“Moses Takes Joshua On His 40 day Fast” Dt. 10:10 & Ex. 24:13-14

“And Moses rose up, and his servant Joshua; and Moses went up into the mount of God. And he said unto the (70) elders, Tarry here for us, until we come again unto you; and behold, Aaron and Hur are with you, if you have any matters to do, let him come unto them.” (Where was Hur during all this golden calf nonsense and broken tablets?) Ex. 24:13-14.

Exodus 24:18 says, “Moses went into the midst of the cloud and got up into the mount, and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.” Getting instructions from God and the ‘Ten Commandments.’ However, Joshua would not leave the Tabernacle, nor the presence of God, Ex. 33:11 showing us that he was most likely with Moses both times when he fasted and prayed 40 days and nights. He couldn’t get enough of God, can you? The power and the presence of God that is manifested to us in prolonged fasting is somewhat miraculous, if not divine. So, when we talk about Moses, Elijah, or Jesus fasting for forty days and nights we must remember not to leave out Joshua, the servant of the LORD’s servant. After the victory of Jericho and the Passover in the ‘Promised Land’ for the first time, Joshua meets the ‘Captain of The LORD’s Host’ with His sword drawn, ready for battle, and Joshua says, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?” Then He revealed who He was and Joshua fell on his face prostrate and worshiped Him. Then the ‘Captain of The LORD’s Host’ told Joshua to remove his shoes from off his feet because he was standing on holy ground in the presence of Almighty God, The Great I AM! This is the One Moses met in Ex. 3:5 and now Joshua gets to meet Him in person. What exactly transpires at this holy meeting, we don’t know. If you had an encounter like this would you want to talk about it or publish it in a book? I didn’t think so. But all that fasting and prayer prepared him for this particular holy meeting.

As we have been discussing the subject of fasting, the forgotten practice and principle of the Christian community today, we have looked at several things it produces like, a humble soul, Ps. 35:13; a chastened spirit, Ps. 69:10, and a contrite heart, helping to conquer our pride. We said it also weakens the knees or flesh, Ps. 109:24, it helps to turn the whole heart to God and produces a humble, contrite, broken spirit that God can and will revive! You do want to be revived, don’t you? We saw some results of fasting, regeneration of the lost, repentance of the saved, reliance and strong faith in believers, remittance and forgiveness of offenses, and most of all ‘Revival!’

We saw that fasting is the voluntary, self-sacrifice of the will, that gives to fasting all of its power with God; and its primary purpose is to give ourselves, ‘Holy and Wholly’ to God, so He can have complete freedom to use us as He sees fit. Andrew Murray said, “Prayer is reaching out after the unseen, fasting is letting go of all that is seen and temporal.” Fasting says Murray, “Helps express, deepen and confirm the relationship that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves to attain what we are seeking from God.” John Wesley said, “Is not the neglect of fasting which is ranked by our Lord with alms giving and prayer, one general occasion of deadness among Christians? Can anyone neglect fasting and be guiltless?”

Elijah after his great miracles on Mt. Carmel and calling fire down from heaven and slaying 850 false prophets, crawls under a juniper tree, depressed and wants to die, I Kings 19. In v. 8, it says he spent 40 days and nights in Mt. Horeb on the strength of the (ougah) food, the angel gave him under that tree. There are many Old Testament examples of fasting and prayer, Daniel, David, Joel, Zechariah, Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc. Jesus fasted for forty days and nights in Matt. 4:1-2 and, “Afterward He was hungry.” Now it doesn’t say, He didn’t drink, but I personally don’t think He did! There is not much water in that desert area anyway, I have been there, more than once. It is true all these men had to be super-naturally sustained, because our bodies can’t go without moisture that long. Dr. Herbert Sheldon studied fasting and said, “Under ideal conditions a human has fasted for 90 days and survived.” (Ideal conditions) On long fasts hunger usually subsides after three days and returns after 40 days, when the stored food reserves in the body tissues are used up. (Interesting!) Only then he says, “Does starvation begin, usually around the 41st day.” An interesting comparison was done by the USAF for survival and they concluded that a man can live without food for 40 days, without water for 3 days, without air for 8 minutes, but without hope for only 30 seconds, so hope is very important. They also have found that men under ideal conditions have been known to go without water for up to 12 days.

