posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
Jan. 6 - Intro
Jan 13 - Fasting in Faith
Jan 20 - Fasting seeking Answers
Jan 27 - Fasting as Submission
Feb 4 - Fasting for a Time
Feb. 11 - Fasting for Show
Final Thoughts
Amy asked me on the second lesson if I thought fasting for answers was more difficult than responding to God's call to a fast. I've been mulling that over and, for me, anyway, I think it depends on my desperation level. There've been a couple of crisis points at which I needed an answer...and, not only could I physically not eat, I could actually do very little besides lay on my face and cry out to God. That was a difficult time to live through, but it wasn't hard to fast. On the God-called fast I did last year (which rather indirectly resulted in this blog, btw), I ate what I felt instructed to eat and never really felt hungry at all during the three weeks it lasted. So that wasn't a difficult fast. The difficult fasts for me have been the called corporate fasts...the fasts of submission. That really is an act of personal discipline, and it is hard to stay focused during those times. I know our leadership has felt a call from God for the fast, but sometimes it's difficult to get my spirit engaged just from submission. And, I'll confess, not all of those fasts (there has been at least one every year we've been at our current church) found me in an attitude of submission and obedience. I went through the motions, but my personal results were minimal. Maybe I've just needed to grow some more before I could properly connect to what was happening.
However, there is one scripture regarding fasting that has come to mind over and over again and I think I'll use it to kind of close out this little look at fasting. It's in Mark's record of Jesus casting out a demon that His disciples couldn't budge (Mark 9:14-29). I admit this is a marginal reading in my NIV, but Mark relates that when the disciples questioned Jesus about why they could not cast out the demon, Jesus replied, "This kind can come out only by prayer (and fasting)." (verse 29).
Jesus had not prayed and fasted over the boy; I wondered for a long time just exactly what that meant. But, as I've gone over the scriptures for this little study, and that verse kind of simmered in the soup along with what I was looking at, I had a realization that it wasn't prayer and fasting that gave Jesus power over the demon...it was prayer and fasting that put Jesus into such close communion with the Father that he saw and heard what the Father wanted said and done in order for the boy to be delivered, so that's what Jesus said and did (see John 5:19). And the boy was delivered.
What I've learned is that fasting is a time of listening, of aligning, of focusing on God. And if I want to move from the level where I am to a higher level of service to Him, I've got to be aligned more completely, listening more intently and focusing more exclusively on what He wants said and done in every situation.
So...I need to purpose in my heart to trust Him to take care of me if I follow Him into the desert, seek Him until the answer comes, submit to and align myself with the body of believers and expect that, when the time for fasting has passed,He will do what only He can to to resolve the situation according to His purpose.
Showing posts with label Blogging Bible Study: A Slow Look at Fasting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blogging Bible Study: A Slow Look at Fasting. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
A Slow Look at Fasting: Fasting for Show
posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
Jan. 6 - Intro
Jan 13 - Fasting in Faith
Jan 20 - Fasting seeking Answers
Jan 27 - Fasting as Submission
Feb 4 - Fasting for a Time
Feb. 11 - Fasting for Show
As I was checking the references for the other types of fasts, I ran across another aspect to fasting that I hadn't really considered, and I thought perhaps I should at least mention it.
Not all fasting is good. Or, perhaps a better way to put it would be that, as with any other faith-related activity, it's quite possible for it to become religious rather than responsive. Done in the wrong way, for the wrong reasons, fasting is at best, an exercise in self-control. Worse than that is when fasting is used as a means to attempt to manipulate God.
For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them.
'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?'
Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking one another with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast that is acceptable to the LORD? -- Is. 58:2 - 5
Then the word of the LORD Almighty came to me: "Ask all the people of the land and the priests, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?' " - Zech. 7:4-5
"When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full." - Matt 6:17
And don't forget the Pharisee who went to the temple and prayed, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men -- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' -- Lk 18:11 - 12, but who did not receive anything from God.
As we have seen in the past month, fasting has definite and powerful purposes. However, proving one's worth or value to God is not one of them; neither is proving one's spiritual superiority to others. Fasting cannot be substituted for a right heart attitude or humble obedience.
So, anytime I undertake a fast, one of the first things I must do is make sure my motives are right and my objectives are in line with the true purposes of fasting.
Otherwise, I might just as well go on a diet. ;)
Next week, I'll close this out with just some relevant thoughts that have occurred to me whilst venturing through these scriptures!
Jan. 6 - Intro
Jan 13 - Fasting in Faith
Jan 20 - Fasting seeking Answers
Jan 27 - Fasting as Submission
Feb 4 - Fasting for a Time
Feb. 11 - Fasting for Show
As I was checking the references for the other types of fasts, I ran across another aspect to fasting that I hadn't really considered, and I thought perhaps I should at least mention it.
Not all fasting is good. Or, perhaps a better way to put it would be that, as with any other faith-related activity, it's quite possible for it to become religious rather than responsive. Done in the wrong way, for the wrong reasons, fasting is at best, an exercise in self-control. Worse than that is when fasting is used as a means to attempt to manipulate God.
For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them.
'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?'
Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking one another with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast that is acceptable to the LORD? -- Is. 58:2 - 5
Then the word of the LORD Almighty came to me: "Ask all the people of the land and the priests, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?' " - Zech. 7:4-5
"When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full." - Matt 6:17
And don't forget the Pharisee who went to the temple and prayed, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men -- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' -- Lk 18:11 - 12, but who did not receive anything from God.
As we have seen in the past month, fasting has definite and powerful purposes. However, proving one's worth or value to God is not one of them; neither is proving one's spiritual superiority to others. Fasting cannot be substituted for a right heart attitude or humble obedience.
So, anytime I undertake a fast, one of the first things I must do is make sure my motives are right and my objectives are in line with the true purposes of fasting.
Otherwise, I might just as well go on a diet. ;)
Next week, I'll close this out with just some relevant thoughts that have occurred to me whilst venturing through these scriptures!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
A Slow Look at Fasting: Fasting for a Time
posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
Jan. 6 - Intro
Jan 13 - Fasting in Faith
Jan 20 - Fasting seeking Answers
Jan 27 - Fasting as Submission
Feb 4 - Fasting for a Time
Fasting for a Time
There's another aspect of fasting I want to look at in our little exploration here...folks who have a specified time for fasting.
