Isaiah 58:3. Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge?
They could not make out why they did not benefit by their religiousness.
They fasted, but they did not find themselves improved thereby. They afflicted their souls, yet they did not receive pardon for their sins, and they could not make it out. The Lord explained the mystery.
Isaiah 58:3. Behold, in the day of your fast ye fled pleasure; and exact all your labours.
It is very easy to abstain from eating food of a certain kind, yet you can make another kind of food just as palatable; and while you are yourself resting, you may be compelling others to work for you. What is this but hypocrisy? I think it is a common saying among the Arabs and Egyptians, when a man is very ugly in temper, "One would think that he was keeping a fast," because it often happens in long fasts that men grow irritable; what is the good of fasting when that is the only result?
Isaiah 58:3. Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge?
They could not make out why they did not benefit by their religiousness.
They fasted, but they did not find themselves improved thereby. They afflicted their souls, yet they did not receive pardon for their sins, and they could not make it out. The Lord explained the mystery.
Isaiah 58:3. Behold, in the day of your fast ye fled pleasure; and exact all your labours.
It is very easy to abstain from eating food of a certain kind, yet you can make another kind of food just as palatable; and while you are yourself resting, you may be compelling others to work for you. What is this but hypocrisy? I think it is a common saying among the Arabs and Egyptians, when a man is very ugly in temper, "One would think that he was keeping a fast," because it often happens in long fasts that men grow irritable; what is the good of fasting when that is the only result?