Encountering God
Recently, I read in the Lexham Bible Dictionary that fasting is a ritual of abstaining from food and/or drink for a predetermined period; practiced in the Bible primarily as a means of mourning. This got me thinking and sent me down a new trail of questions around fasting.
As I sat with this idea of fasting being primarily a means of mourning I began to wrestle with the validity of that statement. It seems clear to me that in the Old Testament and in the New Testament we see fasting talked about in different ways.
In the Old Testament, oftentimes, when fasting is discussed, a group or an individual is in a state of mourning or distress - something has happened - the sickness of a child, the attack of a nation, exile, etc. In many cases we see people dress in sackcloth and cover themselves in ashes. At times, like in Jonah, we even see the animals in sackcloth. Many times in the Old Testament we see that Israel has turned their back on God and God in his mercy is coming to them to invite them to repentance. Occasionally, we see deep sorrow and people tearing their clothes as they grieve and lament. Often this intense sorrow or mourning is accompanied by prayer and fasting.
In the Old Testament, we also see groups and individuals crying out to God about a specific matter. We see Daniel, in Daniel 9, enter into prayer and fasting, while wearing sackcloth and ashes, to repent on behalf of a nation. He calls upon God, reminding God of who he is, and asking him to intervene. He has an expectation that God will hear him and answer him. We also see Esther who calls for a three-day fast among all the Jews in Susa to join her, in praying for her, that she would have favor to go before the king and discuss the plot to kill the Jews. Again, we see an expectation and anticipation that God will intervene.
There are many examples like this in the Old Testament, and so one might say that mourning is the primary focus of fasting. Yet, when we shift to the New Testament the conversation around fasting looks a bit different. Sackcloth is only mentioned a handful of times in the New Testament and most of these passages point back to an Old Testament passage. And honestly, fasting isn’t mentioned very often in the New Testament, but when it is mentioned the focus usually doesn’t seem to be mourning.
In Matthew 4, we read about Jesus being led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. If we continue reading we know that Jesus spent 40 days fasting and praying. These 40 days in the wilderness seem to have been a time of preparation - a time to get clarity and direction as well as to understand his power more fully. These days definitely weren’t accidental! The Holy Spirit led him to the wilderness. Jesus knew temptation was coming and he prepared for it.
Soon after this, we encounter Jesus talking about fasting in Matthew 6. He tells the people when they fast it shouldn’t be about putting on a show, in fact, no one else should even notice. They should go ahead and wash up, smile, and go about their normal routine because the only one who needs to know is God.
Fasting was a normative part of Jewish life. The Bible doesn’t offer us much of an explanation of what to do when fasting, because people already understood. It was part of their regular rhythm of worship. But Isaiah 58 gives us a good picture of how even though fasting was a regular rhythm it had become more of a show and was not pleasing to God.
Isaiah 58:3b-11 (MSG)
“Well, here’s why: “The bottom line on your ‘fast days’ is profit. You drive your employees much too hard. You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight. You fast, but you swing a mean fist. The kind of fasting you do won’t get your prayers off the ground. Do you think this is the kind of day I’m after: a day to show off humility? To put on a pious long face and parade around solemnly in black? Do you call that fasting, a fast day that I, God would like?
This is the kind of fast day I’m after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I’m interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. Do this and the light will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage. Then when you pray, God will answer. You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’
If we are going to fast it can’t be about giving up food for a few hours and then bragging about it. It seems clear in Isaiah 58 that fasting is an invitation for us to draw close to God and to be transformed as his people. People who have a heart for the same things that concern God, which overwhelmingly has to do with loving one another well. Fasting isn’t a way to manipulate God into doing what we want, it is a way for us to be transformed so that what we bring before God during our times of prayer and fasting aligns with what God is already at work doing.
In Matthew 9 the disciples of John come to Jesus and want to know why they and the Pharisees are fasting regularly, but Jesus’s disciples are not. And Jesus’s response is “The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”
It seems, that each of the ways scripture presents fasting is another layer to help us see that God desires to meet us in our deepest sorrow as well as in our daily decisions. At times we may find ourselves in a season of deep lament, grief, or repentance and though we may not put on sackcloth and ashes there is an invitation to turn our whole selves toward God in expectation of him meeting us in that place. And at other times we may find that we are in a season of searching and preparing for something that is to come. Fasting in that season may look more like the time Jesus spent in the wilderness - led by the Spirit and empowered for what is to come.
Ultimately, whether in a season of mourning or joy, I believe God desires for us to encounter him. When we set aside our agenda and seek first his kingdom - everything changes! There is no way it can stay the same.
~ Melissa