Probably the most familiar fast of this kind is the fast Esther requested before going uninvited into the king's presence. It was an extreme fast; the fate of Esther and all her people depended upon the king granting her favor:
Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish. -- Esther 4:16
Esther did not have any time at her disposal; her people could not wait. So the time was set at three days...the most they could survive an extreme fast...and then she was to go before the king. This fast was not a fast to seek answers, or a fast to align themselves; it was a desperate fast in agreement seeking one thing only: the favor of the king. They all fasted for three days, then Esther dressed herself royally and went before the king, not knowing if she would live or die.
It's interesting to note that God is not specifically mentioned anywhere in the book of Esther. Esther strikes me as being very much an ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances. She didn't have prophetic guidance; no angels appeared to her. She was walking out her faith with no supernatural assurances that it was going to be ok. She is a great example of trusting God to lead one step at a time and taking that one step, without knowing how it would turn out. She fasted...and when the time was up, she acted. And the favor of the king was granted.
There is another example of folks with time pressing upon them who fasted: Ezra the priest and those with him who were returning to Jerusalem when the exile was ending. Ezra was authorized by King Artaxerxes to return to Jerusalem with any Jews who desired to return, including any priests and Levites, taking large gifts of gold and silver for the temple and a letter requesting financial assistance for the travelers and exemption of taxes from any of the treasuries they would encounter upon their journey. However, because Ezra had assured the King that God was well able to take care of them, he did not request an armed escort of soldiers. Instead, to show that God was well able to care for them, they elected to return...with all the people and all the provisions and all the valuable gifts...totally under God's protection. So, just before they set out, they camped at the Ahava Canal for a period of three days, to fast before God and request His protection on the trip. After the three days, Ezra divvied up the valuables amongst the leadership, and they set out. (Ezra 8:21 - 31).
The journey lasted approximately four months (Ez. 7:9), and Ezra recalled that ...The hand of our God was on us, and he protected us from enemies and bandits along the way. -- Ez. 8:31
However, when Ezra arrived in Jerusalem, after the sacrifices of thanksgiving were made, he found something that appalled him: The Israelites, including the priests and Levites, had not maintained the separation from the pagan people around them and had taken the first step back into the idolatry that brought the captivity upon them 70 years earlier...they had all married women of pagan nations. Ezra grieved and mourned in public until the evening sacrifice, when he prayed for the people. The folks of the city gathered around him and began to mourn and grieve likewise, until one of the leaders suggested they all separate from the pagan folks, according to the Law. Ezra got up, they all took an oath to do what had been suggested, and Ezra went to the house of Jehonan, where he undertook another fast; three days of no food or drink, while the proclamation went over the whole country for everyone to assemble in Jerusalem to deal with this issue.
In this case, Ezra's fasting had to do with grief and, I believe, intercession. The recorded prayer confesses the sins of the people and petitions God for mercy; Ezra 9:6 simply states that during the three days of fasting Ezra continued to mourn over the unfaithfulness of the exiles.
Within three days, all the men had assembled in a miserable rain and Ezra went out to them and told them of their error and called upon them to confess their sin and separate themselves from their foreign wives. The men agreed (well, most of the men agreed), and a plan was made to see that the marriages were investigated case by case, and a list was compiled of everyone who repented. It took them two months to listen to all the cases. God did not judge Israel; the people judged themselves. And the hearts of the people were willing to repent. Again, Ezra's time of fasting and prayer had results.
Ezekiel also did a fast for a specified period of time...but it was really weird, and it didn't only involve food. He was to make a model of a siege against Jerusalem, and lie on his left side for 390 days for the sin of Israel, and then lie on his right side for 40 days for the sin of Judah. (Mr. Scofield's notes state that Ezekiel did this for a few hours each day...not for the entire time. However, I'm not sure how he came to that conclusion). His food for this length of time was to be wheat, barley, beans and lentils made into bread and baked over a cow dung fire. (this was a favor from God to Ezekiel, who balked at defiling himself by baking his bread over human excrement). The point of that fast was to illustrate the appalling conditions of the coming exile. An example or lesson, if you will. And Ezekiel was not to intercede for the people as he lay; he was to prophesy against Jerusalem with a bare arm (Ezek. 4:7). Not at all comfortable for us to consider. In this case, the time was specific, as it stood for years of apostasy.
Note that with all of these fasts, there is not necessarily a victory or a release or any kind of event that signified accomplishment of purpose. For Esther's fasts and Ezra's fasts, the proof of accomplishment came when they walked out the event for which they had prayed. Ezekiel's fast ended at the appointed time... demonstrating that there was a specific time for judgment to fall, and a specific time for judgment against the nation to end.
These fasts did, however, all have a purpose to accomplish; they were not random at all. They were born out of hearts that were passionate for God, for God's people, and were obedient, even when the outcome was not assured. The people all set their sights on God and did not flinch from following His purpose, even when they were only seeing through the glass darkly.
Points to ponder: How have I prepared my heart to follow God? In what areas am I now asking to see the way clearly before I proceed, rather than taking the one step in faith that will lead to the next step that will lead to the next step? What aspect of my self am I unwilling to let 'perish' in order to give God the opportunity to work on my behalf?
One little note...as I have been studying through this, I've found one more type of fasting that probably would be good to consider, so next week I'm adding one more lesson...Fasting for Show. Should be interesting. ;)
Jan. 6 - Intro
Jan 13 - Fasting in Faith
Jan 20 - Fasting seeking Answers
Jan 27 - Fasting as Submission
Feb 4 - Fasting for a Time
Fasting for a Time
There's another aspect of fasting I want to look at in our little exploration here...folks who have a specified time for fasting.
Probably the most familiar fast of this kind is the fast Esther requested before going uninvited into the king's presence. It was an extreme fast; the fate of Esther and all her people depended upon the king granting her favor:
Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish. -- Esther 4:16
Esther did not have any time at her disposal; her people could not wait. So the time was set at three days...the most they could survive an extreme fast...and then she was to go before the king. This fast was not a fast to seek answers, or a fast to align themselves; it was a desperate fast in agreement seeking one thing only: the favor of the king. They all fasted for three days, then Esther dressed herself royally and went before the king, not knowing if she would live or die.
