Neville Goddard on Isaiah 58:3-7 - 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?

6Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

7Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

Isaiah 58:3-7

Biblical Context

The passage questions outward fasting done for show and teaches that true fasting is liberating: loosening wickedness, freeing the oppressed, and feeding the hungry both in acts and in inner life.

Neville's Inner Vision

Consider that the fast God desires is a shift of consciousness, not a ritual on the calendar. When you fast to prove a point, you keep yourself bound to lack and noise; true fasting loosens the bands of wickedness by reordering your inner diet. The verses invite you to undo heavy burdens and set the oppressed free, and to feed the hungry within you—by giving attention to what you have neglected in your own flesh-and-blood self. In Neville's terms, there is no separation between fasting and justice; imagination is the instrument that dissolves every yoke. See yourself as the one who carries the poor, the naked thought, the frightened impulse, and you cover it with awareness. When you practice this, you experience deliverance here and now: you discover that the real fast is a shift of your belief in limitation toward the consciousness that you are already free. Your outer acts will then follow as natural expressions of your renewed inner state.

Practice This Now

Imaginative act: Sit quiet, declare 'I AM free now,' and revise any sense of lack into sufficiency. Then imagine feeding the hungry inner self and unbinding every burden, feeling the release as your consciousness expands into freedom.