Neville Goddard on Isaiah 58:3-5 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read Isaiah 58 in context

Scripture Focus

3Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.

4Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.

5Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?

Isaiah 58:3-5

Biblical Context

Verse 58:3-5 shows that fasting done for appearances fails to change the heart. It calls us to seek an inner fast—one that aligns thought, motive, and action with justice and mercy.

Neville's Inner Vision

Notice how the cry sounds: a fast that pleases the eyes of others, a soul afflicted in public, a voice lifted to be heard on high. In the true reading, the fast is not a schedule but a state of consciousness. God is not a distant judge but the I AM within you, the awareness that feels and imagines. When you fast as a performance, you are proving nothing; you are merely rehearsing an old habit of separation. But when you acknowledge that the fast chosen by God is a turning toward compassion, you release the impulse to exact labor or to strike with the fist of righteousness. The moment you choose inner mercy, the inner walls soften; the kingdom within begins to transact with itself—justice and mercy flowing through your thoughts, your motives, your very sense of self. Your attention shifts from showing a voice on high to listening for the quiet truth of being. Then you discover that the 'acceptable day' is any moment you suspend self-will and align with the I AM, allowing transformation to occur in your life.

Practice This Now

Imaginative act: Close your eyes and declare, 'I am the I AM; I choose to align with compassion now.' Then revise any motive of self-display into a quiet act of mercy, feeling the inner release as you imagine the inner walls softening.