40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Isaiah 57:11- 58:7 (Episode 499)

Episode Date: February 27, 2026

Whatever you take refuge in is what you worship. God's anger is never wasted. And God, being non-transactional, has a different fast in mind. Have a listen. Show Notes: Support 1517 Podcast Network 1517 Podcasts 1517 on Youtube 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 Events Schedule 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education What's New from 1517: Face to Face: A Novel of the Reformation by Amy Mantravadi Untamed Prayers: 365 Daily Devotions on Christ in the Book of Psalms by Chad Bird Remembering Your Baptism: A 40-Day Devotional by Kathryn Morales Sinner Saint by Luke Kjolhaug More from the hosts: Daniel Emery Price Chad Bird

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go to 1517.org slash podcast. Check out all the other podcasts that are living over there. And while you're over there, make sure you check out everything else that 1517 is doing, articles, academies, events. Hey, come hang out with Chad and I in northwest Arkansas the first weekend of May, May 1st and 2nd. Not just Chad and I, Flame, Scott Keith, Caleb Keith, Kelsey Kambara. It's going to be a good time.

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Here We Still Stand regional event, sign up. We'd love to see you there. We are in Isaiah chapter 57. We're talking about the futility of Israel's idolatry, that they can't seem to wrap their minds around, the futility of this whole thing. And God says, by now, I would expect you to be lying on the ground in the fetal position with all hope, having left your body. But no, somehow you're like, maybe if we just, you know, idolize harder, that's what we're going to do.

Let's get up and we'll do idolatry even more, more idolatry. We're not being idolatrous enough. That's the problem. And God says, that's not what I was hoping for. I was hoping that you would have no hope. That's what I was hoping for. Yeah, but they found a new life for their strength, right? Let's get up and let's do this whole thing over again, but even more so.

And that then leads to the next three verses, which is Isaiah 57, 11 through 13, that will wrap up this particular section. And then he'll transition to talking about the remnant, those who actually are contrite and do turn to him. But to finish this up, let me read 11 through 13. So this is God speaking to the practitioners of idolatry. Whom did you dread and fear so that you lied or so that you deceived and did not remember me? In the Hebrew, that would be, and me, you did not remember and did not lay it to heart. Have I not held my peace even for a long time? And you do not fear me.

I will declare your righteousness So he held his peace, but now he says I will declare, he's going to open his mouth and talk Now, I will declare your Righteousness and your deeds That should probably be in air quotes Your righteousness and your deeds But they will not profit you

When you cry out Let your collection of idols deliver you The wind will carry them All off, a breath Will take them away But he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain i like the way this starts out verse 11 whom did you dread and fear so that you lied and me you did not remember because i think

it points to a uh a fundamental motivation for a lot of not just israel's idolatry but ours as well like what are you afraid of i think that's a pretty good question to ask like okay what are you, what is your, what's really your deep seated fear? Maybe not the one you don't even like to think about, but it's like always like hovering there. Uh, that's driving you to engage in acts of worship, even though you might not call them acts of worship, but it's where you put your trust. It's how you deal with, it's where you get your forgiveness from. It's where you get your purpose from. It's that thing before which you bow the knee. So what is it you're dreading and fearing that drives you to certain kinds of idolatry so that in this case you you lied you

basically you it's kind of the sense of you lied to yourself you're like living a lie you're deceiving yourself and me you didn't remember you didn't you didn't you didn't lay it to heart so what fear is driving you or what dread is pushing you toward this idolatry so that you find yourself living a lie and forgetting, not remembering me. Well, you know what this fear usually is in this—it's usually man, right? So it's usually fear of man. This is what it is, which will make you be like, ah, this believing in this one true God thing is not going to save me from this fear of man that I have going on. I need something that is more like what other men have. That's what I need. And I do like that he's like, yeah, I've been quiet for a long time, just been observing.

But I have been observing. And let me tell you, let me put before you all this righteousness and, man, all these deeds. I'm going to put them all before you. And guess what? That's going to amount to nothing because I can't find any of those anywhere, right? So this is all very sarcastic here. Like, I'm going to declare your deeds and your righteousness, and it's not going to take long because short list. And then you got to love that he says, when I do that, that's probably, you're probably going to be terrified and you're going to cry out and I'm going to let your idols deliver you we'll see how that goes yeah there's a lot of sarcasm going on here and he wraps that up by saying this collection of idols you know the ones that you've been i talked about in the

previous verses and the ones you keep turning to a little puff of wind is all it takes to drive blow them away it's like they are they are that empty of life and hope and all the things that you were seeking in them, I mean, they're just like chaff before the wind, which drives, which the wind drives away. That's how much weight they don't have. I mean, he finishes off with a good word though. He says, but he who takes refuge in me, well, there's stability there, right? You get the land, you possess the land, you live in the land, you are where God wants you to be. And not only that, but he drops this very Isaiah phrase on us, my holy mountain. I was just looking up, I think it was last night, I was looking at this and Isaiah uses this one,

two, three, four, five, six different times. In fact, it doesn't even show up until you get to Isaiah. That's the first time you have that phrase, my holy mountain. And he first uses it back in chapter 11 if you remember chapter 11 it's a heavy messianic chapter talking all about the the son of david in various sorts of ways and in verse 90 says they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the lord as the waters cover the sea so here this is uh this is definitely not saying hey if you folks in in israel in isaiah's day we'll get your act together and get away from those idols then you're going to be secure on the mount of jerusalem on mount zion this is pointing forward to the kingdom which is to come under

under the servant so if you take refuge in him then you're going to be secure and you're going to dwell with god in his in his kingdom so this is this forward-looking glance at what is what is still to come. And he's got more to say about this in the verses that follow. What's interesting about this is that, what is idolatry? Well, normally we would say idolatry is when you worship something that isn't God, right? Something other than God. I think it's interesting that here, and I don't think we understand worship, right? I think we think of like praise and worship or something. Like worship is like the part of the Sunday morning that, you know, precedes the sermon. You have worship, and then

you're going to have this guy talk to you, and that's what it is. But here, you have a kind of God telling you what He thinks it is, which is really good. If you worship something, this is the thing that you take refuge in. That's what idolatry is, right? And so, you're out there. What is the thing here? The thing is, like, you're going to call out and Let your idols save you. But if you take refuge in me, you're going to possess the land. So there is a correlation between you take refuge in what you worship. These are the same thing, right?

And so worship is not simply like, you know, bowing down before something, but it's what you trust in, right? It's where you find your safety and security. Yeah, that's the word I was going to use. So where do you find your security? When you think about today, when you think about tomorrow, when you think about the days which are to come, maybe you're anxious about this or that, or maybe you're dealing with guilt or shame, whatever it is. So where do you seek security and refuge? I mean, we all know that life is full of unexpected events and you lose things and things are kind of chaotic for a while. Well, where do you seek refuge during those times?

where's your security at? Well, there you go. There's your God. It's not that difficult to figure out once you kind of ask these fundamental questions of yourself. So this now is going to lead us to a different section, beginning with verse 14 and really taking us through the end of this chapter. So the next few verses are going to be talking about about those who do actually take refuge in the Lord, what that looks like and what God is going to do for those folks. Verse 14 starts out this way. It shall be said, or one shall say, build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstacle from my people's way. For thus says the one who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the

high and holy place. And also with him who is of a contrite, I would translate that a crushed, literally, a contrite or a crushed and lowly spirit to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite he starts out with the uh images that we've seen elsewhere in isaiah especially in those sections which are a prophecy of the work of john the baptist where you have this highway construction going on so build up build up you know highway is called that because it's a high way it's higher than the area around it so you're building up when you build a highway you're getting everything ready for speedy travel so build up build up make make everything ready, get all the obstacles out of the way, because God is coming. And who is this God?