It's interesting to note that God is not specifically mentioned anywhere in the book of Esther. Esther strikes me as being very much an ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances. She didn't have prophetic guidance; no angels appeared to her. She was walking out her faith with no supernatural assurances that it was going to be ok. She is a great example of trusting God to lead one step at a time and taking that one step, without knowing how it would turn out. She fasted...and when the time was up, she acted. And the favor of the king was granted.
There is another example of folks with time pressing upon them who fasted: Ezra the priest and those with him who were returning to Jerusalem when the exile was ending. Ezra was authorized by King Artaxerxes to return to Jerusalem with any Jews who desired to return, including any priests and Levites, taking large gifts of gold and silver for the temple and a letter requesting financial assistance for the travelers and exemption of taxes from any of the treasuries they would encounter upon their journey. However, because Ezra had assured the King that God was well able to take care of them, he did not request an armed escort of soldiers. Instead, to show that God was well able to care for them, they elected to return...with all the people and all the provisions and all the valuable gifts...totally under God's protection. So, just before they set out, they camped at the Ahava Canal for a period of three days, to fast before God and request His protection on the trip. After the three days, Ezra divvied up the valuables amongst the leadership, and they set out. (Ezra 8:21 - 31).
The journey lasted approximately four months (Ez. 7:9), and Ezra recalled that ...The hand of our God was on us, and he protected us from enemies and bandits along the way. -- Ez. 8:31
However, when Ezra arrived in Jerusalem, after the sacrifices of thanksgiving were made, he found something that appalled him: The Israelites, including the priests and Levites, had not maintained the separation from the pagan people around them and had taken the first step back into the idolatry that brought the captivity upon them 70 years earlier...they had all married women of pagan nations. Ezra grieved and mourned in public until the evening sacrifice, when he prayed for the people. The folks of the city gathered around him and began to mourn and grieve likewise, until one of the leaders suggested they all separate from the pagan folks, according to the Law. Ezra got up, they all took an oath to do what had been suggested, and Ezra went to the house of Jehonan, where he undertook another fast; three days of no food or drink, while the proclamation went over the whole country for everyone to assemble in Jerusalem to deal with this issue.
In this case, Ezra's fasting had to do with grief and, I believe, intercession. The recorded prayer confesses the sins of the people and petitions God for mercy; Ezra 9:6 simply states that during the three days of fasting Ezra continued to mourn over the unfaithfulness of the exiles.
Within three days, all the men had assembled in a miserable rain and Ezra went out to them and told them of their error and called upon them to confess their sin and separate themselves from their foreign wives. The men agreed (well, most of the men agreed), and a plan was made to see that the marriages were investigated case by case, and a list was compiled of everyone who repented. It took them two months to listen to all the cases. God did not judge Israel; the people judged themselves. And the hearts of the people were willing to repent. Again, Ezra's time of fasting and prayer had results.
Ezekiel also did a fast for a specified period of time...but it was really weird, and it didn't only involve food. He was to make a model of a siege against Jerusalem, and lie on his left side for 390 days for the sin of Israel, and then lie on his right side for 40 days for the sin of Judah. (Mr. Scofield's notes state that Ezekiel did this for a few hours each day...not for the entire time. However, I'm not sure how he came to that conclusion). His food for this length of time was to be wheat, barley, beans and lentils made into bread and baked over a cow dung fire. (this was a favor from God to Ezekiel, who balked at defiling himself by baking his bread over human excrement). The point of that fast was to illustrate the appalling conditions of the coming exile. An example or lesson, if you will. And Ezekiel was not to intercede for the people as he lay; he was to prophesy against Jerusalem with a bare arm (Ezek. 4:7). Not at all comfortable for us to consider. In this case, the time was specific, as it stood for years of apostasy.
Note that with all of these fasts, there is not necessarily a victory or a release or any kind of event that signified accomplishment of purpose. For Esther's fasts and Ezra's fasts, the proof of accomplishment came when they walked out the event for which they had prayed. Ezekiel's fast ended at the appointed time... demonstrating that there was a specific time for judgment to fall, and a specific time for judgment against the nation to end.
These fasts did, however, all have a purpose to accomplish; they were not random at all. They were born out of hearts that were passionate for God, for God's people, and were obedient, even when the outcome was not assured. The people all set their sights on God and did not flinch from following His purpose, even when they were only seeing through the glass darkly.
Points to ponder: How have I prepared my heart to follow God? In what areas am I now asking to see the way clearly before I proceed, rather than taking the one step in faith that will lead to the next step that will lead to the next step? What aspect of my self am I unwilling to let 'perish' in order to give God the opportunity to work on my behalf?
One little note...as I have been studying through this, I've found one more type of fasting that probably would be good to consider, so next week I'm adding one more lesson...Fasting for Show. Should be interesting. ;)
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
A Slow Look at Fasting: Fasting as Submission
posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
Jan. 6 - Intro
Jan 13 - Fasting in Faith
Jan 20 - Fasting seeking Answers
Jan 27 - Fasting as Submission
Feb 4 - Fasting for a Time
I thought my little acronym-plan would give me some structure to work with on this study, since I was basically just going on a rough idea. Finding words dealing with fasting that start w/the letters F, A, S and T was tricky, and today's word, submission may be the most difficult.
First, I need to delineate why fasting in submission is different than the 'fasting in faith' I wrote about on the first week. In some ways, it is not different at all...the fast is in response to a directive from authority. But the faith fasts...those specific extreme fasts...were individual fasts, called by God, for the individual to separate himself from *everything* else so as to deal directly with the supernatural. The authority is God, and He is calling individuals.
The fast of submission I want to look at today is the call to corporate fasting coming through humans in authority. Now, these folks are expected to be calling the fast in response to the leadership of God, but the majority of the folks who will be doing the fasting will not have heard that call themselves.
Sometimes the fast is also a fast that seeks answers, as in the fasting of Jehoshaphat and Judah that we looked at last week, but often this fast is called for alignment...a time for the people to reflect on their individual lives and see what needs to change in them. As individuals focus on lining up with God's purpose, the corporate body lines up with God's purpose and then we see what God can do with people who are in alignment...in agreement. This is the kind of fast we just came off of in our church.
So, what are the Biblical examples of this type of fasting? A declared fast, if you will?