In Luke 12:36-38 Anna served God with, “fastings and prayers night and day,” and she had been doing it for 84 years and then some. So, don’t say, “I’m to old, to make a difference!” How old was Moses? Note the link in Anna’s ministry, “fastings and prayers;” Fasting is a way to worship God, you become more spiritually in tune with God, His will, His word, His wishes, His plans, and His commands when you fast! She was one of only two people in the Temple that recognized Jesus when He was brought into the Temple. Fasting allows us to discern His Scriptures and to perceive spiritual realities. In Acts 9:9 right after Paul’s encounter with the Lord on the road to Damascus, he is fasting and praying for spiritual discernment, “Lord what would You have me to do?” Fasting is a way to seek God’s will in a specific matter, Like Cornelius on a roof-top in Joppa in Acts 10:30, he fasted and prayed and God sent him an angel to tell him his prayers were heard. Has God sent you an angel lately? How would you know? Maybe He is telling you something right now!

The New Testament Church used this technique in choosing missionaries and church leaders, Acts 13:2-3; 14:23. In Acts 13:2-3 it says, “As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, separate me Barnabas and Saul/Paul for the work unto which I have called them.” They were ministering to the Lord by fasting, how beautiful is that? You don’t need another reason other than that one! However, v. 3 says, “And when they had fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them out.” Fasting was a part of their being, part of their worship, part of their ministry to Jesus, Matt. 6, (when you pray, when you give, when you fast). Why is it not part of our moral fiber and fabric today? Acts 13:23 says, they ordained elders/pastors in every church after they prayed and fasted. We just pick 3 or 4 candidates, eat some chicken and pie, listen to them preach, check out their wives and children and vote for the most likely to succeed. I don’t ever remember our church setting aside three days or seven days to fast and pray for wisdom and guidance to choose the right candidate or missionary to support. The Bible is filled with examples of fasting and praying, our Lord Jesus Christ being the foremost of all!

The key factor is motive, just read Isaiah chapter 58 for a comparison of man’s fast vs God’s fast. Motive is always the key to praying. giving, serving and fasting. Here in Isaiah 58, man is seeking himself, he is doing it for religion and God hates religion, He hates it with a holy hatred. Man even fasts for physical benefits, the disciples of Satan even fast for evil reasons to defeat Christians, and religious people fast for purely religious reasons like Lent, Ramadan, etc, and born-again Christians fast or should fast for spiritual reasons as well. The pharisees fasted every Monday and Thursday for their religion and the Orthodox Jews still do it today, Luke 18:9-14; Read Isaiah 58:6-7. Motive is the key to fasting and seeking God’s heart. Pure motives are extremely important! Make sure your motive is right or you will be wasting your time and God’s! Jer. 14:12, He won’t hear you; Zech. 7:4-13, If your heart is not right with God, you need confession not fasting first!

Phillip Brooks said, “Fasting is the voluntary disuse of anything innocent in and of itself, with a view to spiritual culture.” Andrew Bonar said, “Fasting is abstaining from all that interferes with prayer.” J. G. Morrison said, “Every great leader who moved his age mightily for God, fasted!” Charles Finney said, “After humbling myself with prayer and fasting and crying out to God, His power would return to me with all its fullness. This has been my experience all my life.” John Wesley said, “Is not the neglect of this plain duty, I mean fasting, ranked by our Lord, with alms-giving, and prayer, one general occasion of deadness among Christians? Can anyone willingly neglect it and be guiltless?” David Brainerd said, “Being sensible of the great want of divine influences and the out pouring of God’s Spirit, I spent the day in fasting and prayer to seek so great a mercy for myself, my poor people in particular, and the church of God in general.” 

Oh, my friend, I trust you will no longer make this God given, Christ ordained, principle for living, an experiment, but a practice in your life for His Almighty power and presence in your life and ministry for His glory and honor. So, you too can loose the bands of wickedness, undo heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free, break every yoke and bind the powers of hell. Moses knew and availed himself of this power, so did Joshua and Elijah and Paul and of course your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If God Himself availed Himself of this power, why won’t we? Till next time, I’ll see you, “… Between The Lines…” 

“Moses Takes Joshua On His 40 day fast” Ex. 24:13-14 – 1/25/18