Reflections on Zechariah 7

Zechariah 07 (Contemporary English Version)


1. On the fourth day of Chislev, the ninth month of the fourth year that Darius was king of Persia, the LORD again spoke to me.
   
2. It happened after the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer with Regem-Melech and his men to ask the priests in the LORD's temple and the prophets to pray for them. So they prayed, "Should we mourn and go without eating during the fifth month, as we have done for many years?"
   
3. (SEE 7:2)
   
4. It was then that the LORD All-Powerful told me to say to everyone in the country, including the priests: For seventy years you have gone without eating during the fifth and seventh months of the year. But did you really do it for me?
   
5. (SEE 7:4)
   
6. And when you eat and drink, isn't it for your own enjoyment?
   
7. My message today is the same one I commanded the earlier prophets to speak to Jerusalem and its villages when they were prosperous, and when all of Judah, including the Southern Desert and the hill country, was filled with people.
   
8. So once again, I, the LORD All-Powerful, tell you, "See that justice is done and be kind and merciful to one another!
   
9. (SEE 7:8)
   
10. Don't mistreat widows or orphans or foreigners or anyone who is poor, and stop making plans to hurt each other."
    
11. But everyone who heard those prophets, stubbornly refused to obey. Instead, they turned their backs on everything my Spirit had commanded the earlier prophets to preach. So I, the LORD, became angry
    
12. (SEE 7:11)
    
13. and said, "You people paid no attention when I called out to you, and now I'll pay no attention when you call out to me."
    
14. That's why I came with a whirlwind and scattered them among foreign nations, leaving their lovely country empty of people and in ruins.
    

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The account of Zechariah's eight night visions concluded in chapter 6. Most of the focus in those visions was on the future reign of the Messiah at His second advent which is yet to take place. Chapter 7 returns to the present for Zechariah and those returned exiles in Jerusalem that he is addressing in this prophecy. In chapters 7 and 8 he delivers four messages which come two years after the visions of the previous chapters.

Triggering the messages of this chapter and the next is the coming of an entourage to Zechariah from the town of Bethel which is just north of Jerusalem. This entourage was sent by the people of that town to inquire of the prophet and priests about continuation of a fast they had observed in the fifth month of each year during their exile. Instead of an immediate answer to their question, the Lord uses this as a teaching opportunity. First, the Lord asks a question of His own, "When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and in the seventh months for these 70 years, did you really fast for Me? When you eat and drink, don't you eat and drink simply for yourselves?" Not waiting for an answer, the Lord asked another question, "Aren't these the words that the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and secure?"

After 70 years in exile had anything really changed? I would answer that with a yes and a no. No, the practices of the people in their ritualistic worship practices had not really changed, but yes, the reason for such practices may have changed. Prior to the exile the people went through the motions of worship with their routine observances and feasts, but their did not do it for the Lord, only for themselves. Alongside these practices they were also worshiping idols. Their hearts were in rebellion against the Lord. This group asking the question of Zechariah were still observing routine practices of worship that may still have been more for themselves than for the Lord, but was not their motivation more out of ignorance than from rebellion? This was a totally new generation that had been born in Babylon. They were Jews doing what Jews do and that may have been all there was to their observances. So God was questioning their motives of worship and bringing to their attention the reason for their exile. It was because their predecessors were guilty of the charge the Lord was putting before them - observing religious practices for selfish reasons.

So the question has been raised, "What are your motives for worship observances?" Had the Lord given a simple yes or no answer to their question of continuing the fifth and seventh month fasts they would have simply returned home and continued their meaningless routine worship practices. Instead, He raises the question of motive and then He tells them how they can give true worship to the Him. He does this by telling them what their ancestors failed to do. They can give the Lord authentic worship in this way: "Render true justice. Show faithful love and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the stranger or the poor, and do not plot evil in your hearts against one another." True worship to the Lord is observed through obedience. This lesson can also be turned to us. Through our customs of a weekly "worship" service in our churches we come to think of worship as what we do on Sunday at a church. And, yes, there is worship entailed in that practice. But if the obedience does not accompany this observance in our daily lives, that Sunday practice of "worship" is meaningless. That, I believe, is the message the Lord had for this entourage standing before Zechariah.