Isaiah 58:8 - Meaning and Application

Here are precious promises for those who keep the fast God has chosen and receive them by faith. Let them know that God will repay them. But there is also a fuller account of the duty required if we want these promises, as in Isaiah 58:9-10. Again, the command is to do justice and love mercy, to turn away from evil and learn to do good.

First, we must stay away from all acts of violence and deceit. These must be removed from among you, from your very heart, as some understand it, not just from your actions. It is not enough to stop doing wrong outwardly. We must also kill the inner desire and habit that leads to it. Or, it may mean from among your people. Those in authority must not only avoid oppression themselves, they must do all they can to stop it in others under their care.

They must not only break the yoke (Isaiah 58:6), but also remove the yoke, so the oppressed are not enslaved again, as in Jeremiah 34:10-11. They must also stop threatening (Ephesians 6:9) and stop pointing the finger, which seems to have been a sign of anger and a way of showing contempt. Do not shame the poor and suffering by gestures or speech that mock them. All such rude and cruel behavior should be driven out of every community. Let people also stop speaking falsehood, flattery, or fraud to one another. Let all talk be marked by honesty.

Perhaps the phrase about putting forth the finger means the kind of false show that ruins friendship. Or it may refer to using the finger with the ring on it, the sign of authority, to give unjust judgments. Then the rule is plain, those who have power must not use it to serve injustice.

Second, we must overflow with acts of charity and kindness. We should not only give to the poor as their needs require, but do so freely and gladly, from a heart of love. We must “draw out our soul to the hungry” (Isaiah 58:10). That means more than handing over money or reaching out a hand. It means helping from the heart, with real compassion and tenderness toward those in trouble.

We should let our hearts go with our gifts, because God loves a cheerful giver, and poor people do too. When Jesus healed and fed the crowd, he did it because he had compassion on them. We should also give generously, not in a way that merely teases or half satisfies the suffering, but in a way that truly helps and eases them. What are our body, mind, and resources for, if not to do all the good we can in this world? The poor will always be with us.

Now comes the comfort. If a person, a family, or a people are disposed to do what is good, they may know that God will be their rich reward. What they spend in works of mercy will be more than repaid. God will quickly turn sorrow into mercy after great trouble, as welcome as the morning light after a long dark night (Isaiah 58:8). “Then your light will break out like the morning,” and “your light will rise in the darkness” (Isaiah 58:10). Even if you seem buried alive, you will rise again to honor. Even if grief has worn you down, you will look bright again, like daybreak.

Those who are cheerful in doing good will also be made cheerful in receiving good. That too is God’s gift (Ecclesiastes 2:24). Those who have shown mercy will find mercy. Job, who had done much good in his days of wealth, was helped by the Lord when he was brought low. Friends were raised up for him, and they supplied what he needed, so his light rose in darkness.

God will also put honor on such people. Good works are repaid with a good name, and that is part of the light rising out of obscurity. A person may come from a lowly family and have no outward advantages, yet if he does good where he is, that will win respect. His darkness will become like the noonday, meaning he will become well known and honored in his time. This is the surest way to become truly great, learn to do good. If a person wants to be the greatest and best loved, let him become the servant of all through humility and hard work.

“Your righteousness will answer for you,” as Jacob said (Genesis 30:33). That is, your upright life will silence insults, and even bring you more praise than you may want. The righteousness shown in giving to the poor will last forever (Psalm 112:9).

They will also be safe under God’s protection. “Your righteousness will go before you” like a guard in front, to keep enemies from striking you head-on, and “the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard,” to gather up the weary and protect you from attacks from behind. In this way, good people are safe on every side. Wherever they look, before or behind, they find God’s care and feel free from fear.

This protection comes from their righteousness and from the glory of the Lord. Some understand the glory of the Lord here to mean Christ, because it is through him that we are justified, that is, counted right with God. God is glorified in that. Christ goes before us as the captain of our salvation, and he is the Lord our righteousness. He also is our rear guard, and in him alone we can trust when our sins follow us and seem ready to seize us.

Or the meaning may simply be that God himself, in his providence and grace, will go before them to guide them and stay behind them to protect them. This will be the reward of their righteousness, and it will also serve for the glory of the Lord as the one who rewards it.

