Ezra & Nehemiah: A need for fasting

It's hard to imagine what life was like for the people of Israel after they went into exile. Jerusalem had fallen to the Babylonians with great violence and brutality, as recorded by Jeremiah in Lamentations. But empires come and empires go, and in 539 BC, the Persians defeated the Babylonians and absorbed the lands of Israel and Judah into their territory. The next year, Cyrus allowed the people of Judah to return home and rebuild the temple of the Lord. Around 458 BC, another group of Judean exiles returned under Ezra's leadership (ESV study Bible).

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah (often viewed as one book) give us a historical narrative about these returns to Palestine, but with important theological lessons about God's covenant faithfulness. The exile was not the end of the story for God's people, and the book of Ezra shows an amazing turnaround of these pagan rulers giving favour to God's people and actually commissioning them to re-start their religious community centred around the temple. The rebuilt temple was nowhere near as great in grandeur as the first, so it was a bittersweet reopening (see Ezra 3), but the fact remains that God had preserved for Himself a remnant. He had not wiped out the descendants of Abraham. He still had plans to prosper them (Jer 29).

It was a great challenge for this broken, battered community to live distinctively and faithfully to the Lord. They had been in exile for 70 years. As they come back to the Word of God and the Law of God, they have to come to terms with their own disobedience and figure out how to move forwards. Ezra's leadership is bold and strong as he urges the people to obey the commands of the Lord, even at great personal cost (such as the removal of foreign wives and children - see Ezra 9-10). What struck me looking at these narratives was the place of fasting in the post-exilic community, as an integral part of their repentance and turning back to the Lord.

Fasting is not something we talk about very often. It is not something we do very well, I'm guessing (if my own practise is anything to go by). In OT Law, it was only prescribed for the Day of Atonement (see Leviticus 16), which was fundamentally about purification from sin. The people were charged to 'afflict' themselves (v29) and 'do no work', which suggests that fasting and prayer was part of this holy day where their sins would be dealt with before God in the Holy of Holies. In the offerings and the goat sent into the wilderness, God gave His people a vivid picture of their sin being atoned for, which ultimately pointed to Jesus' death on the cross. So I'm not suggesting we should go back to OT Law and fast like we're trying to add something on to Christ's work- He said, 'It is finished'! (John 19:30) But it's interesting that during the exile and afterwards, fasting became something God's people did when they realised their need for God. You could look at Esther calling a fast before she was to appear before the King to try to stop the killing of the Jews (a situation of desperation, see Esther 4). You could look at the prayerful life of Daniel and how he fasted and prayed when he realised the 70 years of exile had passed and God had promised through Jeremiah that He would bring the people back (Daniel 9). In Ezra, he fasts and falls on his knees in intercessory prayer when he hears of the mixed marriages of the exiles (Ezra 9). Nehemiah fasts and prays over an extended time when he hears of the state of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 1). Why did they fast? Because they were desperate. They were full of grief over sin (not always their own sin, but the sin of the nation, of their community). They wanted to humble themselves before God and pray, and abstaining from food was an important part of that. It showed repentance (you could also look at Nineveh in the book of Jonah for that).

Why don't we fast? Because we're not desperate. We want to see God move, but we're not desperate enough that we're willing to give up the things we rely on each day to get us through - this isn't just our three meals, but other things too like social media, our mobile phones. I read something on Revive our Hearts where the speaker made a point that you wouldn't congratulate someone on being very self-disciplined if they managed to eat three meals a day. Imagine it: 'Well done! You actually managed to eat breakfast, lunch AND dinner!' It's something we take for granted, unless we're ill. Well fasting is meant to show us that the same commitment we have towards feeding our bodies is the commitment we should have in prayer. We NEED God more than we need food to survive (Jesus told the devil 'Man shall not live by bread alone' in Matthew 4:4 when He was tempted to turn stones into bread during a 40-day fast).

I know it's easy with fasting to become legalistic. In fact, Jesus warned His disciples not to fast like the Pharisees, to make a song and dance about it, and do it for human praise and attention (Luke 18:12). But He did teach on fasting as though it was meant to be a regular part of life for His followers - 'when you fast...' (Matthew 6:17). He was questioned on why His disciples didn't fast, and He replied, 'But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.' (Mark 2:19) Until Jesus comes again, there is sin, there is suffering, there is wrong-doing in the world. There is desperation. So fasting is to be part of following Christ until that day when He puts everything right.

If we don't fast, it's like we're saying there's nothing to grieve over. Our culture doesn't do grief. We're told not to focus on the bad things. But biblically, we should! We should grieve over the sins of our nation. We should mourn the hypocrisies and failures of the Church. We should deeply feel the horror of our sin and in the midst of our gratitude to Christ for making our atonement, it's not always wrong to set aside special time to fast and pray for victory over habitual sin. I'm not saying 'fast and God will listen to you'. I'm just trying to recognise that Scripture tells us there IS a need for fasting, and I know I need to do it a lot more than I do at the moment.

