FATHER revealed the issues with Israel as HE spoke in Isaiah chapter 58:
1 “Cry aloud, spare not; Lift up your voice like a trumpet; Tell My people their transgression, And the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet they seek Me daily, And delight to know My ways, As a nation that did righteousness, And did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; They take delight in approaching God.
The people had sinned and rebelled against Our Heavenly Father and yet they acted as though they were walking in righteousness. They asked why their fast seemed fruitless and FATHER answered them:
3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You have not seen?
Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’
“In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure,
And exploit all your laborers.
4 Indeed you fast for strife and debate,
And to strike with the fist of wickedness.
Wasn’t Israel’s issue centered around lack of unity? Devotion is defined as love, loyalty, or enthusiasm for a person which would promote total unity with that person. In essence, a corporate fast promotes unity among the people for a singular purpose to hear from FATHER. In the Book of Esther, it is written by THE SPIRIT:
11 “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king, who has not been called, he has but one law: put all to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter, that he may live. Yet I myself have not been called to go in to the king these thirty days.”
Esther was unsure on whether she would be accepted by the king and was reluctant to go before him unannounced. She was faced with the potential of her demise on behalf of her people but she must have understood the value of a corporate fast in life or death situation such as this.
13 And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews.
14 For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai:
16 “Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!”
17 So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther commanded him.
Esther needed Divine intervention as she prepared to go before the king and it was critical for her people to be in complete unity with their focus on FATHER’S intervention on their behalf. FATHER is moved by our willingness to set everything else aside to commune with HIM and listen for HIS instruction. There is a great reward in aligning ourselves with Our Heavenly Father and HE will deliver us out of each situation we face. Esther placed her trust and her life in FATHER’S hands for she knew no other way to deliver her people. The fast she proclaimed produced the results she hoped for and overcame Haman and his plot against her people.