Aug 04 2008
Bible Study Week 21 - Benefits of Prayer and Fasting
Purpose of This Bible Study Lesson
This lesson will guide the participants to know and understand that fasting results in spiritual benefits. A true fast that pleases God will not go un-noticed, because God keeps His word.
Lesson Objective:
This lesson will guide the participants to:-
- Understand the spiritual benefits of fasting
- Understand how God moves during fasting
- Understand the secret of fasting as a sacrifice
Introduction
Begin Today’s lesson by reading: 2 Chron 33:1-202 Chron 33:1-20
English: American Standard Version (1901) - ASV
33
1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem.
2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah, after the abominations of the nations whom Jehovah cast out before the children of Israel.
3 For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; and he reared up altars for the Baalim, and made Asheroth, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.
4 And he built altars in the house of Jehovah, whereof Jehovah said, In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever.
5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of Jehovah.
6 He also made his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom; and he practised augury, and used enchantments, and practised sorcery, and dealt with them that had familiar spirits, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of Jehovah, to provoke him to anger.
7 And he set the graven image of the idol, which he had made, in the house of God, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever:
8 neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from off the land which I have appointed for your fathers, if only they will observe to do all that I have commanded them, even all the law and the statutes and the ordinances [given] by Moses.
9 And Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that they did evil more than did the nations whom Jehovah destroyed before the children of Israel.
10 And Jehovah spake to Manasseh, and to his people; but they gave no heed.
11 Wherefore Jehovah brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh in chains, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.
12 And when he was in distress, he besought Jehovah his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
13 And he prayed unto him; and he was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that Jehovah he was God.
14 Now after this he built an outer wall to the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entrance at the fish gate; and he compassed Ophel about [with it], and raised it up to a very great height: and he put valiant captains in all the fortified cities of Judah.
15 And he took away the foreign gods, and the idol out of the house of Jehovah, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of Jehovah, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city.
16 And he built up the altar of Jehovah, and offered thereon sacrifices of peace-offerings and of thanksgiving, and commanded Judah to serve Jehovah, the God of Israel.
17 Nevertheless the people sacrificed still in the high places, but only unto Jehovah their God.
18 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer unto his God, and the words of the seers that spake to him in the name of Jehovah, the God of Israel, behold, they are written among the acts of the kings of Israel.
19 His prayer also, and how [God] was entreated of him, and all his sin and his trespass, and the places wherein he built high places, and set up the Asherim and the graven images, before he humbled himself: behold, they are written in the history of Hozai.
20 So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house: and Amon his son reigned in his stead.
, Est 4:1-17Est 4:1-17
English: American Standard Version (1901) - ASV
4
1 Now when Mordecai knew all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry;
2 and he came even before the king's gate: for none might enter within the king's gate clothed with sackcloth.
3 And in every province, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
4 And Esther's maidens and her chamberlains came and told it her; and the queen was exceedingly grieved: and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take his sackcloth from off him; but he received it not.
5 Then called Esther for Hathach, one of the king's chamberlains, whom he had appointed to attend upon her, and charged him to go to Mordecai, to know what this was, and why it was.
6 So Hathach went forth to Mordecai unto the broad place of the city, which was before the king's gate.
7 And Mordecai told him of all that had happened unto him, and the exact sum of the money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them.
8 Also he gave him the copy of the writing of the decree that was given out in Shushan to destroy them, to show it unto Esther, and to declare it unto her, and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make supplication unto him, and to make request before him, for her people.
9 And Hathach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai.
10 Then Esther spake unto Hathach, and gave him a message unto Mordecai [saying]:
11 All the king's servants, and the people of the king's provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is one law for him, that he be put to death, except those to whom the king shall hold out the golden sceptre, that he may live: but I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days.
12 And they told to Mordecai Esther's words.
13 Then Mordecai bade them return answer unto Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews.
14 For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then will relief and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place, but thou and thy father's house will perish: and who knoweth whether thou art not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
15 Then Esther bade them return answer unto Mordecai,
16 Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast in like manner; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.
17 So Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.
and Jonah 3:1-10Jonah 3:1-10
English: American Standard Version (1901) - ASV
3
1 And the word of Jehovah came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of Jehovah. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city, of three days' journey.
4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
6 And the tidings reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 And he made proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water;
8 but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and beast, and let them cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands.
9 Who knoweth whether God will not turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil which he said he would do unto them; and he did it not.
A Sacrifice of Broken Hearts
Fasting is never about ourselves, but always about God, as the psalmist David duly wrote when he had sinned against God by killing his servant Uriah; “a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” David had reached the realization that God could actually recant (take back) His Holy Spirit from him (David) as He had done with Saul when Saul had also sinned against God. But the difference between David and Saul is that David repented in tears and ashes and acknowledged his sin before God whereas Saul did not show remorse. Our God is a God who is moved by our sorrow and repentance just as we have read in the above passages; God does not take delight in punishing His people, and when we come to God with genuinely broken hearts, God is moved into action and He withdraws His wrath from us.
Fasting is one way that reveals that we are seeking God’s face during severe periods of trouble akin to what Queen Esther experienced even as she faced the possible extinction of the Jewish race by evil Haman. When one is more acutely in tune with God through fasting, God then answers in his compassionate and generous ways (Isaiah 58:8-14Isaiah 58:8-14
English: American Standard Version (1901) - ASV
8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy healing shall spring forth speedily; and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of Jehovah shall by thy rearward.
9 Then shalt thou call, and Jehovah will answer; thou shalt cry, and he will say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking wickedly;
10 and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul: then shall thy light rise in darkness, and thine obscurity be as the noonday;
11 and Jehovah will guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in dry places, and make strong thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
12 And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, [and] the holy of Jehovah honorable; and shalt honor it, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking [thine own] words:
14 then shalt thou delight thyself in Jehovah; and I will make thee to ride upon the high places of the earth; and I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.
). Imagine, God pronouncing upon one of Judah’s most wicked kings, Manasseh, severe punishment for leading the people in detestable idolatries. But when he showed the slightest sign of turning from sin as he humbled himself through fasting, God was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea and restored him to his kingdom.
Fasting is therefore an ancient tradition that has been proven and used even by kings. Why did Manasseh, Esther and the king of Nineveh succeed in moving God into action? The secret is that they showed self-denial and complete dependence on God and not on their strategic plans! May God help us to discover their secret and act as they did as we seek to live victorious Christian lives, “For we live, move, and exist because of him” (Acts 17:28Acts 17:28
English: American Standard Version (1901) - ASV
28 for in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain even of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
)
Bible Study Questions For Discussion - Week 21
- After reading the story of King Manasseh in 2 Chron 33 and the king of Nineveh, please list three things that you think made God listen to them.
a)……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
b)…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
c)…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… - Do you think these things can apply to you as a Christian living in the 21st century? Please explain
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. - What do you think happened in Esther’s case? How did God move on behalf of queen Esther?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Reflection 1 Kings 19:121 Kings 19:12
English: American Standard Version (1901) - ASV
12 and after the earthquake a fire; but Jehovah was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
: God Speaks Softly
“After the earthquake there was a fire—but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the soft whisper of a voice”. Let’s try not to miss God when He speaks; only when we are listening quietly will we hear Him.
Amen
