Isaiah 58: The Day of Atonement: Chapter 16: Right and Wrong Motives

The promise of God is given to those who fast with proper motives, those who do not “ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures” (James 4:3). As we have seen, fasting—and prayer in general—is mainly designed to seek the will of God so that we know how to pray. It is to conform our will to His will.

There is nothing wrong with asking God for good things. But our prayer should begin by asking God if those things are in accordance with His mind and perfect will. If you receive revelation that He has indeed put those desires into your heart, then you can pray the prayer of faith that will surely be answered.

An Israelite Example of Carnal Praying

We have an example of the Israelites who prayed with wrong motives. Num. 11:4-6 says,

⁴ The rabble who were among them had greedy desires; and also the sons of Israel wept again and said, “Who will give us meat to eat? ⁵ We remember the fish we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, ⁶ but now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna.”

Being dissatisfied with the bread of heaven (Christ’s flesh/gospel), the people desired “meat” and all that had been on the menus in Egypt. They were tired of their manna fast, not realizing that they were rejecting the Messiah Himself (John 6:32, 33), even as their descendants were to do. God’s answer was to give them what they desired. We read in Num. 11:18-20,

¹⁸ Say to the people, “Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the ears of the Lord, saying, ‘Oh that someone would give us meat to eat! For we were well off in Egypt.’ Therefore, the Lord will give you meat and you shall eat. ¹⁹ You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days, ²⁰ but a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you; because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wept before Him, saying, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’”

Can we not see ourselves in this story? In their immaturity and ignorance, they thought that they knew best and that God was deliberately depriving them of the comforts of Egypt. They convinced themselves that God wanted them to live with greater prosperity, if only they would demand flesh to eat. They made it a matter of faith to demand their own will rather than His will.

We should learn from their failure. The fact is that if we desire “meat,” we ought to inquire of Him to see if that is also His desire. When we approach Him with our demands, God’s “anger” may be kindled, which means that our will does not align with His will. If he gives us our demand, it is probably to show us the folly of our request. So it was with Israel, as we read in Num. 11:33,

³³ While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very severe plague.

We see that when God answers the prayers of His people, it does not necessarily mean that it is the perfect will of God. Sometimes God answers our prayer in order to teach us not to demand our own way. Prayer is not supposed to be a way of convincing God to do something, nor should we fast mightily to overpower the will of God.

The stories of the church in the wilderness under Moses give us the same lessons that their spiritual descendants in the church today have had to learn. Some learned, most did not. Some thought that their demands could be satisfied if only they had sufficient “faith” to insist upon their own way.

Faith comes by hearing “the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). To expect God to hear and obey our will is a false form of faith. It is another gospel, for as the story of Israel says, to seek one’s own will is to reject the Lord who is among us. To desire flesh is to reject the manna, which is Christ Himself.

But I thank God that some learned a better gospel. Overcomers seek the Kingdom, knowing that God’s provision will be given to them as a matter of course (Matt. 6:33). This is what builds the Kingdom of God rather than the kingdoms of men.

Repairing the Breach

When we learn to fast with proper motives, Isaiah 58:11, 12 says,

¹¹ “And the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. ¹² Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will raise up the age-old foundations; and you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets in which to dwell.”

Though we may live in “scorched places,” we will enjoy the water of life from the throne of God. Our dwelling place will be like the Garden of Eden, described in Psalm 1:3, “He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water.” In metaphorical language, the prophet compares a man of faith with “a spring of water whose waters do not fail.” This reminds us of Isaiah 12:3, which Jesus referenced in John 7:38,

³⁸ He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, “From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.”

Such people are called to “rebuild the ancient ruins” and “raise up the age-old foundations.” Jesus launched that work, and we are called to build His Kingdom as well. Amos 9:11 says,

⁹ In that day I will raise up the fallen booth of David and wall up its breaches; I will also raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old.

This is quoted in Acts 15:16 as a reference to Christ and His “tabernacle.” David’s tabernacle was an open tent that allowed all men to approach God freely. Hence, James quoted this in the first Church Council in support of non-Jews having full access to God’s presence, unrestricted by the Jewish requirements for circumcision. The temple in the first century had a dividing wall that kept women and non-Jews from approaching God directly. Christ’s tabernacle abolished that dividing wall (Eph. 2:14).

