The StaveMD log.

Why this page is here

Three pages about taking hunger away. One about choosing it.

The business on pages one to three sells an injection whose whole effect is that you stop being hungry. This page is the Bible’s three forty-day fasts: the three people in Scripture who went without food for that long, on purpose, and what the text actually says happened. It is here because the guidebook would be dishonest without it. Every other page treats appetite as a market. This one treats it as the oldest test there is.

The rule for the page is the same as for Deuteronomy 28: the text in full, King James Version, then a plain reading. No verse is trimmed to make a point, and nothing is added that the text does not say.

The first fast

Moses, on the mountain

Moses fasts forty days twice. The first is for receiving the law. The second, told in his own words in Deuteronomy, is for the people who broke it while he was gone.

Exodus 34:28

1. And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

Deuteronomy 9:9-11

1. When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water:
2. And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.
3. And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the LORD gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant.

Deuteronomy 9:18-19

1. And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
2. For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also.

The second fast

Elijah, under the juniper tree

He has just won on Carmel and is now running for his life. He asks to die. The answer is a cake and a cruse of water, twice, and then the walk.

1 Kings 19:4-8

1. But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.
2. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.
3. And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again.
4. And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee.
5. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.

The third fast

Jesus, in the wilderness

Three gospels record it. Matthew gives the three temptations in full. Luke adds that he ate nothing in those days. Mark gives it two verses and the wild beasts.

Matthew 4:1-11

1. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
2. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
3. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
4. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
5. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
6. And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
7. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
8. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
9. And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
10. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
11. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

Luke 4:1-2

1. And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,
2. Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

Mark 1:12-13

1. And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.
2. And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.

A plain reading

What the three fasts have in common, and what they do not

• Nobody chose the number. Moses is called up the mountain. Elijah is told to eat because the journey is too great. Jesus is led up of the Spirit. In all three the forty days happen to a person who is somewhere because God put him there. There is no verse in which anyone decides to fast for forty days.
• Each fast sits in front of a commission. The law, the commission at Horeb, the ministry. The fast is never the achievement in the text. It is the empty room before the thing that mattered.
• Each one is alone, and each one is met. A mountain, a wilderness, a wilderness. Moses with the LORD, Elijah with an angel, Jesus with angels who came and ministered. The text does not describe a man enduring on his own strength; it describes a man kept.
• Moses’ fast is presented as impossible. No bread and no water for forty days is not survivable. The text says it twice and puts it in the presence of the LORD both times. It is telling you it was a miracle, not a method.
• Elijah ate first. The angel’s whole message is “Arise and eat.” The forty days were “in the strength of that meat.” The story people quote as a fast opens with a man being fed.
• Jesus was hungry afterward, and that is where the test came. Verse 2 ends “he was afterward an hungred,” and verse 3 is the tempter with bread. The answer, from Deuteronomy, is that a man lives by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. The hunger is not the enemy in the story. The shortcut is.

How the Bible says to fast

The instructions that exist

Scripture does not command a forty-day fast anywhere. It does say how fasting is to be done, and what it is for. Three passages carry most of it.

Matthew 6:16-18

1. Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
2. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face;
3. That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

Isaiah 58:3-11

1. Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.
2. Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.
3. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
4. Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
5. Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
6. Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.
7. Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
8. And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:
9. And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

Joel 2:12-13

1. Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
2. And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

• In secret. Matthew 6: wash your face, look normal, tell no one. A fast that is posted is a fast that has already been paid.
• Not as a lever. Isaiah 58 is God refusing a fast. The people fasted and asked why He did not notice. The answer is that they fasted while still squeezing their workers. The fast He chooses is undoing a burden, feeding someone, covering someone.
• The heart, not the cloth. Joel: rend your heart and not your garments. The outward act is nothing without the turn it is supposed to mark.

The other fasts

Forty is the exception

Every other fast recorded in Scripture is shorter, and most are partial or public. Read together they show what an ordinary fast looked like.

Esther 4:16

1. Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.

Daniel 10:2-3

1. In those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks.
2. I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.

Ezra 8:21-23

1. Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance.
2. For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him.
3. So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was intreated of us.

Acts 13:2-3

1. As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.
2. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

Acts 27:33-34

1. And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take meat, saying, This day is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing.
2. Wherefore I pray you to take some meat: for this is for your health: for there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you.

The number

What forty means in the text

Forty is the Bible’s length for a testing that has an end. The rain fell forty days. The spies searched forty days and the nation wandered forty years, a year for a day. Goliath stood forty mornings. Nineveh had forty days. The risen Jesus was seen forty days. It is never a round number for “a long time.” It is a set season with a boundary on it, after which something is decided.

Genesis 7:12

1. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

Numbers 14:34

1. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

Jonah 3:4-5

1. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
2. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

Acts 1:3

1. To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

A plain reading

Next to the playbook

• The product on page one removes hunger for $149 a month. The three men on this page walked into it on purpose and came out with the law, a commission, and a ministry. The text is not against food. Elijah is fed by an angel and Paul orders a shipload of frightened men to eat. But in all of Scripture, not once is the removal of hunger the good thing that happens to a person.
• The first temptation was a shortcut to bread. Turn the stones into what you need, now, because you can. The whole of page three is a machine for turning attention into money at speed. The text’s answer is not that the machine is wrong. It is that a person does not live by it.
• Isaiah 58 is the audit. A fast God ignores because the person fasting is still exacting all his labours. Read it against a two-person company at $401 million and a customer list found open on the internet. The chapter does not ask how much you gave up. It asks who you were squeezing while you did.
• Forty days is a boundary, not a badge. Every forty in the Bible ends with a verdict. If you are going to build something fast, the text’s advice is to put a boundary on it in advance and decide what you will do at the end of it, before it starts.

Nobody in the Bible is told to fast forty days. Three people did, each one led there, each one met, each one sent out afterward. The fast was never the point. What came after it was.

Plainly, because it needs saying: a forty-day fast without water is fatal within days, and the text presents Moses’ as a miracle in the presence of God, not as a practice. A forty-day fast on water alone is a serious medical event that has killed healthy adults. If you intend any extended fast, do it under a doctor who knows, with electrolytes, and with someone who can see you. Nothing on this page is medical advice, and Forma is a small studio, not a church; the reading above is one reader’s.

Sources

Text

• All passages are the King James Version, public domain, quoted in full for each reference shown.
• References: Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 9:9–11, 9:18–19; 1 Kings 19:4–8; Matthew 4:1–11; Luke 4:1–2; Mark 1:12–13; Matthew 6:16–18; Isaiah 58:3–11; Joel 2:12–13; Esther 4:16; 2 Samuel 12:16; Daniel 10:2–3; Ezra 8:21–23; Jonah 3:4–5; Acts 13:2–3; Acts 27:33–34; Genesis 7:12; Numbers 14:34; Acts 1:3.