Dr. Bradford Reaves
Crossway Christian Fellowship
Hagerstown, MD
www.mycrossway.org
16 “Now whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 17 “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face 18 so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6:16–18 LSB)
Eating is a powerful communal part of the human life. We don’t eat just to survive; our eating is inextricably connected to fellowship and intimacy. Think about this God gave us taste buds for the enjoyment of a variety of foods. And it is human to enjoy food together. There is something special about sitting around a table eating together that draws people closer together. Men and women who are dating will connect over a nice dinner. We celebrate our anniversaries over a candlelit meal at a fancy restaurant. We celebrate birthdays and religious observances around a meal. Even Jesus instituted the remembrance of his atonement for our sins with a meal.
To go without eating is a major deal for most people, and when food is scarce, people will eat nearly anything to survive. A hiker was charged with eating an endangered species while tracking the woods of California. After hearing the man had eaten a condor, the judge quickly passed a harsh sentence of 10 years behind bars. The man pleaded with the judge to hear his side of the story because he felt circumstances justified his actions. The judge was interested to hear how anyone could rationalize killing a protected bird, so he allowed the man to speak. The hiker explained how he had been lost in the wilderness for three days and nights without any food or water. He then spotted the bird sitting on a rock. He threw a rock and killed the bird with the little strength he had left. After eating the condor, he walked another three days without food or water before being rescued.
He said, "Your honor, had I not eaten that bird, I wouldn’t be here today."
The judge was moved by the story and suspended the hiker’s sentence. As they left the courtroom, the judge asked the man what a condor tastes like. The man thought for a moment and said, "It’s kind of a cross b/w a bald eagle and a spotted owl." (Joseph Rogers, Sermon Central)
I remember moving across the country many years ago. Andrea and I stopped at the Alabama - Mississippi border beside the Mississippi River to rest after a long day’s drive. The only restaurant nearby was a Waffle House, and I went there to pick up a couple of hamburgers before we went to bed. They were the best hamburgers we had!
The connection of eating to God goes back to His very creation. He said to Adam in Gen 1:30, “and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to everything that creeps on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food.”
And so we understand that food is a gift from God, and He gave us food as part of our pleasure in life. So it is not surprising, there is a connection between food and God. When God and two angels visited Abram, they dined together (Genesis 18:1-15).
When the resurrected Jesus met his disciples on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, he invited them to a breakfast of fish over the fire (John 21:12). One of the qualities of separating the sheep from the goats in Jesus’ parable is based on the one who provided food to the hungry (Matthew 25:35). We are told in Hebrews 13:2 “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.” I believe entertaining here is providing a meal (not Netflix). Even in the Lord’s prayer that we just studied, Jesus tells us to pray, Matthew 6:11 “Give us this day our daily bread.”
So it should be no surprise that fasting is something associated with the Christian faith and should be something we as believers practice. In fact, Jesus doesn’t say in our passage, “If you fast.” He says, “When you fast” However, Jesus also provides us with some careful instructions regarding fasting. And fasting is not for show, like tithing, prayer, and worship. It is not for piety or to prove how spiritual we are to others.
You should also know that fasting is something that is not unique to biblical practice. Many people fast for various reasons. Some of us do so when we have to get our blood drawn at the lab. Others do so to try to lose weight. People go without eating for days or weeks because of a mental condition.
Many Pagans used to believe that demons entered the body through food, and if they sensed they were overloaded with demonic spirits, they would stop eating. Buddha and his followers often fasted as part of their spiritual discipline. The Romans would fast before a great feast so they could eat more.
The Bible never associates fasting with physical acceptance or spiritual piety. Romans 14:17 “for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” So I want to be clear that biblical fasting is not about the physical benefits, and it is not some mystical, spiritual event. Nor is it to persuade God to see things your way. Biblical fasting is when you are so hungry for God that you discipline your body to prioritize your spiritual relationship with God. In other words, biblical fasting is all about submission to God.
In fact, the only time in the Bible God ever commands His people to fast is on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) when Israel is to fast from sunup to sundown (Leviticus 16:19-21, 23:32-37, Numbers 29:7). And we read in the Bible of many people who fasted: Moses, Samson, Samuel, Hannah, Saul, Jonathan, David, Elijah, Jehoshaphat, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Daniel, John the Baptist, Anna, the leaders at Antioch, the Apostle Paul, and even Jesus fasted for 40 days, according to Matthew 4:2).
Yet by the time Jesus arrived, fasting was a regular and pious part of the Jewish culture. And they would fast for all kinds of reasons and use it to demonstrate how religiously devoted they were to the Law. So here in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus sets things right with fasting. So let me give you seven biblical reasons we should fast. Let me first say this; fasting is inextricably associated with prayer.
1. We Fast as a Form of Lament and Sorrow
When there has been sin in the lives of the believer, the church, or the community, God’s people fasted a way to show lament over their sin and to return to God. The transgression of our sin is so deep that fasting is the only response. It’s not forced.
