We are walking in today: National Day Of Prayer--We Inform-You Choose!!
Witness supplication throughout the Bible: H2603 chanan to be gracious, show favour, pity
Jeremiah 31:9; 2 Chronicles 6:21, 6:39; Psalm 28:2, 28:6, 86:6, 116:1, 130:2; 1 Timothy 2:1, 5:5
Isaiah 58:6-12
6 Isn’t this the fast that I have been choosing: to loose the bonds of injustice, and to untie the cords of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7 Isn’t it to share your bread with the hungry, and to bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him with clothing, and not to raise yourself up from your own flesh and blood?” 8 “Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will spring up quickly; and your vindication will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will guard your back. 9 Then you’ll call, and the LORD will answer; you’ll cry for help, and he’ll respond, ‘Here I am.’ “If you do away with the yoke among you, and pointing fingers and malicious talk; 10 if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the needs of afflicted souls, then your light will rise in darkness, and your night will be like noonday. 11 And the LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in parched places, and they will strengthen your bones; and you’ll be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. 12 And your people will rebuild the ancient ruins; You’ll raise up the age-old foundations, and people will call you ‘Repairer of Broken Walls,’ ‘Restorer of Streets to Live In.’
Mark 9:29
He told them, “This kind can come out only by prayer.”
YHWH has called us to do two things. First, we are to never give up studying and seeking the correct interpretation of any given Bible passage. Second, such opportunities are golden moments for us to learn to show grace and love to others whose understanding of a given passage may differ from ours.
We have chosen to use what many refer to as a Messianic vocabulary. The reasons being: firstly, using
Hebraic-sounding words is another way to help you associate with the Hebraic Roots of your faith. Secondly, these words are not merely an outward show for us, they are truly an expression of who we are as Messianic believers who have "taken hold" of our inheritance with Israel. Instead of saying "Jesus", we call our Saviour "Y’shua" – the way His parents would have addressed Him in Hebrew. In addition, rather than referring to Y’shua as "Christ", we use the word "Messiah" – which is an Anglicized version of the Hebrew word, Moshiach. Yahweh is the name of God in Hebrew, where it is written as four consonants (YHWH or YHVH, as the W and V are derived from the same Hebrew letter 'vaw'). These four letters are called the Tetragrammaton (Greek for "[a word] having four letters). Jews ceased to use the name in the Greco-Roman period, replacing it with the common noun Elohim
("God") to demonstrate the universal sovereignty of Israel’s God over all others. At the same time, the divine name was increasingly regarded as too sacred to be uttered and was replaced in spoken ritual by the word Adonai ("My Lord"). From about the 6th to the 10th century the Masoretes (Jewish scholars who were the first to add vowels to the text of the Hebrew Bible) used the vowel signs of the Hebrew words Adonai or Elohim as the vowels for YHWH; and later on the artificial name Jehovah was produced.
Christian scholars and translators after the Renaissance and Reformation periods replaced the sacred name YHWH with GOD and LORD (all in capital letters in the Bible); which was a strategic move of satan for not using the Name. The Sacred Name occurs 6,828 times in the Hebrew text of the Bible, proving YHWH wants us to use it. In the 19th and 20th centuries, biblical scholars again began to use the form Yahweh and it is now the conventional usage in biblical scholarship; but leading Hebrew Scholars suggest YHWH should be pronounced as Yah-oo-VaH (Y’shua is derived from YaH-shuvah which means YaH saves. Yah (is an abbreviation of God’s name,YHWH, as seen in Psalm 68:4. The Name is also found in the word hallellu-YaH, which means "you praise the LORD").
Did Y’shua instruct us to fast?
There are more teachings on fasting in the entire word, than on repentance and confession. Yeshua spoke more on fasting then on immersion and the Covenant meal. The majority of the Bible's famous biblical characters fast as well.
1) Moshe the Lawgiver
2) David the king
3) Elijah the prophet
4) Esther the queen
5) Daniel
6) Anna
7) Y’shua
8) Paul
To have so much information on the topic of fasting coming from the word. You would think that it would be a more favorable topic to speak upon within the congregations. Even the Pharisees of the New Testament inquired to Y’shua as to why His disciples are not fasting. His response is a classic illustration of Hebrew idioms for more in-depth meaning. His response was:
Mark 2:19-20
19 Jesus replied, “The wedding guests can’t fast while the groom is with them, can they? As long as they have the groom with them, they can’t fast. 20 But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.”
Vasily misunderstood but this is the basis of the topic at hand for National Prayer Day. National Prayer day is about prayer and fasting? Right?
