The Devil Has No Shortcut

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.

“All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” (Matthew 4:8-10)

The first two temptations backfired, so the devil tried one last “go for broke” tack, asking directly what he had been angling for all along — for Jesus to bow down and worship him. The enticement he would use would be the kingdoms of the world and all their wealth. After all, wasn’t Messiah supposed to come rule over Israel and subdue the nations? Indeed.

Satan was offering Jesus a shortcut, but it was something that was not his to give. In Psalm 2, God says to his Son, whom he has anointed to be king, “Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession.” In Daniel 4:32, a voice from heaven announces, “The Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes.”

All the kingdoms on earth have always belonged to God, and they had already been promised to Jesus. Satan was nothing more than a usurper who deceived the nations and exercised what the apostle Paul calls the “principalities and powers,” that is, the demonic influences that lurk behind evil in governments and cultures. He could not offer Jesus the kingdoms of the world, only his dark dominion over them. But it is precisely that dark power that Messiah came to destroy. So the devil tried to cut a deal: “All this I will give you if you will bow down and worship me.”

However, not only was Satan offering what was not his to give, he was also asking for what could never be. There is but one God, the triune God, and Satan is not part of that Trinity — and the difference is vast and unfathomable. Satan is all for himself; God has always been for others, even within the fellowship of the Trinity: The Father is all for the Son and the Spirit, the Son is all for the Father and the Spirit, the Spirit is all for the Father and the Son — they are all for each other.

Satan is a destroyer; God is a creator. Satan is a taker; God is a giver. Satan is darkness; God is light. The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus is the light who “shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it” (John 1:5). Just as light could never rule by means of darkness, so Jesus could never rule by means of Satan’s dark power, for when light shines, darkness ceases to be. And that is what is now happening through King Jesus the Messiah: “The darkness is passing and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:8).

• Jesus has bound the “strong man” and has “plundered his house” (Mark 3:27). In his ministry, Jesus exorcised many demons, and he has given his people the authority to do the same.
• Jesus has ruined the works of the devil. “The reason the Son of God appeared,” says John, “was to destroy the devil’s work” (1 John 3:8). What the devil has done cannot stand.
• Jesus, by the cross, has broken the power of him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil — and freed those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-15).
• Jesus has qualified us “to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves” (Colossians 1:13).
• Jesus, by the cross, has disarmed the principalities and powers and has made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them (Colossians 2:15). They cannot stop the kingdom of God from being revealed all over the world.

Satan is now bound and can no longer deceive the nations (Revelation 20:1-3). That is, he cannot keep the gospel from making disciples of every people on earth, just as Jesus commanded the disciples in Matthew 28:18-20.

In this final temptation, Jesus rebuked the devil, just as he had done the other two times, with a quote from Moses: “Fear the LORD your God, serve him only” (Deuteronomy 6:13). Jesus would not be bowing down to the devil but would be worshiping God alone. He was also serving notice that the devil himself would also be bowing down before God.

And so shall it be. For God has highly exalted Jesus and given him “the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).

What the devil offered falsely, God has truly accomplished in Christ. “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).

The Pinnacle of Power

Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.

“If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Matthew 4:-7)

The devil failed the first challenge, so he tried another. He began once again with accusation: “If you are the Son of God …” What was Jesus willing to do to prove it? Would he throw himself off the highest point of the wall that surrounded the temple complex, down to the rocks below? After all, weren’t the angels there to protect him? Why not flex that muscle a bit?

Jesus had parried Satan’s first thrust by citing Scripture, so now the devil thought he would try his hand at it. He does know what Scripture says — but he does not understand what it means. The passage he quoted was from Psalm 91: “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone” (vv. 11-12).

This is a wonderful promise from God, as are all the promises in Psalm 91. But they are for those who take their refuge in God, who abide in him, who walk in his way. “If you say, ‘The LORD is my refuge,’ and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent” (Psalm 91:9-11). God has no such promise for those who go off to walk in their own way.

Similarly, God promises to provide for his people and answer our prayers. Yet James, the brother of the Lord Jesus, would caution us, “You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” (James 4:2-3).

God is always looking at the heart. What are our motives — are they about him, or all about us? If we are about him, then the promise is for us and we can expect his protection and provision. But if we are about our own pleasures, we are not abiding in God but have wandered away to something that will only dash us upon the rocks.

The reason the accuser could not get anywhere with Jesus is that Jesus had made the LORD his refuge and dwelling place. He was all about God, all about the Father. The words of the psalm writer portray this very well: “Then I said, ‘Here I am, I have come — it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart’” (Psalm 40:7-8; see also Hebrews 10:7). Jesus’ own words reveal how deeply this ran in his heart.

