’ act, designed to get our vote. I think many of us would just like to believe that our leaders (or prospective leaders) are telling the truth – even if it is unpalatable. Level with us.

There is a sense of dishonesty hanging over our political system, and I’m sure this is not just restricted to the UK. It is sad, because it is hugely unfair to the MP’s who say what they mean and mean what they say. But rather like the non-smoking teachers in my old school staff room, they have the smell of other people’s stale smoke on their clothing. They are unfairly affected by that thick blue haze of deception lingering over politics.

PRAYER: Lord, please have mercy on us. Forgive all the lies we see, and those we ourselves have told. O God, in our time, please will you raise up leaders of righteousness, integrity and truth.

So justice is far from us,
    and righteousness does not reach us.
We look for light, but all is darkness;
    for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows.
¹⁰ Like the blind we grope along the wall,
    feeling our way like people without eyes.
At midday we stumble as if it were twilight;
    among the strong, we are like the dead.
¹¹ We all growl like bears;
    we moan mournfully like doves.
We look for justice, but find none;
    for deliverance, but it is far away.

¹² For our offenses are many in your sight,
    and our sins testify against us.
Our offenses are ever with us,
    and we acknowledge our iniquities:
¹³ rebellion and treachery against the Lord,
    turning our backs on our God,
inciting revolt and oppression,
    uttering lies our hearts have conceived.
¹⁴ So justice is driven back,
    and righteousness stands at a distance;
truth has stumbled in the streets,
    honesty cannot enter.
¹⁵ Truth is nowhere to be found,
    and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.

At this point Isaiah does what a number of other Biblical leaders also do. He stands in solidarity with his nation and confesses its sins as if his own. This is not merely a device. It is not pretence. When we confess the sins of our nation, we recognise that in our natural selves we are a part of the problem. We are sinful by nature, and we do sin. We are sinners. We may not have committed every sin we see in our particular country, but we have contributed to the overall problem. We have added to the pile of sins heaped up in our land. We cannot stand aloof from it all as if passive bystanders, and say ‘it’s them and not us.’

There is a story told that a number of years ago, a national newspaper put this question to certain famous authors: ‘What is wrong with the world?’ It received a number of answers, but I think the most succinct came from G.K. Chesterton. He wrote to the editor:

‘Dear Sir,

I am.

Yours sincerely,

G.K. Chesterton.

Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save,
    nor his ear too dull to hear.
² But your iniquities have separated
    you from your God;
your sins have hidden his face from you,
    so that he will not hear.
³ For your hands are stained with blood,
    your fingers with guilt.
Your lips have spoken falsely,
    and your tongue mutters wicked things.
⁴ No one calls for justice;
    no one pleads a case with integrity.
They rely on empty arguments, they utter lies;
    they conceive trouble and give birth to evil.
⁵ They hatch the eggs of vipers
    and spin a spider’s web.
Whoever eats their eggs will die,
    and when one is broken, an adder is hatched.
⁶ Their cobwebs are useless for clothing;
    they cannot cover themselves with what they make.
Their deeds are evil deeds,
    and acts of violence are in their hands.
⁷ Their feet rush into sin;
    they are swift to shed innocent blood.
They pursue evil schemes;
    acts of violence mark their ways.
⁸ The way of peace they do not know;
    there is no justice in their paths.
They have turned them into crooked roads;
    no one who walks along them will know peace.

God’s people were tempted to blame Him for their sad plight, saying that His arm was ”too short” to help them, or His ears ”too dull” to hear. But they were wrong. The truth is that our sins separate us from God, and this is why we need the Saviour, Jesus. He is the only bridge who can effectively span the gulf between us and God. Without repentance for sin, and faith in Him, there can be no reconciliation with God.

Tom Hale writes: ‘…to blame God is always wrong. Whenever God seems distant and His blessings few, we need to look to ourselves to find the cause: it is our own iniquities that separate us from God.’ ‘Applied Old Testament Commentary’, p.1063.

If we persist in known sin, refusing to turn from it, we cannot expect God to listen to us (see Ps.66:18).

(Note that Paul quotes from vv.7,8 in Rom.3:15-17 to show that all people are guilty of sin: Jews and Gentiles alike).

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
    with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
    and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
    and your night will become like the noonday.
¹¹ The Lord will guide you always;
    he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
    and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
    like a spring whose waters never fail.
¹² Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
    and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
    Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

¹³ “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
    and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
    and the Lord’s holy day honourable,
and if you honour it by not going your own way
    and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
¹⁴ then you will find your joy in the Lord,
    and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land
    and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Who would not want the promises of verses 10b to 12 to apply to themselves? But as we read today’s passage, and chapter 58 as a whole, we can see that they are conditional. (Look at the repetition of ”then” in vv.10b/14a).

‘The best way to test the genuineness of our religious faith is to examine the way we treat other human beings in need. That also happens to be the way God tests the genuineness of of our faith!’ Tom Hale: ‘Applied Old Testament Commentary’, p.1063.

‘The orthodox faith was popular in Judah at that time, and people enjoyed learning the Word and even participating in fasts (vv.2-3). But when the services were over, the worshipers went back to exploiting people and pleasing themselves.

