The reed that bows itself down has not responded to the breath of God.

These are the words that I left off with yesterday. Did those words strike a cord within you?

Isaiah 58:5 English Standard Version (ESV) 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? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord?

This is the verse I left out yesterday that inspired my thought. 

The image is a field of golden wheat moving to the rhythm of the wind. All those reed stocks moving in unison, wave after wave. If anyone has seen that on a sun lite field it is memorable.

Now for the message.

Matthew 13:24-30 English Standard Version

The Parable of the Weeds

24 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

Matthew 11:15 English Standard Version (ESV) He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Isaiah 58 English Standard Version

True and False Fasting

1 “Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins.

2 Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.

3 Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ 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.

Why have we fasted? Now that is a loaded question. The assumption being that the issue of the fast is a choice we make with the intent to make ourselves heard.

6 “Is not this the fast that I choose: 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 rear guard.

When the Lord chooses our fast, we will discover what we have hidden from ourselves.

Let’s face it. We choose to do what we think is right without taking into account what the Lord would have us do. 

The reed that bows itself down has not responded to the breath of God.