The first declared fast that came to mind was the fast declared for the Day of Atonement; I remember years ago I had a Jewish acquaintance who told me that he had to fast on that day, so I decided I'd look for the instruction regarding fasting on the Day of Atonement in the Old Testament.
I discovered that the word used there, adab, is a word that implies more than just going without food. Some of the meanings given are abase, deal hardly with, humble (self), submit (self). Probably the best translation to get the idea of what is instructed is in the Amplified version:
It shall be a statute to you for ever that in the seventh month [nearly October], on the tenth day of that month, you shall afflict yourselves [by fasting with penitence and humiliation]; it is a statute forever. -- Lev. 16:29, AMP
That makes sense...fasting, introspection, repentance...all necessary for the nation to remain pure, set apart, in accordance with God's statutes.
The second declared fast that I thought of is no doubt due to the fact that one of my favorite CD's has a song titled 'Holy Visitation' that is very reminiscent of the call to national fasting in Joel:
Declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.
"Even now," declares the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning."
Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing...Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. Let the priests, who minister before the LORD, weep between the temple porch and the altar.... Joel 1:14, 2:12-13, 15-17a, NIV
A corporate fast of repentance...which, by implication, invokes the promise given in 2 Chron. 7:14 -- If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (NIV)
The third fast that comes to mind almost is a different creature altogether...the people called the fast. In Nehemiah, when the walls of the city were built and Ezra the priest stood and read the Law in the assembly for the first time, many of the people were convicted and began weeping. Their response to the Word was to fast and grieve. Nehemiah, however, pointed out to them that this was a joyous time and instructed them that they were to 'eat the fat and drink the sweet' (I've a confession of my own...that verse always makes me smile just a little), and that there would be another day for fasting. About three weeks later, the people did come together: On the twenty-fourth day of that same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads. Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers. They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the LORD their God. - Neh. 9:1 - 3 . Then the Israelites declared their intention to live by the decrees and statutes of God...spelling out what they would not do, and what they would be sure to do. They didn't keep their promises entirely, but it is historically true that Israel as a nation never again fell into the worship of foreign gods.
So what I am seeing in these declared fasts is that it was not a time to seek God's direction for an individual life...it was a time to inspect one's life in light of the community. Am I a stumbling block? Am I aligned with the direction God has declared to the body? This was not a time that leadership condemned the people; the people sought God as individuals and came together in corporate repentance. It was not only an exercise in submitting to the authority in participating in the fast, it was an exercise in submitting one's self to the whole body; being part of the corporate.
That may be elementary observation to some, but to me it is a revelation. I *haven't* treated the declared fasts as a time for me to submit to the body of Christ; I have been seeking direction for *me*, as an individual. So now I'm confessing before God and all my readers that that's selfish. Oh, I realize that my direction is connected with proper submission to the body, but I've got the cart before the horse. I think if I consider the body first...my part in it will be more obvious.
So, closing thoughts: What do I need to adjust in my thinking so that I am properly submitted to God, to the leadership He has placed over me, and to other members of His body? How can I train myself to recognize 'selfish' thinking, so that I don't fall into that habit? Even at home on a day-to-day basis, recognizing that the part of the body that I am most responsible to is my own family?
(ouch... ;) )
Jan. 6 - Intro
Jan 13 - Fasting in Faith
Jan 20 - Fasting seeking Answers
Jan 27 - Fasting as Submission
Feb 4 - Fasting for a Time
I thought my little acronym-plan would give me some structure to work with on this study, since I was basically just going on a rough idea. Finding words dealing with fasting that start w/the letters F, A, S and T was tricky, and today's word, submission may be the most difficult.
First, I need to delineate why fasting in submission is different than the 'fasting in faith' I wrote about on the first week. In some ways, it is not different at all...the fast is in response to a directive from authority. But the faith fasts...those specific extreme fasts...were individual fasts, called by God, for the individual to separate himself from *everything* else so as to deal directly with the supernatural. The authority is God, and He is calling individuals.
The fast of submission I want to look at today is the call to corporate fasting coming through humans in authority. Now, these folks are expected to be calling the fast in response to the leadership of God, but the majority of the folks who will be doing the fasting will not have heard that call themselves.
Sometimes the fast is also a fast that seeks answers, as in the fasting of Jehoshaphat and Judah that we looked at last week, but often this fast is called for alignment...a time for the people to reflect on their individual lives and see what needs to change in them. As individuals focus on lining up with God's purpose, the corporate body lines up with God's purpose and then we see what God can do with people who are in alignment...in agreement. This is the kind of fast we just came off of in our church.
So, what are the Biblical examples of this type of fasting? A declared fast, if you will?
The first declared fast that came to mind was the fast declared for the Day of Atonement; I remember years ago I had a Jewish acquaintance who told me that he had to fast on that day, so I decided I'd look for the instruction regarding fasting on the Day of Atonement in the Old Testament.
I discovered that the word used there, adab, is a word that implies more than just going without food. Some of the meanings given are abase, deal hardly with, humble (self), submit (self). Probably the best translation to get the idea of what is instructed is in the Amplified version:
It shall be a statute to you for ever that in the seventh month [nearly October], on the tenth day of that month, you shall afflict yourselves [by fasting with penitence and humiliation]; it is a statute forever. -- Lev. 16:29, AMP
That makes sense...fasting, introspection, repentance...all necessary for the nation to remain pure, set apart, in accordance with God's statutes.
The second declared fast that I thought of is no doubt due to the fact that one of my favorite CD's has a song titled 'Holy Visitation' that is very reminiscent of the call to national fasting in Joel:
Declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.
"Even now," declares the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning."
Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing...Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. Let the priests, who minister before the LORD, weep between the temple porch and the altar.... Joel 1:14, 2:12-13, 15-17a, NIV
A corporate fast of repentance...which, by implication, invokes the promise given in 2 Chron. 7:14 -- If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (NIV)
The third fast that comes to mind almost is a different creature altogether...the people called the fast. In Nehemiah, when the walls of the city were built and Ezra the priest stood and read the Law in the assembly for the first time, many of the people were convicted and began weeping. Their response to the Word was to fast and grieve. Nehemiah, however, pointed out to them that this was a joyous time and instructed them that they were to 'eat the fat and drink the sweet' (I've a confession of my own...that verse always makes me smile just a little), and that there would be another day for fasting. About three weeks later, the people did come together: On the twenty-fourth day of that same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and having dust on their heads. Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the wickedness of their fathers. They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the LORD their God. - Neh. 9:1 - 3 . Then the Israelites declared their intention to live by the decrees and statutes of God...spelling out what they would not do, and what they would be sure to do. They didn't keep their promises entirely, but it is historically true that Israel as a nation never again fell into the worship of foreign gods.
