Rear Guard

Not wanting to take anything out of context below you'll find the whole passage that leads us to the REAR GUARD.

Not being a theologian or a commentator the thoughts below are my own that have come as I've meditated on this passage.

Desiring to know that the Glory of the Lord IS my Rear Guard, I needed to search out how to be assured of the fact.

Please read the passage again and I'll comment after you have read it.
True Fasting
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.


The traditional thought on fasting for most folks,is to do without food for a period of time in order to get closer to God or get some answer to prayer. As I read this passage again it would seem to me that what God is asking is for us to fast from sin. The reason God did not answer their prayers during their fast was that they were fasting for the wrong reasons. They supposedly humbled themselves yet it was a show, bowing their heads putting on sackcloth and ashes, at the same time they exploited their workers, were quarreling and fighting literally.
Verses 6&7 tell us how to obtain verse 8.
Does one have to fast literally from food in order to do verses 6&7? The Lord may lead you to fast from food or some activity, do so as He leads but do it for the right reasons.
Think about it.
Is the Glory of the Lord Your Rear Guard?