All Dressed Up With Nowhere to Go

Isaiah 58:3 “Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.”

Have you ever been all dressed up with nowhere to go? There is a great fly-fishing store in downtown Flagstaff, Arizona. They have some neat looking lures, waders (if waders can be neat), and jackets. I could go into this store and spend over $200 on fly-fishing gear, and I would catch just as many fish as I caught in the past twenty years! I might look like two hundred bucks, but the fish would not be fooled! I have another friend who owns a wide assortment of skiing gear, but the guy can’t even snow plow. Sometimes we can get wrapped up in the way we look that we forget what we are doing.

So the children of Israel in Isaiah 58 had become so wrapped up in fasting and feasting, but their heart was not right and God was not pleased. We learn here in Isaiah that living for God involves living for others. These people were fasting, but their reason was for “strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness. . . .” (verse 4) Remember Jezebel? Even she proclaimed a fast when she was seeking to acquire Naboth’s vineyard. Was fasting God’s idea? Yes. Was God pleased with either Jezebel’s or this people’s fasting when they had evil purposes? No, He was not.

I have not caught a fish in over twenty years. “Oh,” you say, “you did not have enough equipment.” No sir, that is not the reason. “You need to use the right lure.” No, that’s not it either. “You have not found the right spot.” No, that’s not quite right. You see, I have not caught a fish in twenty years because . . . I have not been fishing in twenty years! The fanciest gear, the newest lures, and the best fishing hole around won’t do you a bit of good if you don’t go fishing. You may look good and feel good, but you won’t be eating fish! My Tall-Daddy (grandfather) used to say that if you have ever given your life for someone else, make it this week. Every week in the summer, he would encourage folks who were tired, overworked, and underpaid to live that week for others. That is the kind of serving that helps other people and the only kind of living that pleases God. “Be not weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Galatians 6:9)