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Fasting

Week 4 of 4 in Learning to Pray

Week 5 of 5 in The Sermon on the Mount

The people Isaiah addressed had been fasting, and nothing seemed to happen. He records their complaint: "Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?" (Isaiah 58:3, ESV). They had treated their fast as a payment and were waiting for God to pay back.

God answered by telling them what a fast is for.

In one sentence: Fasting is humbling yourself before God, going without food to seek Him in repentance, grief, need and decision; it has no power of its own, because God hears the humble out of His own mercy, and Christians fast in the days while Jesus, the Bridegroom, is away.

Key Takeaways

(This section follows the Key Takeaways format — see that page for what each part is for.)

Types & Prophecy

  • Type. Israel spent forty years in the wilderness, where God "humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna" (Deuteronomy 8:3, ESV). Jesus spent forty days there hungry, and answered the devil with that same verse (Matthew 4:4). He is the Son who trusted His Father's word where Israel did not.
  • Prophecy. Jesus said of His disciples, "The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast" (Matthew 9:15, ESV). Zechariah foretold that Judah's fast days would become "seasons of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts" (Zechariah 8:19, ESV).

Lessons about Jesus

  • Jesus depended on His Father's word. Led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, He ate nothing for forty days (Luke 4:1-2), and when He was hungry He would not make bread for Himself (Matthew 4:3-4).
  • Jesus is the Bridegroom. His presence made fasting out of place (Mark 2:19), and His absence is what the Church's fasting answers to (Mark 2:20).
  • Jesus made the atonement the fast pointed to. Israel afflicted themselves on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:29-30). Jesus entered the holy places "by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption" (Hebrews 9:12, ESV).

Memory verses

✝️ Joel 2:12-13 (ESV)

12 "Yet even now," declares the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13 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.

✝️ Matthew 6:17-18 (ESV)

17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Be Transformed

  • Think. A fast is a way of saying to God, "I need you more than food." It earns nothing. God is "gracious and merciful" before you ever skip a meal (Joel 2:13).
  • Attitude. Come to God humbled, and leave the answer to Him. David fasted and prayed, "Who knows whether the LORD will be gracious to me?" (2 Samuel 12:22, ESV).
  • Do. Before your next real decision, set aside one day to go without a meal and pray about it, as the church at Antioch did (Acts 13:2-3). Tell no one.

Prayer

Father, you are gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. We have nothing to bring you that could buy your attention, and we do not need to, because you hear the humble. Thank you for your Son Jesus, who lived by every word from your mouth, who shed His own blood to secure our eternal redemption, and who is coming back for His bride. Teach us to humble ourselves before you, to turn from our sin, to seek your will before we act, and to long for His return. Keep our fasting in secret, and make it a fast you choose: open our hands to the hungry and the oppressed.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

Study outline

What the words mean

Hebrew: tsum and "afflicting yourself"

The Hebrew verb is צוּם (tsum, tsoom, H6684), "to fast," and the noun is צוֹם (tsom, tsohm, H6685), "a fast." The verb occurs 21 times in the Hebrew Bible and the noun 26 times. TWOT files the root under 1890 with the gloss "abstain from food."

The Law never uses tsum for Israel's one commanded fast. It says instead, "you shall afflict yourselves" (Leviticus 16:29, ESV). The Hebrew is תְּעַנּוּ אֶת־נַפְשֹׁתֵיכֶם (te'annu et-nafshotekhem, teh-ah-NOO et-naf-sho-TAY-khem), literally "you shall humble your souls." The verb is עָנָה (anah, H6031), "to humble, to afflict," and the object is נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, H5315), the self. The NIV renders it "deny yourselves."

Scripture itself treats that phrase and fasting as the same act. Isaiah puts them in parallel: "Why have we fasted … Why have we humbled ourselves" (Isaiah 58:3, ESV), with the same anah + nefesh. David says, "I afflicted myself with fasting" (Psalm 35:13, ESV). Ezra proclaimed a fast "that we might humble ourselves before our God" (Ezra 8:21, ESV). When Ahab fasted in sackcloth, God Himself named what He saw: "Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me?" (1 Kings 21:29, ESV). The angel told Daniel he was heard "from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God" (Daniel 10:12, ESV).

That is the biblical definition. A fast is the body's way of humbling the self before God.

