Isaiah 58:6

The type of fasting that pleases God is: giving up wickedness, oppression, enslavement, and binding of other people-not just food. Isaiah did not mean, of course, that God had no concern about His people going without food (cf. Leviticus 16:31). The prophet was going to the opposite extreme to make a point (cf. Isaiah 1:10-20; Amos 5:25-27; Micah 6:6-8; Luke 14:26).

"If they want to deprive themselves, let them do it for the sake of the oppressed, the needy, and the helpless, not for the sake of their own religiosity. God’s nature is to give himself away to those who can never repay him. There is no clearer evidence of the presence of God in a person’s life than a replication of that same behavior." [Note: Oswalt, The Book . . . 40-66, p. 503.]

God wants people to be free. That is why He sent the Servant, and that is why He liberated the Israelites from Egypt and Babylon. He wants His people to set others free, too.

"To loose the chains of injustice/’fetters of wickedness’ points to the need to labour for the abolition of every way in which wrong social structures, or wrongdoers in society, destroy or diminish the due liberty of others. To untie the cords of the yoke refers to the need to eliminate every way in which people are treated like animals." [Note: Motyer, p. 481.]