Fasting

What is fasting?

 Many social customs, purely secular in their origin, have gradually obtained a religious significance during the passage of time. Fasting is one of them; Strangely, in its religious application, both fasting and feasting are sometimes come in combination, like during religious sacrifices. It is obvious that very different motives operate in the institution of fasting and of feasting in religious observances.

Hospitals direct their patients to avoid eating at certain times. The health benefits of abstinence from food and drinks have been known since antiquity. Food intake has a direct impact on certain medical conditions. Tyrants use fasting as a political tool and as a means of torture. Many major religions attach great significance to fasting. In Islam, a special time of the year has been assigned for fasting, with some countries making ritual fasting mandatory for all healthy adults.

Extreme sorrow can cause loss of appetite resulting in abstinence from food. Hannah, who was greatly distressed on account of her childlessness, “wept, and did not eat” (1Samuel 1:7). King Ahab, angry because Naboth refused to sell him the estate “refused to eat” (1Kings 21:4). David demonstrated his grief at Abner's death (2Samuel 3:35) by fasting. In such passages as Ezra 10:6 and Esther 4:3, it is not clear whether fasting was used in its religious significance or simply as a natural expression of sorrow. This view explains the association of fasting with the mourning customs of by-gone days like the “wearing of sackcloth,” the “putting of ashes on the head,” and other similar customs.

 Fasting has come to occupy a very special place in the practice of modern Christianity, particularly in combination with prayers. Fasting during the Old Testament days is not very different. Many important Old Testament saints have achieved spectacular success when their supplication of Almighty was combined with fasting. We will see more about this below.

 As fasting was a perfectly natural and human expression and evidence of the subject's grief, it readily claimed a place among those religious customs whose main object was the pacification of the the anger of God, or the excital of His compassion. Any and every act that would manifest the distressful state of the suppliant would appeal to the Deity and move Him to pity, it is believed.

As Christian Why should we Fast?

1) Because it is God’s command – Joel 2:12 “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.”

God told exhorts the rebellious people they should return to Him while there was still time. Destruction would come upon them like labor pains come on a pregnant woman, He warns them. Time is also running out for us. Because we don’t know when our life will end, we should trust and obey God now while we can. Don’t let anything hinder you from turning to him. 

Esther told Mordecai "Go and assemble all the Jews who can be found in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink day or night for three days, and I and my maidens will fast as you do”. After that, she will go to the king to plead for the safety of her people. She was aware she might perish in the attempt. (Esther 4:16).

Jeremiah had prophesied the people will have to stay in exile for 70 years. Daniel knew this time was coming to an end. So he turned his attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petition, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes and pleaded with God to fulfill the promised return of the people to their land. (Daniel 9:3).

2) Because Jesus Christ set us an example by fasting—Matthew 4:2 “For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry”.

If a sinless Christ had to fast as a human being, in order to obey His Father’s will, how much more important should it be for us to do likewise?  Jesus was hungry and weak after fasting for 40 days, but He chose not to use His divine powers to satisfy His natural desire for food and turn stones into food as Satan had suggested. The devil was defeated and left the Lord alone. The Bible describes 35 instances of fasting prayers. Let us look into some examples:

When the apostles Paul and Barnabas were leaving Antioch, they gathered all the elders from the churches, fasted and prayed and commended them to the Lord (Acts 14:22, 23), calling on them to continue in the faith and warning that through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God.  

When Nehemiah heard that the remnant who survived the exile are there in the province, in great trouble and disgrace; the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are burned with fire, he sat down and wept. He mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God. He confessed his sins and those of his ancestor’s. The strength he received from his confession and fasting prayer enabled him to make a decision to undertake the dangerous journey and was successful in constructing the wall. In Nehemiah 9 we come across group fasting combined with feasting (which is mentioned in the introduction). He and Ezra together presided over a ‘Festival of shelters’ that had not been done for centuries.

Jehoshaphat was one of the ‘good kings’ of Judah. When he was surrounded by the combined armies of three countries who were determined to wipe out His country, he turned to God, humbled himself, confessed his inability to handle the situation and total dependence on God and prayed publicly. He ordered a nation-wide fast. His prayers were answered and the enemy was decimated. (2Chronicles 20:1-24).

Jonah had finally arrived at Nineveh—via the stomach of a fish—and started preaching God’s word. He presented it as summary judgment: “40 more days and Nineveh will be destroyed”. He deliberately left out God’s provision for repentance and forgiveness. In spite of that, Nineveh repented. The king covered himself in sackcloth, sat on ash and proclaimed a universal fast. God was moved and spared the city, to Jonah’s annoyance!

In the final analysis, anybody can go without food or water for a specific length of time. Are they all spiritually motivated or beneficial? What does God think about our fasting? “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed ones go free, and that you break every yoke?  Is it not to break your bread to the hungry, and that you should bring home the wandering poor? When will you see the naked and cover him; and you will not hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break out like the dawn, and your health shall spring out quickly, and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of Jehovah shall gather you. Then you shall call, and Jehovah shall answer” (Isa 58:6-9). This is a totally new concept about fasting with no food or drinks mentioned.

God ignores our fasting when it is not combined with compassion, concern for the downtrodden, love for the poor, and a sacrificial attitude. This should bring to our mind one of Jesus’ parables found in Luke 18:10 about two men who went to the temple to pray—a Pharisee who fasted twice every Sabbath and a tax collector of low social order. It was the tax collector, said Jesus, who went home justified.

The close connection between fasting and insight--intellectual and spiritual-- between simple living and high thinking is universally recognized.

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