2006-11-17
Good Morning Dear Ones,
We continue the journey the Holy Spirit takes us on through the Scriptures looking for lessons about fasting. The next occasion for fasting is in a day of pending judgment. There are aspects of the story of Jonah which seem to be supernatural, and they are. However, this powerful story is both unique in its rare God-driven plan to bring the truth to Gentiles at a time when it was given only to Jews. The Ninevehites, the Moabitess, Ruth, and Judah's wife, Tamar, are the few exceptions to this Jews only policy in the OT. God's absolute sovereignty over His creation is seen in the book of Jonah, as is His compassion. Jonah, as we all know, began His assignment with disobedience and fear-borne weakness of faith. He headed westward when told by God to go east to Nineveh, the capital of Israel's fiercest enemy at the time, Assyria. Aboard ship, Jonah encounters a strong storm and is thrown overboard, being swallowed up in the belly of the big fish [JON 1: 15-17]. The sailors left behind recognize God's power to bring this storm about and are left offering a sacrifice and pledging to serve Him. Meanwhile, Jonah remains in the big fish for three days, during which he calls to the Lord in prayer promising to go to Nineveh to tell the people the truth of the Lord- as God had wanted him to from the start. In (2: 10) God orders the fish to spit Jonah up on the beach, and it did.
Once in Nineveh, Jonah tells the people in JON 3: 4, "In forty days Nineveh will be destroyed!" not the message these Assyrians wanted to hear. JON 3: 5, "The people of Nineveh believed God's message. So they decided that everyone should fast, and all the people, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth to show that they had repented." How can we miss God's show of His ultimate sovereignty in this? Even the king repented! JON 3: 10, "God saw what they did; He saw that they had given up their wicked behavior. So He changed His mind and did not punish them as He had said He would." We must understand that every fast won't lead to God changing His mind about leveling judgment on those who sin, but it is used here in a spirit of genuine contrition to show that it can get God's attention. If a fast isn't genuine, God would know that immediately, because He sees the true content of our hearts.
Without trying to be too involved in numerology, how can we miss another demonstration of God's use of three and forty as important to His lessons? Later in MT 12: 39-41, Christ responds after teaching on the coming Judgment Day and the demand for a miracle by some Pharisees. "'How evil and godless are the people of this day! You ask Me for a miracle? No! The only miracle you will be given is the miracle of the prophet Jonah. In the same way that Jonah spent three days and nights in the big fish, so will the Son of Man will spend three days and nights in the depths of the earth. On Judgment Day, the people of Nineveh will stand up and accuse you, because they turned from their sins when they heard Jonah preach; and I tell you that there is something here greater than Jonah!"
Very little is known about the prophet, Joel, but some very important truths come out in his little book. Joel sees a sign of the coming Day of the Lord, a time when the Lord will punish those who oppose His righteous will. Possibly written sometime between 835 BC-796 BC during the regency of the High Priest, Jehoiada and boyhood of King Joash in Judah, this book tells the story of a plague of locusts, the promise of restoration, and the Day of the Lord. Joel pronounced the coming destruction due to iniquity. JL 2: 1, "Blow the trumpet [ram's horn shofar]; sound the alarm on Zion, God's sacred hill. Tremble, people of Judah! The Day of the Lord is coming soon." This warning is followed by a call to repentance. JL 2: 12-13, "'But even now,' says the Lord, 'repent sincerely and return to Me with fasting and weeping and mourning. Let your broken heart show your sorrow; tearing your clothes is not enough.'" Once again, we shouldn't miss that God sees into our hearts. This is true even today. There is no hiding from God with lack of authenticity. As for the fast, it was genuine. We find in JL 3: 18 that God knows this and "Then the Lord showed concern for His land; He had mercy on His people." He promises to remove the locust army and restore the fertility of the land. In (23a), Joel proclaims, "Be glad, people of Zion, rejoice at what the Lord your God has done for you." We shouldn't miss God repeating has often-said will in (27), "Then, Israel, you will know that I am among you and that I, the Lord, am your God and there is no other. My people will never be despised again."
Is the Lord God of Israel our God, even when we are experiencing loss, suffering, and/or illness? Each of us must answer this question for himself. By spending time in the Scriptures, as we are doing, and having an active prayer life, we are taking the first steps in giving our amazing God opportunities to reveal Himself in our lives. By using fasting and prayer in appropriate and genuine ways, we are seeking God out for His wisdom, direction, healing, and even at times, correction. It's what God wants us to do. It's the reason He allowed His only Son to be sacrificed on the cross for our salvation [JN 3: 16]. God wants to be the center of our very lives!
PRAYER: Dearest Father, we come before You on our knees with heads bowed in reverence for You. We accept that You are our Sovereign Lord [IS 46: 10], a God Who makes enormous sacrifices for us [1JN 4: 9-10], Who loves each of us deeply [GN 1: 27-28; PS 66: 20], and Who is the Source of all that is good on the earth [PS 16: 2; PS 31:19]. You know the content of our hearts, and You respond with unparalleled justice. PS 73: 27-28, "Those who abandon You will certainly perish; You will destroy those who are unfaithful to You. But as for me, how wonderful to be near God, to find protection with the Lord God and to proclaim all He had done." As we contemplate the coming Day of Judgment, which many of us believe is near, we come before You to confess any sins we know about and to work to uncover pockets of subtle sin we have committed. We do so with the comfort promised us 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." You are a loving a compassionate God, Who will forgive those who truly repent [HE 8: 12]. Yes, Dear Abba, You see into our hearts and reward those who are faithful to You. Some of us choose to fast, as the people of Nineveh did and the Hebrews in Joel's time did. It is a way to focus only on You and an appeal for You not to condemn us, if we have previously sinned and have now stopped sinning to turn to You. We yearn for You, O Lord. The Psalmist in PS 61: 1-2 puts his words into our mouths now. "Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the end of the earth I call to You, when my heart is faint." We remember Isaiah's warning in IS 55: 6-7, "Seek while you can to find Him. Call on Him while He is near. Let the people banish from their minds the very thought of doing wrong. Let them turn to the Lord, that He may have mercy on them. Yes, turn to our God for He will abundantly pardon." His acknowledgement of Your compassion mirrors our own belief in that. You deserve our utter worship, adoration, praise, and thanks eternally, and we offer these things to You in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Next week, the Holy Spirit has given me more stories revealing other occasions for fasting. What happened in Ezekiel's vision of EZK 9 to idolaters in Jerusalem, particularly in the temple, is reminder that God won't allow making a lifestyle of sin to go unpunished. God gathered a group of men who were to carry out His order of condemnation of those idolaters who made a lifestyle of their sins, even in His very home at the time, the temple. EZK 9: 2-4, "At once six men came from the outer north gate of the temple, each one carrying a weapon. With them was a Man dressed in linen clothes, carrying something to write with. They all came and stood by the bronze altar. Then the dazzling light of the presence of the God of Israel rose up from the winged creatures where It had been, and moved to the entrance of the temple. The Lord called to the Man dressed in linen, 'Go through the whole city of Jerusalem and mark the foreheads of everyone who is distressed and troubled because of all the disgusting things being done in the city.'" Then God said to the other man, "Follow Him through the city and kill. Spare no one; have mercy on no one... but do not touch anyone who has the mark on his forehead." This order was carried out. I don't share this story to frighten any of us. Instead, it is a reminder of God's righteousness and justice. He wants us to never forget that the choice to remain in sin and reject Him has disastrous results that none of us ever wants to experience. Those of us who reject sin, instead, are eternally forgiven. Praise be to Him for His most compassionate justice!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn