Why Fast? part 2

This week, I’m going to re-teach something I have taught in the past on the subject of fasting, looking at it from a Biblical perspective.   

Genesis 2:15-17 “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.’” This is the first command God gave to man and it has to do with food. 

Genesis 3:1-6 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” 4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” 

This is the original sin. Most of the time when we refer to this sin, we talk about the fact that Eve disobeyed God, which she did. But I want to ask the question, “How did she disobey God?” The answer is: with food. We could go into all the implications of this action having to do with man’s desire for self-determination rather than being God dependent, but the bottom line to this sin was that it had to do with food. The first temptation to man was with food. That makes food quite an issue in our lives. It is also why fasting is such a difficult thing to do. It strikes at the heart of our rebellion. 
 

This one action thrust mankind into an ongoing conflict between the spirit and the flesh. Jesus said it well when He said in Mark 14:38 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
 

This is one of the reasons fasting is such a difficult thing to do. It’s not just that we are denying ourselves nourishment, but when we fast, we are willfully entering into one of the greatest spiritual conflicts known to man: complete dependency upon God. The devil used food to break man’s dependency upon God, so God uses fasting as a means to re-establish a person’s dependency upon HIM.
 

Have you ever broken a fast prematurely? I’ve probably broken more fasts too soon than I’ve actually completed. Think of what we are doing when we break a fast before the Lord tells us to. We are taking back control of our lives. Have you ever been in a fast and got hungry? Most of us have. The next question is – did you ever allow that hunger to drive you to eating before the fast was over? If you answered, “yes” then in those times the flesh was victorious over the spirit. The flesh said, “I’m going to continue to control this person.”

Galatians 5:17 “For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.” This is the battle we are all involved in. The spirit and the flesh are at odds with each other. 

In Watchman Nee’s book, “The Spiritual Man,” he talks about the necessities of the human body. He says they can be classified into three categories: nourishment, reproduction and defense and that every sin man commits falls into one of these three categories. Nourishment is the first category and this is where fasting would fall under. In the same way that the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil enticed Eve, so drinking and feasting have become a sin of the flesh today. (This is pretty convicting stuff.)
 

The second category is reproduction. After the fall of man reproduction was changed into human lust. The Bible connects lust with the flesh. Even in the garden the sin of covetous eating immediately aroused lusts and shame. Directly after eating the fruit they noticed they were naked. Look at how Paul puts these two items together in 1 Corinthians 6:13 “‘Food for the stomach and the stomach for food’ – but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” 
 

The first two categories of sin are nourishment and reproduction. Most sin relates to one or both of these two areas. But there is a third category of sin also and that is called defense. We’ll look at that tomorrow.  Continued tomorrow