Isaiah 58-59

What’s Happening?

Israel was supposed to be a light to the world, a kingdom that embodied God’s justice, mercy, and goodness (Isaiah 2:1-5). He even gave them tools—like fasting—to shape their hearts toward compassion for the poor and oppressed. But now, Israel was in exile. Their land was gone, their temple destroyed, and their people scattered among foreign nations (Isaiah 58:1). And in their desperation, they turned to fasting, hoping to get God’s attention. They humbled themselves in sackcloth and ashes, pleading for him to act like a warrior, to defeat their enemies, and to bring them home (Isaiah 58:2-3).

But God wasn’t listening.

Isaiah explains that Israel still didn’t understand why they were in exile. They thought their suffering could be reversed through more religious performance as if fasting was a tool to manipulate God into saving them (Isaiah 58:4-5). But God says they are in exile not because they weren’t fasting enough, but because they had abandoned justice. They had ignored the poor, turned their backs on the homeless, and oppressed their workers (Isaiah 58:6-7). Isaiah exposes this hypocrisy. They fasted from food but they didn’t fast from injustice. If they wanted God’s kingdom of justice and mercy and goodness, they needed to live it out in the kind of fasting God desired: sharing their bread with the hungry, welcoming the homeless, and freeing the oppressed — in short, doing justice in the world (Isaiah 58:6-14).

But Isaiah broadens the picture. Israel’s sin ran deeper than fasting (Isaiah 59:1-5). Their entire way of life was not marked by God’s justice and mercy, but stained by their own violence and evil (Isaiah 59:7-8). And no amount of religious effort could cover that stain. Trying to make themselves righteous through hypocritical piety was like wearing a spider’s web as a sweater—it covered nothing (Isaiah 59:6). 

Finally, Israel admits their evil. They confessed how hopeless they were, how corrupt they had become, how utterly incapable they were of saving themselves. They admit that instead of bringing justice, they multiplied oppression (Isaiah 59:11-13). Instead of truth, they spread lies (Isaiah 59:14-15). Instead of light, they stumbled in darkness—so blind that even at noon, they groped like men in the night (Isaiah 59:9-10).

And that’s the prayer that God hears.

God admits they are right. He has seen that none of them can embody God’s kingdom of justice, mercy, and goodness (Isaiah 59:16). They are too blind to be the light of the world. So God would do it himself. While his people were pointlessly dressed in the cobwebs of hypocrisy and evil, God would dress himself from head to toe in the solid armor of justice and salvation (Isaiah 59:17). God would go to war against injustice. He will drive out evil and establish his kingdom of justice, mercy, and goodness (Isaiah 59:18-19). He himself would bring salvation to the world because no one else could (Isaiah 59:20-21).

Where is the Gospel?

Like Israel, we are blind. Our virtues are compromised, and our vices are many. No amount of religious effort can cover the stain of our sin. But in our helplessness, God steps in. In Jesus, he would bring salvation by his own strength by going to war against our evil. 

Jesus came to bring the kingdom of justice, mercy, and goodness that no one else could. He fasted from all injustice, hypocrisy, and oppression (1 Peter 2:22-24). His fasting wasn’t a show of piety, but a feast for the hungry. He opened blind eyes, fed the needy, and freed those oppressed by demons (Matthew 4:24; 9:28-30; Mark 6:41-44). As Isaiah promised, Jesus even went to war against the hypocritical piety of Israel. He called out their false fasting and performative prayers (Matthew 6:5-18). Instead, he invited his people to repent; to admit they could not bring about his kingdom of justice on their own and to trust him to do it (Mark 1:15). 

For Jesus himself would achieve salvation for an evil, hopeless world. On the cross, he provided the only covering that can actually remove the stain of our evil (1 John 1:7). The blood he shed covers every stain of oppression and violence that we have brought into the world (Hebrews 9:14). No thread of our righteousness could ever cover us, but his sacrifice clothes us in himself. Now, instead of being unjust, selfish, and hypocritical people, in Jesus we are made into just, good, and compassionate people as we were meant to be (Titus 2:14). 

For at the end of this prophecy in Isaiah, God promises to give his Spirit to all who repent. Those who fast from the bread of evil will have their mouths filled with the words of the Spirit (Isaiah 59:21). Jesus feeds us with himself (John 6:51). As we feast on him, he changes our hearts so that we can finally bring about the kingdom of justice, mercy, and goodness that we were made for. We put on the full armor of God, going to war against oppression and injustice—not with weapons, but with mercy, kindness, and truth (Ephesians 6:11-18). And as we go, we proclaim the same good news that has saved us: repent for in Jesus the kingdom and salvation is near (Acts 4:12). 

See for Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit opens your eyes to see the God who refuses to let darkness prevail. And may you see Jesus as the true light, who clothes us in righteousness and sends us out to bring his kingdom to a world in need.