Fasting
6685. tsom ►
Strong's Concordance
tsom: fasting, a fast
Original Word: צוֹם
Part of Speech: Noun Masculine
Transliteration: tsom
Phonetic Spelling: (tsome)
Short Definition: fast
NAS Exhaustive Concordance
Word Origin
from tsum
Definition
fasting, a fast
NASB Translation
fast (17), fasted* (1), fasting (7), times of fasting (1).
The Hebrew root for fasting, "tsom" (צום ), can be used both as a verb and a
noun, e.g., "David fasted a fast"
2 Sam 12:16
David begged God on behalf of the youngster. He fasted, went inside, and spent the night lying on the ground.
A meaning verified in the next verse: "he ate no food." A synonymous idiom innah nefesh which literally means "afflict the body" includes fasting as part of a general routine of abstinence.
innah nefesh: the Hebrew phrase for "you shall humble yourselves" in Leviticus 23:27 is 'innah nefesh, which literally means, "afflict your soul." So, how has it become understood that afflicting one's soul means abstaining from food and drink? Because it can be deduced from other texts in the Scriptures. For example in Psalm 35:13 David writes, "I humbled my soul with fasting." We see the same connection again in the book of Isaiah between humbling/afflicting and fasting:
"Why have we fasted and You do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?" Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire, and drive hard all your workers. And if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom will become like midday. (Isaiah 58:3, 10)
This connection between Yom Kippur and fasting is so firmly established that even in the book of Acts, Yom Kippur is simply referred to as "the Fast."
Yom Kippur (or "The Day of Atonement") is synonymous with fasting. For many people in both Jewish and Messianic communities, Yom Kippur is quite possibly the only day of the year on which they fast. Even secular Jews who are not religious will sometimes fast on Yom Kippur.
The connection of fasting on Yom Kippur for Jews and for those "grafted into" Israel can be likened to Americans eating turkey on Thanksgiving. The two go hand in hand. But, from where does the idea of fasting on Yom Kippur come? And, what exactly does it mean to fast? Or, is there a spiritual reason for fasting?
Reasons for Fasting during the old covenant Times
The purposes of fasting are various, and to understand fasting in the New Covenant and our time, we need to go back to the principle of "first use" in Scripture. Let’s now go back in time and explore the reasons why individuals and groups fasted from the very beginning.
1) To win divine forgiveness:
Fasting’s most widely attested function, for the community as well as the individual, is to divert or terminate a calamity by prompting YHWH's compassion. For example, YHWH mitigates Ahab's punishment because he fasted and humbled himself. King David fasted in the hope that "YHWH will be gracious to me and the boy will live. But now that he is dead why should I fast?" Many other passages also indicate the use of fasting as a means of winning divine forgiveness, implying that fasting is basically an act of self-punishment, a ritual expression of remorse, submission, and supplication.
Fasting’s most widely attested function, for the community as well as the individual, is to divert or terminate a calamity by prompting YHWH's compassion. For example, YHWH mitigates Ahab's punishment because he fasted and humbled himself. King David fasted in the hope that "YHWH will be gracious to me and the boy will live. But now that he is dead why should I fast?" Many other passages also indicate the use of fasting as a means of winning divine forgiveness, implying that fasting is basically an act of self-punishment, a ritual expression of remorse, submission, and supplication.
2) To be shown a theophany:
To be shown a theophany, Moshe fasted for as long as 40 days as well as Elijah. On the two occasions when Daniel's prayers were answered by means of a vision, his preparatory rituals included fasting.
To be shown a theophany, Moshe fasted for as long as 40 days as well as Elijah. On the two occasions when Daniel's prayers were answered by means of a vision, his preparatory rituals included fasting.
3) Death occasioned a fast:
That death occasioned a fast is implied by the couriers' surprise when King David refused to fast after the death of the infant son born to him by Bath-Sheba.
4) When a human or natural calamity threatened to strike a community
Reasons for Fasting during the Second Temple Era
1) For the practicing of asceticism:
During the Second Temple period, daily or bi-weekly fasting was practiced for reasons of asceticism, especially among women, but also among men.
2) For the preparation for a revelation:
In the preparation for an apocalyptic revelation concerning end-times events.
3) For the atonement for unintentional and willful sin:
The Jewish literature of the Second Temple period also advocates fasting as a way of atonement for sins committed either unintentionally or even deliberately, or to prevent them.
By the way, the word breakfast by origin is Jewish. I was brought up to believe that breakfast meant, the first meal that you eat when you wake up in the morning from sleeping. That you were on a 'fast from dinner until the morning meal was broken by this first meal. So is this accurate? Let's see...
The origin of the word "Breakfast":
A "break fast" (two words) is a specific meal that takes place following the twenty-four hour fast on Yom Kippur, and this "break fast" meal is viewed as a festive meal. It is these two words that evolved into what is called today: "breakfast". This concludes the reasons for fasting in the Old Covenant up to the second Temple period.