I love this verse from Isaiah. So he's high, he's lifted up, he's holy. In fact, he dwells in a high and holy place. But guess who he's with? He's with the one who is low, the one who has a contrite and a lowly spirit. I know I've quoted this before. This is one of my favorite Luther quotes. It's from his commentary on Mary's Magnificat. And I don't think I have it verbatim, but basically Luther says that the farther we are beneath God, the better he sees us. You would think, of course, you know, the higher we are. Of course, if God is high and lifted up, well, then the higher and more lifted up we are, the closer we are to God. No, it doesn't work that way.

The farther you are beneath God, the better he sees you. And he's pulling on passages like this where the high and holy God is with the contrite and the lowly spirit. Because, of course, that is the kind of empty vessel that God is ready to fill. He's there to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. And this isn't some like, you know, virtue that people have. Oh, you're so contrite and you're so lowly. Don't think of that as a virtue. Just think of that as basically a God-given acknowledgement that without him, I am nothing and I have nothing. But with him, I have exactly what he wants me to have and I am exactly who he wants me to be. Yeah, this is some law gospel stuff, right? So the law comes in and it'll crush you. That's what it is. It's the hammer that does that work and makes you realize that you are in desperate need of something outside of yourself. and then the gospel comes in and this is the exaltation of the lowly. So it's not that God just simply goes around finding people who possess this lowly quality, this humility that

he's so seeking. And if he can just find those people, then he's going to elevate those people. No, he creates those people through the preaching of the law. That contrition, that lowliness is also something brought about by the Word of God. And once that Word has done its work, then he brings in this better Word, which is the Word that exalts the lowly, which is a Word of gospel of forgiveness and absolution and imputed righteousness, and this is how it works. That's why I like the translation of crushed a little bit better, because, I mean, if you're crushed, that means that you were the recipient of someone else's action, right? A rock does not crush itself. It takes somebody wielding a hammer to crush that rock. So people do not crush

themselves. They are crushed by the hammer of the law. And in that way, yes, they're made contrite. They've been crushed by this. They've been made lowly. I mean, it's pretty easy for us to turn that kind of lowly state into a good work of humility. I've got this virtue of humility, And God was looking around. He's like, dang, look at that guy. He is so virtuous in humility. I'm going to pick him. It doesn't work that way. No, we're made that way. We're pushed low. We're made crushed and lowly by the work of God's law. Precisely in order that then he might fill us with his forgiveness and lift up, revive the heart of the contrite. Yeah, absolutely. And he goes on to say that, you know, when he does this law work, he's not going to last forever. He says, I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry. If I did, he said, the spirit would grow faint before me in the breath of life that I made.

I mean, there's only so much crushing that can take place, right? The law does its work, and when the law does its work, it's like, get that law out of the way, right? It's time for the gospel. Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain, I was angry. I struck him. I hid my face and was angry. But he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart. I've seen his ways, but I will heal him.

And this him here is think corporately. This isn't talking about a particular individual. This is talking about, it's using the singular, but for the plurality of Israel. I've seen his ways, but I will heal him. I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners, creating the fruit of the lips. And then I'll just go ahead and finish it off. This is the rest of 19 through 21. Peace, peace to the far and to the near, says the Lord, and I will heal him.

But the wicked are like the tossing sea, for it cannot be quiet and its waters toss up mire and dirt. there is no peace, says my God, for the wicked. That was, by the way, verbatim quoted back in Isaiah 48, verse 22, there is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked. So maybe that was one of Isaiah's favorite phrases. When it starts out here, we're talking about why God was using the law, why he was crushing people, why he was angry, and it was because of unjust gain. No doubt, just one particular example of a whole lot of examples as to why god had to do his work we had all the idolatrous actions described in the first part of the first part of the chapter but uh that's to use another another image from isaiah that's god's alien work yeah that's uh

his foreign work it's not what god is really out to do it's what must be done it's not like god delights in being angry and delights in crushing people but that's what must be done to sinners in order that they might be ready for the gospel. And then God turns around, he heals, he restores comfort. He even creates what Isaiah calls the fruit of the lips, which here would be no doubt confession, praise, thanksgiving for what God has done. And then it ends by this duplication of peace.