Greek: nēsteuō and nēsteia

The New Testament verb is νηστεύω (nēsteuō, nay-STEW-oh, G3522), "to fast," 20 times. The noun is νηστεία (nēsteia, nay-STAY-ah, G3521), "fasting," 5 times in the text modern translations follow (Luke 2:37; Acts 14:23; 27:9; 2 Corinthians 6:5; 11:27). The verb's uses cluster in two places: Jesus' teaching in the Gospels and the church at Antioch (Acts 13:2-3).

One use shows how a first-century Jew spoke. Luke says the sailing season had turned dangerous "because even the Fast was already over" (Acts 27:9, ESV). "The Fast" needed no explanation: it was the Day of Atonement (ESV Study Bible, note on Acts 27:9).

Fasting in the Old Testament

One commanded fast

The Law commands one fast, on the tenth day of the seventh month: "you shall afflict yourselves and shall do no work … For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you" (Leviticus 16:29-30, ESV; also 23:27-32). The fast belonged to the day God cleansed His people. They humbled themselves; He made atonement.

Every other fast in the Old Testament was chosen, by a person, a leader or the nation, when the occasion called for it.

What God's people fasted for

Read the fasts in order and six occasions recur.

  • Repentance. At Mizpah Israel "fasted on that day and said there, 'We have sinned against the LORD'" (1 Samuel 7:6, ESV). After the Law was read, the people assembled "with fasting and in sackcloth … and confessed their sins" (Nehemiah 9:1-2, ESV). Nineveh "believed God" and called a fast (Jonah 3:5). Daniel sought God "by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting" (Daniel 9:3, ESV).
  • Grief. The men of Jabesh buried Saul and "fasted seven days" (1 Samuel 31:13, ESV). David and his men "mourned and wept and fasted until evening" for Saul and Jonathan (2 Samuel 1:12, ESV). Nehemiah heard that Jerusalem's walls lay broken, and "wept and mourned for days, and … continued fasting and praying" (Nehemiah 1:4, ESV).
  • Need beyond their strength. Facing an invading army, Jehoshaphat "set his face to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah" (2 Chronicles 20:3, ESV). Ezra fasted for a safe journey rather than ask the king for soldiers (Ezra 8:21-23). Esther asked all the Jews in Susa to fast three days before she went to the king unbidden (Esther 4:16).
  • Intercession for others. David fasted for his dying son (2 Samuel 12:16), and for enemies when they were sick (Psalm 35:13).
  • Seeking God's direction. After two defeats, Israel "sat there before the LORD and fasted that day until evening," then "inquired of the LORD" whether to go up again (Judges 20:26-28, ESV).
  • Meeting with God. Moses spent forty days on the mountain with the LORD and "neither ate bread nor drank water" (Exodus 34:28, ESV), and again forty days lying before the LORD for Israel's sin (Deuteronomy 9:18).

Elijah's forty days to Horeb (1 Kings 19:8) are often listed with these. The text says he "went in the strength of that food" the angel gave him. It never calls the journey a fast.

God is free

The people who fasted in Scripture did not think their fast bound God. David prayed, "Who knows whether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?" (2 Samuel 12:22, ESV), and the child died. The king of Nineveh said, "Who knows? God may turn and relent" (Jonah 3:9, ESV). Ezra fasted, "and he listened to our entreaty" (Ezra 8:23, ESV). Each time the answer came from God's own mercy. Joel gives the reason to come back: "for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love" (Joel 2:13, ESV).

This shows that God is not moved by the size of the sacrifice. He is moved by His own compassion toward people who humble themselves before Him.

The fast God chooses

Isaiah 58 answers the complaint in the opening of this study. The people fasted and oppressed "all your workers" on the same day (Isaiah 58:3, ESV). They fasted "only to quarrel and to fight" (58:4). Bowing the head and lying in sackcloth did not make it "a day acceptable to the LORD" (58:5, ESV).

Then God defines the fast He chooses:

✝️ Isaiah 58:6-7 (ESV)

6 "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? 7 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?

The bonds and yokes are the ones the fasters had fastened on their own workers. The ESV Study Bible reads "every yoke" as "every form of oppression" (note on Isaiah 58:6-7). The promise that follows is prayer heard: "Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer" (58:9, ESV).