Set apart a fast as holy, Call for a solemn assembly; Gather the elders And all the inhabitants of the land To the house of Yahweh your God, And cry out to Yahweh. (Joel 1:14)
“Yet even now,” declares Yahweh, “Return to Me with all your heart And with fasting, weeping, and wailing; (Joel 2:12)
Then all the people came to persuade David to eat bread while it was still day, but David swore an oath, saying, “May God do so to me, and more also if I taste bread or anything else before the sun goes down.” (2 Samuel 3:35)
2. We Fast for Protection and Deliverance from Danger
When we are facing trials in our lives where we sense imminent danger, we should cry out to God with fasting, knowing that our only deliverance is from Him.
And Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek Yahweh, and called for a fast throughout all Judah. 4 So Judah gathered together to seek help from Yahweh; they even came from all the cities of Judah to seek Yahweh. (2 Chronicles 20:3–4)
“Go, gather all the Jews who are found in Susa, and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women also will fast in the same way. And thus I will go in to the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish.” (Esther 4:16)
Then I called for a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from Him a direct journey for us, our little ones, and all our possessions. 22 For I was ashamed to ask from the king for a military force and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the way, because we had said to the king, “The hand of our God is upon all those who seek Him, for their good, but His strength and His anger are against all those who forsake Him.” 23 So we fasted and sought our God concerning this matter, and He was moved by our entreaty. (Ezra 8:21–23)
3. We Fast to Humble Ourselves Before God.
There are times when God’s people fasted after they confessed their sin. They fasted as a means to demonstrate they were more hungry for restored fellowship and deeper worship with God. In essence, fasting is a means of participating in the sanctifying work of Christ and it is not that you are hastening or adding to his work, but it is a result of the work that Christ is doing in you.
But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled my soul with fasting, And my prayer kept returning to my bosom. (Psalm 35:13)
And Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing. Leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. 9 And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank. (Acts 9:8–9)
All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. (Isaiah 53:6)
God has given us so much to enjoy in this world, but the results of sin is so great that the grief in our spirit overrides our physical hunger. There is such a tremendous sensitivity to the spiritual struggle that we submit our body to the will of God for the spiritual victory in our life.
4. We Fast to Understand God’s Will
This is a tremendous truth in the Bible that we need to understand. There were times when God’s people were going through situations and they need to fast to be able to discern God’s will or better understand what God was doing. As Jesus said, Matthew 4:4 “MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.”
Fasting doesn't just change the situation. It changes us and our view of God and of others. One of the best places we find that is with Daniel. It is near the end of the exile of the Jews, and Daniel has studied the prophets and understands this.
?In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, from the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, discerned in the books the number of the years concerning which the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah the prophet for the fulfillment of the laying waste of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. 3 So I gave my face to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. (Daniel 9:1–3)
Daniel is so hungry to see God’s will be accomplished among his people and to understand God’s Word that was spoken through Jeremiah that he fasts to discipline his flesh so that he can understand the days. He is hungry for God to be revealed to him.
and while I was still speaking in prayer, then the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision previously, touched me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering. 22 Then he made me understand and spoke with me and said, “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding. 23 “At the beginning of your supplications the word was issued, so I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed; so understand the message and gain understanding in what has appeared. 24 “Seventy weeks have been determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Holy of Holies. 25 “So you are to know and have insight that from the going out of a word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be restored and rebuilt, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. 26 “Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are decreed. 27 “And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will make sacrifice and grain offering cease; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.” (Daniel 9:21–27)
In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, a word was revealed to Daniel, who was named Belteshazzar; and the word was true and one of great conflict, but he understood the word and had an understanding of what had appeared. 2 In those days, I, Daniel, had been mourning for three entire weeks. 3 I did not eat any tasty food, nor did meat or wine enter my mouth, nor did I use any ointment at all until the entire three weeks were fulfilled. 4 And on the twenty-fourth day of the first month, while I was by the bank of the great river, that is, the Tigris, 5 I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, there was a certain man dressed in linen, whose loins were girded with a belt of pure fine gold of Uphaz. (Daniel 10:1–5)
Have you ever been so hungry to understand a truth in Scripture, but it seemed that you were contending a spiritual battle to understand it? Have you ever been in a situation where you desperately needed to discern God’s will before you could respond? That is the time you should fast and pray.
5. We Fast in the Face of God’s Judgment
This includes divine judgement for ourselves, but also divine judgment for our people and other nations. This is the result of reverent fear of God.
And the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. 6 Then the word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, laid aside his mantle from him, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat on the ashes. 7 And he cried out and said, “In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, animal, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat, and do not let them drink water. (Jonah 3:5–7)
6. We Fast When Selecting Godly Leaders
Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 And while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. (Acts 13:1–3)
7. We Fast to Break Demonic Bonds
“Is this not the fast which I choose, To loosen the bonds of wickedness, To release the bands of the yoke, And to let the oppressed go free And break every yoke? (Isaiah 58:6)
And when he came into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out? 29 And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting. (Mark 9:28–29 KJV)
Conclusion
Fasting should be a normal, voluntary, purposeful practice for the Christian. Jesus said when you do fast, don’t be like the hypocrites (stage actor) (Matthew 6:16). Instead, you anoint your head with oil because you are confident in your Heavenly Father.
