Fasting in the Bible Day 1: Moses

When I went up on the mountain to receive the stone tablets of the covenant, which the LORD had made for you, I remained on the mountain forty days and nights. I ate no bread and drank no water. At the end of the forty days and nights, the LORD gave me the two stone tablets of the covenant written by His finger. On them were all the commandments which the LORD had spoken to you from the mountain of fire on the day of the assembly. The LORD then said to me, ‘Go down from here quickly, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly. They have turned away from what I commanded them. They have made a molten image for themselves.’ The LORD also said, ‘I have seen these people, and they are stubborn! Let Me destroy them and make a nation stronger and more numerous from your descendants alone.’ “So I came down from the mountain which was burning with fire. The two tablets of the covenant were in my hands. When I saw that you had indeed sinned against the LORD your God and had made a molten idol, turning aside from what the LORD had commanded you, I threw the two tablets down and smashed them before your eyes. I fell down on the ground before the LORD, and again, for forty days and nights, I ate no bread and drank no water, because the sin you had committed was evil in the sight of the LORD and could provoke Him to anger. I feared His anger and the hot displeasure with which the LORD could destroy you. But again He listened to me as I prayed fervently for you.” Deuteronomy 9: 9 – 19

Now the LORD said to Moses, “Cut out for yourself two stone tablets like the former ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the tablets which you smashed. Be ready by morning and come up to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to Me on the top of the mountain … so he was there with the LORD and for forty days and forty nights he ate no bread and drank no water. And God wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. Exodus 34: 1-2, 28

Moses fasted for what was right: to receive the stone tablets of the covenant for the people of Israel and set apart this holy act of God, treating it with the reverence and gratitude it deserved.

After he came down from the mountain, Moses also fasted for what was wrong: to fervently pray that the LORD, in His anger over the great sin of the people, would not destroy them as he had destroyed the tablets.

And again, Moses fasted, because God was a forgiving God: He had invited Moses to be with Him and to focus on the grace that replaced the tablets Moses had broken when the people of Israel broke their covenant with Him.

These are the first instances in the Bible that the spiritual habit of fasting is mentioned. Moses chose to fast for forty days and forty nights, three different times! But as we walk through the Bible, we will see that the length, the motivation and the kind of fast the people of Israel engaged in were as varied as the situations they found themselves in.

Some things in common that we will see going forward are the consistent pairing of fasting and prayer together, the strongly felt need for God to work and give an answer, and a righteous inner motivation to spend this time with God.

These stone tablets were what made the people of Israel unique. Their God was one God as stated in the tablets, and their God communicated with them in writing. This relationship was a two-way street! Their God was also a God who forgave and forgot. He created the tablets twice, despite their sin.

A habit of fasting was established and its significance was emphasized by the importance of the occasion.

In what circumstances have you felt the need to pray more fervently than usual?

If you fasted also, how did that make you feel? What difference did that experience make?

If you didn’t or haven’t fasted before, what difference do you think it could make for you?

What ongoing prayer do you have that you could try pairing with a short or small fasting discipline?

Check out these short articles about designing a fast that fits:

Read about a 30 Day Fast.

Lord Jesus, help me as I explore what You want to teach me about fasting. Open my eyes, my heart and my stomach to follow where You lead. Amen.