This is the calling of a true man or woman of faith. It is to be a source of living water that flows unrestricted to others. It is to re-establish ancient truths that had fallen down in the face of the traditions of men.

Those who are of the household of faith are called to repair the breaches. The first breach is that between Israel and the rest of the world, as depicted by the dividing wall in the temple. The second great breach is between Israel and Judah, caused by the split in the kingdom after the death of Solomon. The scepter of Judah must be reunited with the birthright of Joseph in order to establish the sons of God in the earth.

Hence, Christ began a work that we are to enter into as well, as members of His body. Our calling is not to rebuild the earthly Jerusalem, which to this day is in bondage with her children (Gal. 4:25). Our calling is to re-establish the ancient truth of the heavenly Jerusalem, for we are her children (Gal. 4:26).

God’s Jubilee Rest

Isaiah 58:13, 14 concludes,

¹³ “If because of the sabbath you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable and honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word, ¹⁴ then you will take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

I have referenced this earlier in our study in Isaiah, for the prophet often speaks of the true Sabbath and how God expects us to keep it. It is clear that God’s Sabbath requirement was not the same as man’s carnal understanding. To refrain from labor one day a week was good, but the spirit of the Sabbath was not so easily satisfied.

The ultimate goal of God’s Sabbath was to cease completely from doing your own will, seeking your own pleasure, and speaking your own words. It was to become an Amen people, speaking only what you hear your Father say, and doing only what you see your Father do. Our great Example is Jesus Himself, who said in John 8:28, “I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.”

He repeated this in John 5:30, 8:42, 10:18, 12:49, and 14:10. It must have been one of the most important principles that Jesus taught.

Hebrews 4:9, 10 says also,

⁹ So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. ¹⁰ For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.

This passage shows how the original Joshua was unable to give true rest to the Israelites, even though they had entered the Promised Land. It required a greater Joshua (Yeshua) to accomplish this task. Hence, “there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” Only Amen people are able to keep this Sabbath.

Joshua led a rebellious nation who continuously disagreed with God. They were anything but an Amen people. Though they entered Canaan, they did not truly inherit the promise of God. They received land inheritances, but they did not inherit their own “land,” which is the glorified body that had been lost through Adam’s sin.

The Israelites’ refusal to enter the land at the 50^th Jubilee was a symptom of an earlier problem with Adam. Their lack of genuine faith prevented them from entering God’s rest—the Jubilee. If they had decided correctly on the 50^th Jubilee from Adam, they would have entered the land from the south five days later on the first day of the feast of Tabernacles. They would have entered into the full inheritance with glorified bodies. But that was not to be, nor could it take place before Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Hence, 38 years later, when Israel finally crossed the Jordan, they entered the land at the time of Passover, not at the feast of Tabernacles. Joshua could not give them the level of rest that God had promised. It required a greater work from a greater Joshua/Yeshua/Jesus.

Isaiah’s commentary on the Day of Atonement is thus bound closely to the story of the faithless Israelites who had believed the evil report of the ten spies, for that is what had turned the Jubilee into a Day of Atonement. This is what made it a day of fasting and mourning, instead of a day of feasting and rejoicing.

The average person in Isaiah’s day did not comprehend how they fell short of keeping God’s chosen fast (Day of Atonement). They fell short because they still disagreed with God and because they fasted and prayed to establish their own will, their own desire, and their own way which seemed righteous to their carnal minds.

The Day of Atonement was a Sabbath also. Isaiah’s comments on the true Sabbath shows that men’s attempts to keep any Sabbath—including the Day of Atonement—fall short of God’s expectations as long as people walk in fear rather than in faith or fail to be Amen people.

Yet we know that the promise of God in Exodus 20:8, like all the commandments, is a promise that we will “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” Under the Old Covenant, this was a commandment to our disobedient flesh. Under the New Covenant, this was a promise of God, making Him fully responsible to change our hearts by the inner working of the Holy Spirit, so we might enter God’s Jubilee rest.

It is thus a prophecy of things to come. Though it seems impossible in view of man’s will that opposes Him continually, God is able to fulfill His promises. His will is stronger than man’s will. It takes time, of course, but in the end, He will succeed, for as Isaiah so often points out, God is sovereign, and His plan will prevail in the end.