Ezekiel: Willing to speak

Having just looked at Daniel, I'm now back-tracking to look at Ezekiel. While both were living in exile in Babylon, Ezekiel's ministry begins five years after the first group of exiles was deported to Babylon. Given that Daniel lives through the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar, his son, and Darius and into the days of Cyrus too, it seems Daniel was part of the later group of exiles.

Ezekiel and Daniel had very different ministries. Daniel was called to serve in the heart of the Babylonian court and empire. He was given a position of power and prestige - though this was threatened by his faithfulness to God and his powerful enemies. Ezekiel lived among the exiles who were a community forced from their home, strangers in a foreign land with no status or wealth. He belonged to the priestly class but instead of being able to serve his ministry in the temple in Jerusalem, he finds himself placed by God in a ministry of unrelenting preaching to a people who didn't want to know. Daniel saw some remarkable miracles: the saving of his three friends in the fiery furnace, his own deliverance in the lions' den, Nebuchadnezzar's humbling, the writing on the wall... He saw some of the Babylonian rulers come to recognise God's greatness and uniqueness. Ezekiel, speaking to God's own people, saw none of this. He faced rejection for his hard message, yet he did not compromise; he persevered.

Much like Isaiah, Ezekiel experiences a 'call' to be God's prophet, to speak His words to the people, with a heavenly vision. As he is commissioned, he is told repeatedly that the people are 'nations of rebels' (chapter 2 v3). 'Be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. And you shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or refuse to hear, for they are a rebellious house. But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Be not rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.' (v6-8) In language echoed later in Revelation, it seems that Ezekiel saw a vision of Christ Himself who gave him his mission ('seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance' chapter 1 v26). I was thinking about my own mission, wondering if I would be as willing as Ezekiel if I knew it was -in human terms- going to be a failure and mean so much isolation and rejection.

There are certainly times where we feel we are not seeing fruit, where it's hard to persevere. I'm challenged through Ezekiel's call that God is asking me, 'are you willing to speak for Me, even when people don't listen?' If God's people are willing to speak the words that He gives them, before whoever He puts them, then it could be kings and princes or the poor and needy; it doesn't matter. It gives Him glory. Are you willing?

Daniel: the courage of a clear conscience

I love the story of Daniel in the lions' den. It's so dramatic and Daniel is such an amazing hero, unflinching in his devotion to God and in the face of mortal danger. I was thinking about how Daniel was able to face such a trial with confidence. Obviously God's Spirit gave him strength, but I also think Daniel's courage had a lot to do with the fact he had a clear conscience before God.

When you read Daniel 6, his godly character and moral purity is emphasised: 'he was faithful, and no error or fault was found in him.' (v4) His enemies had to trap him by his faith as he was otherwise blameless before the king, and in line for a promotion (v3). His diligence and honourable conduct were unparalleled in the pagan land of Babylon.

Once the king makes the law banning prayer 'to any god or man for thirty days' except himself (v7), Daniel does not hesitate to continue praying to the LORD of heaven and earth. 'When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open towards Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.' (v10) In fact, this law made Daniel even more desperate to pray than ever! He knew he couldn't go on without the sustenance of his God. He knew that his privileged position was a gift from his Creator, not something he had simply earned by his own merit. If he had thought it was, he would have simply ditched prayer for a month and carried on at the top of the tree. But Daniel's view of God makes this impossible. He refuses to compromise.

It's interesting that his windows were open 'towards Jerusalem'. He's in exile, in Babylon, yet his heart is turned towards the place of the temple, the heritage of his fathers, the faith of his people. He is consciously following the scriptures where King Solomon, at the dedication of the temple, prayed that if the people were exiled for disobedience, they should turn their hearts back to Jerusalem and pray for God's mercy once again: 'yet if they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and have acted perversely and wickedly’, if they repent with all their mind and with all their heart in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you towards their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen, and the house that I have built for your name, then hear in heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their plea, and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions that they have committed against you, and grant them compassion in the sight of those who carried them captive' (1 Kings 8:47-50). Daniel was consciously engaged in this work of intercession, knowing and understanding that the exile was all part of the plan of God in disciplining his people. Daniel's regular prayer was fuelled by the hope that Yahweh would hear; He would forgive; He would bring His people home. In chapter 9 we see perhaps a clearer glimpse of this intercessory heart of Daniel, but for now it helps for us to see that to him, prayer was an absolute necessity. It wasn't something he could just drop out of his schedule. Both on a personal level, and on a corporate, national level, prayer was of the utmost importance and priority to this godly man.

Daniel knows, then, that in choosing prayer he is choosing something better than the king's approval, even than his own life. He understands that in choosing prayer, the way of obedience, he can then stand before God in a clear conscience. He can say, 'I've been faithful to You, LORD, above all others.' Daniel doesn't know if God will rescue him from the lions (much like his three friends with the fiery furnace). But he does know that if he dies, he will be able to meet His God unashamedly. That gives him a powerful courage and an ability to stand firm amongst some frightening enemies and terrifying circumstances.

It's so interesting to see the impotence of the king - ironic impotence, as the reason he is unable to help Daniel is because of the power invested in his own laws ('Know, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed' v15) - compared with the sovereign power of God. The king 'set his mind to deliver Daniel' and 'laboured' to do so (v14), but was ultimately powerless and ineffective. Daniel tells the king the next day 'My God sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths' (v22), a very clear answer to the king's question: 'has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?' (v21). There can be no doubting it: Daniel's faith is vindicated publicly.

