Apostle Paul (called ‘Saul’ before his outreach ministry to the Gentlies) was an orthodox Jew before he became a Messianic Jew. That’s why some refer to him as Rav Shaul (Rabbi Shaul). In addition to his Hebrew name Shaul, this Jew also had a Latin name – Paul – because he had inherited Roman citizenship from his father. So his name was not changed from ‘Saul’ to Paul after his conversion, as I thought before my two years of mingling with Messianic Jews and other believers in the Hebraic context.

I’ve gleaned many inspiring insights into things I didn’t understand before. Some of these insights strike me as profound, some seem simple now that I know more of the historical and linguistic context, and some are even just amusing. In sharing one amusing insight, I will use the term Rav Shaul in keeping with the context.

This insight is a new appreciation for Rav Shaul’s words recorded at 1 Corinthians 11:20 and 22: “When you therefore come together, you eat and drink, not as is becoming on the day of our Master (Yeshua) … What! Don’t you have any houses in which you can eat and drink? Or, do you despise the assembly of Elohim, and shame them who have nothing? What will I say to you? Will I praise you? In this I do not praise you!“(Aramaic English New Testament)

My only prior appreciation of these words was in the context of the Lord’s Supper, as specified at verse 20 in the Greek-based translations. That understanding of course is quite valid. However, in my two years of meeting with Messianic Jews I’ve found myself pushing back against the custom of having food at almost every gathering. Now I’m empathizing with what may have been the apostle’s basic frustration with this food-focus being carried over into Messianic practice, leading to people wanting to eat at too many gatherings of the kehila (the congregation). This food-focus would augur well for idolizing the appetite (Philippians 3:19), rather than for disciplining the body (1 Corinthians 9:27) and seeking the Lord without distraction. And who better to challenge this focus than Rav Shaul, the self-identified Jew of Jews (Philippians 3:5-6) who had found and was leading them toward newness of life in Messiah?

Apparently some Jews only feel called to fast one day per year – on Yom Kippur. Yet in both the Old and New Testaments, God’s people were called to fast on various occasions when there was need for divine intervention, and also to wholeheartedly and single-mindedly seek God’s face. In Joel 1:14 God said, “Sanctify a fast” and in 2:12, “Turn to me with all your heart and with fasting“; in Matthew 6:15 Yeshua said “when you fast” do so and so. Yeshua Himself fasted to lay the groundwork for the ministry He had to accomplish while in the body of a mortal; and the apostles prayed with fasting to commission elders (Acts 14:23) and missionaries (Acts 13:3). In 1 Corinthians 7:5 many Bible scholars understand fasting to accompany the prayer mentioned there – in fact the Aramaic English New Testament renders it as, “devote yourselves to fasting and prayer.”

For me a full stomach has never proven spiritually productive. It may energize me for a focus on manual labour or mental concentration in secular pursuits, but when it comes to spiritual pursuits such as drawing close to God in worship and prayer, for intercession, or even just to resist the devil’s activity, I achieve much more with fasting than with feasting. So I’ve often smiled over the past two years and said to myself, “Now I  get it, Rav Shaul. You may have been ‘fed up’ with all the feasting focus on the Lord’s day.” And now I long for a good old-fashioned ‘fasting retreat’ with like-minded people.  Sister Gloria Gray, where are you?  (Regarding Sister Gloria, see pages 123-125, and 201ff. of my testimony, TGIF: Thank God It’s Friday.)