So what I am seeing in these declared fasts is that it was not a time to seek God's direction for an individual life...it was a time to inspect one's life in light of the community. Am I a stumbling block? Am I aligned with the direction God has declared to the body? This was not a time that leadership condemned the people; the people sought God as individuals and came together in corporate repentance. It was not only an exercise in submitting to the authority in participating in the fast, it was an exercise in submitting one's self to the whole body; being part of the corporate.
That may be elementary observation to some, but to me it is a revelation. I *haven't* treated the declared fasts as a time for me to submit to the body of Christ; I have been seeking direction for *me*, as an individual. So now I'm confessing before God and all my readers that that's selfish. Oh, I realize that my direction is connected with proper submission to the body, but I've got the cart before the horse. I think if I consider the body first...my part in it will be more obvious.
So, closing thoughts: What do I need to adjust in my thinking so that I am properly submitted to God, to the leadership He has placed over me, and to other members of His body? How can I train myself to recognize 'selfish' thinking, so that I don't fall into that habit? Even at home on a day-to-day basis, recognizing that the part of the body that I am most responsible to is my own family?
(ouch... ;) )
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
A Slow Look at Fasting: Fasting Seeking Answers
posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
Jan. 6 - Intro
Jan 13 - Fasting in Faith
Jan 20 - Fasting seeking Answers
Jan 27 - Fasting as Submission
Feb 4 - Fasting for a Time
It's pretty obvious that this is not any kind of a comprehensive look at fasting; my goodness, folks much more learned than I have researched it extensively and written books on the subject; how could I expect to do something significant in four little blog posts?
Just in case you were wondering, of course.
Actually, the more I look into this the more out of my depth I feel here. Still, in trying to stick to the 'who-how-why' questions, today's look is at people who fasted because they were desperate to get an answer from God.
All of them went about their fasting in different ways. I don't think I'm going to get to touch on all of them, but I'll try to get a good smattering of examples:
David, who, in 2 Samuel 12, fasted in intercession for the life of the son conceived in adultery with Bathsheba;
Jehoshaphat and the entire nation of Judah fasted in 2 Chronicles 20 to seek God's protection/guidance against the army that was poised to obliterate them;
In Esther 4, the exiled Jews fasted for God's intervention after learning Haman had managed to manipulate the king into issuing an edict calling for their extermination;
Nehemiah 1 records Nehemiah's fasting, prayer and repentance and ultimate request for favor with the King to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem;
Daniel fasted twice; once, recorded in Dan. 9, in the first year of the reign of King Darius when Daniel understood the prophecies of Jeremiah pertaining to the length of Judah's exile; the second is found in Dan. 10 and happened in the third year of Cyrus's reign when Daniel fasted and mourned for 21 days, seeking understanding.
These fasts were all for different reasons, of different durations and quite possibly involved different aspects of denial. Some were individual, some were corporate. But they all had a common element and a common time frame: They were desperate to hear from God, and they fasted until the answer came...and do note that, in David's case, the answer was not what he desired. Yet he broke the fast all the same, accepting what was patently God's plan over his own desire.
I looked up the Hebrew words to see if I could tell what was fasted...food and drink, food only, some foods only...and really didn't get much help. David's fast employed a word, lechem, which meant 'food, especially breads/grains', but most of the references were for the word tsuwm, which just means...'fast'. No particulars.
Daniel was kind enough to describe the fasting he did for 21 days in Dan. 10:3 -- 'I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all...' Hence the label 'Daniel Fast', applied to a fast that is based on vegetables. Nehemiah may very well have done a similar fast, as his fast certainly lasted a number of days. But the fasts for survival, I suspect, were more intense and may have been water-only or some other highly restricted fast.
Of course, that's not surprising. In the one or two episodes so far in my life which were gut-wrenchingly tough, I found I had no appetite at all and basically fasted as a result of the turmoil I was walking through. But it wasn't a decision to fast...I couldn't do anything else at that point.
So, given the restrictions of a blog post, what are the lessons for us in these examples?
I see that this kind of fast is not God-initiated as the 'Faith' fasts we looked at last week. These fasts are born out of a desperate heart.
I see that these fasts were not set for a specific time period...these people fasted until the answer came. In Daniel's case, the answer was delayed, but Daniel kept his fast going until the answer came.
Some of these fasts were very focused...as in the fast of Jehoshaphat and Judah, when business stopped and All the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, stood there before the LORD. (2 Chron. 20:13), while others were carried out while life went on, as Nehemiah going about his business until the king was moved to ask what sorrow was on his heart (Neh. 2:2).
I think the point is that there is not a set, prescribed way to make a cry out to God. It is going to be different, depending upon the individual, the request, the urgency of the request...different factors. We tend to want a formula, a list of things not to eat or do, considering that if we do it *that way*, God will answer us. The truth is, our focus is not to be on what we eat or don't eat, but in seeking God's heart and not giving up until we have our answer. To forget about food for a while, eating to simply survive, as we pour our hearts out to God.
Because the answer is coming. It might be 'no', it might be delayed...but it *is* coming.
Closing Thoughts: When have I been so desperate to get an answer from God I'm willing to forget about food/satisfying an appetite in order to press in to get that answer? What motivates me to seek Him on that level? My survival... or, as Daniel, understanding? How can I keep the motivation to keep pressing in until the answer comes?
Jan. 6 - Intro
Jan 13 - Fasting in Faith
Jan 20 - Fasting seeking Answers
Jan 27 - Fasting as Submission
Feb 4 - Fasting for a Time
It's pretty obvious that this is not any kind of a comprehensive look at fasting; my goodness, folks much more learned than I have researched it extensively and written books on the subject; how could I expect to do something significant in four little blog posts?
Just in case you were wondering, of course.
Actually, the more I look into this the more out of my depth I feel here. Still, in trying to stick to the 'who-how-why' questions, today's look is at people who fasted because they were desperate to get an answer from God.
