Day 2: 15 February, Isaiah 58.1-12

I'm sorry to say this but our national public life reeks of hypocrisy not unlike what the prophet Isaiah describes in this passage. Apparently, in Israel's public life, fasting was still a common, perhaps  an expected activity. One could not say that is the case in post-modern Australia:

"Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,
    and oppress all your workers.
4 Behold, 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.
5 Is such the fast that I choose,
    a day for a person to humble himself?
Is it to bow down his head like a reed,
    and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?

What, in Australia's public life, is a hangover from our more outwardly pious past? Prayers at the beginning of parliament, before the real business of denigration and grasping after power and making use of entitlement begins, perhaps? Am I too cynical? Maybe. I've met some really fine politicians who strove for the public good. But the quality of our public life at present is not reassuring. And here is a word that I think gives the lie to those who justify their take on public life by economic rationalism:

“Is not this the fast that I choose,"Isaiah has God say, or God has Isaiah write:
    "to loose the bonds of wickedness,
    to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
    and to break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
    and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
    and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you;
    the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard.
9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
    you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you take away the yoke from your midst,
    the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
if you pour yourself out for the hungry
    and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
    and your gloom be as the noonday.
11 And the Lord will guide you continually
    and satisfy your desire in scorched places
    and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
    like a spring of water,
    whose waters do not fail.
12 And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
    you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
    the restorer of streets to dwell in.

No explanatory words are needed when reading Isaiah.

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