FASTING AND MOURNING
In the Old Testament, fasting is typically done in the context of mourning. But we should not take that literally. Therefore, we need to understand the symbolism of mourning. As we typically find in Bible interpretation, we tend to apply the conventional interpretation to the Biblical meaning. Thus, in the case of mourning, we default to visions of people crying because a death has occurred or because of impending death and/or destruction. Our challenge is to understand how God uses these visions to represent his idea of mourning. Biblical associations with the natural concepts of mourning exist but the symbolic connections are hard to make.

In both the Bible and life, mourning is associated with death that has already happened or is expected to happen soon. In the natural world we think of death of the physical body or something that is very dear to us. This includes people, objects, jobs, relationships, habits, or the loss of anything tangible or intangible that is life-giving for us and to which we are strongly attached physically, emotionally or spiritually (i.e. body, soul or spirit). Regardless of what has died or is about to end, death always inspires some measure of mourning — sometimes to the point of tears.

While God is not insensitive to any kind of loss which we may endure or anticipate, he is especially concerned with mourning over spiritual things. We should not be surprised at that since he is spirit and he is always working in the spiritual realm. Therefore, when it comes to mourning, God’s focus is on spiritual mourning.

In the Bible, the spiritual mourning that is primarily in view is over the death of personal Old/First Covenant religion in anticipation of the new life of a New Covenant disciple. Anyone who has ever been faced with the prospect of leaving a religious community, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, knows that this can be a very difficult transition. There is the breaking of long-held religious habits and traditions plus the thought of separation from friends and family who have not yet come to understand the difference between Old/First Covenant religion and the New Covenant.