All of them went about their fasting in different ways. I don't think I'm going to get to touch on all of them, but I'll try to get a good smattering of examples:
David, who, in 2 Samuel 12, fasted in intercession for the life of the son conceived in adultery with Bathsheba;
Jehoshaphat and the entire nation of Judah fasted in 2 Chronicles 20 to seek God's protection/guidance against the army that was poised to obliterate them;
In Esther 4, the exiled Jews fasted for God's intervention after learning Haman had managed to manipulate the king into issuing an edict calling for their extermination;
Nehemiah 1 records Nehemiah's fasting, prayer and repentance and ultimate request for favor with the King to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem;
Daniel fasted twice; once, recorded in Dan. 9, in the first year of the reign of King Darius when Daniel understood the prophecies of Jeremiah pertaining to the length of Judah's exile; the second is found in Dan. 10 and happened in the third year of Cyrus's reign when Daniel fasted and mourned for 21 days, seeking understanding.
These fasts were all for different reasons, of different durations and quite possibly involved different aspects of denial. Some were individual, some were corporate. But they all had a common element and a common time frame: They were desperate to hear from God, and they fasted until the answer came...and do note that, in David's case, the answer was not what he desired. Yet he broke the fast all the same, accepting what was patently God's plan over his own desire.
I looked up the Hebrew words to see if I could tell what was fasted...food and drink, food only, some foods only...and really didn't get much help. David's fast employed a word, lechem, which meant 'food, especially breads/grains', but most of the references were for the word tsuwm, which just means...'fast'. No particulars.
Daniel was kind enough to describe the fasting he did for 21 days in Dan. 10:3 -- 'I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all...' Hence the label 'Daniel Fast', applied to a fast that is based on vegetables. Nehemiah may very well have done a similar fast, as his fast certainly lasted a number of days. But the fasts for survival, I suspect, were more intense and may have been water-only or some other highly restricted fast.
Of course, that's not surprising. In the one or two episodes so far in my life which were gut-wrenchingly tough, I found I had no appetite at all and basically fasted as a result of the turmoil I was walking through. But it wasn't a decision to fast...I couldn't do anything else at that point.
So, given the restrictions of a blog post, what are the lessons for us in these examples?
I see that this kind of fast is not God-initiated as the 'Faith' fasts we looked at last week. These fasts are born out of a desperate heart.
I see that these fasts were not set for a specific time period...these people fasted until the answer came. In Daniel's case, the answer was delayed, but Daniel kept his fast going until the answer came.
Some of these fasts were very focused...as in the fast of Jehoshaphat and Judah, when business stopped and All the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, stood there before the LORD. (2 Chron. 20:13), while others were carried out while life went on, as Nehemiah going about his business until the king was moved to ask what sorrow was on his heart (Neh. 2:2).
I think the point is that there is not a set, prescribed way to make a cry out to God. It is going to be different, depending upon the individual, the request, the urgency of the request...different factors. We tend to want a formula, a list of things not to eat or do, considering that if we do it *that way*, God will answer us. The truth is, our focus is not to be on what we eat or don't eat, but in seeking God's heart and not giving up until we have our answer. To forget about food for a while, eating to simply survive, as we pour our hearts out to God.
Because the answer is coming. It might be 'no', it might be delayed...but it *is* coming.
Closing Thoughts: When have I been so desperate to get an answer from God I'm willing to forget about food/satisfying an appetite in order to press in to get that answer? What motivates me to seek Him on that level? My survival... or, as Daniel, understanding? How can I keep the motivation to keep pressing in until the answer comes?
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
A Slow Look at Fasting: Fasting in Faith
posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
Jan. 6 - Intro
Jan 13 - Fasting in Faith
Jan 20 - Fasting seeking Answers
Jan 27 - Fasting as Submission
Feb 4 - Fasting for a Time
Fasting in Faith
Y'know, I knew I was wandering off the well-worn path of expectation and tradition when I started looking into this, but I didn't expect to have two of my assumptions shot down on the very first foray into the Scripture.
I was going to write today about two men who did extraordinary fasts...what should have been fatal fasts... and look at why and how those happened, and how they survived.
What I found was that my assumptions about who did these very specific fasts were wrong. Firstly, only one of them is specifically recorded as doing it; the second is, I think, *assumed* to have done it, based on the circumstances, but nowhere is it specified that he did exactly that. That was a surprise. The other surprise is that the first one did the extreme fast not once, but twice. In pretty short order.
And in all my years of Bible study...even teaching from these very passages...somehow I had overlooked it. Funny how our expectations can color what we read, even from the Bible itself.
So, having the expectations of what I would find and my semi-thought-out direction utterly undone, now I must dig into that and see what the significance of it really is.
It's a little scary, but the truth is I love it when that happens. It usually means something new and fresh is coming....
The extraordinary fast of which I'm speaking is, of course, going 40 days without food or drink. Anyone who knows anything about the human body will tell you that three days w/o drink will result in death by dehydration. Our bodies need water, and lots of it, to function properly. For someone to go without eating or drinking anything for 40 days is beyond possible. It's miraculous.
So who did...and did not...do this miraculous fast?
Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God. He said to the elders, "Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them."
When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from within the cloud. To the Israelites the glory of the LORD looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and nights. -- Ex. 24:13 - 18, NIV
"When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water. The LORD gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God. On them were all the commandments the Lord proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of assembly. -- Deut. 9:9-10
Of course, this is the very familiar story of Moses getting the revelation from God up on the mountain. He was directly in the presence of God...in the cloud that concealed the glory of God (see Ex. 33:18) and appeared, from the perspective of the people in the camp below, to be a consuming fire. For forty days and nights he was there, without bread or water, by his own testimony. Small wonder the people despaired of his return. To them, it looked like Moses had gone into a raging inferno. Not an excuse for the idolatry they subsequently fell into, but perhaps an explanation of why those folks said, "As for this fellow Moses, we don't know what has happened to him" (Ex. 32:1)
So, what did happen to Moses?
- He was called into the presence of God
- He obeyed and walked into a supernatural experience. I honestly think Moses was put in a place outside of time for 40 days. I don't think he moved...I think the presence of God moved time away from Moses. All of this is conjecture, of course, but something happened to allow Moses to exist without the necessities of life. I just can't see Moses stopping in the middle of,say, getting all those details about the tabernacle to ask God's permission to wait a moment while he, um, answered nature's call. Somehow, heaven met earth and time fled for a time.
