fasting & the sabbath ... redefined.

i can't tell you how many people i've heard talk about taking a break from social media lately. it seems that many are feeling the need to remove distractions, simplify and get focused on what really matters. then on sunday, pastor jack talked about isaiah 58 and called us to a church-wide week of prayer & fasting ...

  

Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please ... 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?

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? ... If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed ...

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 honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words.

a true fast is not just about denying yourself. it's much less about what you don't do, and much more about what you're called to do instead. i could give up dessert and alcohol and facebook. i could stop watching tv, or not eat for 40 days. but it doesn't mean a thing if i'm not also proactively doing something for others & for God.

i also found it interesting that this passage speaks to the importance of the Sabbath. how we are called to keep the Sabbath today is something that has been rolling around in my head for a while now. during my trip to Haiti, a scripture about the Sabbath from Hebrews 4 jumped out at me ...

Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it ... Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said ... And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world ... There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.

i'm not a biblical scholar by any means, but it surely seems to me that the Sabbath, just like fasting, is not about doing nothing, but about being called to a higher standard. we are not supposed to do as we please or speak idly, but to honor God through obedience. when God finished creation, He entered rest. it wasn't just a one day break, but has been going on ever since. and God has made that rest available to us, too. 

through the 10 commandments, the Sabbath was 1 day of rest per week. but because of Jesus and our belief in Him, we have the opportunity to enter into His eternal rest. through Jesus, we can rest in the knowledge that we are able to approach a glorious God with complete confidence, and that He will help us in our time of need. isaiah 58 calls us to bring freedom to and meet the needs of the oppressed, and then tells us to honor the Sabbath. healing and providing are things that Jesus regularly did on the Sabbath, so doing the work of a true fast - walking in obedience - is part of the rest to which we are called. 

we are absolutely called to set aside time for God. and sometimes that involves giving up normal pleasures. but fasting and resting are a lot more active than one might think ... and the fruit is that much sweeter!