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?