Examples of fasting in the Bible

The following are 14 examples of fasting recorded in the Bible:

• Moses fasting for forty days and forty nights in Exodus 24:18 and in Exodus 34:28;
• The annual fast by the children of Israel in the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 23:27;
• The fast by the valiant men of Jabesh Gilead after the death of King Saul of Israel (1 Samuel 31:7–13);
• The fast by Prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 19:8
• The fast by the people of Nineveh after Jonah’s preaching in Jonah 3:5–9;
• The fast by the people of Judah when the armies of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir came to fight King Jehoshaphat (2 chronicles 20:3–14);
• The fast by Nehemiah after he heard that the wall of Jerusalem had broken down (Nehemiah 1:4);
• The fast by Daniel for the end of desolations of Jerusalem in Daniel 9:21–22
• The fast by Esther and the Jewish captives in Susa in reaction to the threat of extermination by Haman (Esther 4:16);
• The fast called by Ezra when they were returning to Jerusalem from captivity (Ezra 8:21–23);
• The true fast according to Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 58)
• The fast by Christ Jesus for forty days and forty nights as recorded in Matthew 4:2;
• The fast by a prophetess called Anna in Luke 2:37; and
• The fast by the Apostles as they commissioned Apostle Paul and Barnabas is recorded in Acts 13:1–3.

Fasting in the Bible refers to ABSTINENCE FROM FOOD in order to spend quality time with God. It may be a total or partial fast. In a total fast, also known as a dry fast, a person refrains from taking food and water for a specified duration. In a partial fast, one may skip a meal or two, in order to spend time in the presence of God. Let us have a deeper look at the aforementioned examples of fasting as recorded in the Bible.

1. Moses fasted for forty days and forty nights

Three months after leaving Egypt, the children of Israel arrived in the wilderness of Mount Sinai. While here, the LORD appeared to them in terrifying signs and wonders, including the blast of the trumpet, thunderings, lightning, an earthquake, and smoke. God then spoke to them, enumerating the commandments and statutes He expected them to observe. This experience was too terrifying for the children of Israel, so much so that they pleaded with Moses to speak to God on their behalf lest they die (Exodus 19).

God then called Moses up the mountain in order to receive the commandments. We read this in Exodus 24:12–15, 18, which says:

“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them.’

So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up to the mountain of God. And he said to the elders, Wait here for us until we come back to you. Indeed, Aaron and Hur are with you. If any man has difficulty, let him go to them.’ Then Moses went up into the mountain, and a cloud covered the mountain.”

“So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.”

On seeing that Moses had tarried on the mountain with God, the Bible records that the children of Israel made a golden calf and started worshipping it. As a result, God told Moses to quickly descend and witness what was taking place in the camp. On reaching the camp and seeing how the children of Israel had defiled themselves with the golden calf, Moses smashed the two tablets bearing the 10 commandments on the ground. Moses then ordered the execution of all those who had engaged in idol worship (Exodus 32).

The following day, Moses again went up the Mountain in order to intercede for the people. The Lord then told Moses to make two new tablets of stone on which He would again write the 10 commandments. Once again, God narrated all the commandments He expected the children of Israel to observe to Moses, who wrote them on the tablets. We read this story in Exodus 34:27 as follows:

“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘write these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.’ So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.”

It should be noted that Moses was able to stay that long without food or water because he was in the presence of God, who empowered him supernaturally.

It is therefore not recommended for one to go on a forty-day and forty-night fast because it may result in death. Only God can enable a person to go that long without food and water and still remain alive. Only Christ Jesus and Prophet Elijah were able to achieve this feat in the entire Bible.

2. The fast by the children of Israel that is held in the Day of Atonement

In the book of Leviticus 23:26–27, God commands the children to observe the Day of Atonement once every year to show remorse for their sins. This is a day of prayer and fasting that is observed in Israel to this day as the Yom Kippur holiday. This is what the scripture says

“And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Also, the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the LORD your God. Any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.’”

In this regard, the children of Israel had to afflict themselves with prayer and fasting in order to receive forgiveness of their sins.

3. The fast by the valiant men of Jabesh Gilead after the death of King Saul

In the book of 1 Samuel 31:7–13, we find the account of the death of King Saul of Israel while fighting the Philistines. In this battle, all three of the king’s sons died with him. On finding the body of King Saul, the Philistines cut off his head and circulated it in their temples as a way of thanking their gods for victory against the armies of Israel.

