6-7 

“Don’t preach,” say the preachers.

    “Don’t preach such stuff.

Nothing bad will happen to us.

    Talk like this to the family of Jacob?

Does God lose his temper?

    Is this the way he acts?

Isn’t he on the side of good people?

    Doesn’t he help those who help themselves?”

8-11 

“What do you mean, ‘good people’!

    You’re the enemy of my people!

You rob unsuspecting people

    out for an evening stroll.

You take their coats off their backs

    like soldiers who plunder the defenseless.

You drive the women of my people

    out of their ample homes.

You make victims of the children

    and leave them vulnerable to violence and vice.

Get out of here, the lot of you.

    You can’t take it easy here!

You’ve polluted this place,

    and now you’re polluted—ruined!

If someone showed up with a good smile and glib tongue

    and told lies from morning to night—

‘I’ll preach sermons that will tell you

    how you can get anything you want from God:

More money, the best wines . . . you name it’—

    you’d hire him on the spot as your preacher! Micah 2:6-11

 

Social Justice Must

 

Food for all, Homes for all, Dress for all, Education for all, Healthcare for all, Justice for all, Respect for all, and Rights for all—these are going to be the demands before any ruler, or government, and unless and until these conditions are met, the social order might be at threat. It is not solely in the responsibility of the rulers, officials, diplomats and the bureaucrats, but every citizen, despite color, education, social status and ranking—everyone is guilty some way or other, only degree of guilt differs. Sins of omissions are equally the same, amount to sins of committing all classified crimes. Hence, need for repentance, a sincere repentance, accompanied by fasting, to win the mercy of God, as the people of Ninevah did, listening to the voice of God, announced by the prophet Jonah: 

 

Next, God spoke to Jonah a second time: “Up on your feet and on your way to the big city of Nineveh! Preach to them. They’re in a bad way and I can’t ignore it any longer.” This time Jonah started off straight for Nineveh, obeying God’s orders to the letter. Nineveh was a big city, very big—it took three days to walk across it. Jonah entered the city, went one day’s walk and preached, “In forty days Nineveh will be smashed.” 

The people of Nineveh listened, and trusted God. They proclaimed a citywide fast and dressed in burlap to show their repentance. Everyone did it—rich and poor, famous and obscure, leaders and followers. When the message reached the king of Nineveh, he got up off his throne, threw down his royal robes, dressed in burlap, and sat down in the dirt. Then he issued a public proclamation throughout Nineveh, authorized by him and his leaders: “Not one drop of water, not one bite of food for man, woman, or animal, including your herds and flocks! Dress them all, both people and animals, in burlap, and send up a cry for help to God. Everyone must turn around, turn back from an evil life and the violent ways that stain their hands. Who knows? Maybe God will turn around and change his mind about us, quit being angry with us and let us live!”

God saw what they had done, that they had turned away from their evil lives. He did change his mind about them. What he said he would do to them he didn’t do. (Jonah 3:1-10)

 

There is a whole lot of difference between our definition of fasting and that of His, and that why it is revealed through His prophet:

“In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure,

And exploit all your laborers.

4 

Indeed you fast for strife and debate,

And to strike with the fist of wickedness.

You will not fast as you do this day,

To make your voice heard on high.

5 

Is it a fast that I have chosen,

A day for a man to afflict his soul?

Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush,

And to spread out sackcloth and ashes?

Would you call this a fast,

And an acceptable day to the Lord?

6 

“Is this not the fast that I have chosen:

To loose the bonds of wickedness,

To undo the heavy burdens,

To let the oppressed go free,

And that you break every yoke?

7 

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,

And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;

When you see the naked, that you cover him,

And not hide yourself from your own flesh.? (Is 58:3-7)

 

Fasting as is preached and promoted is not a pious activity, that gets the attention and appreciation of pastors or priests, but this fasting demands a change of life and all corrupt practices that you give new labels and fancy names, and that needs to be done by every individual and in private, as the Master Teacher commanded: “When you practice some appetite-denying discipline to better concentrate on God, don’t make a production out of it. It might turn you into a small-time celebrity but it won’t make you a saint. If you ‘go into training’ inwardly, act normal outwardly. Shampoo and comb your hair, brush your teeth, wash your face. (Mt 6:17)

 

And when we do this kind of the right fasting, that enhances His Kingdom Order, for being His agents of social-justice, He will reward us secretly and generously, as fasting has to be observed in secret: “so that your tzom is concealed from Bnei Adam but not from your Av Asher b’Seter (Father Who is in Secret). And your Av HaRoeh b’seter (Father the One seeing in secret) will give you sachar.” (Mt 6:18) May God increase our appetite for social-justice and bless us with joy and peace.

 

Abba, Thank You for reminding us of the urgent duty of Social-justice. Let Your Spirit evoke in us sincere fasting and change of heart, In Jesus’ Most Compassionate Name, Amen.