Reasons for Fasting during the Second Temple Era
1) For the practicing of asceticism:
During the Second Temple period, daily or bi-weekly fasting was practiced for reasons of asceticism especially among women, but also among men.
2) For the preparation for a revelation:
In the preparation for an apocalyptic revelation concerning end-times events.
3) For the atonement for unintentional and willful sin:
The Jewish literature of the Second Temple period also advocates fasting as a way of atonement for sins committed either unintentionally or even deliberately, or to prevent them.
The Jewish literature of the Second Temple period also advocates fasting as a way of atonement for sins committed either unintentionally or even deliberately, or to prevent them.
Fasting during the time of Yeshua
During the time Yeshua was on earth, one of the Jewish customs was to fast two days a week and another custom was that the bridegroom and bride fasted twenty-four hours before the wedding:
"Although it is not recorded in the Talmud, an ancient tradition advises bride and groom to fast on the day of their wedding. (This applies both to those who are marrying for the first time and to those who are remarrying.) They fast from daybreak until after the chuppah, eating their first meal during their yichud seclusion at the end of the ceremony."
But the Pharisees and the Rabbinical Jews even today (and many Messianics) use the following reference in the Babylonian Talmud out of context to say that fasting is a requirement when the bridegroom is gone, the bridegroom, and the shoshbins [attendants of the bridegroom] and all the wedding guests are free from the obligations of prayer and tefillin, but are bound to read the Shema". Now note that nothing is said in this passage about mourning or fasting in the presence of the bridegroom or after the wedding. In any case, these man-made customs are from the Oral Law and not mentioned once in the Torah.
The Torah does not regulate or enjoin fasting per se on the people of the covenant. But several key points emerge that contribute to and set the foundation for the rest of the biblical theology of fasting. Of the greatest significance are the nature of the food prohibition in the Garden of Eden, the supernatural fasting of Moses on Sinai, the injunction of personal affliction on the Day of Atonement, and the various dietary restrictions of the law. As seen in the following section, together these examples associate fasting with living in or returning to the sustaining presence of Yahweh. The question is did Yeshua follow the Jewish custom at the wedding, yes or no?
Let’s read the passage carefully concerning both Yochanan’s (John’s) disciples and the Pharisees’ predicament about Yeshua’s answer on the Pharisee’s fasting:
"Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples fast not? And Y’shua said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as
the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast."
From what we can see is that the prophet Joel was alluding to this Jewish custom. Furthermore, Messiah is specifically cast in a metaphor of a bridegroom in the Hebrew mindset. The Tanakh compares the restoration of Israel (Northern Ten Tribes = Bride) in the last days to the joy that accompanies a wedding.
In Matthew, Yeshua as the promised Messiah has brought the dawn of the eschatological banquet, as the bridegroom. He is the primary focus of that wedding banquet and therefore His disciples cannot mourn or fast now as there is no wedding. That is why Yeshua taught it was forbidden for His bride to fast in the presence of the Bridegroom, as His bride will fast in the twenty-four hours before His wedding! Listen to Yeshua’s words and compare it with Joel and the Jewish custom: "Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast". Y’shua uses a metaphor based on common sense. The metaphor compares Y’shua to a bridegroom and explains that while He is still with them, the metaphorical wedding celebration is a picture of what is to come.
By its very nature, fasting seems to suggest that something is wrong. Eating is a normal part of human existence, so abstaining from eating implies a disruption in the very rhythm of life. Therefore, fasting and abstinence from food are to point to something even more necessary for life—communion with and dependence on YHWH.
Fasting behaviors were sometimes commanded, and sometimes voluntary, but the Hebrew Bible rather consistently portrays fasting in conjunction with themes of disruption and restoration. In the midst of
disruption, fasting comes to symbolize hope. Through repentance and prayer, fasting can signify the centering of the self in humility, the renewal of the relationship to YHWH’s sustaining force. As such, fasting takes on a dual significance of mourning and hope.
The hope evidenced in the proper kinds of fasting in the Scriptures is ultimately a hope in the fulfillment of the eschatological, Messianic Age, but make sure YHWH remains the focal point!
