SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/11/2020 11:17 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “Pretentious
Fasting”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 6:16
Message of the
verse: “16
"Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad
countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be
fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.” “16 "Then, when you fast, don’t look
like those miserable play-actors! For they deliberately disfigure their faces
so that people may see that they are fasting. Believe me, they have had all
their reward” (Philips).
I want to look at the phrase “when
you fast” to show that Jesus knows that people will fast, and so I think that
we will need some direction as to when and how we fast. The word fast is nesteia in the Greek and MacArthur states that this “literally
means not to eat, to abstain from food.
Fasts were sometimes total and sometimes partial and ordinarily only
water was drunk.”
There were two extreme views of
eating that were held by the Jews of Jesus day.
Many are like the ones mentioned in this passage as they made it obvious
that they were fasting as they would go out onto the streets and put on a show
for those around them as our verse speaks of.
The other view was because food was a gift from God some of the Jews
would try and eat every kind of food while alive so that on judgment day they
could say that they tried all of God’s food.
When Jesus came to earth fasting by
the Jews was like almost every their aspect of Jewish religious life. They perverted it like the others we spoke of
in our past SD’s before we got to the Lord’s Prayer section.
Many of the Pharisees would fast two
times a week as seen in Luke 18:12 and they usually did it on the second and
the fifth days of the week. There claim
was they did this because these were the days Moses made the two separate trips
to receive the tablets of the law from Mount Sinai. However as mentioned they also liked to do it
on the days when people came to the market to shop which were the second and
fifth days of the week. They did not
miss a trick. They would bring attention
to themselves as seen in our verse by looking “like those miserable play-actors”
according to the Philips rendition of the New Testament.
Warren
Wiersbe’s comment “The heart of the matter is the problem with the heart” can
be seen here as their hearts were not right with God and so they just brought
attention to themselves like seen in Luke 18:9-14 “9 And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in
themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt: 10 “Two
men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax
collector. 11 “The Pharisee
stood and was praying this to himself: ’God,
I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or
even like this tax collector. 12 ’I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ 13 "But the tax collector, standing some
distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was
beating his breast, saying, ’God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ 14 "I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather
than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who
humbles himself will be exalted.’”
MacArthur
concludes “Unfortunately, throughout the history of the church fasting has most
often been viewed in the two extremes that were common in Judaism. John Calvin said, ‘Many for want of knowing
its usefulness undervalue its necessity.
And some reject it all together as superfluous, while on the other hand,
where the proper use of fasting is not well understood, it easily degenerates
into superstition.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Continue to learn about fasting and once I
learn more about it I will know when and where to do it.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to pray for our countries election
that the Lord will give us grace to accomplish what He desires to happen here,
for our good and for His glory, to continue to pray for revival for myself, and
for believers around the world.
12/11/2020 11:45 AM
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