the isaiah 58 chiastic structure and the day of atonement

Read Isaiah 58 at Bible Gateway.

This chapter forms a chiastic structure:

1a) Isa 58:1, Cry aloud + lift up your voice like a trumpet: tell My people their transgression;

1b) Isa 58:2, Yet they seek Me daily + delight to know My ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness;

1a) Isa 58:2a, Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways;
1b) Isa 58:2b, As a nation that did righteousness;
central axis) Isa 58:2c, And did not forsake the ordinance of their God;
2b) Isa 58:2d, They ask of Me the ordinances of justice;
2a) Isa 58:2e, They take delight in approaching God;

1c) Isa 58:3-4, Why have we fasted, and You see not? Because you seek your own pleasure + do wickedly;

1a) Isa 58:3a, Why have we fasted + afflicted our souls, and You have not seen + taken notice;
1b) Isa 58:3b, In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exploit all your laborers;
2b) Isa 58:4a, Indeed you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness;
2a) Isa 58:4b, You will not fast as you do this day, to make your voice heard on high;

1d) Isa 58:5-6a, The Day of Atonement: The fast I have chosen, a day to afflict the soul? (“No” is implied);

1a) Isa 58:5a, Is this a fast that I have chosen;
central axis) Isa 58:5b, A day acceptable to the LORD to afflict the soul in sackcloth + ashes?
2a) Isa 58:6a, Is this not the fast that I have chosen;

1e) Isa 58:6b, Break every yoke + share with the hungry/ Your light shall break forth + YHVH will guard you;

central axis) Isa 58:9a, Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am;’

2e) Isa 58:9b-12, Take away the yoke + satisfy the hungry/ Your light shall dawn + YHVH will guide you;

2d) Isa 58:13a, The Sabbath: If you turn away your foot because of the Sabbath;

2c) Isa 58:13b, If you do not your own pleasure + ways + words on My holy day + call the Sabbath a delight;

1a) Isa 58:13b, From doing your pleasure on My holy day;
central axis) Isa 58:13c, Call the Sabbath + the holy day of the LORD a delight + honorable/ shall honor Him;
2a) Isa 58:13d, Not doing your own ways + finding your own pleasure + speaking your own words;

2b) Isa 58:14a, Then you shall delight yourself in the LORD/ I will feed you with Jacob’s heritage;

2a) Isa 58:14b {p} The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

This is not a polemic against fasting, but rather against doing outward forms of religious exercise (fasting, or paying lip service to Sabbath rest) while continuing to oppress, engage in strife and debate, or wickedness and unkindness, accusing others, not sharing with the needy, and otherwise seeking self pleasure and goals instead of seeking God’s pleasure and delighting in Him.

If such things are going on, all the fasting in the world will not help you.

The people of God in America, even Torah- observant folks who do fast on the Day of Atonement, still engage, particularly, in strife and debate, especially with other believers who have differences of opinion on doctrine and interpretation. They still accuse others when they have measured them with a human standard of measurement and have found them lacking.

He is asking us to refrain from the wickedness of strife and accusations, of laying burdens upon instead of breaking burdens off, and pursuing our own business on His holy days.

If such things are going on, nothing will stop His light or glory or blessing from overtaking us – even if there is no fasting.