The first question is why do believers fast in the first place?\u00a0 Many who are not Christian fast for health reasons.\u00a0 They eliminate toxins and wastes products from the body and they also cleanse the colon by only taking in water.\u00a0 Fasting with or without water can be done but there is nothing wrong with fasting with water but sometimes people fast during times of overwhelming grief, like when David and Bathsheba\u2019s baby was dying David fasted and prayed (2 Sam 12<\/a>). Others fast during intense trials or trying to overcome temptations or addiction.\u00a0 Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights while being tempted of the Devil in the Wilderness (Matt 4:1-11).\u00a0 Isaiah spoke of proper fasting to break the yoke or bonds of slavery (to sin) but he also spoke of the wrong reasons to fast in chapter 58.\u00a0 Jesus didn\u2019t say if you fast but when you fast try not to tell others and don\u2019t look like you are (Matt 6:16<\/a>) but notice that Jesus didn\u2019t say if you fast but when you fast so we can see that we ought to fast, at least occasionally because fasting makes us see our total need for God and seems to create an intense hunger for God.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take a look at Daniel 1:8-16 where this Daniel fast came from and what this included:<\/p>\n \u201cBut Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king\u2019s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs, and the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, \u201cI fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and your drink; for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king.\u201d \u00a0Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,\u00a0\u201cTest your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. \u00a0Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king\u2019s food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see.\u201d \u00a0So he listened to them in this matter, and tested them for ten days. \u00a0At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king\u2019s food. \u00a0So the steward took away their food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Daniel didn\u2019t fast from food; he fasted from the King\u2019s menu that included what was forbidden by the Mosaic Dietary Laws, which are foods that God considered unclean at that time.\u00a0 It was not a total abstinence of food but from defiling foods as defined in the Old Testament diet of the Jews.<\/p>\n What Daniel\u2019s fast was not was any meat or dairy products and no alcohol like wine. \u00a0Daniel was not alone in this so-called fast.\u00a0 Daniel along with Hananiah, Mischael and Azariah all had this strict vegetarian diet.\u00a0 \u00a0Daniel and his fellow Jews ate nothing but vegetables and drank water and so Daniel and the other men\u2019s diet was what be considered today as a purely vegetarian diet; no meats, no alcohol and no dairy products but only produce from the ground and that was it.\u00a0 They ate anything but what the king\u2019s diet was (Dan 1:5) and in those days a king ate like a king!\u00a0\u00a0 There were all kinds of cheeses, meats, and every sort of delicacy known to man at the time.\u00a0 If it was available, it would have been available at the king\u2019s table. \u00a0It is interesting what the names of these men meant;\u00a0 Daniels name means \u201cGod is my Judge,\u201d Hananiah\u2019s name means \u201cYahweh or God is gracious,\u201d Mischael\u2019s name was difficult to find but is close to that of Michael which is Hebrew and means \u201cWho is like God?,\u201d and Azariah\u2019s name means \u201cYahweh or God has helped.\u201d\u00a0 Here we see that a combination of these men\u2019s names is \u201cGod is gracious, a help, a Judge and Who is like God.\u201d\u00a0 God may or may not have blessed these men in their diet but \u201cAt that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king\u2019s food (Dan 1:15) and the result was that \u201cthe steward took away their food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables\u201d<\/span> (Dan 1:16).\u00a0 At first they were somewhat trapped by the king\u2019s assigning them to eat the king\u2019s food, again it was likely to include some unclean foods and so by Daniel\u2019s courage and common sense, he told the chief of the eunuchs \u201cTest your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. \u00a0Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king\u2019s food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see\u201d<\/span> (Dan 1:12-13).\u00a0 They had really risked their lives by indirectly disobeying the king\u2019s assigning their food but ended up obeying God in the end and as it said, they ended up \u201cbetter in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king\u2019s food.\u201d<\/p>\n Daniel\u2019s fast proves more than a person can be healthy by eating only vegetable and drinking water and that this is a great way to lose weight because they ended up \u201cfatter\u201d than those who dined on the king\u2019s diet.\u00a0 It was a matter of their obeying God.\u00a0 By the way, the word \u201cfatter\u201d is from the Hebrew word \u201ctowb\u201d and it literally means \u201cfairer.\u201d\u00a0 We could even call it fitter and have a true definition so that sentence that says what they were like after the Daniel Fast was that they were \u201clooked better and more fit than all the youths who ate the king\u2019s food\u201d proving that a diet of vegetables and water is healthier but as I wrote earlier, this was not so much about diet as it was obedience.\u00a0 They obeyed God rather than the king by abstaining from the foods that their Law forbids.\u00a0 In the end, they were blessed by God because it is always better to obey God over men, even if that man is the king.<\/p>\n Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know<\/a>\u00a0whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer\u2019s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus<\/a> or check out his book\u00a0 Blind Chance or Intelligent Design available on Amazon<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are dozens of fasts today on the market but what is the so-called Daniel Fast?\u00a0 Is this a fast that believers can do today and does this have to do with more than losing weight? Why Fast? The first question is why do believers fast in the first place?\u00a0 Many who are not Christian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1485,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[250,224],"class_list":["post-907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prayers","tag-daniel","tag-fasting"],"yoast_head":"\nDaniel\u2019s Fast<\/span><\/h2>\n
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What Foods Daniel\u2019s Fast Contained<\/span><\/h2>\n
Conclusion<\/span><\/h2>\n
Another Reading on Patheos to Check Out: What Did Jesus Really Look Like: A Look at the Bible Facts<\/a><\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/348\/2013\/03\/Jack-Wellman.jpeg\" "\\"Jack")
Article by Jack Wellman<\/span><\/h2>\n