Lesson 12 ~ May Third Week
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EZRA’S FAST AND DANIEL’S FAST
Background Reading:
Isaiah 58:6-8; 1 Samuel 7:6; Ezra 8:23; Joel 2:12
Devotional Reading:
Isaiah 58:1-8
Central Verse:
“Wherefore have we fasted, say they and thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul? And thou takest no knowledge? Behold in the day of your fast ye find pleasure and exact all your labors.”
Isaiah 58:3, KJV
“We have fasted before you! They say. “Why aren’t you impressed? We have been hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it.!” “I will tell you why!” I respond. “It is because you are fasting to please yourselves. Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers.”
Isaiah 58:3, NLT
Key Terms:
Pulse – A mixture of wheat, barley, flour, beans, lentils, and parched corn.
Dietary laws – Any laws observed by Orthodox Jews that permit or prohibit certain foods.
Introduction:
Believers must know the importance of fasting as well as praying. However, they also need to know the different types of fasting and the benefits that they can receive from them. The Bible is filled with stories of men and women who fasted and received the benefits that God had available for them. In this lesson, the story of two prophets will be discussed. Both men had needs and recognized that they needed more than just a regular casual prayer.
It is right to pray, for Jesus said to His disciples when He spoke in a parable in Luke 18 that men ought always to pray and not faint. Ezra and Daniel were known as men of faith and prayer. They both loved God and His people. Because of their love and concern for God and His people, they took time and sought God with prayers and fasting.
Discussion:
Ezra found himself in an exceedingly difficult place because the situation for Israel had become difficult, and his people were under weighty burdens. Ezra was a part of the Children of Israel, who were in captivity in Babylon. Because he loved God and His Word, Ezra spent time studying the Word, teaching it, and doing it. He believed that this Word directly resulted from Moses hearing from God and sharing what God said with the people. The temple had been rebuilt, and Ezra was allowed to return to Jerusalem by King Artaxerxes, King of Persia, who was very generous to the Jews who returned. He allowed them to have gold, silver, and all the necessities they would need when they arrived back in Jerusalem. They had been gone a long time. He even gave them animals to use in their sacrifices to God.
Ezra was reluctant and embarrassed to ask soldiers to accompany them for protection because he told the King that their God protects His own. Ezra gathered the Jews returning with him together, and they fasted and prayed that God would take care of them as they traveled, and God did. They fasted to express humility, self-denial, and submission to God, seeking God’s help, protection, and favor, for they were overwhelmed by their condition. Without God’s protection, they could have been attacked by other tribes of people who were enemies to Israel as well as wild beasts; knowing that they had a long way to travel.
Daniel was also a prophet of God, and he, too, loved God, His ways, and His people. He was taken from Jerusalem along with several other young men. After arriving in Babylon, he found himself separated from most of the Jewish population and separated to be used by the King in an entirely different area. He and the young Hebrew boys were put under the care of a Eunuch who was the master of the Eunuch’s and was told to be given food from the King’s table for the next three years. Daniel knew that much of the King’s food was offered to idols and was against their dietary laws. They could not eat it and remained consecrated to God. He purposed not to defile himself with the portion of the King’s delicacies nor the wine he drank.
The Word tells the believers that there is a way that seems right unto man, but the end is the way of death (Proverbs 16:25). The King felt that if he had these young men fed with food from his table, they would be healthier, wiser, cunning in knowledge, well-favored, understanding science, and filled with more excellent abilities that they would be able to learn the language of the Chaldeans.
He asked permission to be excluded from the food and only to be given pulse and water for the next ten days. Ten days later he was examined to see if they would look good or even better. After consuming a simple diet Daniel and the three Hebrew boys were ten times better than any other young men.
Daniel fasted and prayed that God would give them a healthier life or for “their health to spring forth” (Isaiah 58:8). Daniel and the three Hebrew boys demonstrated that fasting, praying, and abstaining from eating the King’s food, as God had guided them even in Babylonian captivity, allowed them to be healthier and wiser than any of the other young men in the King’s court.
Conclusion:
Each of these men felt the need to fast. Even though their needs were different, their purpose was different, and they followed a different name; they both received the results for which they were searching. Do not allow conditions to limit what God will do for you. Ask Him to lead and guide you. In Isaiah 58, He tells the believers that His fast accomplishes many different things.
Search the scriptures to find the type of fast that you need, and follow what the Word says. The Word of God promises eternal life for believers.
Questions:
1. What was the difference between the two prophets’ needs?
2. What did Ezra have to fast and pray for, and why?
3. What did Daniel have to fast and pray for?
4. Are there other people who had to fast and pray in the Bible?
Essential Thought:
The believer should not worry
about results;
when he obeys God, fasts, and prays,
God gives results.