Zechariah asked the same question after the exile. Judah had fasted in the fifth and seventh months for seventy years, mourning Jerusalem's fall, and God asked, "was it for me that you fasted?" (Zechariah 7:5, ESV). Jeremiah heard God say of a people who "have loved to wander" (Jeremiah 14:10, ESV), "Though they fast, I will not hear their cry" (14:12, ESV).

The rabbis kept the same lesson. The Mishnah says the Day of Atonement atones for sins against God, "but for transgressions between man and his fellow Yom HaKippurim does not effect atonement, until he has pacified his fellow" (m. Yoma 8:9, Kulp translation, CC-BY).

Jesus and fasting

Forty days in the wilderness

"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" (Matthew 4:1-2, ESV). The Holy Spirit led Him there. The devil came to Him when He was hungry and told Him to make bread (4:3).

Jesus answered from Deuteronomy 8:3: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4, ESV). In Deuteronomy those words explain why God let Israel hunger for forty years: "that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart" (Deuteronomy 8:2, ESV). Israel grumbled for bread. Jesus, hungry, trusted His Father's word.

The fast did not defeat the devil. The word of God answered him, spoken by a Son who depended on His Father. What the fast showed was that dependence.

In secret

Jesus assumed His disciples would fast. "When you fast," He said, three times (Matthew 6:16-18). The hypocrites "disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others," and "they have received their reward" (6:16, ESV). The ESV Study Bible explains the disfigured face as leaving it unwashed and sprinkled with ashes to publicise the hardship (note on Matthew 6:16-18).

Jesus told His disciples to do the opposite: "anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret" (6:17-18, ESV). A fast is between you and your Father. He sees it, and He rewards it.

Luke shows the danger in a parable. The Pharisee prayed, "I fast twice a week" (Luke 18:12, ESV), and went home unjustified. The tax collector who beat his breast went home justified, "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted" (18:14, ESV). The Pharisee turned a practice of humbling into a reason to exalt himself.

The Bridegroom

John's disciples asked why Jesus' disciples did not fast. He answered:

✝️ Matthew 9:15 (ESV)

15 And Jesus said to them, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.

Matthew's word is "mourn"; Mark's and Luke's parallels say "fast" (Mark 2:19; Luke 5:34). Fasting belongs with mourning. While the Bridegroom was present, His disciples had a wedding to celebrate. The ESV Study Bible notes that the bridegroom in the Old Testament was the LORD Himself (Isaiah 62:5; Hosea 2:19-20), so Jesus is taking the LORD's own place toward His people (note on Matthew 9:15).

Fasting in the church

Antioch and the elders

Twice Acts shows a church fasting, and both times before a decision.

✝️ Acts 13:2-3 (ESV)

2 While they were worshiping 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 after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

The church was worshipping and fasting, and the Holy Spirit spoke. Then they fasted and prayed again before sending the two men out. On the return journey Paul and Barnabas appointed elders in every church, "with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed" (Acts 14:23, ESV). Fasting there is handing people over to Jesus' care.

Anna and the Didache

Anna "did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day" (Luke 2:37, ESV). For her, fasting was part of a life of worship, and she spoke of Jesus "to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem" (2:38, ESV).

An early church manual, the Didache (usually dated late first or early second century), shows the practice continuing. It tells Christians to "fast for those who persecute you" (Didache 1.3), to fast before baptism (7.4), and to keep their own fast days: "Do not let your fasts be with the hypocrites, for they fast on the second and fifth day of the week; you fast on the fourth day and the day of preparation" (8.1, translation ours from the Greek).

In the Church Age

Under the New Covenant no fast is commanded. The Day of Atonement was a statute for Israel, and its atonement has been made once for all by Jesus' own blood (Hebrews 9:12). Your fast adds nothing to your standing with God. You are justified in Christ, and fasting cannot earn what He has already given.

Jesus tied His disciples' fasting to one period: the days when the Bridegroom is taken away (Matthew 9:15). That is the Church Age, between His ascension and His return. A Christian fasts as one of the bride, waiting for "the marriage of the Lamb" (Revelation 19:7, ESV).