So shalom, shalom, peace, peace to the far and to the near. And God says, I will heal him. And then he wraps up on a different note, talking about the wicked being like the tossing of the sea, pretty common biblical image where the wicked or Gentiles or Gentile rulers compared to the chaotic waters of the sea that are always moving, can't be quiet, tossing up mire and dirt. And so a lack of peace for the wicked who are like the tossing of the sea. Yeah, I mean, it seems it's pretty straightforward that God is saying that, one, yes, that I'm not going to stay angry forever. This isn't like I'm not just like an angry God. That's not that's not my default disposition. but what I do is that when I am angry or when I have to judge or crush this is the goal of this

is always to heal my goal is for you to have peace right and so it's not just that maybe my anger well I was angry but then I cooled off that it's not like that like it's not it's not like us Like, we get upset about something, and then some time goes by, and we simmer down and stuff. God is never like that. God's—when God judges, it's always in service of trying to bring about something else. So, like, God's anger is not just—he doesn't just get angry for the sake of being offended or upset or anything like that. that there's actually a purpose behind it, which is, okay, you're out there being wicked. I'm going to let you know that, and I'm going to do this crushing work, but this is all—there's

a reason behind all this. God does not have any wasted anger, which is like all our anger is wasted. Yeah, that is so true. Yeah. Yeah, we fly off the handle for some reason, then we cool down, and usually our flying off the handle is for selfish reasons. Well, let's put it this way. Not for loving reasons. Like, I can't—the vast majority, if not all, of the times that I've been real angry, I either should or did have to apologize afterwards. There's, like, something—like, there's some repenting that has to happen post my anger, typically. This is the case. God has never had to apologize for his anger.

Yes. This makes him very different than us. Yeah. Yeah. Even when I have what we call righteous anger, it's always mixed with unrighteousness. I've never had purely righteous anger over something. There's always a mixture of some unrighteousness in there. And so, yeah, I take things too far. I say things that are mean and hateful. So, yeah, you end up apologizing, even on those occasions. Maybe you had justification for being angry, right?

But, yeah, mixed with that is always selfishness because sinners can never do anything from completely pure motives. Well, I mean, I think that sometimes we mix up, like, justified anger in the way that, like, maybe somebody does something and you can understand why that person, the other person is justifiably angry about it. It's not exactly the same as righteous anger. I've never gotten like super trying to think of like the top 10 angriest I've ever been. It's never because like idolatry is going on. It's usually like I'm usually offended for me. So I don't know how righteous it is. It might be justifiable or understandable why I was upset.

But I don't know if it's moved into the category of righteous. I've never been like just up in arms, outraged. I mean, I've been upset about these things before, but like my peak moments of rage have not been because, you know, the name of the Lord is dishonored among his people or something. That's not why people get mad. Yeah, that's probably another good barometer of where your idols are. what makes you angry yeah and you know i think for most people uh the times they get the angriest is probably when they're behind the wheel yeah i think if you just like if you never determined like just when do you get mad the most it's probably when i have you know some mild road rage

going on on like a consistent basis so what's that all about well that's just all about a lack of patience and selfishness and uh purely for purely selfish motives yeah maybe that guy did cut you off i don't think your anger is righteous though probably like i don't think and you know it's not like i've never heard anyone i mean i've probably called chad up uh like you know irritated by somebody saying something about god or the bible or something that i think is like absolutely absurd and terrible and i can get like you know up in arms about that kind of stuff but it's not like in the top 10 maddest i've ever been because this guy is saying untrue things about the lord or something like i'm like i get annoyed with that kind of stuff but but not angry yeah not angry not

