(Our Sunday blogs during Lent will focus on the subject of fasting.)
Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: "Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa and fast in my behalf. Don't eat and don't drink for three days, night or day. My female attendants and I will also fast in the same way." (Esther 4:15-16)
When faced with the spectre of genocide, Queen Esther called for a complete fast to be conducted by the Jewish community living in Susa. Complete fasts are rarely mentioned in Scripture. Such fasts seem to be reserved for extreme emergencies (as we see in the book of Esther) or extreme crises of faith (as seen in the life of Saul/Paul, Acts 9:9).
This act of not eating for three days and three nights is a plea for God to step in swiftly and mightily. It may be for physical deliverance of a nation, as we see in Esther's appeal to the king. Or it may be for personal insight that will ultimately result in the spiritual transformation of nations, as we see in Paul's ministry to the Gentiles.
Has God shown you something so shocking that it pushes you into this extreme fasting mode? If He has, then fast faithfully with a sincere heart. God is no respecter of persons. As He answered Esther and Paul, so will He answer you.
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