When You Fasted, Was It Really for Me?

Log in to take the quiz and save your progress.

1. Observe

   What did the delegation from Bethel come to ask the priests and prophets?

   • Whether they should rebuild the city walls of Jerusalem
   • Whether they should continue fasting in the fifth month as they had done for many years
   • Whether they should offer sacrifices at the newly rebuilt altar
   • Whether they should return to Babylon to bring back more exiles

2. Observe

   What does Yahweh command in verses 9-10?

   • To rebuild the temple walls and reinstate the Levitical priesthood
   • To fast twice weekly and pray three times daily
   • To execute true judgment, show kindness and compassion to one's brother, and not oppress the widow, fatherless, foreigner, or poor
   • To repay all debts from the exile period before the land can be healed

3. Interpret

   What does Yahweh's question "did you at all fast to me, really to me?" reveal about the nature of their religious practice?

   • It shows that fasting on the wrong calendar date is always displeasing to God.
   • It reveals that the people had confused ritual practice with genuine devotion — their fasting had become self-focused rather than God-directed. The same logic applies to their eating and drinking (v. 6), showing that every religious act can be corrupted when the heart is turned inward. Yahweh is not against fasting per se, but against the performance of religion that serves oneself while ignoring the moral demands he had always made through the prophets.
   • It means God preferred animal sacrifice over fasting as a form of worship.
   • It shows that fasting originated from human tradition rather than divine command.

4. Interpret

   How does the chapter connect the fall of Jerusalem to a failure of justice rather than primarily a failure of ritual?

   • By listing the specific pagan temples the people had built in the city.
   • By quoting directly from the book of Lamentations about the siege.
   • By tracing the exile back to hardened hearts that refused to hear the former prophets and ignored the commands to care for the widow, fatherless, and poor — making clear that social injustice, not faulty ceremony, brought God's wrath. Verse 14 states the land became desolate as a direct consequence of their refusal to listen, connecting the moral failure explicitly to the judgment.
   • By saying the people were exiled only because they failed to keep the Sabbath laws.

5. Apply

   The chapter warns that God may not listen when people call if they refused to listen when he called (v. 13). What is the most honest personal response to this warning?

   • Conclude that God is unpredictable and prayer is therefore unreliable.
   • Schedule more formal prayer times to make up for past neglect.
   • Treat the warning as applying only to ancient Israel, not to modern believers.
   • Examine whether there are areas of known obedience being avoided — especially toward vulnerable people — and return to those neglected commands, trusting God's willingness to restore a repentant heart, while taking seriously that persistent hard-heartedness has real consequences.

6. Apply

   Yahweh calls his people to show compassion to the widow, fatherless, foreigner, and poor. How should a modern reader identify who those people are in their own context?

   • Limit concern to people who are literally widowed or orphaned, as the text is specific.
   • Look for the most financially successful people to mentor, since the text is metaphorical.
   • Focus primarily on foreign missionaries rather than local need.
   • Look for those in one's own community who are structurally disadvantaged — those who lack advocates, are socially invisible, or depend on others' generosity — and take concrete steps to show them kindness rather than waiting for a formal program to do it.

Your journal

Write your own answers — they save automatically, and only you can see them.

Log in to write and save journal answers.