p. 689“Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins” (Isa. lviii. 1).
The prophets were, by the divine command, constituted watchmen to the house of Israel. Ezekiel (ch. xxxiii.) is an example, and Isaiah here is another. The commission was not one to rejoice in after the flesh, for no modest and reasonable man delights in fault-finding, especially when it subjects him to grave consequences, and even to death itself. But the prophets were solemnly warned by God that if they failed to warn the wicked, and he perished in his wicked way for lack of warning, his blood would be required at their hands; which is a thing to be remembered by the latter-day brethren of the prophets in their ministrations to those within and without. Isaiah here had to do with those “within,” with “my people,” “the house of Jacob.”
What was the ground of the divine complaint? It was not the lack of religious observance; there was plenty of that. It was an outward “delight in approaching God” coupled with unrighteousness of the sort specified so frequently by the prophet. It was what an apostle defines as “having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof” (2 Tim. iii. 5). While fasting with much outward show, they found their own pleasure, oppressed the labourers, indulged in strife and debate, and smote with the fist of wickedness. This was made manifest in their treatment of Jesus, whom they contemptuously rejected, while professing superior holiness. Jesus alluded to them as “hypocrites”: “When ye fast be not as the hypocrites, of a p. 690 sad countenance; for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward” (Matt. vi. 16). They approached him, through some of John’s disciples, with the question, “Why do we fast oft but thy disciples fast not?” He replied by another question, “Can the children of the bridechamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast” (Matt. ix. 15).
And the days came when they did “mourn” and “fast,” and in their ministration of the gospel they did the things neglected by the “hypocrites,” and here enjoined by God through the prophet. “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seeest the naked that thou coverest him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?”
The Lord Jesus had himself exemplified all this among the “hypocrites” when he “went about doing good” among them, healing the sick, feeding the shepherdless multitudes, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom. In his parable of the self-righteous Pharisee and the Publican who went up to the temple to pray, he makes the former say, “I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all I possess,” while the latter could only say, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” And of this type was Zaccheus, whom he honoured with his presence in his house at Jericho. “They all murmured” at this impropriety. “He is gone to be the guest of a man that is a sinner!” But Zaccheus, in no boastful, but rather in an apologetic spirit, said, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.” And Jesus as good as said, “I know it.” What he really said was this: “This day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke xix. 10).
p. 691 This was an interesting illustration in real life of the right and wrong kinds of fasting. Mere abstinence from food while indulging in all sorts of wickedness was simply an abomination. But “denying ungodliness and worldly lusts,” and living soberly, righteously, and godly in an evil age, was acceptable to God, and would be rewarded by him in due time.
The reward is divinely set forth in glowing terms by the prophet: “Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily; and thy righteousness shall go before thee, and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward. . . . And they that be of thee shall build the old waste places; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.”
There are some who consider that this reference to “old wastes” proves this passage to be post-exilic; just as though the spirit of God could not, and did not speak of the desolations before they were accomplished facts.
But there was no “repairer of the breach” to be found in the house of Jacob—no “restorer of paths to dwell in.” Hence, as was immediately foretold, God himself interfered by “his own arm.” The Jews are complacent about what they call their “mission.” “Israel is the prophet among the nations” is a favourite formula with them; but God repudiates this in their own scriptures. They could not and did not produce a Saviour of themselves, and will not at present have Him whom God has provided: which is also according to the same scripture. The conditions of blessedness were constantly breached in Israel, and hence the scattering and desolation, which endures to this day.
“If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasures on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, and honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words. Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it” (v. 13-14).
p. 692 But all these conditions were broken. The observance of the sabbath degenerated into a mere performance, and rabbinical superstition exhausted its ingenuity in making it ridiculous, and binding upon its disciples burdens grievous to be borne. Under it, it was impossible for any one to “call the sabbath a delight.” They did their own pleasure, and spoke their own vain words, as do the modern clergy where there is left any respect for “the sabbath” (as Sunday is wrongly called).
Jesus himself, the “Lord of the Sabbath,” came under the condemnation of the “hypocrites” for profaning the sabbath (as they conceived) by works of mercy and healing! But he publicly denounced their hypocrisy (Luke xiii. 15); and showed that they suited their own convenience in watering ox or ass on the sabbath, or rescuing a sheep from a pit.
The true observance of the sabbath was only possible with those who had respect to the covenants, and looked for “the heritage of Jacob” in faith and obedience. Jesus and the disciples illustrated this, and were obedient to the law, though not as construed by the “hypocrites.” This is also illustrated in the disciples after the resurrection of Jesus. They in turn were accused by the Judaisers; but Paul withstood them with great emphasis, as in the epistles to the Galatians and Colossians. “Let no man judge you of the sabbath,” is his dictum (Col. ii. 16); which is the answer to misdirected Sabbatarian zeal to this day on the part of Christ’s people. They look for the “heritage of Jacob” in “the rest that remaineth,” when Christ shall return, and cause his people to “ride upon the high places of the earth”; and they delight in gathering together on the first day of the week in remembrance of Christ, not speaking their own vain words, but “the word of the truth of the gospel,” that the ecclesia may be edified and the public instructed. Those who forsake the assemblies—“as the manner of some is”—are, of course, not included in this category. They do not really belong to “the house of Jacob” in the highest sense, as “that day” will show.