Zechariah 8:19: Judah's fasts turned to feasts

Israel's fasts have a future of their own. Zechariah says the four fasts that mourned Jerusalem's fall will become "seasons of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts" for "the house of Judah" (Zechariah 8:19, ESV). A dispensational reading takes that promise to Judah at its word and looks for its fulfilment when Jesus reigns from Jerusalem, after Israel has looked "on him whom they have pierced" and mourned (Zechariah 12:10, ESV). Other readers see it fulfilled more generally in the blessings after the return from exile; the ESV Study Bible speaks of "the days ahead" without naming a time (note on Zechariah 8:19).

Verses often misused about fasting

Fasting is often taught as a weapon: a way to break strongholds, cast out stubborn demons, or force an answer from heaven. The passages used for this say something else when read in context.

Mark 9:29 and Matthew 17:21: "prayer and fasting"

The KJV reads, "This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting" (Mark 9:29, KJV), and the NKJV follows it. The ESV, NIV, CSB, NLT, NASB and LSB read "prayer" alone; the CSB and NLT give "and fasting" in a footnote as the reading of other manuscripts.

The Greek texts divide the same way. The NA28 and SBL Greek New Testament, which weigh the earliest manuscripts most heavily, end the verse at ἐν προσευχῇ ("by prayer"). The Byzantine text and the Textus Receptus, built from the later majority of manuscripts, add καὶ νηστείᾳ ("and fasting").

Matthew 17:21 is the same saying and the same story. It appears in the KJV, but the ESV and NIV have no verse 21 in their text. The LSB footnotes it: "Early mss omit this v."

The addition is part of a pattern. The later manuscripts add fasting in two more places: Cornelius "was fasting" in Acts 10:30, and married couples "give yourselves to fasting and prayer" in 1 Corinthians 7:5 (both KJV). The earlier text of both verses has prayer alone. Textual critics usually explain the pattern as scribes bringing the text into line with the church's growing emphasis on fasting. That motive is an inference. The pattern itself is in the manuscripts.

Mark 9:14-29 in context: the disciples' little faith

Read the story, and it points away from fasting as a technique even if the longer reading were original. The disciples could not help the boy, and Jesus called the whole scene a "faithless generation" (Mark 9:19, ESV). To the father He said, "All things are possible for one who believes" (9:23, ESV), and the father cried, "I believe; help my unbelief!" (9:24, ESV). Matthew gives Jesus' answer to the disciples directly: "Because of your little faith" (Matthew 17:20, ESV). Jesus then drove out the spirit with a word (Mark 9:25). The lesson is dependence on God, and prayer is what dependence looks like.

Isaiah 58:6: "to loose the bonds … and to break every yoke"

This verse is often read as fasting that breaks spiritual bondage. In context the bonds and yokes belong to the oppressed workers of the people who were fasting (Isaiah 58:3). The fast God chooses is freeing them, feeding the hungry and housing the poor (58:6-7). See The fast God chooses above.

2 Corinthians 10:4: "strongholds"

"The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds" (2 Corinthians 10:4, ESV). The word is ὀχύρωμα (ochyrōma, oh-KHOO-ro-mah, G3794), a fortress, used only here in the New Testament. Paul defines it in the next verse: "We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ" (10:5, ESV). The strongholds are arguments. Paul was answering people in Corinth who rejected his gospel and his authority. The passage never mentions fasting.

Daniel 10: the prince of Persia

Daniel mourned three weeks, eating "no delicacies, no meat or wine" (Daniel 10:2-3, ESV). An angel then told him that "the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days" until Michael came to help (10:13, ESV). This is sometimes taught as fasting that fights powers in the heavens.

The angel says two things about Daniel. His words were heard "from the first day," and what God heard was that Daniel "humbled yourself before your God" (10:12, ESV). The heavenly conflict is real in the text (10:13, 20). The text never connects Daniel's fast to that conflict. Daniel was heard on the first day of three weeks.

What the New Testament does say about the devil

Nēsteuō and nēsteia occur 25 times in the text modern translations follow. The only one near the devil is Jesus' temptation, where He answered the devil with Scripture. The letters tell you how to resist him: "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7, ESV). "Resist him, firm in your faith" (1 Peter 5:9, ESV). Paul's armour of God ends in "praying at all times in the Spirit" (Ephesians 6:18, ESV). James goes on, "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you" (4:10, ESV). Humbling yourself is the part fasting has always expressed. For more on where deliverance practice goes beyond Scripture, see Deliverance and the Edge of Sorcery.

