The LORD confronts a people who had fasted faithfully and sought Him day after day, yet wondered why their cries went unanswered. Through this situation, God exposed what true fasting was always meant to produce — a life that breaks every yoke, tends to the wounded, and rebuilds what has fallen into ruin.
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?
Isaiah 58:6 (NIV)
The above instruction seems like a service to the needy, yet God lists it among the kinds of fasting; this is because fasting is not about setting aside food in order to serve others or to receive strength from God to do so, but rather that because of our commitment, we do not feel hunger and do not eat until the mission is accomplished according to God’s desire.
God gives us a task: to reach those who suffer injustice through no fault of their own, who have been misled and pushed onto the wrong path by the mistakes of others. He calls us to break the curse over those sitting in darkness and to set them free. But the question is, how do we actually break a curse like this?
It cannot be achieved by repeating what a pastor or leader has told us and calling it truth simply because it came from someone we assume is chosen by God. We can only break free by listening to what God Himself is saying and believing Him—letting His word, not a person’s word, be what sets someone free. Many believers trust a teaching only because it comes from someone they have decided is God’s anointed. That trust in a person, rather than in God’s word itself, is often the very door through which people are led astray.
This is also why the purpose of studying and understanding the truth of His Word can never be to build a list of other people’s mistakes. We can talk about these patterns, we can even recognize them clearly, but recognizing a mistake and sitting with someone to explain it to them will not change them. Only God changes a heart. So if talking about others does not fix them, why do we keep talking about them at all? Instead, let us find fault within us to correct ourselves—to make sure we are not walking in the same foolishness, the same pride, the same blindness.
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8 (NIV)
When we spot someone else’s mistake, God doesn’t want us to call them out or complain; He wants us to make sure we don’t make the same one. To free ourselves and others, we should learn to be merciful and humble, always remembering what God has done for us and letting that guide how we treat people. That’s how we join God in His work and help set others free.
Grace and Justice, Not Anger
All people are human, and where there are humans, there will be mistakes alongside what is right. Even Jesus, though fully God, came as a man and lived among people—proof that being human and fulfilling God’s word are not opposites. Leaders, rulers, and pastors are no different. Once respected, many are now criticized and abused freely, and the anger behind it often has less to do with justice and more to do with our own offense.
When we pray for God to punish someone, get them fired, or expose them out of frustration, we aren’t asking for justice—we’re asking for revenge in the form of prayer. God’s advice is simple: don’t point fingers or complain; just stay loving and graceful instead.
We need to balance grace and justice. True justice means recognizing that God has already forgiven others just as He forgave us. If we’re forgiven, they are too, so withholding grace from others while expecting it ourselves is just unfair. If you ignore both grace and justice, you’re basically doing the enemy’s work rather than God’s. Jesus made it clear that God’s way of operating is completely different from the enemy’s.
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
Luke 11:23 (NIV)
When we don’t embrace grace, we paint God as vengeful, which pushes people away instead of bringing them together. Once we start valuing grace, we get set free ourselves, allowing us to show others that they’ve already been forgiven and help them find that same freedom in God’s truth.
The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.
Psalm 119:130 (NIV)
Repairer Of The Breach
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.
Isaiah 58:11 (NIV)
As long as everything is fine, we rely on our own strength and on religion; we feel good and give credit to the pattern of religion, which gives us a sense of warmth. Alarmingly, our own strength runs dry the moment trouble arrives — a small problem is enough to empty it. At that point, the religious system fails, but we mistake it for a failure on the part of God. Despite our ignorance, God wants to give us His life, described as a spring that never fails, because it does not depend on our own reserves at all.
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.
Isaiah 58:12 (NIV)
It’s our calling to rebuild what’s been broken for so long and help those who don’t know God realize they’re already forgiven. We can’t force anyone to believe, as that’s up to Him, but our job is to reach out and welcome them in instead of arguing or pushing them away. What we should do is this: in order to break the yoke of others or to sanctify others, we must first sanctify ourselves.
In accordance with the Word of God, the people endured a drought for three and a half years, and God subsequently moved Elijah to pray for the return of rain. Rather than focusing his prayers on the people’s guilt for the drought, Elijah chose to restore the altar. By repairing the altar of God that had been broken down, as recorded in 1 Kings 18:30, Elijah worked to break the people’s yoke. Aligning our hearts with God is a vital step in helping others overcome their spiritual bondage.
In the parable of the Good Shepherd, Jesus explains that a thief enters not through the gate, but through the various gaps in our lives. Just as we promptly repair cracks or holes in our homes to protect against the elements or intruders, we should consider why we often neglect to close the gaps in our own lives that may provide an opening for the adversary.
God wants to reside in us, and for this reason He has given us the task of closing all the breaches and restoring the heart to a habitable condition for the Holy Spirit to dwell in. This task is bound by time. We do not know how long God will remain patient while we decide whether to act. If we spend that time talking about people instead of helping them to reach God — building prayer lists that catalogue their faults instead of carrying them to God — the moment God has given us will pass, and He will go directly to them Himself. We will have lost nothing of His love toward them, but we will have lost our part in it.
Let us hasten to sanctify ourselves with the Word of God, which is the truth, so as to open the eyes of others and give them sight into their sanctified life, because of the righteousness of Jesus. This is the role God gives us in breaking the yoke. It is astonishing to know that Jesus Himself sanctified Himself in order to sanctify us; how much more, then, should we be sanctified by His Word.
For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
John 17:19 (NIV)
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