Appendix

With Jesus's teaching "seek first the kingdom of God" (Matthew 6:33), we first look at fasting as a way to emphasize the spiritual over the material.

Jesus put forth a powerful example of fasting in Matthew 4 when He was tested by the slanderer.

Matthew 4:1-4
Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." But he answered, "It is written, "'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

Jesus cites the children of Israel's wandering in the wilderness as a kind of discipline we all need. We all need to accept our reliance on God and see beyond the cares of this life. And hunger is a way of humbling ourselves and testing our motives.

Deuteronomy 8:2-5
You shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you.

The teaching in Deuteronomy combines the pursuit of spiritual over material with reliance on the power of God. They would not have crossed the Red Sea if they had not believed in Him. They would not have survived the wandering if He had not fed them.

In another related example, Jesus showed great concern for those who craved His teaching so much that they skipped meals to stay with Him.

Mark 8:1-3
In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them, "I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away."

A key way fasting is employed in Scripture is to curry favor with God, especially when we realize our lost estate and our reliance on Him for deliverance.

The prophet Joel calls on Judah to repent before the Babylonian invasion, and the evidence of repentance includes fasting.

Joel 2:11-14
The LORD utters his voice
before his army,
for his camp is exceedingly great;
he who executes his word is powerful.
For the day of the LORD is great and very awesome;
who can endure it?
"Yet even now," declares the LORD,
"return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
and rend your hearts and not your garments."
Return to the LORD your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
and he relents over disaster.
Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD your God?

Remarkably, Joel's rationale for appealing to God with fasting is not new. The same thinking was evident among the Assyrians to whom Jonah prophesied:

Jonah 3:5-9
And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish."

We ought to take both the promise and the warning: God had mercy on Assyria for their repentance, but Judah never repented until Babylon came and took them away.

In the Psalms is an example of a deep, heartfelt concern for the welfare of others, evidenced by fasting on their behalf.

Psalm 35:12-14
They repay me evil for good;
my soul is bereft.
But I, when they were sick—I wore sackcloth;
I afflicted myself with fasting;
I prayed with head bowed on my chest.
I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother;
as one who laments his mother,
I bowed down in mourning.

Contrast the selfless concern of the Psalmist with this Pharisee's disdain for others:

Luke 18:9-14
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

The Pharisee here trusts in himself instead of relying on God, and he shows contempt for others instead of genuine concern.

On the other hand, just as the Psalmist "prayed with head bowed on [his] chest" (Psalm 35:13), the tax collector who would be justified "would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast" (Luke 18:13).

The Pharisee in Luke 18 is also resting on his own chosen ways to demonstrate righteousness instead of humbling himself before God.

Romans 10:3
Being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.

The idea of choosing our own brand of righteousness is not new. Isaiah linked it with fasting in the passage below, which is so apropos for the topic at hand that it is included here at length. Observe how God defines the kind of fast He considers worthy.

Isaiah 58:1-12
Cry aloud; do not hold back;
lift up your voice like a trumpet;
declare to my people their transgression,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
Yet they seek me daily
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that did righteousness
and did not forsake the judgment of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgments;
they delight to draw near to God.
'Why have we fasted, and you see it not?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?'
Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure,
and oppress all your workers.
Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to hit with a wicked fist.
Fasting like yours this day
will not make your voice to be heard on high.
Is such the fast that I choose,
a day for a person to humble himself?
Is it to bow down his head like a reed,
and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?
Will you call this a fast,
and a day acceptable to the LORD?
Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you;
the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.'
If you take away the yoke from your midst,
the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.
And the LORD will guide you continually
and satisfy your desire in scorched places
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters do not fail.
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to dwell in.