Lent: Prayer and Fasting
Preserving Bible Times: February: Prayer and Fasting - https://mailchi.mp/preserving.../february-prayer-and-fasting
From our friends at BiblePlaces.org: https://www.bibleplaces.com/photo-companion-to-the-bible/
"Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.'” (Matthew 4:1-3, ESV).
Prayer and fasting go together hand in hand. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus assumed both prayer and fasting, saying "when you pray" and "when you fast" (Matthew 6:5 and 6:16). Notice Jesus did not say "if". The assumption is followers of God will be active in the disciplines of prayer and fasting.
After his baptism, Jesus began his earthly ministry with prayer and fasting when "Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil" (Matthew 4:1-2 and Luke 4:1-2).
When determining the context of a passage, using a concordance and cross referencing other scripture references within a focal text helps us understand the author's intent and the transformational meaning in a passage of scripture.
We know the author of the Gospel of Matthew, Levi, otherwise known as Matthew the tax collector, is writing to a Jewish audience. He is highlighting the similarities between Moses and Jesus, and he is showing us that Jesus is the fulfillment of the law, and the greater Moses.
According to Exodus, Moses fasted when receiving the law from God, "So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments." (Exodus 34:28, ESV).
Moses wrote about God's provision of daily bread for the Israelites in the wilderness, writing, "And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord." (Deuteronomy 8:3, ESV).
When Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for forty days to be tempted by the devil, he quoted this verse from Deuteronomy 8:3 when the tempter says, to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread” (Matthew 4:3).
Jesus resisted this temptation of the enemy by quoting from the Torah, and by remembering God's provision of daily bread for his people in the wilderness for forty years. As Doug Greenwold noted in his book Encounters with Jesus, "In this Wilderness of Zin setting, daily manna symbolized a conscious, continual posture of always acknowledging being totally dependent on the Lord for everything" (Encounters with Jesus).
As the church enters into the Lenten season, a time of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, may we remember "that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord" (Deuteronomy 8:3, ESV).
A Prayer for the Answering of Prayer: “Almighty God, you have promised to hear the petitions of those who ask in the Name of your Son: Mercifully incline your ear to us as we make our prayers and supplications to you; and grant that what we ask faithfully, according to your will, we may obtain effectually, for the relief of our necessities and the setting forth of your glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” (#100., Book of Common Prayer, 2019).
Preserving Bible Times: February: Prayer and Fasting - https://mailchi.mp/preserving.../february-prayer-and-fasting
From our friends at BiblePlaces.org: https://www.bibleplaces.com/photo-companion-to-the-bible/