On hearing what had transpired, the men of Jabesh Gilead went and took the bodies of the King and his three sons and burned them. They then fasted for seven days.

This is what the scripture says in 1 Samuel 31:8–13.

“So it happened the next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, that they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. And they cut off his head and stripped off his armor and sent word throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim it in the temple of their idols and among the people. Then they put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shan.

Now when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all of the valiant men arose and traveled all night and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan; and they came to Jabesh and burned them there. They then took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and they fasted seven days.”

This fast was done to mourn the fallen Saul and his three sons.

4. The fast by Prophet Elijah

After the contest at Mount Carmel, where Elijah engineered the slaughter of all the false prophets of Baal, Queen Jezebel vowed to kill Elijah in return. As a result, Elijah fled for his life to Beersheba. We find this account in 1 Kings 19:1–8, which says

“And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, as well as how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, ‘so let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.’ And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die and said, It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!’ Then, as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, ‘arise and eat.’ Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals and a jar of water. So he ate, drank, and laid down again. And the angel of the LORD came back the second time, touched him, and said, ‘arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.’ So he arose and ate and drank, and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.”

5. The fast by the people of Nineveh after Jonah’s preaching

In the book of Jonah, we find the story of the people of Nineveh, whose sinful ways had come before God in heaven. As a result, God sent the prophet Jonah to warn them about the impeding judgment. The entire nation, led by the king, humbled themselves with prayer and fasting, and the calamity was averted. This account is recorded in Jonah 3:5–9 as follows:

“Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, ‘arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.’ So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Nineveh was an exceedingly great city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’

So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying,

Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink water. But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily to God; yes, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who can tell if God will turn and relent and turn away from His fierce anger so that we may not perish?’

Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it!”

6. The fast by the people of Judah when the armies of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir came to fight against King Jehoshaphat

During the reign of King Jehoshaphat of Judah, there came a day when the armies of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir gathered together to fight against Judah. These armies outnumbered the army of Judah by far, and it was obvious that Judah would be defeated. On seeing this, King Jehoshaphat proclaimed a fast in the entire kingdom to seek God’s intervention. As a result, God answered the prayers of the people and fought for Judah by setting ambushes among the armies of the enemies, thereby defeating them.

We read this account in 2 Chronicles 20:1-4; 20–24 as follows:

“It happened after this that the people of Moab, with the people of Ammon, and others with them besides the Ammonites, came to battle against Jehoshaphat. Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria; and they are in Hazazon Tamar’ (which is En Gedi). And Jehoshaphat feared, set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all of Judah. So Judah gathered together to ask help from the LORD; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD.”

“So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, ‘hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the LORD your God, and you will be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.’ And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the LORD and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying:

‘Praise the LORD, for His mercy endures forever.’

Now when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, and they were defeated. The people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to utterly kill and destroy them. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. So when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude, and there were their dead bodies, fallen on the earth. No one had escaped.”

7. The fast by Nehemiah after he heard that the wall of Jerusalem had broken down

When Nehemiah heard about the distress of the Jews who had escaped captivity and the disintegration of the wall of Jerusalem, he humbled himself with prayer and fasting and sought forgiveness from the LORD God. This account is recorded in Nehemiah 1:1–4 as follows:

“The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hachaliah It came to pass in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan, the citadel, that Hanani, one of my brethren, came with men from Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.’

So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of Heaven.”

8. The fast by Daniel for the accomplishment of desolations of Jerusalem

Daniel was a prominent person in the Kingdom of Babylon during the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar, Belteshazzar, and Darius. He was a devout person who had the Spirit of the Lord God in him.

In the year that King Darius came to power, Daniel came to understand that the time of their captivity and the desolations of Jerusalem were over. As a result, he committed himself to prayer and fasting so that God would fulfill what was written in the books of prophecy. We read this in Daniel 9:1–3, which says

“In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans—in the first year of his reign—I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.”

9. The fast by Esther and the Jewish captives in Susa in reaction to the threat of extermination by Haman

In the reign of King Ahasuerus, Esther, a Jew, became queen as a result of the dethroning of Queen Vashti. King Ahasuerus appointed a certain man called Haman to be in charge of all the princes in the land. Consequently, all the king’s servants and all who worked at the palace were expected to show respect to Haman by bowing to him. However, a certain Jew by the name of Mordecai never did so. This greatly infuriated Haman, who decided to annihilate not only Mordecai but all the Jews as well.

