2006-08-18
Good Morning Cherished of God,
For the last month, I've been directed by the Holy Spirit to write about fasting. It is now time to look at fasting in the Bible to learn more about this subject from God's perspective. One of the most interesting and troubled relationships in the Bible was the one between Saul and David. From an outsider's point of view, David's love and kindness toward Saul would seem to make no sense. After all, Saul had intermittently chased David all over the place and attempted to take his life more than once. The explanation for David's kindness and respect for Saul in response to Saul's misdeeds goes back to a special covenant David entered into with Saul's son, Jonathan, his dear friend. 1 SAM 18: 1-3, "Saul and David finished their conversation. After that, Saul's son Jonathan was deeply attracted to David and came to love him as much as he loved himself. Saul kept David with him from that day on and did not let him go back home. Jonathan swore eternal friendship with David because of his deep affection for him." This covenant of friendship involved a third Party, the Lord God. It was not only between David and Jonathan, but it also extended to both of their entire families. Later, "The Philistines fought a battle against the Israelites on Mount Gilboa. Many Israelites were killed there, and the rest of them, including King Saul and his sons, fled. But the Philistines caught up with them and killed three of Saul's sons, Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua. The fighting was heavy around Saul, and he himself was hit by enemy arrows and was badly wounded" [1 SAM 31: 1-3]. Saul would later throw himself on his sword, taking his own life.
This leads us into David's response when he got the awful news of these events. 2 SAM 1: 11-12, "David tore his cloths in sorrow and all his men did the same. They grieved and mourned and fasted until evening for Saul and Jonathan and for Israel, the people of the Lord, because so many had been killed in battle." The young Amalekite who had taken David the news confessed to David that he had killed Saul [2 SAM 1: 8-10]. This man was killed by David in (15-16), as the latter exclaimed, "You brought this on yourself. You condemned yourself when you confessed that you killed the one who the Lord chose to be king." This account of Saul's death is in conflict with the one in 1 SAM 31, and the only reasonable explanation for this is that this Amalekite was lying. He must have thought David would glad to meet Saul's slayer and would reward him handsomely. How mistaken this man was! The mourning and fasting that David and his men were doing was a normal expression of the layout of events and the seriousness with which David took his covenant with Jonathan. We mustn't forget that there was a deeply abiding friendship between David and Jonathan, so David was dealing with the loss of his dear friend.
In PS 35, we find David praying for help from God against his enemies. PS 35: 7-8, "Without any reason they laid a trap for me and dug a deep hole to catch me. But destruction will catch them before they know it; they will be caught in their own trap and fall to their own destruction." David's expression of faith is seen in (10), "With all my heart I will say to he Lord, 'There is no One like You. You protect the weak from the strong, the poor from the oppressor.'" There is a reason why God called David, "a man after My own heart," which we can see in (11-14). "Evil men testify against me and accuse me of crimes I know nothing about. They pay me back evil for good, and I sink in despair. But when they were sick, I dressed in mourning; I deprived myself of food; I prayed with my head bowed low, as I would pray for a friend or a brother. I went around bend over in mourning, as one who mourns for his mother." David hadn't heard Christ's teaching in the Sermon on the Mount to "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" [MT 5: 44-45] which was to come many hundreds of years later, but he understood God's perspective in a way far ahead of his time.
Fasting as an expression of mourning is not the only reason for this practice, but it was fairly common in the Bible. I don't see this as an immediate mandate that one must fast in response to the loss of loved ones or a situation like in PS 35. To this day, I believe it is a matter of individual choice and should only be done in a physically safe way for genuine reasons. If fasting helps one to center his focus on God and to express genuinely righteous purposes, then it's perfectly appropriate. If not, then it would be a poor choice of response to one's circumstances.
PRAYER: O Lord, we come before Your throne today, to acknowledge our utter need for You to live righteously. We also want You to know that we are aware of all the amazing and marvelous deeds You do. By spending time in the Scriptures, we give You the chance to reveal Yourself to us, including Your remarkable attributes. We see You as the One and Only Supreme God, the all-knowing, all-powerful, omni-present Deity in our lives. No other god is compassionate, patient, and encouraging as You are. No other god ever tells the truth all of the time, as You do. PS 34: 7, 15-18, "His angel guards those who have reverence for the Lord and rescues them from danger...The Lord watches over the righteous and listens to their cries; but He opposes those who do evil, so that when they die, they are soon forgotten. The righteous call to the Lord and He listens; He rescues them from all their troubles. The Lord is near to those who are discouraged; He saves those who have lost all hope." History's lesson and our own past experience as believers shows us that You are a Keeper of Your promises and that You never lie, for lies and evil are not in You. HE 4 :12, "The word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It cuts all the way through, to where the soul and spirit meet, to where joints and marrow come together. It judges the desires and thoughts of man's heart." And yes, Dearest Abba, there are times when people make a lifestyle out of rejecting You. And then, You must show Your wrath toward them in order to demonstrate Your righteousness [RO 3: 26]. You direct us to fast in healthy ways when the heart leads for righteous reasons-never to make a showy example of our practice of our faith to others [MT 6: 16-18]. We stand before You today to ask for Your guidance, direction, leadership, and love in our lives. We ask, seek, and knock at Your door for You to be a driving Force in our lives. Lord, when we are in distress, we ask that You will stand by us and help us through our troubles step by step-to maximize our chances of becoming more spiritually strong and mature. We also dedicate ourselves to Your service, through helping others by using the talents You gave us and by setting an example of the qualities that please You. You are an unparalleled God with no counterpart anywhere in the universe. You rule heaven and earth with justice and wisdom. We, Your subjects and Your friends, offer You our worship, adoration, praise, and thanks for all that You are and all that You do. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen
There are more rich and wonderful stories from the Bible about fasting. I hope to go on with those the next time God allows me to write. As many of you know, I write these devotions several weeks ahead of the time you receive them. This week, I am facing a huge health challenge, as I have been told there is a "high probability" that I have ovarian cancer. I am going today [7-31-06] to a gynecological oncologist to find out if and when I will have surgery to correct this condition. Only after such surgery will I know if it can be corrected. I am telling you this, because I want to return to my desk as soon as possible and continue writing devotions each week, and I need your prayers. My spirit is calm, and I am ready for whatever God's will is. It is my hope that yours will be too. I know I am in His capable hands. We should never forget that Christ died on the cross to give us the opportunity of salvation. His sacrifice is on my mind, as I face the challenges ahead. Let it be on yours too. Because God is in our lives, we can all face whatever adversity comes to them with the assurance that He will do whatever is in our best eternal interests. He is a righteous God, and there is no evil in Him. So, please keep your faith strong, be willing to spend time daily in the Scriptures, learn from them, and have an active, dynamic prayer life. Remember my definition for prayer: Prayer is two-way communication with God, in which He gets to speak first. I send each one of you my love and hope that I will quickly return to my desk, and share more of the wonderful faith He has given me. Praise be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn