A Bible Study on Fasting

Today we are going to cover the topic of fasting in the bible, list some examples of people who fasted, and go over reasons why and how to fast.

First lets talk about duration, how long did some of the people in Scripture fast? The longest period of time that anyone in scripture fasted is a tie between Moses and Jesus, forty days and nights (Exo 34:28, Mat 4:2, Luk 4:2). In the book of Judges we see the children of Israel fasting untl evening (Jdg 20:26), the men of Jabesh-gilead fasted a week (1Sa 31:13, 1Ch 10:12), the Jews of Shushan fasted three days and nights (Est 4:16). In the New Testament we see that the men who were sailing with Paul fasted two weeks (Act 27:33).

So why do people fast? Throughout scripture we see many different people fasting for many different reasons. Let's look at some. The children of Israel fasted in Mizpeh when they turned from their idols (1Sa 7:3-6), Saul and his men fasted so he could be avenged of his enemies (1 Sam 14:24), David and his crew fasted when they mourned the death of Saul (2 Sam 1:12), and David also fasted in an attempt to save his newborn's life (2Sa 12:16).

We also see that Ahab fasted when Elijah prophesied evil against his house, which caused the Lord to not bring the evil in his days (1 Kin 21:21-27). King Jehoshaphat fasted when he sought the help of the Lord against the Ammonites (2Ch 20:1-4), Nehemiah fasted over his afflicted brethren and over the wall/gate of Jerusalem that was burnt (Neh 1:3-4). The Jews fasted when they saw the Kings decree of their coming destruction (Est 4:3), and king Darius fasted all night over Daniel, that he might be delivered from the pawl of the lion (Dan 6:16-18).

We see that the kind of fast which pleases God is the one that  helps to free us from sin, and allows us to tend to the needy (Isa 58:6-8). Fasting is a powerful tool in the Christian's life, we can tell from scripture that some devils can only be driven out by fasting coupled with prayer (Mat 17:21, Mar 9:29). Is there anymore tips from scripture we can take into account when we fast? Well, we should not do it to be seen of men, else we have no reward from God (Mat 6:16-18). We should also avoid "the marriage bed" until we have finished with our praying and fasting (1 Cor 7:5).

So in conclusion we can see that there are many reasons why men fast, but it is often used when someone is grieved over their sin and / or they are petitioning God for something.

Thanks for reading please share!!!

Here are some more relevent verses

1Ki 21:9, 21:12

Ezr 8:21  -23, Ezr 10:6

Neh 9:1

Est 9:31  

Psa 35:13, Psa 69:10, Psa 109:24  

Jer 14:12, 36:6  

Dan 9:3, Dan 10:3

Joe 1:14,  Joe 2:12

Jon 3:5  -10

Zec 7:5, 8:19  

Mat 9:14  -15, 15:32  

Mar 2:18 -20, 8:2  -3

Luk 2:37, 5:33, 18:12  

Act 10:30, 13:2  -3, 14:23  

2Co 6:5, 11:27