Practical application

Cultural and lasting

Some of what surrounds fasting in Scripture belongs to its time. Sackcloth and ashes (Jonah 3:6; Daniel 9:3) were the visible signs of grief in the ancient Near East. The Pharisee's two fasts a week (Luke 18:12) probably fell on Mondays and Thursdays. Those are the days the Mishnah's public fasts fall on (m. Ta'anit 1:6), and the days the Didache calls the hypocrites' (8.1). On the Day of Atonement the Mishnah forbids eating, drinking, washing, anointing, sandals and marital relations (m. Yoma 8:1).

What carries across every culture is what the texts themselves teach: humbling yourself before God (Leviticus 16:29; Ezra 8:21), turning from sin (Joel 2:12-13), fasting in secret (Matthew 6:17-18), loving your neighbour in the same act (Isaiah 58:6-7), and trusting God's mercy for the outcome (Joel 2:13).

When to fast

Scripture shows fasting on these occasions, and they are the ones to follow:

  • When you have sinned and are coming back to God. Fasting goes with confession (1 Samuel 7:6; Nehemiah 9:1-2; Joel 2:12-13).
  • When you grieve. Loss, and the ruin of what God cares about (2 Samuel 1:12; Nehemiah 1:4).
  • When you face a need you cannot meet. Danger, a journey, a risk you must take (2 Chronicles 20:3-4; Ezra 8:21-23; Esther 4:16).
  • When someone else is in need. Pray and fast for them, including people who have wronged you (2 Samuel 12:16; Psalm 35:13; Didache 1.3).
  • Before a decision, or when you commission or appoint people. Seek God's direction first (Judges 20:26-28; Acts 13:2-3; 14:23).
  • When you want to give time to worship. Anna and the church at Antioch fasted as they worshipped (Luke 2:37; Acts 13:2).
  • While you wait for Jesus. The Bridegroom is away (Matthew 9:15).

Every one of these is a way of humbling yourself before God and depending on Him. If you find yourself fasting to gain power, to pressure God, or to fight a spirit, stop and read Isaiah 58 and Mark 9 again.

How to fast

  1. Start small. Skip one meal and spend that time in prayer.
  2. Choose the kind of fast. Scripture shows a full fast from food and drink, rarely and briefly (Esther 4:16); a fast from food; and Daniel's partial fast from "delicacies," meat and wine (Daniel 10:3, ESV). The popular "Daniel fast" of vegetables and water comes from Daniel 1:12, where Daniel was avoiding the king's food, and the text does not call it a fast.
  3. Name what you are bringing to God. A sin to confess, a grief, a need, a decision.
  4. Keep it hidden. Wash your face (Matthew 6:17).
  5. Use the hunger. Each pang is a reminder that you live by God's word (Matthew 4:4).
  6. Do good with it. Give what you would have spent on food to someone who is hungry (Isaiah 58:7).
  7. End gently. Break a longer fast with light food.

Cautions

  • Health. Anyone with diabetes, an eating disorder, pregnancy or another medical condition should take medical advice first. Young children should not be expected to fast.
  • Legalism. No fast is commanded for the Church. Do not bind one on yourself or others as a rule.
  • Pride. The Pharisee in Luke 18:12 fasted twice a week and went home unjustified.
  • Weight loss. A fast done for the body's sake is a diet, and Jesus' promise of the Father's reward (Matthew 6:18) is for the fast done before Him.

Discussion questions

  1. The language. The Law calls the Day of Atonement fast "afflicting" or "humbling your soul" (Leviticus 16:29). How does that change what you think you are doing when you go without food?
  2. The text in its context. In Isaiah 58:3 the people who fasted were oppressing their workers the same day. Where could your devotion to God and your treatment of others come apart like that?
  3. Christ. Hungry after forty days, Jesus answered the devil with Deuteronomy 8:3 (Matthew 4:4). What does His refusal to make bread tell you about how He related to His Father?
  4. The hard part. Mark 9:29 reads "prayer" in the earliest manuscripts and "prayer and fasting" in later ones. What would a reader who knew only the longer reading be likely to believe about fasting?
  5. The Bridegroom. Jesus said His disciples would fast when He was taken away (Matthew 9:15). What would it look like for your fasting to express longing for His return?
  6. Be transformed. Which occasion in "When to fast" fits where you are now, and when will you set aside a meal to bring it to God?
Group study sheet for a 40-minute group: two A4 sheets, or one with the guided path

The point, the passage, the questions and the response, from this study. Print on both sides of two A4 sheets, flipping on the long edge. While this block is open, printing the page prints the sheet; close it to print the study.