Daniel declares God has saved him 'because I was found blameless before him' (v22). Perhaps this was something the angel told him; we don't know. But it encourages us that if we diligently follow God in faithfulness wherever He places us, then we can have courage to face any obstacles, with a clear conscience before our King.

Daniel: shining like stars

'Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky' (Philippians 2:14-15).

'Christ is the light of the world, and good Christians are lights in the world. When God raises up a good man in any place, he sets up a light in that place.' (Matthew Henry)

I've been reading the book of Daniel, and this New Testament verse from Philippians really sums it up for me. With the nation of Israel in pieces and the cream of the crop in exile in Babylon, Daniel and his friends shine like stars in the darkness of a pagan land. Their situation speaks strongly to me of our position as Christians, 'elect exiles' (1 Pet 1:1) in this corrupt world, waiting for the return of Jesus Christ and the beauty of the new creation in its stunning absence of sin. I think I often read the Bible and think, how am I supposed to do this? How am I supposed to live in this world, full of temptations and pulls, and manage to obey God? Surely it can't be possible? Now I'm not an advocate of Christian perfectionism, but sometimes I worry we go too far the other way. We are so caught up with emphasising our sinfulness that we forget that God has given us commands, and the power by His Spirit to obey them. Otherwise, if it was not possible to obey, how could we be held accountable and responsible for our sin?

Looking at the heroes of the Bible, like Abraham, Noah, Moses, Job, David, they were not sinless. They could not redeem us like Jesus. However, they did have a valid righteousness that came from their obedience through faith in God's promises. They did live exemplary lives amongst a warped and crooked generation. And it has to be possible for us to imitate them -and ultimately Christ Himself- and live righteously so that we can fulfil our function of illuminating to the world how far from their Creator they have fallen, and draw them back to Him. (1 Pet 2:9)

So let's look at Daniel and see what we can learn from his behaviour in Babylon:
He was unshaken, despite living in an extremely turbulent time. He was exiled from Israel to be educated for three years in the literature and language of the Chaldeans (Dan 1:5) - essentially a re-education to make these exiles conform to the Babylonian ways. But Daniel resolves not to defile himself with the king's food (Dan 1:8), which seems to be a way of taking a stand that he won't be ensnared by the new culture he is living in. The distinctive diet which he and his friends adopt serves to emphasise their distinct faith and identity as God's people in a foreign land. From the beginning of the book, then, Daniel is distinctive. He deliberately does not seek to 'blend in' seamlessly with his pagan surroundings. He was therefore not a people-pleaser. He wasn't willing to sacrifice his closeness to God and obedience just to win favour with others.

In the close fellowship he shared with Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, Daniel avoided spiritual isolation. He knew his own need for like-minded believers around him to encourage him and share truth in the midst of a crazy time, full of tests, betrayals and amazing miracles too. In his lifestyle, both words and actions, Daniel showed outstanding wisdom (Dan 1:17). Unlike Solomon, he was faithful to the end. He was gifted by God in exceptional ways, and placed in a context he almost certainly found uncomfortable, difficult and at times life-threatening, in order to be used by God in extraordinary ways. He was happy to be a prophet in a pagan place, one who spoke the words God wanted him to speak, in the situations he was placed into. His boldness was balanced with a wonderful calmness and humility; Daniel does not come across as gung-ho (in Dan 2:14 he hears of the king's command to destroy all the wise men of Babylon, which includes himself, and speaks to the captain of the king's guard with prudence and discretion). In each situation he faced, he determined to seek God and had faith that God would answer (Dan 2:16-18). He was a regular and seasoned pray-er, refusing to quit his habit to fall in line with the king's orders, regardless of the cost (Dan 6:10).

Ultimately, Daniel had a firm understanding of the sovereignty of God. He knew that Yahweh's power was not restricted to the borders and boundaries of Israel. He knew that he was where he was for a reason in a divine purpose, even if he didn't always complete understand that purpose. He was thankful, offering praise to God and refusing to take God's favour for granted (Dan 2:21-23). He spoke truth without compromise to kings who held a huge amount of worldly power, knowing that their power was given to them by an almighty God who would hold them accountable. Despite his unique abilities and the prominence he held under Nebuchadnezzar, by Belshazzar's reign, Daniel seems to have been overlooked or forgotten (see Dan 5:11-12). He obviously wasn't one to put himself forward and cling on to power for the sake of it. He knew if God wanted him to be in the spotlight again, He would make it happen - and when He did, Daniel didn't shrink from speaking some hard words to the proud and arrogant king who had not learnt from the mistakes of his father (Dan 6:17-23). He refuses earthly rewards because he sees their true value in the light of eternity.

What encouragement for us! It is possible to live an exemplary life in a world that is fundamentally hostile to God. As Simon Guillebaud observes, we are to insulate ourselves, not isolate ourselves, from the world. What situations has God placed you in, to be a witness to the world around you? Pray that He would help you to stay faithful!