An Intriguing Question

from a Burton snow board

Isaiah 58

 ¹ "Shout it aloud, do not hold back. 
       Raise your voice like a trumpet. 
       Declare to my people their rebellion 
       and to the house of Jacob their sins.

 ² For day after day they seek me out; 
       they seem eager to know my ways, 
       as if they were a nation that does what is right 
       and has not forsaken the commands of its God. 
       They ask me for just decisions 
       and seem eager for God to come near them.

 ³ 'Why have we fasted,' they say, 
       'and you have not seen it? 
       Why have we humbled ourselves, 
       and you have not noticed?' 
       "Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please 
       and exploit all your workers.

 ⁴ Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, 
       and in striking each other with wicked fists. 
       You cannot fast as you do today 
       and expect your voice to be heard on high.

 ⁵ Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, 
       only a day for a man to humble himself? 
       Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed 
       and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? 
       Is that what you call a fast, 
       a day acceptable to the LORD ?

 ⁶ "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: 
       to loose the chains of injustice 
       and untie the cords of the yoke, 
       to set the oppressed free 
       and break every yoke?

 ⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry 
       and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— 
       when you see the naked, to clothe him, 
       and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

 ⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn, 
       and your healing will quickly appear; 
       then your righteousness will go before you, 
       and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

 ⁹ Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; 
       you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. 
       "If you do away with the yoke of oppression, 
       with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

 ¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry 
       and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, 
       then your light will rise in the darkness, 
       and your night will become like the noonday.

 ¹¹ The LORD will guide you always; 
       he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land 
       and will strengthen your frame. 
       You will be like a well-watered garden, 
       like a spring whose waters never fail.

 ¹² Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins 
       and will raise up the age-old foundations; 
       you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, 
       Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

 ¹³ "If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath 
       and from doing as you please on my holy day, 
       if you call the Sabbath a delight 
       and the LORD's holy day honorable, 
       and if you honor it by not going your own way 
       and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,

 ¹⁴ then you will find your joy in the LORD, 
       and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land 
       and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob." 
       The mouth of the LORD has spoken.