Then God sent him back down the mountain, with the tablets, telling him the people had already rebelled against those commandments. Moses smashed the tablets when he saw what had happened...after all, the people had already broken the covenant. There was judgment at that moment...the Levites slaughtered 3,000 of the people for their idolatry, and God sent a plague. The account in Exodus just states that The next day Moses said to the people,"You have committed a very great sin. But now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin." (Ex. 32:30). But in Deuteronomy, Moses recalls what happened when he went back before God:
"Then once again I fell prostrate before the LORD for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the LORD's sight and so provoking him to anger....I lay prostrate before the LORD those forty days and forty nights because the LORD had said he would destroy you. I prayed to the LORD...and the LORD listened to me at this time also. It was not his will to destroy you." -- Deut. 9:18,25 & 10:10
Exodus records part of that intercession, in which Moses requests that God blot his name from the book instead of the names of the people who had sinned (Ex. 32:32).
If I'm reading this right, Moses had scarcely a day in between two forty-day total abstinence fasts. This was not just miraculous...it was beyond miraculous.
The first time was in obedience, the second time was in intercession. I think he dared to venture the second because of what had happened in the first. He knew the incredible power of God to defy even natural laws. He was not afraid to enter a place of total abandonment to God. And God somehow gave him extraordinary grace to endure what no other human could withstand.
That's right...no other human. The other famed 40 day fast occurred when the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness. Matthew and Luke both record details about this event but, to my surprise, neither one mentions that Jesus did not drink. Matthew states After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. -- Mt 4:2. The Greek word translated 'fasting' there, nesteuo, means 'to abstain from food'. Luke writes ...He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.- Lk 4:2b. I looked up 'ate nothing' and found that 'ate' is phago, which translates 'to eat, meat' and ouden, which means 'none, nothing, not any at all, nought.' Clearly, Jesus ate nothing. Also clearly, nothing is mentioned about drinking, despite the fact that I have heard folks say that Jesus neither ate nor drank in all that time. I suppose the inference is that, since he was in the desert, there was no water, but that's not necessarily true. I believe Jesus found enough water here and there to stay alive. I don't think he had the same kind of experience that Moses had.
There are several reasons I think this. Nowhere is it mentioned that Moses had any effects from his fast; both accounts specifically say that Jesus was hungry. And the point of Jesus' temptation was that he had to resist that to which humans succumbed...it would not have been the same if he'd been existing in a state of supernatural grace. By resisting the temptations in a highly weakened, fully human state, Jesus more than fulfilled that point...he excelled beyond it to completion.
It goes without saying that his trip into the desert wasn't a vacation...he was led by the Spirit. He went in obedience...and faith... to a place of death and survived. Moreover, when he had resisted the devil until the devil fled, angels came to him and ministered to him...there was a supernatural restoration.
But I want to point out one more thing. Neither Moses nor Jesus set out to fast for 40 days. They fasted until the release came and the victory was won.
Points to ponder: What is God calling me to do that requires absolute faith? What do I need to surrender, give up, quit looking for in order to walk where He is leading? Do I trust Him to either take care of me through the event or restore me afterward? Can I really fast in faith?
Jan. 6 - Intro
Jan 13 - Fasting in Faith
Jan 20 - Fasting seeking Answers
Jan 27 - Fasting as Submission
Feb 4 - Fasting for a Time
Fasting in Faith
Y'know, I knew I was wandering off the well-worn path of expectation and tradition when I started looking into this, but I didn't expect to have two of my assumptions shot down on the very first foray into the Scripture.
I was going to write today about two men who did extraordinary fasts...what should have been fatal fasts... and look at why and how those happened, and how they survived.
What I found was that my assumptions about who did these very specific fasts were wrong. Firstly, only one of them is specifically recorded as doing it; the second is, I think, *assumed* to have done it, based on the circumstances, but nowhere is it specified that he did exactly that. That was a surprise. The other surprise is that the first one did the extreme fast not once, but twice. In pretty short order.
And in all my years of Bible study...even teaching from these very passages...somehow I had overlooked it. Funny how our expectations can color what we read, even from the Bible itself.
So, having the expectations of what I would find and my semi-thought-out direction utterly undone, now I must dig into that and see what the significance of it really is.
It's a little scary, but the truth is I love it when that happens. It usually means something new and fresh is coming....
The extraordinary fast of which I'm speaking is, of course, going 40 days without food or drink. Anyone who knows anything about the human body will tell you that three days w/o drink will result in death by dehydration. Our bodies need water, and lots of it, to function properly. For someone to go without eating or drinking anything for 40 days is beyond possible. It's miraculous.
So who did...and did not...do this miraculous fast?
Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God. He said to the elders, "Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them."
When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from within the cloud. To the Israelites the glory of the LORD looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and nights. -- Ex. 24:13 - 18, NIV
"When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD had made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water. The LORD gave me two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God. On them were all the commandments the Lord proclaimed to you on the mountain out of the fire, on the day of assembly. -- Deut. 9:9-10
Of course, this is the very familiar story of Moses getting the revelation from God up on the mountain. He was directly in the presence of God...in the cloud that concealed the glory of God (see Ex. 33:18) and appeared, from the perspective of the people in the camp below, to be a consuming fire. For forty days and nights he was there, without bread or water, by his own testimony. Small wonder the people despaired of his return. To them, it looked like Moses had gone into a raging inferno. Not an excuse for the idolatry they subsequently fell into, but perhaps an explanation of why those folks said, "As for this fellow Moses, we don't know what has happened to him" (Ex. 32:1)
So, what did happen to Moses?
- He was called into the presence of God
- He obeyed and walked into a supernatural experience. I honestly think Moses was put in a place outside of time for 40 days. I don't think he moved...I think the presence of God moved time away from Moses. All of this is conjecture, of course, but something happened to allow Moses to exist without the necessities of life. I just can't see Moses stopping in the middle of,say, getting all those details about the tabernacle to ask God's permission to wait a moment while he, um, answered nature's call. Somehow, heaven met earth and time fled for a time.
