Should We Fast?

Zechariah 7

King James Version (KJV)

7 And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Chisleu;

2 When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer and Regemmelech, and their men, to pray before the Lord,

3 And to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the Lord of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?

4 Then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me, saying,

5 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?

6 And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?

7 Should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain?

I find this section of the Bible very interesting. What does He mean they fasted for themselves? We could fast for ourselves?

Obviously. Otherwise the Lord won’t be rebuking these people about it.

So we could fast for our own personal reasons.

The people came to Zechariah to ask counsel of him whether they should go back to fasting and weeping like they used to do. And the Lord seemed angry with them because the truth was their fasting and weeping did nothing good, it did not give glory to God. They were fasting and weeping before Him and yet they weren’t because there were no changes in their actions and in their lifestyles. In the following verses we see what the Lord wanted of them:

8 And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying,

9 Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother:

10 And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.

11 But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.

12 Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts.

It was obvious their fasting and weeping weren’t for the Lord but for themselves. It is strange to be spending all that time and energy and not end up changed! I feel if we really come to the Lord with all of our hearts and soul then He will deal with us and we should know what we’re supposed to do next. What is our weeping and fasting going to do us if we don’t listen to the voice of the Lord? Isn’t our taking of time to weep and fast is to know the will of God? And if we want to know the will of God isn’t our objective is to please God; therefore obey Him?

But I believe people want the blessings of God without being responsible to doing what is right. The children of Israel has been taught to fast and weep before God and so they do but they weren’t taught enough to obey Him.

Or we could weep and fast before God just to satisfy our own fleshly glorying of ourselves – so that we can say, “Well, I fasted and prayed and wept before God – therefore I am special – therefore God will honor and respect and bless me.” It’s as if God now has this responsibility to bless them because they did what was supposed to be pleasing before Him.

But obviously God was not at all pleased.

Change of heart. Repentance. That is what is going to please God.

Doing good – executing true judgment, showing mercy and compassion to our brothers and sisters, not imagining evil in our hearts against them, or the widows or the fatherless or the poor. The Lord said, “Let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.” How many times we Christians do that? And yet we fast and pray and weep before God.

We can stop fasting and praying now because unless we do what God says to do all of our energy is a waste! It is all in our head! There is no blessings coming your way!

If we continue to talk about our brother or our sister in the Lord and imagine evil in our hearts against them and neglect the poor people in our church, especially the widows and the fatherless and not show kindness to them, then we can forget about our “piousness” and “sacrifices” because they are all a waste of time and energy. God is not pleased with us.

Oh, Lord God, let us hear you and incline our hearts to your word. Let us not just be a hearer of your word but also a doer. I pray, incline our hearts to your ways today and let us find ourselves doing good to your people, to one another, as you said to your apostles, “This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.” Let us fast to truly spend time to hear your word and follow it and be changed. Let us do it Father and glorify your name through your precious Son, Jesus Christ. Today I pray. Amen.