We are addressing here strictly the Biblically described spiritual fasting — not fasting for health reasons. The fast during the Day of Atonement — one of God’s annual Holy Days — is the only commanded fast in the Bible (Leviticus 23:27, 29, 32). The fast on the Day of Atonement, referred to by the commandment to “afflict your souls,” has been rightly understood as abstaining from food and drink for 24 hours. (For more information, please read our free booklet, “God’s Commanded Holy Days.”). However, we find that God’s people fasted, or were asked to fast, on other occasions as well (compare, for example, Joel 2:12; Nehemiah 1:4; 2 Chronicles 20:3; Matthew 17:21; Daniel 9:3; Acts 13:2-3; Acts 14:23).
David, a man after God’s own heart, wrote in Psalm 35:13: “I humbled [or: afflicted] my soul with fasting.” Here, David fasted in the same way, as it was required on the Day of Atonement — by afflicting his soul. This would mean that he abstained from food and drink during his fast.
In fact, all Biblical passages, defining or describing the manner of fasting, make clear that it is being done by abstaining from food and drink. We read in Esther 4:16, that the queen told her uncle Mordecai: “Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Sushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise.”
Continue reading "When we fast, do we go without food and water as on the Day of Atonement, or are we just to abstain from food during ordinary fasting?"