• “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.” (John 5:19)
• “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” (John 5:30)
• “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things.” (John 8:28)
• “The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.” (John 14:10)

Satan took Jesus up to the pinnacle of the temple complex and wanted Jesus to lift himself up in a display of his own power. That is how the devil thinks and why he has never understood the nature of God and of love. Paul reminds us that love does not brag, does not puff itself up, is not self-seeking (1 Corinthians 13:4-5). Rather, the nature of love is to give and serve and pour itself out for the sake of others. And that is what God does, because God is love.

Jesus reveals himself as the Son of God, then, not by hoisting himself off a high point to the rocks below in a self-inflated display of power but by being a servant and allowing himself to be lifted high on a cross for our sakes. Then God raised him from the dead through the power of the Holy Spirit.

For this reason Paul, in his letter to the Jesus followers at Philippi, enjoins us to have the same mindset as Jesus Christ:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus will have no false displays, no empty glorying, no self-seeking — and no doubting the self-giving love and goodness of God. So he answered the devil with the words with which Moses warned the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 6:16, “Do not put the LORD your God to the test.”

Wilderness Reveals the Heart

Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. (Deuteronomy 8:2-3)

The wilderness experience, whatever particular thing that may be in your life or mine, is a test that reveals the heart. The children of Israel wandered the wilderness for forty years because of what was in their hearts — and what was lacking. It should have taken only eleven days from Egypt to the Promised Land. But they did not enter the land because of their unbelief. So they wandered for forty years until that unbelieving generation died out. The wilderness experience continually tested them, revealing their hearts, and what their faith was.

The wilderness experience also tested Jesus and revealed his heart. At the end of forty days of fasting, the devil came to tempt him: “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Satan is an accuser — that is what his heart is all about. Jesus’ heart was revealed in his response: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Jesus was all about pleasing God, not satisfying his hunger.

Temptation is about the heart, which is why it is so often a part of the wilderness experience. James, the brother of the Lord Jesus, tells us about temptation and the heart dynamic.

When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. (James 1:13-15)

When the heart is pure, it cannot be tempted to evil. But when there is evil desire, it will go to seed if given the opportunity often enough. Then the heart meditates on it and the mind considers how to engage it. Finally, it becomes action — and the action deadens the soul. We were created for something much different, to experience and share the glory of God. But sin, which begins in the heart, brings us up far short of that (Romans 3:23).

God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he ever tempt anyone to evil, and that is because his heart is pure. God is love, through and through — it is the divine nature. The human heart, on the other hand, is divided, pulled in different directions. “Give me an undivided heart,” the psalm writer said, “that I may fear your name” (Psalm 86:11). And that is what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. He has given us a new heart and a new spirit — his own Spirit to dwell in us and change us — just as he promised he would do for his people (Ezekiel 36:24-27).

The fruit of the Spirit is love, producing divine love in us. The more we learn to yield to that love — the love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit — the more resilient our hearts will be in trials and temptations. The wilderness experience reveals where we are in that process and becomes an opportunity to turn to God in faith and receive his love.

The children of Israel wandered the wilderness for forty years and it revealed their hearts every step of the way. Finally, though, they learned to depend upon God, even if only for a little while, and follow him into the Promised Land.

Bread in the Wilderness

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.

The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:1-4)

Mark’s account of the Temptation is brief and rapid fire but very powerful. Matthew and Luke, on the other hand, give us more detail, each describing three specific temptations and Jesus’ response to them. Let’s look at the first one, as presented in Matthew.

Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit out into the wilderness in order to be tempted by the devil. Jesus fasted for forty days and nights but only at the end did he begin to feel the depth of his hunger. That was when the devil came with the first temptation: “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Diabolos, the Greek word for “devil” means accuser, and that is what he did here. Shortly before, when Jesus was baptized by John in the river Jordan, the Holy Spirit descended upon him and the voice of the Father declared, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). But now here was the accuser, questioning that: “If you are the Son of God …”

Jesus was physically very hungry, and the devil’s challenge was to command the stones around him to become bread, and so prove that he is the Son of God. But this was not just about Jesus’ own hunger. The Son of God was supposed to be the Messiah, the Anointed One who would deliver his people from bondage and exile, just as Moses delivered the children of Israel from the Egypt. Under Moses, they ate manna in the wilderness, a bread-like substance that probably resembled the stones that now surrounded Jesus. So Jesus answered Satan with a quote from Moses, taken from Deuteronomy 8:2-3.

Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.

God’s provision of manna in the wilderness was never just about feeding physical hunger. It was always about learning to depend upon God, to hear his voice and walk in his ways. In Jesus the Messiah, God has spoken the ultimate word. This was the import of the author of Hebrews, the point he makes from the beginning of his letter:

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. (Hebrews 1:1-3)

The Gospel of John also begins by revealing Jesus as the ultimate and living Word: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). This is the same Word that became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).

In John 6, Jesus fed the five thousand with two small fish and five barley loaves. After his ministry that day, he crossed over to the other side of the Galilee. The crowds came looking for him again the next day. Jesus said,

Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval. (John 6:26-27)

They were after physical bread … and a parlor show — reminiscent of the devil’s temptation: “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat’” (John 6:30-31). Jesus answered,

Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. (John 6:32-33)

He spoke of a very different kind of bread, one that comes down into the world and for the world, not merely from the world. And a different appetite now began to awaken in them, even if only a little. “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread” (John 6:34). Then Jesus identified what that bread is:

I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. (John 6:35-38)

The bread that endlessly nourishes and refreshes and sustains us is not that which is magically turned from stones. It is the Lord Jesus himself, the Word become flesh, the Son of God who came down from heaven not to do his own will — much less the challenge of Satan — but the will of the Father who sent him. He is the bread by which we live the life of the age to come, even now in this present age.

Seasons of Hermitage

Matthew and Luke tell us that Jesus was “led” by the Spirit out into the wilderness. Mark says that the Spirit “sent” or “drove” Jesus out into the wilderness. Sometimes we are led, and we simply follow, trusting in God to watch over us wherever this leading may take us. Other times we are driven, thrust into some season of loss or grief or other difficulty, without even having the choice to follow. Either way, God is there with us. And if we are living in dependence upon him, it will make no difference whether we are led or driven.

The Greek word for “wilderness” is eremos, which is where we get the word “hermit.” It has to do with what is desolate, solitary, lonely, uninhabited. Sometimes we seek solitude and stillness, away from the business of life. Sometimes we are called or led into it for a time of fellowship with God, away from the distractions we daily face. Other times, we are cast into it by circumstances and driven to dependence upon God.

However it may be, God is always with us, even when we cannot make out his presence. All may seem darkness and night around us but God sees us just as clearly as if it were noonday — not only sees, but watches over us in loving care. We can know him even in the dark, with Christ and in the Spirit, and so learn to love and trust him more.

Driven by the Spirit, Tested by the Devil

At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him. (Mark 1:12-13)

All three of the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) give account of the Temptation in the Wilderness. All three note that Jesus was led there by the Holy Spirit and all three report that Jesus was tempted by the devil.

Mark’s account is very brief. You can read it in full above. He does not detail what the temptations were or describe how Jesus overcame them, as Matthew and Luke do. He simply but powerfully gives the highlights in an economy of words. Let’s examine them closer.

At once. Other versions translate this as “immediately.” In Mark’s telling, the Temptation comes right after Jesus’ baptism (in Mark 1:9-11). There is an urgency here which is further indicated by the next phrase.

The Spirit sent him out into the wilderness. Other versions say that the Spirit “drove him out” into the wilderness. The Greek word is ekballo and means to cast out, send out, drive out. There is a forcefulness to it. Matthew and Luke, in their accounts, say that Jesus was led by the Spirit but Mark emphasizes the he was driven by the Spirit. What happened out in the desert was something that had to happen. There was something very significant and definitive about it.

He was in the wilderness forty days. The number “forty” itself indicates a time of testing, just as Israel was tested in the wilderness for forty years before it entered into the Promised Land. It also indicates a time of preparation, just as Moses stayed up on the mountain of the Lord for forty days and nights, receiving from God the “words of the covenant,” that is, the Ten Commandments (Exodus 24:18 and Deuteronomy 9:11). And then again a second time (Exodus 34:28 and Deuteronomy 9:18, 25). Elijah, also, fasted and wandered the wilderness for forty days and nights until he came to that same mountain to receive the word of the Lord (1 Kings 19:8).

Being tempted by Satan. The Greek word satana means “adversary,” one who opposes another in a contrary purpose. Satan came to “tempt” Jesus, to test him. Matthew and Luke refer to him as the devil. The Greek word is diabolos, which means one who accuses or slanders. Satan was attempting to oppose Jesus, to accuse him and turn him from his godly purpose. At this point in their narratives, Matthew and Luke describe the three temptations and show how Jesus overcame Satan. But Mark identifies the victory for us in a very different way, which we will now see.

