Saturday 3rd May
Read Jonah 3:6-10
“When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. 7 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:
‘By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. 9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.’
10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.” (NIVUK)
We have been considering the place of taste in the senses we have been gifted in order to honour God. Traditionally though, the absence of taste, or fasting, has been frequently used to focus one’s attention upon God. Fasting is not simply a Judeo-Christian discipline but has been performed throughout antiquity up to the present day by people of all faiths and persuasions.
In this instance fasting was decreed by Nineveh’s king to signal true repentance. Because the violence of the Assyrians was a byword in the ancient world, a simple fast would be inadequate. All living beings must fast. Denying themselves, and their livestock, sustenance demonstrated clearly that they knew they were entirely in the hands of Jonah’s God. Their lives were forfeit to Him. As all of our lives are.
Fasting need not be as dramatic as pictured here in Jonah. But denying oneself the taste of food can often heighten one’s sense of the divine presence.
