Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? (Zechariah 7 v 5).
Prophet Zechariah drew attention to the unacceptable spiritual exercise of God’s people. The people and the priests were doing their own thing which they called a fast unto the Lord for seventy-odd years. If it happened then, it could happen now. Fasting is an ordination from God. The LORD did not see in the fasting exercise done by the people in the seventy-odd years what He expected. Anything unto the Lord such as fasting must have the right attitude, like worship it must be done, “in spirit and truth” for God seeketh such. Fasting that is done just as an outward show with no inner content is not acceptable to God. Our God does not change, if it was not acceptable to Him then in the days of prophet Zechariah, it will not be acceptable to Him now.
What kind of fast does the Lord want? Our God does not speak in the secret, He openly declares the kind of fast that He wanted (meaning He expects us to fast) in the book of Isaiah chapter 58 verses 6 to 7. It is a fast:
– to lose the band of wickedness
-to undo the heavy burdens (we place on others)
– to let the oppressed go free
– to break every yoke
– to share your food with the hungry
– to provide shelter to the poor wanderer
– to clothe the naked and not turn away from doing good.
Fasting is beyond food, it is about moral turnaround, a time for penitence. Abstaining from food and routine chores that distract from such penitence is encouraged. Rather sadly, abstinence from food is esteemed above abstinence from evil and every moral depravity. The import of fasting is to turn away from evil and wickedness which man easily relapses into time and again contrary to the demands of canonical laws. So fasting is not meant to be a one-off exercise, for as long as we still are in the flesh, it should be a continuous exercise.
Apostle Paul cried out in Romans 7 verse 24: “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Fasting is a time to put self in perspective. Meaning not to put out our “self ” before and beyond any man and not before God. The carnal man does exactly the opposite, Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verses 2 to 4 describes the carnal man as: ” lovers of their selves, …high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God”. With the carnal man, the self is put before everything. This is man’s natural disposition, so fasting is good to help break the stronghold of fleshly members, natural tendencies that are in us. The greatest canonical law on which hangs all the laws and the prophets, (all our spiritual and moral framework) is this: ” And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12: 30- 31). Fasting is meant to re-enact our obligations to this greatest commandment. This is the inner content God desires to see in us as we fast.
The Lord God reiterated the outstanding import of our fasting in Zechariah chapter 7 and verses 9 and 10 saying: ” This is what the LORD Almighty said: administer true justice, show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.” Of what value is our annual fast of abstinence from food only to return to do the opposite of what God wants and declares? Fasting like Sabbath is a rest. For Sabbath, it is rest from our daily chores so that we may focus on God and know Him. For fasting, it is rest from evil and wicked ways which we are disposed to. That we abstain from food is only a shadow, a call out that we should not continue with our usual lifestyle of wickedness, selfishness, injustice, and indifference. Fasting is not about dedicated days of the year to abstain from food and pleasure, it is about a lifestyle of repentance and real turnaround.
Anything done unto God such as fasting, must be with a spirit of reverential fear. The purpose of it is to make us continue to do what God will do and what He wants, this is reverence. When fasting is seen as a stand-alone exercise and a yearly obligation, devoid of a sense of worship, it becomes a corrupt exercise. When fasting like worship is corrupted, crime against others is perpetuated because man’s heart and conscience are seared from God. One of the matriarchs of the faith, Anna was a living example. Verse 37 of Luke chapter 2 recounted that she served (worshiped) God with fastings and prayers night and day. For her, fasting is part of her service, her worship, and a necessary exercise to grow to be conformed to the image and likeness of God.
Apostle Paul cried in Romans chapter 7 verse 21: ” I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good, For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Fasting depicts the anguish of the soul after God. God will not invest His power and the gifts of the Spirit in us who exhibit no inner penitence, otherwise it will seem as if He approves of our moral dysfunction and hypocrisy. The kind of power and gifts of the Spirit that our Lord Jesus manifested in the days of His flesh was because He was given to fastings and prayers. He loves righteousness and hates wickedness, therefore, the LORD God anointed Him with oil of gladness (Psalm 45: 7). His prayers were always answered because of His fear of God (godly reverence) as He lived a “fasted lifestyle”. Fasting is to help us achieve this, to make us sensitive and lean towards Godly fear and reverence and turn away from evil and wickedness. Then the rewards of our fasting will be evident.
Fasting is afflicting our souls (in abstinence), it is a time we pour contempt upon our pride and this is necessary, because of the evil that is within us. We cry unto God thus who can save our souls from this evil within. The works of the flesh (fornication, adultery, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness, anger, malice, wrath, blasphemy, filthy communication, murder, drunkenness, witchcraft, hatred envy, sedition, etc. Galatians 5: 19-21; Colossians 3: 5-8) that war against our souls. When the import of fasting is so understood and fasting is well practiced as part of our worship, it opens us to a floodgate of blessings listed out in Isaiah chapter 58 verses 8 to 14.
