Is such the fast that I choose?
Posted by vincevincevince on July 2, 2010
Where do you see true love?
“Dear wife, to show you how much I love you, I have left my food uneaten for so long that I have given myself stomach pains. I have put on uncomfortable clothes, and spent my time afflicting myself with all manner of hardships. Are you deeply touched by my devotion?”
“Dear husband. Thank you for your note. To show you how much I love you, I visited your mum who was ill, I have loved, fed, taught and dressed your children, I’ve been kind to those you care about and tried to help all those I know you would want to be helped. Are you deeply touched by my devotion?”
Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it? Click for clearer perspective
Isaiah 58:3-7
{Dear God,} “Why have we fasted, and you see it not?
Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?”
{Dear Man,} “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?”
OK, but don’t you know God asked for fasting in the Old Testament?
Good question. I can’t find any such command. Leviticus 16:29 establishes the day of atonement, which instructs the Israelites to ‘afflict themselves’. But, the word here translated afflict does not mean fast. The word (ענה) primarily bears the sense of ‘to humble’, ‘to be put down’, or ‘to become low’. So in the legislation to establish this day, which kept even now by fasting, there does not seem to be a command to actually fast.
In Deuteronomy 8:2 and 8:16 the same word is used to talk of the ways in which God humbled or afflicted the Israelites, both through the long wandering and also through the feeding with manna. Eating manna cannot be considered a fast of avoiding food, and that this and the wandering are properly termed afflictions and judged such by God is testified to by the passage.
So, afflicting the soul does not necessarily mean abstaining from food; yet, perhaps this sense does exist in other places. If we find fasting described as affliction, what is the origin of this action – is it the direction of God or the design of man?
Psalm 35:13 describes just this relationship between affliction and fasting; but this choice of action is attributed by the text to the Psalmist rather than to God – “I afflicted myself with fasting” as opposed to “The Lord asked me to afflict myself with fasting”. It is, here at least, a human response rather than a divine direction.
Ezra 8:21 describes a fast for the purpose of humbling (this is the same word used for ‘afflict’ in the Hebrew text). Again the originator of this fast is man, “then I proclaimed”, rather than God. The pattern seems to be that man understands the will of God that he humble himself, and responds by designing a fast to achieve this.
Perhaps it would be instructive to look into the New Testament texts as well, as to the nature and purpose of affliction. The foremost affliction – at least by consequence – is that of Christ, who afflicted his body by humbling himself at the hands of man even to death upon the cross (Colossians 1:24). This affliction did not take the purpose of self-humbling for its own good. The affliction served a direct end, indeed it was to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke. It was through his afflictions that he came to share the living bread with the hungry, to bring the homeless poor into his own house in reconciliation to God; to cover the sins of man with his own perfect righteousness, and that his glory might be revealed unto all the nations. Perhaps the model for humbling ourselves should be found in Christ rather than Jewish tradition?
Paul will later write to Timothy of our own afflictions after the pattern of Christ, and will encourage the preaching of the Gospel, not only despite the afflictions, but that Timothy might share in them (II Timothy 1:8; II Timothy 4:5). When James comes to touch on the topic of affliction, he describes it not as an empty act of devotion, but as a real and effectual part of repentance; that is, the affliction we should properly bring upon ourselves in humbling our proud and sinful selves before God (James 4:8-9).
The lack of actual instruction from God to fast from food, even in the Old Testament passages which Jews even today presume to instruct them to fast, both explains why God can speak as he does through Isaiah (quoted above) and suggests the true father of such practices. If it does not originate from God, but rather from the heart of man, does that not already testify to its pedigree? Does not the frequency of fasting found within other major religions not give us a hint? Yet, if such a suggestion is not clear enough, perhaps we might consider I Timothy 4:1-4. Paul here says very plainly and without the slightest hint of ambiguity that it is the teaching of demons to abstain from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving.
The same conclusions can be obtained by considering the end of this abstaining from foods. First, in what is achieved, and secondly, in what is not achieved. The result achieved by such fasting is pride, a man who fulfils a fast he thinks expected of him feels pleased with his work. He may humble himself for a time, yet after the time is spent he exalts himself all the more. Now, pride is the enemy of humility; and so the fast brings about the opposite result to afflicting the soul – instead of humbling a man it fosters vainglory and self-righteousness in him. Second, what is not achieved is all that guilt would otherwise drive a man to perform. Having sight of his sins and failings through the grace of God, a man is humbled from his self-righteousness and compelled by knowing his guilt before almighty God and to repent and endeavour to keep God’s commands, living in love and peace with all men. Yet, if he fasts, he will assuage his guilt, and regain his feeling of self-righteousness having done nothing but give himself a stomach ache! What a perversion of the God-given conscience to respond by seeking to annul it by a self-serving and ultimately useless abstinence, rather than striving all the more to live a life of servant-hood in gratitude for the work of Christ!
I do not presume to suggest that fasting is in itself wrong; but I do suggest that if it is taking the place of true contrition, repentance and amending of one’s ways, if it is allowing wicked men to feel a little better about their wickedness without even thinking of reconciling their wrongs, if it is allowing sinners to feel they have paid off some of their sin by obtaining stomach cramps – then it does (at the least) more harm than it does good. The affliction the Bible directs us towards is not a self-righteous and self-serving abstinence from food, as if a hypocrite with a belly-ache pleases God, but rather to that much harder fast – the humble service of one another in love to the glory of God. How much more is God be glorified by a day committed to humble service than by a day committed to starving?
John 21:15 “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
What do you think about the topic, and my observations?