When this report reached Mordecai, he approached Queen Esther to seek help. Esther agreed to help the Jews on the condition that they join her in a period of prayer and fasting. The following is an account of what transpired as recorded in Esther 4:13–17.

“And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: ‘Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?’

Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai: Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!’

So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther commanded him.”

The Bible tells us that God answered the prayers of the Jews and delivered them from destruction, but Haman was later hanged on the same gallows he had built to hang Mordecai.

10. The fast that was called by Ezra when they were returning to Jerusalem from captivity

Ezra was one of the Jewish captives in Babylon during the reign of King Artaxerxes. He was in charge of the Jews, who had intended to return to Jerusalem to begin its reconstruction. Realizing the enormous task ahead of them, Ezra proclaimed a fast by all the people in his company to seek God’s direction, protection, and success in their mission. This account is found in Ezra 8:21–23, and this is what it says:

“Then I proclaimed a fast at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God and seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions. For I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road, because we had spoken to the king, saying, ‘the hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him, but His power and His wrath are against all those who forsake Him.’ So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer.”

11. The Prophet Isaiah gives us an outline of what constitutes a true fast in Isaiah 58

The Prophet Isaiah gives a guide to what God considers to be the true fast. This is found in Isaiah 58:5-7, which says

“Is it a fast that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?

Is this not the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; when you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh?”

12. Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights.

After being baptized by John, the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit led Jesus to the wilderness to be tempted. While in the wilderness, He neither ate food nor drank water for a period of 40 days and 40 nights. We find this account in Matthew 4:2. It says

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.”

13. The fast by prophetess Anna in Luke 2:37

The Bible tells of a prophetess called Anna, who waited for the birth of the Redeemer of Israel, that is, the Christ, with fasting and prayers. This story is found in Luke 2:36–38, which says

“Now there was one, Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, and had lived with a husband for seven years from her virginity; and this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fasting and prayers night and day. And coming in that instant, she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem.”

14. The fast by the Apostles during the commissioning of Apostle Paul and Barnabas

In the early church, the Apostles could not do anything without first seeking the counsel of the Holy Spirit. One such instance was during the commissioning of Apostle Paul and Barnabas to go and preach the good news to the gentiles. We find this account in Acts 14:23, which says:

“Now in the church that was at Antioch, there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then, having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away.’”

These are some of the examples of fasting recorded in the Holy Bible.

Conclusion

In this article, we have looked at several examples of fasting in the Bible, including:

• The fast by the valiant men of Jabesh Gilead after the death of King Saul of Israel (1 Samuel 31:7–13);
• The fast by Prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 19:8
• The fast by the people of Nineveh after Jonah’s preaching in Jonah 3:5–9;
• The fast by the people of Judah when the armies of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir came to fight King Jehoshaphat (2 chronicles 20:3–14);
• The fast by Nehemiah after he heard that the wall of Jerusalem had broken down (Nehemiah 1:4);
• The fast by Daniel for the end of desolations of Jerusalem in Daniel 9:21–22
• The fast by Esther and the Jewish captives in Susa in reaction to the threat of extermination by Haman (Esther 4:16);
• The fast called by Ezra when they were returning to Jerusalem from captivity (Ezra 8:21–23);
• The prophet Isaiah gives us an outline of what constitutes a true fast in Isaiah 58:
• The fast by Christ Jesus for forty days and forty nights as recorded in Matthew 4:2;
• The fast by a prophetess called Anna in Luke 2:37; and
• The fast by the Apostles as they commissioned Apostle Paul and Barnabas, as recorded in Acts 13:1–3,

Through these examples, we have established that fasting is an effective way of engaging God to intervene in our daily lives, in whatever situations and circumstances we are experiencing. This tells you that fasting is part and parcel of the life of every believer who is keen on living according to the teachings of Christ Jesus. Consequently, when dealing with stubborn situations in our lives, we should supplement our prayers with occasional fasting in order to strengthen our faith in God.

It is important to note that it is God who enables us to fast because, by our own abilities, we cannot do it. The Holy Spirit is actually the one who prompts us to fast. He also directs us on how to go about it as laid down in the Bible. Remember, fasting is not a way of arm-twisting God to do what we WANT, but instead, it is a discipline that helps us to patiently wait for the fulfillment of His purposes in our lives. I leave you with the words of Christ Jesus found in Matthew 6:16–17 that say:

“Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces so that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”

I hope this was helpful. Stay encouraged.

Related Post: The importance of fasting in the bible

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