Then God sent him back down the mountain, with the tablets, telling him the people had already rebelled against those commandments. Moses smashed the tablets when he saw what had happened...after all, the people had already broken the covenant. There was judgment at that moment...the Levites slaughtered 3,000 of the people for their idolatry, and God sent a plague. The account in Exodus just states that The next day Moses said to the people,"You have committed a very great sin. But now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin." (Ex. 32:30). But in Deuteronomy, Moses recalls what happened when he went back before God:
"Then once again I fell prostrate before the LORD for forty days and forty nights; I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sin you had committed, doing what was evil in the LORD's sight and so provoking him to anger....I lay prostrate before the LORD those forty days and forty nights because the LORD had said he would destroy you. I prayed to the LORD...and the LORD listened to me at this time also. It was not his will to destroy you." -- Deut. 9:18,25 & 10:10
Exodus records part of that intercession, in which Moses requests that God blot his name from the book instead of the names of the people who had sinned (Ex. 32:32).
If I'm reading this right, Moses had scarcely a day in between two forty-day total abstinence fasts. This was not just miraculous...it was beyond miraculous.
The first time was in obedience, the second time was in intercession. I think he dared to venture the second because of what had happened in the first. He knew the incredible power of God to defy even natural laws. He was not afraid to enter a place of total abandonment to God. And God somehow gave him extraordinary grace to endure what no other human could withstand.
That's right...no other human. The other famed 40 day fast occurred when the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness. Matthew and Luke both record details about this event but, to my surprise, neither one mentions that Jesus did not drink. Matthew states After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. -- Mt 4:2. The Greek word translated 'fasting' there, nesteuo, means 'to abstain from food'. Luke writes ...He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.- Lk 4:2b. I looked up 'ate nothing' and found that 'ate' is phago, which translates 'to eat, meat' and ouden, which means 'none, nothing, not any at all, nought.' Clearly, Jesus ate nothing. Also clearly, nothing is mentioned about drinking, despite the fact that I have heard folks say that Jesus neither ate nor drank in all that time. I suppose the inference is that, since he was in the desert, there was no water, but that's not necessarily true. I believe Jesus found enough water here and there to stay alive. I don't think he had the same kind of experience that Moses had.
There are several reasons I think this. Nowhere is it mentioned that Moses had any effects from his fast; both accounts specifically say that Jesus was hungry. And the point of Jesus' temptation was that he had to resist that to which humans succumbed...it would not have been the same if he'd been existing in a state of supernatural grace. By resisting the temptations in a highly weakened, fully human state, Jesus more than fulfilled that point...he excelled beyond it to completion.
It goes without saying that his trip into the desert wasn't a vacation...he was led by the Spirit. He went in obedience...and faith... to a place of death and survived. Moreover, when he had resisted the devil until the devil fled, angels came to him and ministered to him...there was a supernatural restoration.
But I want to point out one more thing. Neither Moses nor Jesus set out to fast for 40 days. They fasted until the release came and the victory was won.
Points to ponder: What is God calling me to do that requires absolute faith? What do I need to surrender, give up, quit looking for in order to walk where He is leading? Do I trust Him to either take care of me through the event or restore me afterward? Can I really fast in faith?
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
A Slow Look at Fasting: A Blogged Bible Study.
posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
'Get to Know Him' is the theme for the 21 day corporate fast we are entering at church this week, and I thought I'd take my 'Something Bible Study Related' Tuesday posts and do a little discussion of fasting in general.
See, I grew up in an independent Baptist church in the middle of Indiana farm country. There was a joke going around years ago about a teacher who asked each student to bring in something that symbolized some aspect of his/her faith...and the Catholic child brought a rosary, the Jewish child brought a menorah and the Baptist kid brought a casserole dish. That ain't far from the truth...fasting wasn't something even mentioned in that congregation.
The Southern Baptist church we were in for 20-something years after we moved south did have a few (very few...maybe 2?)fasts in the time we were there...but they were only of the one-day variety.
So fasting as a discipline was not something that I was terribly familiar with when we came to our current church. We've been here for 7 years now, and I'm really just now beginning to get what it's about.
But, one thing I haven't done yet is to do a serious look at fasting in the Bible. So I'm going to have a go at that for the next few weeks...who fasted, why did they fast, how did they fast...I'll be looking for answers to questions like that.
Since this idea just hit me last night, and I've been running errands in the rain all morning and haven't had time to really sit down and work through a syllabus, I'm going to make up a syllabus off the top of my head. It will, therefore, be subject to change, but here's what I'm thinking right now:
Jan. 6 - Intro
Jan 13 - Fasting in Faith
Jan 20 - Fasting seeking Answers
Jan 27 - Fasting as Submission
Feb 4 - Fasting for a Time
This is even farther out of my comfort zone than the Advent study...maybe because I need it myself?
Should be interesting.
'Get to Know Him' is the theme for the 21 day corporate fast we are entering at church this week, and I thought I'd take my 'Something Bible Study Related' Tuesday posts and do a little discussion of fasting in general.
See, I grew up in an independent Baptist church in the middle of Indiana farm country. There was a joke going around years ago about a teacher who asked each student to bring in something that symbolized some aspect of his/her faith...and the Catholic child brought a rosary, the Jewish child brought a menorah and the Baptist kid brought a casserole dish. That ain't far from the truth...fasting wasn't something even mentioned in that congregation.
The Southern Baptist church we were in for 20-something years after we moved south did have a few (very few...maybe 2?)fasts in the time we were there...but they were only of the one-day variety.
So fasting as a discipline was not something that I was terribly familiar with when we came to our current church. We've been here for 7 years now, and I'm really just now beginning to get what it's about.
But, one thing I haven't done yet is to do a serious look at fasting in the Bible. So I'm going to have a go at that for the next few weeks...who fasted, why did they fast, how did they fast...I'll be looking for answers to questions like that.
Since this idea just hit me last night, and I've been running errands in the rain all morning and haven't had time to really sit down and work through a syllabus, I'm going to make up a syllabus off the top of my head. It will, therefore, be subject to change, but here's what I'm thinking right now:
Jan. 6 - Intro
Jan 13 - Fasting in Faith
Jan 20 - Fasting seeking Answers
Jan 27 - Fasting as Submission
Feb 4 - Fasting for a Time
This is even farther out of my comfort zone than the Advent study...maybe because I need it myself?
Should be interesting.
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