angry like uh where for hours i am like stewing like if i could just get my hands on this person Yeah. Yes, anger is a pretty good barometer of where the idolatry is. All right, so we're going to switch gears a little bit here in chapter 58 and talk about some other kind of righteousness. It's kind of a pretend righteousness, we might say, and he's going to relate this to fasting. So a lot of things here in chapter 58 that remind me of chapter 1, where Isaiah started out talking about, oh, yeah, you guys love to worship. Man, you just heap up the sacrifices, adding festival on top of festival, and yet God is not pleased with any of it,

because it's all just hypocritical kinds of liturgies that you're engaged in. So some of that's going on here in chapter 58. It starts out by saying, cry aloud, don't hold back, lift up your voice like a trumpet, declare to my people their transgressions and to the house of Jacob their sins. So quite a call to the preacher here to make your voice into a trumpet and trumpet to my people their transgressions and their sins. Kind of being told, hey, preacher, preach the law. Yeah, getting that pulpit, putting the law to your lips and trumpeting it forth. So he's going to start doing that here in verse 2. He says, yet they seek me daily.

You got to hear this. Hear these words in the sarcastic tone in which they are intended. They seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God. They ask of me righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to God. I actually think the, I don't really use the NIV that much, but the NIV does, I think, a better job here. Let me read it. Day after day, they seek me out.

they seem eager to know my ways as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commandments of his God. They asked me for just decisions and seem eager to come to God and draw near to him. So I think that captures seem and as if captures the tone of this much better. In other words, I mean, it's not like they've stopped going to church, right? I mean, they're every day. I mean, they're seeking me. They ask me for righteous judgments. Man, they act as if they delight to draw near to God. And yet it's all a farce because listen to what they say. This is verse three. Why have we fasted and you don't see it? Why have we humbled ourselves and you take no knowledge of it? So what's this all about? We're fasting to get your

attention god we're doing all this trying to we're really trying to impress you here uh i mean i fast twice a week i give a a tithe of my dill and cumin and all that kind of stuff and i'm not like you know adulterers or murderers or even like that tax collector over there that's a whole tone of this well but so what's being said here is that okay if you were just like outside observing if you were just like a person and you were just observing this you'd be like seems like they're doing all the stuff i don't don't see any problem here it seems like uh all the boxes are being checked this all looks uh good and salutary uh that's what it looks like to me and uh and then god says yeah yeah except for they're treating me like uh like these other gods now here's what's

interesting uh so in 30 minutes in the new testament we're going through acts right now and uh we just covered uh paul and athens you know and he comes across the inscription to the unknown god and this kind of stuff um the the big the big uh difference that paul makes because so in in his sermon or his address to the men of athens he does not mention jesus by name which is Very unlike Paul to do this. He calls him one, right? He is appointed one, right? Yeah.

Well, yeah. So he says, like, hey, you got this inscription on God. Let me tell you about him. Like, it turns out he's the one that he goes first article and says, yeah, it turns out he created everything. So that's who he is. It's great news. Everything that exists, he created. That's who he is.

And then it says, and he has appointed a man to judge everyone, and you can have assurance to survive this judgment only in this man's resurrection. It doesn't bring up Jesus. So what he does is he creates this space to ask, who's that? That's the next question. What do you mean this God has appointed a man? Like, who is this guy? And Paul's going to be like, oh, I happen to know him. I can introduce you.

It's going to be great. In his resurrection, you can survive this judgment that he's handed over to him. Now, the big difference is that Paul says that this God creates everything, gives it all to you, and needs nothing from you. And he says he is not a God like your gods. He is not to be served in that way. He's not to be served as if he needed anything. This is how Paul's language is. And this is like a completely different thing for the Greeks.

