What types of fasting does the Bible talk about? from Compelling Truth
Fasting is usually abstaining from food and drink, except water, for a set amount of time. However, fasting can be abstaining from about anything.
Biblically, most fasting involves food and drink. Moses, David, and Daniel all fasted, as did Anna, Paul, and Jesus Christ. In Matthew 6:16 and 17, Jesus spoke about fasting as an expected religious practice. He said “when you fast….”
Fasting is a time when Christians, individually or together, seek after God, His direction, His forgiveness, His intervention, and His presence. By fasting, we are saying that we totally rely upon God for everything, even our very sustenance.
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Often, fasting is related to repentance in Scripture. David, the nation of Israel, and the people of Nineveh all fasted in repentance. In other instances recorded in the Bible, fasting is linked to passionate prayer, as with King Jehoshaphat and Queen Esther.
When his country was on the verge of being invaded, King Jehoshaphat called everyone to fast (2 Chronicles 20:3). God defeated those who were preparing to attack, and the country honored God (2 Chronicles 20:24–27). When the people of God prepared to return to Jerusalem after being in captivity in Babylon, they fasted and asked God for protection (Ezra 8:21).
Jesus fasted for forty days in the wilderness as He prepared for three years of ministry (Luke 4:1–13). In an attempt to leverage Jesus’ hunger, Satan tempted Him to make bread from stones. Jesus responded, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone'” (Luke 4:4). Moses and Elijah also endured miraculous forty-day fasts (Deuteronomy 9:9; 1 Kings 19).
There are biblical examples of the full fast, abstaining from all food and drink (including water) such as when Esther called all Jews to a total fast for three days before she asked the King of Persia to spare them from destruction (Esther 4:16). In the New Testament, Saul fasted for three days after encountering Jesus on the Road to Damascus and being struck blind (Acts 9:9).
