ESOCS Devotional 10 October 2021
TEXT: ZECHARIAH 7: 1-7
MEMORY VERSE: “Say to all your people and to your priests, ‘During these seventy years of your exile, when you fasted and mourned in the summer and in early autumn, was it really for me that you were fasting?’” (Zechariah 7:5 NLT).
In our text today, we see an occasion of the arrival in Jerusalem of a group of messengers from the Babylonian captivity. They came to inquire of the Lord whether they should continue to fast and to pray. They had fasted so much while in exile. They also fasted and prayed for God’s intervention during the years of intense pressure, leading to the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon in 586 BC. (Jer. 41:1-10). Their fasts then, therefore, were based on their own selfish desires. They only fasted because of the attack on their city, and the slaying and capturing of their nobles. But God expected them to fast for repentance. They should have fasted over the loss of their faithfulness to God. Their fasting had nothing to do with repentance. Consequently, God would not give heed to their fasts. Their prayers were in vain.
And God asks again, “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To lose the bands of wickedness; to undo the heavy burdens; and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6 KJV). It is therefore time to return to the right track. Jesus fasted forty days and nights to prepare for His earthly ministry. Fast to reconcile yourself unto the Lord. God needs a cordial relationship with you.
- It is now old-fashioned for Christians to embark on fasting, as some teach. Do you agree?
- God our Father, you empowered Jesus and the prophets. Grant me the grace to do likewise.
Read Other ESOCS Devotional here
FURTHER READING: Joel 1: 14-20; Matthew 5: 29-48; Acts 11: 1-18
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ESOCS Devotional 10 October 2021