What a difference it makes when we repent and return to the Lord (vv.8-12)! We have light instead of darkness, healing instead of disease, righteousness instead of defilement, glory instead of disgrace; and life becomes a watered garden, not a dismal swamp.’ Warren Wiersbe: ‘With the Word’, p.488.

PRAYER: In your mercy, Lord, please grant that my life becomes so well-watered that it is a place of beauty and fragrance, refreshing and rest and healing for others.

“This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
    to break the chains of injustice,
    get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
    free the oppressed,
    cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
    sharing your food with the hungry,
    inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
    putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
    being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
    and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
    The God of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, God will answer.
    You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’ (The Message).

Would you like to know a key to being heard in prayer? It concerns how we treat people. It’s not that we can earn answers to prayer, but we need to understand that unrepented sin can form a blockage.

”If I had cherished sin in my heart,
    the Lord would not have listened…” (Ps.66:18).

When we boil it all down, I believe discipleship is about loving God and loving people: loving God first and foremost, but this overflows into a life of love for all people – including our own families. (We don’t have to travel far to run into people!).

Somebody said the secret of joy is:

Jesus first

Others next

Yourself last.

How is this life of service to others a ”kind of fast”? Well, whenever we put others before ourselves, is it not a form of self-denial? Going without food for a time in order to pray is one expression of denying self; serving people is another form.

”Then when you pray, God will answer.    You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’ ‘

“Why have we fasted,” they say,
    “and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
    and you have not noticed?”

‘Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
    and exploit all your workers.
⁴ Your fasting ends in quarrelling and strife,
    and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
    and expect your voice to be heard on high.
⁵ Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
    only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
    and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
    a day acceptable to the Lord?

In 1977, Arthur Wallis’s outstanding book, ‘God’s chosen fast’, was published. There weren’t many Christian books around on the subject up to that point. However, since then we have witnessed a plethora. In the church at large there has grown to be a renewed interest in fasting, and a new commitment to practice this ancient spiritual discipline.

But, as today’s reading shows, if our fasting is just ritualistic without having repentance at its heart, it is of no value. We cannot expect God to hear us when in our day to day lives we mistreat people. Prayer is more than a posture. It is about our hearts. It involves our lives.

Jesus clearly saw fasting as a key element of Christian discipleship, but He warned that there is a wrong way to engage in it:

” “When you fast, do not look sombre as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matt.6:16-18).

We can’t expect to be heard if we are mistreating our ‘neighbours’: people made in the image of God.

Also, we can’t expect to be heard if we’re showing off: parading our spirituality.

By all means let us fast, bearing in mind the great encouragement to do so (Mt.6:17,18). But also, let’s remember the various Biblical warnings about false fasting.

‘When you strive to be a spiritual person, you fight the constant battle of ”ritual versus reality.” it is much easier to go through external activities of religion than it is to love God from your heart and let that love touch the lives of others.’ Warren Wiersbe: ‘With the Word’, p.488.

‘Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
    Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
    and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
² For day after day they seek me out;
    they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
    and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
    and seem eager for God to come near them.

Here was the problem. This is why there was the need for straight talking. Here were a people who looked good on the outside. They seemed to be spiritually hungry. They looked like godly people. They were very good at the externals and rituals of religious profession. But God knew the truth about them.

‘The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’ (1 Samuel 16:7a).

It’s been said that ‘character is what you are in the dark’ – where the lights are off and no one else can see.

PRAYER: Lord make my heart to be one that pleases you. Remove all hypocrisy from me. Cause me to be real.

‘Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
    Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
    and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.

Genuine prophets are not popular. At least, not all the time. They tell it like it is (from God). In our sinfulness, we don’t necessarily want to hear.

As I read chapter 58 this morning, I couldn’t get further than the first verse. It hit me in this way: there are times you just have to give it straight. You won’t help people by being any other way. They need to know their disease before they will be ready to consider any remedy.

Of course we need to be sensitive, and led by the Holy Spirit in all our relationships and speech. I don’t believe in being ‘John Bull’ blunt and rude for the sake of it. But there does come a time when we must not ”hold back”.

It is, nevertheless, possible to be clear while also being gentle and kind.

PRAYER: Lord may we be led by you in all things. Give us the courage to say what needs to be said, and may we know the right time to say it and speak in the right manner. May our speech always be full of grace, seasoned with salt

I have seen their ways, but I will heal them;
    I will guide them and restore comfort to Israel’s mourners,
¹⁹     creating praise on their lips.
Peace, peace, to those far and near,’
    says the Lord. ‘And I will heal them.’
²⁰ But the wicked are like the tossing sea,
    which cannot rest,
    whose waves cast up mire and mud.
²¹ ‘There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked.’

In the New Testament, Paul takes up these words in which God is speaking, and He applies them to Jesus:

” He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.” (Eph.2:17,18).

Jesus ”came” in and through His church to those ”far away” (the Gentiles), and to those who were ”near” (the Jews) and He ”preached peace” to them: the possibility of ”access to the Father”, and mended relationships with each other.

If you look back in that chapter to verse 14, you see that Jesus ”himself” is the peace He proclaims. Only in Him can sinful people know reconciliation with God, and divided people be drawn into harmonious relationships with one another.

But what will you do with Jesus? He comes to you and preaches peace, but you (we) can reject His preaching.