What we religious people know as fasting, which some of us actually regularly do during Lente or Ramadan, and sometimes at other times in a year, is described in Isaiah 58:3-5; “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarrelling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. 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?
However, our Lord God stated further on in the same part of the Scriptures, precisely the kind of fasting that He desires, in Isaiah 58:6-7; “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?
Yeshua subsequently told us the benefits of the right kind of fasting in Isaiah 58:8-10; Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.
Prayers and fasting are religious actions, since God has made known to us the kind of prayers and fasting that He desires. These are the religious penance acceptable to Him. The Scriptures confirmed this in James 1:26-27; If anyone thinks himself to be religious [scrupulously observant of the rituals of his faith] and does not control his tongue but deludes his own heart, this person’s religion is worthless (futile, barren). Pure and unblemished religion [as it is expressed in outward acts] in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit and look after the fatherless and the widows in their distress, and to keep oneself uncontaminated by the [secular] world. In most parts of the world, orphans and widows have no one to provide for them except Yeshua, and since God takes care of us all, we are all God’s offspring. His concern is about caring for all His children. True religion involves loving each other, there is no better way to express love towards another person or God, than by helping, caring for, or giving to that person when in need, whether the person is a relative or a stranger.
