So what’s God saying now?
Opening Prayer
Holy Spirit, come and fill me with Your life, Your perspective and Your love.
Read Zechariah 7:1-14
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
[1] In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Kislev. [2] The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat the LORD [3] by asking the priests of the house of the LORD Almighty and the prophets, “Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?” [4] Then the word of the LORD Almighty came to me: [5] “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? [6] And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? [7] Are these not the words the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?'” [8] And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah: [9] “This is what the LORD Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. [10] Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’ [11] “But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears. [12] They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry. [13] “‘When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the LORD Almighty. [14] ‘I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land they left behind them was so desolate that no one traveled through it. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.'” Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
How do we see God’s concern for motive?Bethel-Sharezer may be the full name of the man who, with Regem-Melek (2), led a delegation from Babylon to ask the Jerusalem leaders for guidance on whether, now that the Temple was almost complete, they still needed to fast to commemorate the fall of Jerusalem. Zechariah delivers his first sermon (4–14) which includes his claim, unique among the prophets, about the Spirit mediating God’s Word to the prophets (12). This new dilemma was one of many the returners had to face. Even priests needed to hear this fresh word from the Lord (5). In exile, their fasting and feasting had more to do with self-pity than with pleasing God. Had they learned so little about the consequences of their pre-exilic dismissiveness to God’s Word? Zechariah urges them to work for harmony and peace with compassion, reiterating the words of Micah 6:8 and Hosea 12:6. Would they reject these words like their ancestors? In other words, fasting may make them feel good, but the greater everyday challenge is how to live in right relationship with God and with each other. Bethel-Sharezer may be the full name of the man who, with Regem-Melek (2), led a delegation from Babylon to ask the Jerusalem leaders for guidance on whether, now that the Temple was almost complete, they still needed to fast to commemorate the fall of Jerusalem. Zechariah delivers his first sermon (4–14) which includes his claim, unique among the prophets, about the Spirit mediating God’s Word to the prophets (12). This new dilemma was one of many the returners had to face. Even priests needed to hear this fresh word from the Lord (5). In exile, their fasting and feasting had more to do with self-pity than with pleasing God. Had they learned so little about the consequences of their pre-exilic dismissiveness to God’s Word? Zechariah urges them to work for harmony and peace with compassion, reiterating the words of Micah 6:8 and Hosea 12:6. Would they reject these words like their ancestors? In other words, fasting may make them feel good, but the greater everyday challenge is how to live in right relationship with God and with each other.
Apply
Open your heart to God. Ask him to examine the motives of why you do what you do and to breathe life.
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