S12 || Justice, Kindness, and Compassion || Zechariah 7:1-14 || Session 12 || Verse by Verse Bible Study

As we shift from symbolic visions to direct prophetic messages, we navigate the complexities of God’s call for justice, kindness, and compassion over mere religious rituals. This episode not only addresses the historical context of the Israelites but also challenges us to reflect on our own practices and the societal impacts of adhering to just one commandment, like not stealing. We ponder the lessons from the Israelites' journey into the Promised Land, emphasizing the importance of recognizing God's blessings and building a committed relationship with Him. As we conclude our exploration of Zechariah chapter 7, we leave you with the anticipation of continued revelations, promising to delve deeper into God’s responses in our next session. Let this episode inspire you to rethink your spiritual path and embrace the transformative power of faith and obedience.

Chapters

• 0:19 Interpreting the Book of Zechariah
• 17:02 God's View of Sin and Obedience
• 29:24 God's Blessings and Relationship Await

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:19

Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible. My name's Glenn. I'm here with Steve. Today we are in the book of Zechariah, so if you have your copy of the Word of God, open it to Zechariah, chapter 7. There we're going to see the parts of the book of Zechariah that have gone past the apocalyptic visions. The first part of the book had these fantastic visions and we've gone through those and demonstrated that for the most part they're very clear on what they teach.

Speaker 1: 0:50

The second half of the book changes and gets into what would be read commonly as more traditional messages of a prophet. What we cannot do is take the first part of the book and say, well, that's symbolic, Therefore the second half of the book, and say, well, that's symbolic, Therefore the second half of the book is also symbolic. No, the tone and flavor of the language changes and the meaning of the words are different. We don't take the second half to be apocalyptic and symbolic like the first half. The normal use of the English language is what we see here. Let's go ahead and jump in and start reading. Steve, can you read Zechariah 7, the first three verses In?

Speaker 2: 1:30

the fourth year of King Darius. The word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Kislev.

Speaker 1: 2:01

Now the town of Bethel have come and asked a question and the question is about fasting. What we find as we keep reading is God does not immediately answer their question. What we find is that he goes into a long answer and the long answer covers all of chapter 7 and 8. Chapter 7 and 8 in Zechariah are what the scholars called a chiasm, and a chiasm merely means that there's a series of things and then a main point, and then the second half goes back and covers the same ground again as the first half, only in reverse order. That is the case here in chapters 7 and 8. It's one large chiasm.

Speaker 1: 2:45

You'll also find these chiasms a lot in the Psalms and in other Hebrew literature. Here the concepts that are in these two chapters 7 and 8, are asking favor of God. We just saw one of them asking a question of God. But they ask favor of God. There's a theme of fasting. There's a theme that God gives them about how you have devised evil in your heart. He mentions that more than once. Then God also mentions having wrath and blessings on Jerusalem.

Speaker 1: 3:19

Those themes again are covered in 7 and 8, with a central point being chapter 8, verse 8, which is they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. They shall be my people and I will be their God. That is, the message that God is giving to the Jewish people at this time is that I'm going to bring people back to Jerusalem and they will be my people and I will be their God. This section starts with this relatively unimportant question should we continue to fast as we had previously? God uses this as a place to jump off and teach some very profound concepts. Steve, what do you think of when you first see these first few verses in this chapter?

Speaker 2: 4:07

This is a delegation that's coming back asking this question about a fast that's taking place in the fifth month.

Speaker 2: 4:14

We're going to see other fasts associated for the seventh month and also for the tenth month, and the fifth month fast was one that was observed to commemorate the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC and, it being in the fifth month, it would have been around July or August time frame. So here's this delegation coming back and asking of the prophet Zechariah now that we're coming back into our land and we're back in Jerusalem and we're rebuilding the temple, are we still supposed to observe this fast commemorating the destruction of the previous temple? I think, glenn, like you said, we're going to get here to what God's answer is related to this. There was really only one fast in the Mosaic law that they were supposed to do and that was the fast during the Day of Atonement. This is a setup of this question a delegation coming from Bethel asking we're back in the land, we're rebuilding the temple. Are we still supposed to commemorate the destruction of the temple in this fifth month fast? Supposed to commemorate the destruction of the temple in this fifth-month fast?

Speaker 1: 5:25

Apparently they had added some of these fasts during the time they were in Babylon, during the captivity. They come at the beginning of chapter 7. These people from this town of Bethel had come to Jerusalem to ask a question of the religious leaders about should we continue this fast? Now, fasting is a religious ritual We'll talk about that but, in the grand scheme of things, a somewhat trivial question should we continue this fast? God uses this as a jumping-off place to teach a whole series of very important concepts. Notice, though, steve, they're from the town of Bethel, and we can use this to draw a somewhat minor point here, a rabbit trail, if you will.

Speaker 1: 6:12

Originally, the people from the town of Bethel were from the tribe of Ephraim. Now, of course, when Assyria and then Babylon came in, all the tribes had been taken away in more than one wave of people going off to more than one place, and there's a common belief amongst people that there's 10 tribes that never came back. They somehow got lost. You'll hear people talk about the 10 lost tribes. Well, the text here doesn't say that these people were from the tribe of Ephraim. It merely says they were people from Bethel. Well, if and it's an if the text doesn't tell us if the people came back from captivity and went to the same ancestral places, then these people were from the tribe of Ephraim.