Group study · 40 minutes

Fasting

Matthew 6:16-18

The point Fasting is humbling yourself before God, going without food to seek Him in repentance, grief, need and decision; it has no power of its own, because God hears the humble out of His own mercy, and Christians fast in the days while Jesus, the Bridegroom, is away.

0–5min

Ask: Should Christians fast? Hear a few answers before anyone reads.

5–12minRead it aloud BSB

Matthew 6:16-18 16When you fast, do not be somber like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward. 17But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18so that your fasting will not be obvious to men, but only to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

12–25minLook closer
What does it say?
What did it mean to them?
What does it mean for us?
Page 1 of 4 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission

Fasting

The study in brief
  1. What the words mean. The Hebrew and Greek words, and the Hebrew phrase "afflict yourselves" that tells you what a fast is.
  2. Fasting in the Old Testament. The one commanded fast, and what God's people fasted for.
  3. The fast God chooses. Isaiah 58 and Zechariah 7: fasting that God refused.
  4. Jesus and fasting. His forty days, His teaching in secret, and the Bridegroom.
  5. Fasting in the church. Antioch and the elders, Anna and the Didache, what fasting means in the Church Age, and Zechariah's promise that Judah's fasts become feasts.
  6. Verses often misused about fasting. Mark 9:29, Matthew 17:21, Isaiah 58:6, 2 Corinthians 10:4 and Daniel 10.
  7. Practical application. When to fast, how to fast, and cautions.
Notes
Page 2 of 4 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission

Fasting

12–21minStep 1 · What the words mean

1The language. The Law calls the Day of Atonement fast "afflicting" or "humbling your soul" (Leviticus 16:29). How does that change what you think you are doing when you go without food?

2The text in its context. In Isaiah 58:3 the people who fasted were oppressing their workers the same day. Where could your devotion to God and your treatment of others come apart like that?

Step 2 · Fasting in the Old Testament
Step 3 · The fast God chooses
21–30minStep 4 · Jesus and fasting

3Christ. Hungry after forty days, Jesus answered the devil with Deuteronomy 8:3 (Matthew 4:4). What does His refusal to make bread tell you about how He related to His Father?

4The Bridegroom. Jesus said His disciples would fast when He was taken away (Matthew 9:15). What would it look like for your fasting to express longing for His return?

Step 5 · Fasting in the church
30–35minStep 6 · Verses often misused about fasting

5The hard part. Mark 9:29 reads "prayer" in the earliest manuscripts and "prayer and fasting" in later ones. What would a reader who knew only the longer reading be likely to believe about fasting?

Step 7 · Practical application
Page 3 of 4 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission

Fasting

35–40minBe transformed

6Be transformed. Which occasion in "When to fast" fits where you are now, and when will you set aside a meal to bring it to God?

  • Think. A fast is a way of saying to God, "I need you more than food." It earns nothing. God is "gracious and merciful" before you ever skip a meal (Joel 2:13).
  • Attitude. Come to God humbled, and leave the answer to Him. David fasted and prayed, "Who knows whether the LORD will be gracious to me?" (2 Samuel 12:22, ESV).
  • Do. Before your next real decision, set aside one day to go without a meal and pray about it, as the church at Antioch did (Acts 13:2-3). Tell no one.
Memory verse

"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.

Joel 2:12-13 (ESV)
Pray together

Father, you are gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. We have nothing to bring you that could buy your attention, and we do not need to, because you hear the humble. Thank you for your Son Jesus, who lived by every word from your mouth, who shed His own blood to secure our eternal redemption, and who is coming back for His bride. Teach us to humble ourselves before you, to turn from our sin, to seek your will before we act, and to long for His return. Keep our fasting in secret, and make it a fast you choose: open our hands to the hungry and the oppressed.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

Notes
The whole study, with every verse a tap awayhttps://the-way.lewy.au/christian-life/fasting/
Page 4 of 4 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission
Group study · step by step

Fasting

Matthew 6:16-18

Open Ask: Should Christians fast? Hear a few answers before anyone reads.

