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FASTING.
Why fast?
The Lord God
revealed through the prophet Isaiah that although the house of Jacob was
claiming they fasted so that He would reveal to them His righteous laws, their
complaint was that God paid no heed to their fasts. (Isaiah 58:2-4
NEB).
After reading the Word of God in
Isaiah 58:1-12 describing their sinful conduct while fasting, we learn why God
ignored them: That
they were merely an excuse for continuance in wickedness.
The Lord God answered their
complaints:
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"Is not this what I require of you as a
fast:
to loose the fetters of injustice,
to untie the knots of the yoke,
to snap every yoke
and set free those who have been crushed?
Is it not sharing your food with the hungry,
taking the homeless poor into your house,
clothing the naked when you meet them
and never evading a duty to your kinsfolk?
Then shall your light break forth like the dawn
and soon you will grow healthy like a wound
newly healed;
your own righteousness shall be your vanguard
and the glory of the Lord your rearguard.
Then, if you call, the Lord will answer;
if you cry to Him, He will say, 'Here I am.'
If you cease to pervert justice,
to point the accusing finger and lay false
charges,
if you feed the hungry from your own plenty
and satisfy the needs of the wretched,
then your light will rise like dawn out of
darkness
and your dusk be like noonday;
the Lord will be your guide continually
and will satisfy your needs in the shimmering
heat;
He will give you strength of limb;
you will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
The ancient ruins will be restored by your own
kindred
and you will build once more on ancestral
foundations;
you shall be called Rebuilder of broken walls,
Restorer of houses in ruins."
(Isaiah 58:6-12
NEB). |
If we live according to the rule of
conduct described in verses 6 to 12, Jehovah says: "Then, if you
call, the Lord will answer; if you cry to Him, He will say, 'Here I am.'"
(58:9
NEB).
This means one does not need to fast in order to ask for and receive His
righteous laws through The Christ.
15/3/99.
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