The fact that we equate the day of prayer the first thrusday in May--this year on the 5th as a National Day of Prayer. Compared once again to man made days and Yahweh's Feast Day The Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. As a parable so to speak that eludes to Yeshua as the bridegroom and the daughters of Israel as the bride. The time to spend in the presence of Yahweh mentioned in Joel 2:15-32. The brides could no longer nor have any need to fast within the presence of the bridegroom. Because the presence of the groom was the fast. To be in Y'shua presence is to fast from the world to receive intimacy of likeness and image. Moses fasted for not just forty but 80 days both were in prayer and connection with being in the Great I AM's presence. Daniel fasted in the presence of Yahweh daily. Y'shua went into the wilderness to pray for forty days fasting in the presence of Yahweh. Bottom line, Hebracially, to fast is to pray and to pray is to be constantly in Yahweh's presence! Just as the examples in the word of everyone who prayed (fasted) To hear this again click here.
"Although it is not recorded in the Talmud, an ancient tradition advises bride and groom to fast on the day of their wedding. (This applies both to those who are marrying for the first time and to those who are remarrying.) They fast from daybreak until after the chuppah, eating their first meal during their yichud seclusion at the end of the ceremony."
But the Pharisees and the Rabbinical Jews even today (and many Messianics) use the following reference in the Babylonian Talmud out of context to say that fasting is a requirement when the bridegroom is gone, the bridegroom, and the shoshbins [attendants of the bridegroom] and all the wedding guests are free from the obligations of prayer and tefillin, but are bound to read the Shema". Now note that nothing is said in this passage about mourning or fasting in the presence of the bridegroom or after the wedding. In any case, these man-made customs are from the Oral Law and not mentioned once in the Torah.
The Torah does not regulate or enjoin fasting per se on the people of the covenant. But several key points emerge that contribute to and set the foundation for the rest of the biblical theology of fasting. Of the greatest significance are the nature of the food prohibition in the Garden of Eden, the supernatural fasting of Moses on Sinai, the injunction of personal affliction on the Day of Atonement, and the various dietary restrictions of the law. As seen in the following section, together these examples associate fasting with living in or returning to the sustaining presence of Yahweh. The question is did Yeshua follow the Jewish custom at the wedding, yes or no?
Let’s read the passage carefully concerning both Yochanan’s (John’s) disciples and the Pharisees’ predicament about Yeshua’s answer on the Pharisee’s fasting:
"Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples fast not? And Y’shua said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as
the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast."
From what we can see is that the prophet Joel was alluding to this Jewish custom. Furthermore, Messiah is specifically cast in a metaphor of a bridegroom in the Hebrew mindset. The Tanakh compares the restoration of Israel (Northern Ten Tribes = Bride) in the last days to the joy that accompanies a wedding.
In Matthew, Yeshua as the promised Messiah has brought the dawn of the eschatological banquet, as the bridegroom. He is the primary focus of that wedding banquet and therefore His disciples cannot mourn or fast now as there is no wedding. That is why Yeshua taught it was forbidden for His bride to fast in the presence of the Bridegroom, as His bride will fast in the twenty-four hours before His wedding! Listen to Yeshua’s words and compare it with Joel and the Jewish custom: "Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast". Y’shua uses a metaphor based on common sense. The metaphor compares Y’shua to a bridegroom and explains that while He is still with them, the metaphorical wedding celebration is a picture of what is to come.
By its very nature, fasting seems to suggest that something is wrong. Eating is a normal part of human existence, so abstaining from eating implies a disruption in the very rhythm of life. Therefore, fasting and abstinence from food are to point to something even more necessary for life—communion with and dependence on YHWH.
Fasting behaviors were sometimes commanded, and sometimes voluntary, but the Hebrew Bible rather consistently portrays fasting in conjunction with themes of disruption and restoration. In the midst of
disruption, fasting comes to symbolize hope. Through repentance and prayer, fasting can signify the centering of the self in humility, the renewal of the relationship to YHWH’s sustaining force. As such, fasting takes on a dual significance of mourning and hope.
The hope evidenced in the proper kinds of fasting in the Scriptures is ultimately a hope in the fulfillment of the eschatological, Messianic Age, but make sure YHWH remains the focal point!
The fact that we equate the day of prayer the first thrusday in May--this year on the 5th as a National Day of Prayer. Compared once again to man made days and Yahweh's Feast Day The Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. As a parable so to speak that eludes to Yeshua as the bridegroom and the daughters of Israel as the bride. The time to spend in the presence of Yahweh mentioned in Joel 2:15-32. The brides could no longer nor have any need to fast within the presence of the bridegroom. Because the presence of the groom was the fast. To be in Y'shua presence is to fast from the world to receive intimacy of likeness and image. Moses fasted for not just forty but 80 days both were in prayer and connection with being in the Great I AM's presence. Daniel fasted in the presence of Yahweh daily. Y'shua went into the wilderness to pray for forty days fasting in the presence of Yahweh. Bottom line, Hebracially, to fast is to pray and to pray is to be constantly in Yahweh's presence! Just as the examples in the word of everyone who prayed (fasted) To hear this again click here.
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