He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him. It is not just that Jesus was “with the wild animals” but, more importantly, it is that “angels attended him.” The two statements, taken together, recall the story of Daniel in the lion’s den — with the wild animals — and how he prevailed. When King Darius hurried down early the next morning to see if Daniel’s God was able to deliver him, Daniel answered: “My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, Your Majesty” (Daniel 6:22).

In the wilderness temptation, angels attended Jesus and shut the mouths of the “wild animals.” Likening the devil to a hungry lion, Peter reminds us, “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). In the temptation, Jesus defeated that lion and shut his mouth. Angels attended him, just as they did Daniel, and Jesus’ innocence and purity was demonstrated, just as Daniel’s had been. In other words, Jesus passed the test.

But what does all this mean for you and me? Quite simply, this: Jesus’ victory over the devil and his temptations is our victory over the devil and his temptations. Because everything Jesus has done, he has done on our behalf — that is the point of the incarnation, the reason God became man. The author of Hebrews explains it this way:

Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted … For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 2:18, 4:15-16)

Jesus’ victory over the devil in the wilderness was nailed home at the cross, where Jesus “disarmed the principalities and powers” (Colossians 2:15) and “destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14).

Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. (Romans 8:33-35, 37)

The accuser could not make it stick against Jesus. He cannot make it stick against us. Jesus has more than conquered him — defeated him thoroughly and decisively — and in Jesus, we too are more than conquerors. There is now no condemnation or accusation — that matter has been settled. Jesus intercedes for us and through him we can approach the throne of God with the confidence of faith, not only to receive mercy but to find grace that will see us through any test.

Random Thoughts in Lent

Some thoughts in the season of Lent, culled from my random file. About baptism, repentance, discipleship … and the impossible Christian life. Some have come to me in moments of quiet reflection, some in interaction with others. Many have been tweets and updates. Offered for your edification, inspiration and preparation in this season.

• Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent remind us that we are the dust of the earth ~ and the breath of God.
• The point of Ash Wednesday is to reckon ourselves dead to sin but alive to God through King Jesus the Messiah.
• Lent is a good time to take time ~ to watch, listen and think about what King Jesus is doing in the world ... and what he wants to do through you.
• Lent is an opportunity to enter into the purpose, passion and power of the Lord Jesus Christ, and be made more like Him.
• What to give up for Lent: The vain struggle to overcome sin. It has already been overcome by Jesus the Messiah. Dwell on that.
• The fast God desires is a fast that never ends, an ongoing process of faith being formed by the love of God and expressed through love for others.
• Embrace your doubt in faith, like the man who came to Jesus for healing for his son (Mark 9:24). Here’s a simple breath prayer. Breathe in: “Lord, I believe.” Breathe out: “Help my unbelief.”
• The Christian life is impossible. Only Christ can live it — and he comes to live it in you. Let him.
• Jesus’ first words in the Gospel of John are, “What do you seek?”
• A disciple is someone who is learning to live in the reality of King Jesus.
• In the humility of baptism, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world identified with the people who very much needed to have their sin taken away.
• The power of baptism is not that I was baptized but that I am baptized, and the life of Christ is mine — now and always.
• Baptism is an epiphany, a revelation of Jesus Christ. When you’ve had an epiphany, it changes everything. It changes you and you can’t go back to the way things were before.
• I am baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit — and that is a wonderful fellowship to be immersed in.
• The most fearful thing that can happen to a person is for God to let him have his own way.
• Lord, fill me with the desire for You. Fill me with the desire for the things You desire. Then fill all those desires. Amen.
• Repentance is turning to God, away from dependence on everything that isn’t God. Every day is a good day to repent and learn to trust God more.
• Discipleship is learning to live daily in the reality of King Jesus and the love of God.
• Today I am living out of the new creation and ignoring the remnant echoes of the old.
• Today I silence all the voices that speak out against me. The blood of King Jesus declares much better things over me.
• The devil is defeated. King Jesus reigns. See everything through that lens and dwell on that reality.
• Lent is not a “Spiritual Strongman” competition, a season for striving to prove our mettle. It is for knowing our weakness and finding our strength in Christ.
  

More random thoughts …

Isn’t This What I Chose for You?

These are the lyrics to a song I wrote many years ago, but it is appropriate to the season of Lent and the series I have been doing on Isaiah 58.

ISN'T THIS WHAT I CHOSE FOR YOU?

Here’s another Sunday morning

And you set aside the day.