Like they're spending all their time like appeasing these gods. And so the whole point is like the worst thing is to have the gods be angry with you. So if you're not going to have them be angry with you, you've got to give them their stuff. And if you give them enough stuff, not only will they maybe not be angry with you, But maybe they'll give you fertility or crops or whatever it is that you're looking for. So the whole thing is what? Transactional. Yeah, I was going to say, it's a quid pro quo.

Yeah, the whole thing. Yes. And so you might be like, why are you talking about all this? It just so happens that I brought it up in the Acts thing, too. In the Old Testament, this is one of the things that God gets upset about is when you treat him like he's one of these other gods. Now, those are Greek gods. This is like something different over here, but all gods, all, it doesn't matter if they're Canaanite gods or if they're Greek gods, it doesn't matter what they are. It's all transactional.

And the difference is, is this God is saying, hey, what I've established is that I'm your God. You're my people. I'm a, the thing that makes me different is that I love and I give. Those gods don't do that. Those gods don't love you. They have no affection for you and they don't give to you. you pay them off. If you want them to go to war for you, you hire them, you know, like you give them whatever it is that you, that's not how it works with me. And so in this little, just this

little thing right here, you see like, what is God's frustration here? Is that these people are like, hey, we fasted, why did we not get our stuff? We humbled ourselves, why did we not get our stuff? Like, why aren't you paying attention to us? And he's like, because you're treating me like a false god that's not the relationship we have like that's we don't have a transactional relationship like that like you don't fast and then i have to give you these you know i'm not a god to be appeased uh i'm a god who loves you and who gives to you and you are my people um we have a familial relationship we do not have like this kind of i don't need any what do you think i need your fasting? Like, oh, well, finally, I got some fasting. Now I'm going to, no. And so anyway,

all that, long way of saying, like, I think that this is one of the things that like really irritates God in the Old Testament is when he feels like his people are going, they take religious ceremony and sort of apply the same attitude that other people have towards their gods to this stuff it's like well this must be our formula this must be the way that that we interact in the way that we transact with our god and god's god uh i hate all this yeah well that's our that's our religious default that's the way we think right we we translate our horizontal way of doing life where i give you this and you give me this or i do this for you and you do you give me you do something for me back we translate that vertically and we think oh that's the way god has

to be too, right? I give to God, he gives to me. I scratch his back, he scratches mine. And that's not who God is. Like Psalm 50 says, if I were hungry, I wouldn't even tell you. The cattle on a thousand hills are mine. It's how I drink the flesh of bulls or eat the blood of male goats. He says, I'm not hungry. I don't need anything from you, right? Yeah, that's a great great connection between paul and athens and what's going on here and yeah it doesn't matter if it was the first century greco-roman culture or the 8th century assyrian culture or the babylonian culture or the 21st century american culture everybody thinks the same way naturally if you want something from god you got to get something to god so yeah there's only the true god

this isn't like hyperbole like only the truth the only we have a god who loves you because he does yes that's it not because you did something for him not because you were lovable not because there was anything you did or anything you are that elicits the love from him he loves you uh before he even looks at you as it were because that's just who he is yeah yeah that's very different And he does get, God doesn't like it when he's perceived to be a different way than that. No, yeah, he does not. So he's going to go on to say here, you know, they, they, he quotes them, you know, why we fast and why we humbled ourselves, you're not doing anything. So he goes on in the second half of verse three, look, in the day of your fast, just seek your own pleasure.

You oppress all your workers. you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high so it's kind of a humorous in a dark sort of way you're fasting you know what your fasting is a bunch of fighting that's all that's going on even your fasting is ridiculously evil you're just looking to take care of yourself and to uh, fight and quarrel and get into, get into fistfights over these things. Uh, and then he says in verse five, you, you want to fast? All right, here's a fast. Here's a fast that I choose. Here's, here's, here's the day for a person to humble themselves. Is it to, is it to bow his

head like a reed and spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is that you think that's what I'm looking for? Is this not the fast that I choose? To loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, the yoke being a negative symbol of oppression, taking advantage of other people, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke? Is it not, so he continues this, is it not to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the homeless poor into your house? We see the naked to cover him and not to hide yourself from your own flesh. So he said, yeah, you're active with all these religious things thinking you're going to get my attention and you're doing this just to curry favor with me and get stuff from me.