Read it aloud Matthew 6:16-18

Step 1What the words mean — The Hebrew and Greek words, and the Hebrew phrase "afflict yourselves" that tells you what a fast is.

1The language. The Law calls the Day of Atonement fast "afflicting" or "humbling your soul" (Leviticus 16:29). How does that change what you think you are doing when you go without food?

2The text in its context. In Isaiah 58:3 the people who fasted were oppressing their workers the same day. Where could your devotion to God and your treatment of others come apart like that?

Step 2Fasting in the Old Testament — The one commanded fast, and what God's people fasted for.
Step 3The fast God chooses — Isaiah 58 and Zechariah 7: fasting that God refused.
Step 4Jesus and fasting — His forty days, His teaching in secret, and the Bridegroom.Key verses: Matthew 9:15

3Christ. Hungry after forty days, Jesus answered the devil with Deuteronomy 8:3 (Matthew 4:4). What does His refusal to make bread tell you about how He related to His Father?

4The Bridegroom. Jesus said His disciples would fast when He was taken away (Matthew 9:15). What would it look like for your fasting to express longing for His return?

Step 5Fasting in the church — Antioch and the elders, Anna and the Didache, what fasting means in the Church Age, and Zechariah's promise that Judah's fasts become feasts.Key verses: Acts 13:2-3
Step 6Verses often misused about fasting — Mark 9:29, Matthew 17:21, Isaiah 58:6, 2 Corinthians 10:4 and Daniel 10.

5The hard part. Mark 9:29 reads "prayer" in the earliest manuscripts and "prayer and fasting" in later ones. What would a reader who knew only the longer reading be likely to believe about fasting?

Step 7Practical application — When to fast, how to fast, and cautions.
Be transformed

6Be transformed. Which occasion in "When to fast" fits where you are now, and when will you set aside a meal to bring it to God?

  • Think. A fast is a way of saying to God, "I need you more than food." It earns nothing. God is "gracious and merciful" before you ever skip a meal (Joel 2:13).
  • Attitude. Come to God humbled, and leave the answer to Him. David fasted and prayed, "Who knows whether the LORD will be gracious to me?" (2 Samuel 12:22, ESV).
  • Do. Before your next real decision, set aside one day to go without a meal and pray about it, as the church at Antioch did (Acts 13:2-3). Tell no one.
Page 1 of 2 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission

Fasting

The point Fasting is humbling yourself before God, going without food to seek Him in repentance, grief, need and decision; it has no power of its own, because God hears the humble out of His own mercy, and Christians fast in the days while Jesus, the Bridegroom, is away.

The whole study, with every verse a tap awayhttps://the-way.lewy.au/christian-life/fasting/
Page 2 of 2 · print double-sided, flip on long edgeScripture: BSB, public domain · ESV® © 2001 Crossway, used by permission
  • ESV Study Bible (Crossway) — verse text throughout, and notes on Leviticus 16:29-34, Isaiah 58:6-7, Zechariah 8:19, Matthew 6:16-18, Matthew 9:15, Matthew 17:20, Mark 9:28-29, Acts 13:2, Acts 27:9 and 2 Corinthians 10:3-4.
  • NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible (Zondervan) — notes on Isaiah 58:3-12 and Mark 9:29.
  • NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (Zondervan) — note on Luke 18:12 (Monday and Thursday fasts; Didache 8.1).
  • Legacy Standard Bible, CSB, NLT — translator footnotes at Mark 9:29, Matthew 17:20-21 and Acts 10:30.
  • Greek texts — NA28, SBL Greek New Testament and Tischendorf 8th edition (shorter readings); Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine Textform 2013 and Textus Receptus (longer readings), for Mark 9:29, Matthew 17:21, Acts 10:30 and 1 Corinthians 7:5.
  • Macula Hebrew (WLC) and Macula Greek (SBLGNT) — occurrence data for צוּם, צוֹם, νηστεύω, νηστεία and ὀχύρωμα; TWOT root 1890.
  • The Mishnah — Yoma 8:1 and 8:9, Ta'anit 1:6, Mishnah Yomit translation by Joshua Kulp (CC-BY), via Sefaria.
  • The Didache 1.3, 7.4 and 8.1, Greek text in the Apostolic Fathers; translation ours.

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