2006-08-04
Good Morning Cherished of God,
Once again, I am led to continue writing about fasting. The motivations for fasting are varied, but God wants us to discern between selfish and sincere reasons for doing it. Obviously, the former angers God, and the latter pleases Him. It would be simple to say, if it's done for a human agenda, it is selfish, and if done for reasons that align with God's will, it is sincere. However, we must look at the subject with more depth than that alone.
It took some digging on my part to fully understand the Lord's condemnation of the fasting that had traditionally been done during the fifth and seventh months of the Jewish calendar during the exile- to mourn the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. ZECH 7 reveals that in 518 BC in the fourth year of Darius' reign as emperor of Persia, the people of Bethel had sent a group of men to the temple of the Lord Almighty to pray for His blessing and to ask the priests and prophets whether or not they should continue the practice of fasting in the fifth and seventh months. ZECH 7: 4-5, "This is the message of the Lord that came to me [Zechariah]. He [God] said, 'Tell the people of the land and the priests that when they fasted and mourned on the fifth and seventh months during these seventy years [of exile], it was not in honor of Me." Some events that had jump-started the tradition during the exile are mentioned in other places in the OT. 2 K 25: 3-4, Jerusalem was taken in the 5th month of the eleventh year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign over Babylonia. 2 K 25: 8-9 reveals that in the same month, the city was burned. In the 7th month of that same year, Gedaliah, who had been placed in charge of Jeremiah, was slain, as is seen in 2 K 25: 25. This was done by agents of the Babylonian royal family. The Lord made it clear to the people, through the prophet Zechariah, that fasting not done in honor of Him is unacceptable.
In IS 58: 3a, "The people asked, "Why should we fast if the Lord never notices? Why should we go without food if He pays no attention?" We must understand that Isaiah is writing in a time before the exile when the Jews were being very disobedient to God. IS 58: 3b-7 contains God's reply. "The truth is that at the same time you fast, you pursue your own interests and oppress your workers. Your fasting makes you violent, and you quarrel and fight. Do you think this kind of fasting will make Me listen to your prayers? When you fast, you make yourselves suffer; you bow your heads low like a blade of grass and spread out sackcloth and ashes to lie on. Is that what you call fasting? Do you think I will be pleased with that? The kind of fasting I want is this: Remove the chains of oppression and the yoke of injustice, and let the oppressed go free. Share Your food with the hungry and open your homes to the homeless poor. Give clothes to those who have nothing to wear, and do not refuse to help your own relatives." After saying this God promises that if the people will mend their ways, He will allow His favor to shine on them, heal their wounds, and always guide them and satisfy them with good things. Sadly, the people didn't do this, which made it necessary for God to place them in exile and punish them with the temporary, but long, loss of their nationhood. Human efforts to manipulate God through insincere fasting or any other effort won't work.
In MT 9: 14-15, the questions about fasting arise again. "Then the followers of John the Baptist came to Jesus asking, 'Why is that we and the Pharisees fast often, but Your disciples do not fast at all?' Jesus answered, 'Do you expect the guests at a wedding party to be sad as long as the Bridegroom is with them? Of course not! But the day will come when the Bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.'" In these comments, there are really two important meanings. The obvious to us is that Christ is predicting His own physical death on the cross, something that his audience really didn't understand at the time. The more subtle meaning is that living under the Covenant of the Law and the Covenant of Grace simply don't mix. Under law, one is taking a legalistic approach, as traditional Judaism still does today. Those under grace are appreciating the undeserved merit that we are given by our unselfish God in the sacrifice of His only Son on the cross, and thus, are highly motivated to change thoughts and behavior to conform with God's teaching. This causes us to examine the issue of spiritual focus on form versus on the content of God's teaching, the very issue that Christ would argue with the Pharisees in the temple in Jerusalem in the last week of His earthly life. Every time we decide to fast, we must ask ourselves these questions, i.e. look at our motivation to be sure that it is in line with God's will.
PRAYER: O Lord, You ask us to examine our motivation for everything we do. Sometimes that if difficult, because it demands complete honesty with ourselves and others. But Your command for us to do this is for only righteous reasons; it is not to evoke guilt or self-loathing. Certainly this applies to fasting. We must come before Your throne to ask You if it is the right thing to do and we are doing it for right reasons. You have promised us we can ask You these questions in EPH 3: 12, "In union with Christ and through our faith in Him, we have the boldness to go into God's presence with all confidence." There is nothing in that verse that limits what concern or question we can bring before You. Your love here for us is unparalleled. You reveal Your love for us in several places in the Scriptures. PS 145: 14, 17-19, "The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all those who bow down. The Lord is righteous in all His ways and loving toward all He has made; the Lord is near to all who call on Him. He fulfills the desires of all who have reverence for Him; He hears their cry and saves them." IS 64: 4, "No one has ever seen or heard of a God like You, Who does such deeds for those who put their hope in Him." And I must include IS 54: 10, "'The mountains and hills may crumble, but My love for you will never end; I will keep forever My promise of peace,' so says the Lord Who loves you." We need never ask what You expect of us, because You make that clear in Your word. MICAH 6: 8, "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Whether the issue is fasting or anything else, You give us direction and stand ready to help us if we have trouble. PS 37: 23-24, "The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will not fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand." Dearest Father, we stand before You in humble adoration of all that You are and all that You do. We seek Your direction in our lives and promise to try to follow it, even when it is hard for us. You deserve our praise, worship, and thanks forever. In Christ, we pray. Amen.
Next week, I'm led to write about what fasting does. This is a valuable tool in carrying out God's will when it is done for sincere reasons and not in excess, so as to damage one's health. We must remember 1 COR 6 :19-20, "Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, Who lives in you and who was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourselves but to God; He bought you for a price. So use your bodies for God's glory." If each of us reviews the Scriptures in this message and others in the Bible that give us direction, we will be perfectly equipped to know when the time for fasting is right and how to go about it. The lessons from Biblical history can be valuable to us, which is why the Spirit directs me to include them whenever possible in my messages. We should never lose sight of the fact that even when things are not going our way, the Lord will never abandon us. PS 94: 14, "The Lord will not abandon His people; He will not desert those who belong to Him." If we are honest with ourselves, we will admit that when we are having trouble in our lives, our natural selves want to blame God for it. The truth is we may not see what is happening from God's lofty perspective. We are promised that our suffering is not being ignored. One verse that really helps us see God's perspective on it is 2 COR 4: 18, "So we do not look at the trouble we can see right now; rather we look forward to what we have not yet seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever." We can take a lesson from Daniel, who was esteemed by God, in waiting patiently for God to act. Daniel in DN 10: 13, as I mentioned previously, fasted and petitioned on behalf of the Jewish people, including himself, for 21 days. He finally is answered by a messenger angel [probably Gabriel] with an explanation of the delay in his getting an answer and with the amazing view of what goes on in the spiritual world. I suspect his fasting for that long wasn't a total fast and included drinking only water, but have no Biblical citation to back that up. Dear Ones, if fasting is something that you are considering, go first to the Lord to ask for His blessing and take the time to evaluate your motives. If we do this, God will bless us with His love and direction.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn