We fast for the Lord. But the real question is what does that mean? What’s the history and what is the point of fasting?
Fasting is an odd thing. Obviously, all animals fast when they cannot find food and humans are no different. Beyond that, there are clear medicinal purposes for fasting. The 5:2 diet is growing in popularity and I recently was able to watch a TedTalk about the NIH funded research that produced the diet. Click on TedTalk to go to the video, fair warning it’s about 17 minutes.
After watching the video, I felt inspired to look up the reasoning behind biblical fasting. If there were hidden medical benefits in fasting, then the Bible might be able to back that up. After all, the Bible is frequently allowing science to catch up in many ways. After reading through varied uses of fasting using a Strong’s concordance here is what I found.
Fasting is a much older concept than the Bible, like a sacrificial system. The first time fasting is used in the religious sense by the people of God is in Judges 20:26. If you know anything about the book of Judges that is not a good place to begin many theological debates because the people of God often failed to live up to any of the Mosiac Law. About the only theology, we can consistently rely on is learning what not to do. This is not a good way to learn correct theology only a way to eliminate bad theology. The heart of the people of God during that time period is best summed up by the author’s final words. “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.”
If the first time the verb or noun form of the religious fast is used is Judges that indicates that it is not commanded in the Mosaic Law. This is quite interesting because it means that religious fasting has its roots outside the people of God. In fact, we do not really get an idea of what God thinks of fasting until Isaiah 58.
So what is religious fasting? Religious fasting is in many ways analogous to the sacrificial systems set up by other ancient cultures. Fasting in those cultures was used to petition God or the gods. In other words, fasting was designed to force the gods to take notice of what was going on. Fasting often accompanied sacrifices as seen in Judges 20. The next time the verb appears in is 1 Samuel 7:6. Here the Israelites are confessing sin and in attempts to regain the favor of God, fast. King David has several recorded fasts in the same manner of petition or in an attempt to regain the favor of God. Yet, it is not the fasting that produces positive or negative results. We know this because we cannot force God into giving us an answer just like we cannot force him into acting.
On Wednesday we will explore Isaiah 58.