Zechariah 7
January 28
Reading: Zechariah 7
1 In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev.
2 Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men to entreat the favor of the LORD, 3 saying to the priests of the house of the LORD of hosts and the prophets, "Should I weep and abstain in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?"
4 Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me: 5 "Say to all the people of the land and the priests, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? 6 And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? 7 Were not these the words that the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous, with her cities around her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?'"
8 And the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying, 9 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, 10 do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart."
11 But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. 12 They made their hearts corundum lest they should hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of hosts.
13 "As I called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear," says the LORD of hosts, 14 "and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and the pleasant land was made desolate."
Two years after the night visions of Zechariah in chapters 1-6, the events of chapters 7-8 take place. God’s people have a problem. They are very religious and want the Lord to bless them. In fact, some of them send a delegation to the priests in the Temple asking if they should continue their regular fasting. (vss. 1-3)
Zechariah’s answer to them in verses 4-10 is alarming, and as important today as it was then. The Lord gives him three questions that the prophet then asks of them. The questions probe their motives. Apparently, they are doing this self-sacrificial behavior for themselves and not for God. Sometimes the things we do, thinking that we are serving or impressing God, we are actually doing to impress people or to make ourselves feel better. We are not doing what God really wants.
What does the Lord want them to do? Zechariah tells them in verses 9-10. In these verses we essentially have a short exposition on how we are required to love others, especially those who are not able to give much back to us.
This is not what they wanted to hear. And now another warning for us: When you ask God for guidance, be prepared for Him to tell you to do something you do not want to do. This is what God does. Often, if we are honest, we already know what God wants of us.
In verses 11-12 we have a vivid description of their response to God’s words, a stubborn shoulder, stopped ears, and hard hearts. “Corundum” is an extremely hard crystalline rock. Therefore, the Lord responds to their ignoring Him by ignoring them. When the Lord will not hear us, we are destroyed. There is nothing worse for a person than to have God turn away and not listen.