Wednesday lunch/afternoon—Read Isaiah 58:14

“…then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

Why have we fasted? Was it to prove to Jesus that we sacrifice ourselves for him? No. Was it to appease God with our actions? No. Was it to show others that we are disciplined? No.

While these were not supposed to be our motivations, did you find yourself ever slipping into such thinking?

Perhaps you failed all week with the fast. Perhaps each day has looked like the first few verses of this passage—full of quarrelling and hypocrisy. Here is the “so what” of the passage. The Lord teaches us that when the bonds of our wickedness are broken by Christ we are new creations and able to participate in true worship of our Lord. It is then that we recognize, confess, and repent of our hypocrisy. It does not mean that we will stop being hypocrites rather that the Lord is forming us through the preached Word and through the Sacraments as we seek forgiveness and repentance.

It is when we are aware of our own helplessness and that Jesus has broken the bonds of our harassed condition that we are able to truly pour ourselves out for the harassed and the helpless, it is then that we are able to see and confess rightly our own religious snobbery, it is then that we can become strong leaders, it is then when we can work to repair the breach and renew our families and our communities, it is then when we delight in the rhythm of the Sabbath because Jesus is Lord over it…it is these times that we are able to fail and yet take delight in the Lord, because it is the Lord who feeds us. He is the Word that feeds us. He is our immeasurable portion. He is our heritage. It is here where the heavenly and the earthly converge. It is here where the Lord calls our worship true – that we pour ourselves out as Jesus has and is pouring himself out for us.

It is recommended to reread the entire passage, meditate on all these things, pray that Jesus would give us the eyes to see people as he sees them and for Him to raise up laborers for His harvest, and so pray for ways to live out the “fast the Lord chooses.”

I pray that as we feast again tonight after being empty for three days that we are reminded through the food that our Lord is our immeasurable portion.