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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Chapter 7 brings the first of four messages God delivered through Zechariah. Two years have passed since the last vision given in chapter 6, and the people were about halfway through the temple construction. In response to a question raised by a delegation of people who came to Jerusalem from Bethel, an Israelite town just north of Jerusalem, the Lord gave this message to Zechariah.

The question asked by this group seems legitimate on the surface, though the Lord's response clues us in that it may have lacked sincerity. During the 70 years of exile the Israelites had observed two fasts annually in commemoration of the fall of Jerusalem. This delegation raised the question of whether or not they should continue to observe these two fasts in the fifth and seventh months. In response, the Lord asked in affect, "Who did you do it for? Was it for Me?" The fasts had been instituted by the people and not by the Lord, and were for their benefit and not His. They ate and drank simply for themselves.

It was unnecessary for them to be asking this question, for the Lord had already addressed it through the prophets prior to the exile. They should look into these earlier messages. This had become the nature of all their religious festivals. Rather than directing their attention to the Lord, which was the purpose of the festivals, they simply ate and drank for themselves. The time for putting up with their empty rituals was past. It was time for reality.

A second message begins in verse 8. In the context of the first message, the Lord seems to have been saying, "Your concern is misplaced. It is not ritual with which I am concerned, but with obedience to my teaching." The pre-exilic Israel had lost their concern for justice and had oppressed the helpless and plotted evil against one another. If the present inhabitants of Israel were to be faithful to the Lord and enjoy His blessings, they needed to "Render true justice." (V. 9) The previous, pre-exilic generation had, "refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they closed their ears so they could not hear." Since they would not listen to the Lord, the Lord finally turned a deaf ear to them. When they saw Jerusalem falling and finally called out to the Lord, He did not listen. It was they, and not the Lord, who had "turned a pleasant land into a desolation."