What do I know with Isaac Carroll
What do I know with Isaac Carroll
Fasting with Purpose
Welcome to the podcast. I'm Isaac Carroll, and this is what Do I Know? All right, in today's Bible study we are going to be in Mark, the second chapter, and we're going to pick up at verse 18. Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them can a wedding guest fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The day will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and then they will fast in that day.
Speaker 1:No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it and the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins. The wine is destroyed and so are the skins, but new wine is for fresh wineskins. Alright, let's stop here at verse 22.
Speaker 1:Talking about fasting Fasting is a subject that is, I want to say, grossly misused in our society today. I just feel it is. We have all kinds of different fasts, health fasts and all kinds of different fasts, but in scripture, when we're fasting to God, there's a purpose for it. Bread is for the body. Jesus said I am the bread of life, so he's the bread of the soul. We did we deny the body so that we may feed the soul. The first time we see fasting, or anyone fasting, is when Moses was on the mountain and he was receiving the Ten Commandments, and it says that he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. God had sustained him on the mountain and the only other two people who fasted for 40 days that I could read about in the Bible were Jesus, elijah and Moses. So those are three people who fasted for 40 days. And if you remember, on the Mount of Transfiguration, when Jesus turned himself into or he revealed himself as a being of light that he is, he was met on the mountaintop by Moses and Elijah. These two men who fasted for 40 days were with Jesus on the mountain. But fasting as a whole, as seen in Scripture, is for a purpose.
Speaker 1:If you remember the story of Jonah, jonah was sent to Nineveh. God was going to destroy Nineveh, and so Jonah was sent to Nineveh to preach, to tell them to repent and to turn back to God, to turn away from their sin. And when Jonah actually finally went, when he told them this, they fasted. The whole country, the whole city, everybody fasted. The king, all the way down to the lowest person, fasted. They wouldn't even let their animals eat food. They sought God and they humbled themselves so that God would change and not destroy them. And God didn't. So we see collectively as a body, they fasted and urgently see God's face. They humbled themselves.
Speaker 1:A story in today's time when we had a really bad hurricane coming to Florida, I saw other people on Facebook and social media to fast with me that God would cover us during this time of trouble. The hurricane was really strong, it was going to be really, really bad and a lot of people lost their homes and it was still bad. But I think the loss of life and the possibilities of what could have happened would have been much worse. I know God really spared me through that hurricane. So we see that collectively, as a group, we should see God's face, but also individually. Now, if you remember the story of David, we should see God's face, but also individually Now, if you remember the story of David when him and Bathsheba, when he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and he had her husband killed, god sent a prophet to him to tell him that he did wrong and that there was going to be a consequence to his actions. There was going to be a consequence to his sin that for the rest of his life his family would be in war, would be in turmoil and the child that was born of that adultery would die. And when the child became sick, david humbled himself. He would not eat and he put on sackcloth and ashes, which is an outward sign of the grief and the humbleness that was going on inside of David as he saw God's face, that he would turn and not destroy the kid. And we see here that it's a sign to us to urgently seek God's face.
Speaker 1:When we fast, there's a point for it, why we fast. I know in today's society we have a lot of different things that we use for fasting. There's health fast and all kinds of different things. But spiritually, when we fast and we seek God, the important part is seeking God's face, to humble ourselves and to seek God's face. In the Old Testament, in Hebrew, it's to sum. To sum is to cover one's mouth to not to eat and it's great that people they refrain from all these things that in their life are distractions, and we should take every distraction away when we fast, because the whole point of fasting is to see God's face urgently. Another thing we should refrain from when we're fasting and we're seeing God's face is intimacy. If you read in 1 Corinthians 7, verse 5, paul's talking about, he says Do not reprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time so that you may devote yourself to prayer. So when we're devoting ourselves to prayer and fasting, when we're that intimate time that we're seeking God, we're supposed to keep ourself pure and unsoiled and focused on God, not dividing our attention. So it's important that we, when we're fasting. It's very, it's very serious and we should take it serious.
Speaker 1:All right, let's continue at verse 23. On the Sabbath he was going through the grain fields and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain and the Pharisees were saying to him look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath? And he said to them have you never read what David did when he was in need and he was hungry? He and those with him, when he entered the house of God in the time of Abathar, the high priest, and ate the bread of the presence, which is not lawful for any but the priest to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him. All right, that concludes Matthew 2.
Speaker 1:It seems that Sabbath days have become kind of a thing for some people. I've noticed that in my walk. There's actually a source of discussion here recently between me and another person Is the Sabbath still relevant? Is it still important? And I believe that Jesus, he sets the framework for our understanding of the Sabbath. He says so in verse 27. He says man was not made for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man, a day of rest. God knows that man needs rest and he gave man a Sabbath day of rest so that he could rest from all his work, he could see God's provision and give thanks, and he gave us a Sabbath for that purpose.
Speaker 1:Now a lot of people take it to an extreme. It becomes a law to them instead of a gift, and Jesus even points out this to the Pharisees. Jesus even points out this to the Pharisees, as you know, scripturally. He says scripturally this is true because remember the time that David went to the priest, him and his men were hungry and the priest gave him the bread of that was not lawful for him to eat. Him were the ones with him, but the priest gave it to him because of the need that him and his men had, because he showed compassion for him.
Speaker 1:Jesus often says in Scripture I seek mercy, not sacrifice. Go and find out what this means. This priest had mercy on David because of the need that they had. They were hungry and they had no bread because David was on the run from Saul. Now, if you go on and read the rest of this story, this priest was actually killed for his act of kindness and it just goes to show you that in scripture that just because you do what is right doesn't mean that life's always going to be fair to you. But God rewards you in heaven far greater than anything you can lose on earth. So remember that as you suffer, or if you suffer.
Speaker 1:Now back to the Sabbath. So is the Sabbath a gift? Do you see it as a gift to you to be thankful for, to rest on and to give glory to God? Or do you see it as a gift to you to be thankful for, to rest on and to give glory to God, or do you see it as a lawful command of God? Is it something that we have to do because it's lawful, or is it something that is a gift that we should enjoy? I can only tell you what Scripture says, so I hope you enjoy it. I'm going to end this one here. We'll be in Mark 3 in our next Bible study. Until then, I love you guys. God bless and goodbye.