And even your fasting is utterly backwards. If you want to do a fast, then forget about all your sackcloth and ashes and all that kind of stuff. Just go love the people around you. feed the homeless, got somebody who doesn't have clothing, put clothing on them, let the oppressed go free, all those yokes you're putting on other people, break those, take those off. In other words, live in a community where you take care of each other, you love each other, you help each other, you forgive each other, and you have a community characterized by love and service toward one another. That's the kind of fast, that's the

kind of festival that i'm looking for yeah it's almost like god saying um i know you think that you've got like this form that figured out where you can just like not eat for a day and then like i'm obligated to give you whatever you want so now now you are uh you're doing this all out of out of selfish gain right like this is this is what this has become like so you're like i could to abstain from eating for a day if I could get this thing from God. And God's like, yeah, that's not going to work. But I'll tell you what kind of fast I would love to see. This would just be the best. How about you fast from being a terrible neighbor? Take a break from that. I'd love to see that. How about you fast from just being like a wicked individual? Can we fast from that for a

little while. And the reason for this, and this kind of goes back to what I was saying, is because God does have this, these are His people. Like, this is, you're the family of God, and He doesn't, He's like, hey, could you act like a family for once? That's what I would love to see. You're all fighting with each other and hitting each other. You got your brothers over here, you know, hungry and naked and homeless. And like, that's not how, that's not how we're supposed to have this family work um this is very dysfunctional and so yeah it's and even all that it's not so and then i'll give you what you want like what he's saying is that like i am your god you are my people like act like my people act like you're part of this family yeah yeah that's that's what

uh that's what would characterize a true godly fast so you know here we are what what is today today we're recording on february 10th i mean i think isn't ash wednesday right around the corner in Lent, going to be beginning soon. So I know everybody's looking for something to give up for Lent. You know, maybe you've already made up your mind, but, you know, if you haven't thought about it, just maybe give up being a terrible person.

Yeah, I'm going to fast from being a bad neighbor. Yeah, I'm going to fast from being a wicked neighbor. That would be a pretty good fast to engage in this coming Lent. That seems to be the one that God was like, here's the one. It is funny that he uses that language. He's like, tell you what, I'm going to choose to fast.

Here's what it is. Did you fast from being you for a little while? Yeah. And the thing is, I mean, that's harder for us. No, I'd rather give up, you know, whatever, fill in the blank, than give up being that kind of person to my neighbor, right? So this is a greater challenge to be that kind of neighbor that's being described here. Well, and just, you know, God would love you to fast from this idea that you can manipulate him with, you know, oh, I've humbled myself. Like, if I just, like, spread the sackcloth out in a certain way and don't eat lunch, then God's going to think I'm really something.

And this is the difference also between God and every other false god. False gods don't care about your heart. They only care about, are you giving me the, you know, are you doing the thing? Did you provide the sacrifice? Did you give the offering? God is far less concerned with those things. Yeah, he doesn't care if you're going through the motions or not. If you have a dark heart inside you.

Or if you're just doing it to get something. He's like, I don't accept this. Yeah, yeah. That did characterize the Greek and Roman gods. They didn't care about your heart. They just want to make sure they get what they wanted. Yes, you go through the motions, you know, very particular about the rituals and whatnot, and make sure you do everything just right.

And those gods were happy. It doesn't matter if your heart's in it or not. I mean, they would look at you like you're crazy if you said not. Was your heart really into that sacrifice to Zeus? Who cares? Zeus doesn't care. So why should I care? Yeah, God could not be more different.

And we are at 40 minutes. I guess we're going to wrap up. We are out of time. We will continue in this next episode, Chad. I'll see you then. See you then.