Isaiah 58

Isaiah 58:1-7

Why complain ye so loudly that I do not reward your fasting, while therein you but gratify your own inclinations, oppress your poor servants, promote contention and oppression of the innocent, reproach your debtors, servants, or neighbours, or content yourselves with mere outward noise and show!—whereas the fasting which I delight in is to repent of, and reform from, your wickedness; particularly your usurious exactions and cruel oppressions, and to bestow necessary supplies upon your poor brethren

Isaiah 58:8-12

If you forbear and restrain oppression of your neighbours, threatening and derisive contempt, hypocritical dissimulation, and do kindly pity and relieve the destitute and afflicted, great shall be your gracious reward; great shall be your comfort, prosperity, and glory. God shall, by his presence and providence, protect you; he shall readily accept and grant your requests; he shall direct you in all your ways; and, while others are distressed with want, ye shall be plentifully provided for, and rendered the honoured instruments of re-establishing your nation, repairing your long desolate cities, and of the erection and re-establishment of the gospel church. 13, 14. And, if ye carefully abstain from all carnal labour and recreations on the sabbath, and with pleasure observe it in the spiritual exercises of my worship, ye shall enjoy unbounded comforts in me, as your God, in my ordinances; and, with safety, honour and pleasure, continue in the possession of Canaan till at last ye be exalted to the felicities of the heavenly inheritance. x 1

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. LVIII.—There is great need that ministers should deal closely with the consciences of their hearers, particularly nominal professors. And that all should seek, by a thorough self-examination, the evident marks of grace. For what alarming lengths in religious appearances do hypocrites sometimes go, and that merely to gratify their own legality and pride! Many flatter themselves that God will reward the services which, in fact, he abhors. And such are often greatly exasperated to have the vanity of their self-confidence exposed. There is much need of great brokenness of heart for, and of reformation from, sin, in our humiliation for it; otherwise our demure looks will but provoke God to abhor us. Nor can we have a deep sense of Jesus’ grace without having our hearts and hands opened towards our poor and distressed brethren: and what is lent to the Lord, by relieving his people, he repays with usury. Let us likewise be careful that our hearts are sanctified and divinely influenced, in order to a proper sanctification of the Lord’s day. Multitudes undergo the most alarming miseries, in time and eternity, as the just punishment of their profanation of it; while in keeping his commandments there is a great reward