God will also always be near them to hear their prayers, as in Isaiah 58:9.

Just as the person who closes his ears to the cry of the poor will later cry out and God will not hear him, so the person who gives freely to the poor will have his prayers rise up with his gifts as a memorial before God, as Cornelius did (Acts 10:4). Then, on your fast days, which should be days of prayer, the Lord will answer and give you what you ask him for. When you cry out in trouble or sudden fear, he will say, “Here I am.”

This is a very humble way of speaking about God’s readiness to hear prayer. When God calls to us through his word, we should say, “Here we are.” But it is surprising that God should say to us, “Here I am.” When we cry to him, as if he were far away, he lets us know that he is near, even at our right hand, closer than we thought. It is as if he says, “It is I, do not be afraid.” When danger is near, our protector is nearer still, a help always ready. He is saying, “Here I am, ready to give you what you need and do for you what you ask. What do you want to say to me?”

God listens closely to the prayers of honest people (Psalm 130:2). As soon as they call on him, he answers, “Ready.” Wherever they are praying, God says, “Here I am, hearing you.” He is near to them in everything (Deuteronomy 4:7).

God will also guide them in every hard and uncertain matter (Isaiah 58:11). “The Lord will guide you always.” While we are in this wilderness of a world, we need constant direction from heaven. If we are ever left to ourselves, we will surely lose our way. So God gives wisdom to those who are pleasing in his sight, wisdom that helps in every situation, and he will be to them instead of eyes (Ecclesiastes 2:26). His providence will make their path clear, showing them both their duty and what will bring them comfort.

God will also give them deep peace in their own hearts. The world is a wilderness not only because we wander in it, but also because we lack so much. So we need continual supply, just as Israel did in the wilderness. They had the pillar of cloud to guide them, and they had manna and water from the rock to satisfy them in a dry land where no water was (Psalm 63:1). To a good person, God gives not only wisdom and knowledge, but joy. Such a person is satisfied within by a clear conscience and by the assurance of God’s favor.

These things will satisfy your soul and fill your heart with gladness, even in times of dry affliction. They will make your bones strong and full of life, giving you the joy that supports you like bones support the body, the joy of the Lord that is your strength. Some read the promise as, “He will give your bones rest,” meaning rest from the pain and sickness they have been suffering under. That fits well with the promise made to the merciful: “The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed” (Psalm 41:3). You will be like a watered garden, full of growth and fruit, and like a spring of water whose waters never fail, neither in drought nor in frost.

The principle of holy love in good people is like a well of living water (John 4:14). A spring keeps sending out water and yet remains full, and in the same way the generous person grows in doing good and is never made poorer by his giving. He who waters others will himself be watered.

They and their families will also become public blessings. It is a good reward for fruitful and useful people to become even more useful, and especially to see their descendants do good as well. This promise says that those who now belong to you, your leaders and important men, will gain authority and influence they never had, or else that your children after you will serve their generation as you serve yours.

They will rebuild cities that have long been in ruins and raise up the old waste places, which had lain so long empty that no one thought they could be restored. This was fulfilled when the captives returned and repaired the cities of Judah and lived in them, and many in Israel too, which had been waste ever since the ten tribes were carried away.

They will also carry forward and finish good work that began long ago, helping over the obstacles that had slowed it down. They will raise up to the top a building whose foundation was laid many years before. This was fulfilled when the temple building was started again after it had stopped for many years (Ezra 5:2). Or it means they will lay foundations that will remain for many generations, doing good that will last.

They will also receive the blessing and praise of those around them. “You will be called,” and it will be to your honor, “the repairer of the breach,” the one who mends the broken place in a city wall made by an enemy. The person who has the courage and skill to fix such a gap wins great praise. Happy are those who mend the breach where virtue is slipping out and judgment is coming in.

They will also be called “the restorer of paths,” safe and peaceful paths, not only for travel but also for living. These are so secure that people will not hesitate to build their houses beside them. The point is this: if they keep the fasts that God has chosen, he will restore them to their former peace and prosperity, and no one will make them afraid (Zechariah 7:5, Zechariah 7:9; Zechariah 8:3-5). This teaches us that those who do what is right and love mercy will have the comfort of it in this world.