But is there something you’ve forgotten on the way?

You offer me your worship

And you offer me your prayer

But the burden of my own heart do you bear?

Isn’t this what I chose for you?

Isn’t this the thing I planned?

Not some sentimental journey

Into the Promised Land.

Is there room for the wanderer

And provision for the poor?

Is there something for the hungry at your door?

For if you would be a blessing,

You would find that you’ve been blessed

And I would be your healing and your rest.

Isn’t this what I chose for you,

That you might learn to understand?

To remember they’re a part of you

And be my blessing in the land

Isn’t this what I chose for you?

Isn’t this the thing I planned?

Not some sentimental journey

Into the Promised Land.

© 1992 by Jeff Doles

The Fruit of the Fast God Desires

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. The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.

You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings. (Isaiah 58:8-12)

Israel was in a scrape (Isaiah 58 probably addresses them during their time of exile and captivity in Babylon) and they wanted the Lord to come and deliver them. They thought they could manipulate God by the emptiness of fasts and rituals when their hearts were far away from him — and from each other. (Is This What You Call a Fast?)

But God desired a fast that was altogether different, one in which yokes were broken, the oppressed were set free, the hungry were fed, the naked clothed, the stranger welcomed and the poor give shelter. This is faith expressing itself through love. It is a fast God honors because it expresses the heart of God, who is love, and it is the nature of love to give and to serve. (The Fast God Desires)

In this next section, verses 8 through 12, God speaks about the change such a fast brings — and it is really a “night and day” difference, beginning with the light of morning:

• Your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear. It will bring forth a new day for you and your healing will begin.
• Your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. This righteous fast of faith working through love will prepare the way before you, and God will back you up all the way. It will be a revelation of his glory.
• Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. God always responds to those who call on him in faith and whose hearts are turned toward him.
• Your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The new day God promises will continue and increase, regardless of the darkness in the world. It will shine in the night and make it like noonday.
• The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. God is always ready to take care of us completely and in every way, even in a drought time. When we are turned toward him and our hearts are aligned with his, we are ready to receive his guidance, provision and strength.
• You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. This is a picture of prosperity and blessing, like the man in Psalm 1, who follows the instruction of the Lord and becomes like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, its leaves always fresh and green — and whatever he does prospers!
• Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and raise up the age-old foundations. This is exactly what Israel was seeking by their empty ritual. God longed to do it for them, but only if they would keep his chosen fast of loving and caring for their neighbor as themselves. And then,
• You will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings. God is speaking not just to individuals but to a people and a generation. The more we live out the fast God desires, the more we will become repairers of the broken and restorers of the good and ancient paths that lead to righteousness and peace.

The Fast God Desires

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? (Isaiah 58:6-7)

God has no problem with fasting. He is not against rituals and symbolic expressions of faith. What he hates, though, are empty symbols and hollow rituals that are not joined to the life and faith they are intended to express. What he is after is the heart. Earlier in Isaiah, God complained against his people, “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their heart are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught” (Isaiah 29:13).

In the New Testament, Paul shows the way of the gospel in regard to ritual. In this case the ritual of circumcision, but it is applicable in all things: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (Galatians 5:6). Whether or not one performs the ritual is secondary. The primary thing — the only thing that ultimately counts with God — is faith expressing itself through love. That is the kind of “fast” God desires from us.

In the false fast God denounced in Isaiah 58:1-5 (see Is This What You Call a Fast?), the people had the ritual down cold, with all the right moves. But it was empty because it was not connected to how they were actually living their lives. They continued exploiting and oppressing their workers. They continued quarreling and fighting and even coming to blows with each other. They were accusing and slandering each other (see vv. 9-10). They were abusing each other instead of taking care of one another.

What they were doing, God was looking for the exact opposite. The fast God desired from them was one in which they would act justly toward each other. Releasing each other instead of enslaving each other. Helping each other instead of exploiting each other.

• The fast God desires is to treat people justly.
• The fast God desires is to set people free from bondage
• The fast God desires is to share our food with the hungry.
• The fast God desires is to provide shelter for the wanderer.
• The fast God desires is to clothe the naked.
• The fast God desires does not turn away from those who are in need — for they are our flesh and blood.

In short, the fast God desires is nothing other than faith expressing itself through love. It is the fast God expects and the only one God honors. It is also the fast God enables — by Christ, who supremely revealed the love of God for us at the cross, and through the Holy Spirit, whose fruit in us is love. As we journey through this season of Lent, then, let us consider how the Lord Jesus desires to live out this fast through us.