True Fasting
Opening Prayer
Lord, awe and wonder grip me as I consider that You are all-knowing, all-wise, and all-powerful. I praise You.
Read Zechariah 7:1–14
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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.
Meditate
“To obey is better than sacrifice. I want more than Sunday and Wednesday nights” (Keith Green, 1953–1982). Go to Google, put “To obey is better than sacrifice” in the search bar, and you can listen to this challenging song, recorded live by Keith Green.
Think Further
So often worship is a thorny issue and it seems that it has always been so! Two years on from the start of the rebuilding project (1), visitors from Bethel, just north of Jerusalem, came and raised the question of worship and tradition. Now that the altar had been restored and the Temple was being rebuilt, should they continue with the fast days they had kept for the past 70 years (3,5)? Or, given that Jeremiah had prophesied that Babylonian rule would last for only 70 years (Jer. 25:11; 29:10), might it be time to stop and leave the tradition behind? Through Zechariah, God asked some challenging questions: “Was it really for me that you fasted?” (5); “Were you not just feasting for yourselves?” (6). God’s real concern was with the focus of their fasting and feasting (see also Matt. 6:16,17). The danger with all worship is that we focus on ourselves, judging it by what we get out of it.
God’s fast (Isa. 58:6,7) was not centered on ritual—it was much more earthy (and difficult?) than that, requiring self-sacrifice, not show. So what is the test of our worship? Is it faithfulness to our traditional ways of worshiping, whether old or new? Is it the quality of our music or preaching? Is it the emotional impact it has on us? Zechariah offers a different way to evaluate it: the test is whether our lives outside the sanctuary reflect our actions within.
Sadly this was not the first time God’s people had been warned about this (7). The desolation they had experienced was a consequence of their hardness of heart (12). God’s words are chilling: “When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen” (13).
Apply
“And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Mic. 6:8). Reality check: how are doing with the challenges of this text?
Closing prayer
Mighty God, when You call me I want to listen, but above all else I want to obey You. May Your strength be made perfect in my weakness.
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