Speaker 1: 7:02

The whole story of the 10 lost tribes is vapor. It's just a false thing. I don't think the theory holds much water. We have a place in the scripture where people came back from Babylon and it just doesn't mention at a lengthy indication of people coming back from Assyria Doesn't mean they didn't. We just can't tell. So here we have just one clue that we can say it's quite possible that there were no 10 lost tribes. Nevertheless verse 3, the question that they come and ask is should we weep and abstain or fast during the fifth month of the year? They're looking for guidance in a religious question. They're looking for guidance in a religious question. They're looking for instruction on a religious ritual. Too many times people in churches today argue over religious rituals. We get sometimes more focused on a religious ritual than we do the relationship with Christ, wouldn't you?

Speaker 2: 8:03

agree, steve? Yes, I believe that's going to be God's response back to them that we'll read here in just a little bit is just that while they're doing this, fasting under the guise of worshiping God, it's really something that they've kind of taken on to themselves as some sort of piety, and they're really not doing it in the proper way.

Speaker 1: 8:26

Let's go ahead and read the next section where the prophet answers their question. Starting in verse 4, says this Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me saying Say to all the people of this land and to the priest when you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months, these seventy years, was it actually for me that you fasted? When you eat and drink, do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves? Are not these the words of the Lord proclaimed by the former prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous, along with its cities around it, and the Negev and the foothills were inhabited? With this he begins an answer and again the answer keeps going throughout all of 7 and 8, but we'll pause here and go over this piece In verses 2 and 3,. These men come from Bethel and they ask a question and God speaks an answer back through Zechariah In verse 5, he actually answers it with a question. What's the question that God asks in verse 5?

Speaker 2: 9:32

He asks when you did these fasts in the fifth and seventh month? Were they actually done for me? Like I said before, the fifth month fast was to commemorate the destruction of the temple. The seventh month fast was to lament a killing of a former king. He's asking the question why were you doing this? Were you really doing it to honor me or was it for other reasons? And I think the obvious answer back is that it was for other reasons. It really wasn't to honor God in this fast.

Speaker 1: 10:06

I find this interesting because these people were going through this fast and apparently we'll find out in the next chapter there was a series of them that they'd been doing and apparently they'd been doing it for quite a while. He said in the passage we just read the fast these 70 years you have people doing religious activities and God saying wait a minute, are you doing this? For me, which strongly implies that they weren't. It strongly implies that the religious rituals may have been just to feed their flesh. I find this interesting. Is it possible, steve, that people first of all could be going through a religious ritual for the wrong reason?

Speaker 2: 10:50

I think absolutely. It says there in verse 6, were you not really eating and drinking for yourselves and not honoring me? We see a little bit of this also in the New Testament. Paul reprimands one of the churches, saying that when you're coming together to the Lord's Supper to commemorate his last supper of the blood shed for us and the bread of the body broken for us, you're getting drunk and you're being gluttonous and you're coming there as a purpose for an actual meal and merriment and you're not doing it in a proper way of commemoration. This isn't something that just related to the Old Testament. We see it in the New Testament. Paul gives them a reprimand. God, I think, is kind of doing the same thing here Fasting is a religious activity that is a self-sacrifice.

Speaker 1: 11:43

You deny yourself food, or people can fast other things, but they deny their flesh things. Is it possible that people can do a self-sacrificial religious act? I can deny my flesh, but be doing it for a selfish reason, a wrong reason. Is that possible, Steve? That's. What he's implying here is that you were denying your flesh of food, but you were doing it for the wrong reason, a selfish reason.

Speaker 2: 12:13

Yeah, there have been all type of rituals that have come throughout the years where man does things to their body to say that they're worshiping God.

Speaker 2: 12:24

And it's kind of this thought that if I destroy my body in some sort of way that it shows and gives honor to God or shows God how serious I am in my worship to him. We've seen monks and priests in the past do self-flagellation and really scar up their back. We've seen them walk upstairs to these big cathedrals on their knees and their knees become all bloody, and there's all sorts of types of things that can get people off track. God is really looking at that and saying, no, you don't understand. You're doing this, trying to prove that by destroying your body or hurting your body, that I take pleasure in that because you're really worshiping me. No, you're doing that really in order to prove something to yourself, to make yourself feel like you're worshiping me, but you're really not doing that. Yeah, I think throughout the ages, there's always been these type of rituals that have come along that just missed the mark in relation to actually worshiping God.

Speaker 1: 13:29

That's exactly what God's saying here is that, yes, you're doing self-sacrifice as a religious activity, but you're not doing it for me. You're doing it for something, some sort of strange way of feeding your flesh, and not for a relationship with me. I'm reminded of our Lord Jesus. After he was resurrected, he goes to Peter and said three times do you love me? What's he interested in? He's not interested in self-sacrifice as much as he is love. He's interested in a relationship. He's not interested so much as how much can I deny my flesh? He's interested in do you love me? That's the question today In verse 7. Here he's reinforcing this idea that you have been doing these same religious things since before the Babylonian captivity. Here you are coming back asking about fasting. Where's the relationship with me? That's his question. Are there Christians today that just go through the motions of religious activity but don't have the relationship there? I think the answer is yes. I don't see how we could deny that.

Speaker 2: 14:45

I also believe that in God's response back to them, he's hearkening back to the time before the temple was destroyed and the Babylonians took off. The people of Judah Jerusalem destroyed Jerusalem. He's saying you've been doing these things even back to that time, before you were actually taken away, yet the destruction still came on you, meaning that the destruction that was put on you was because you were disobeying my word. You weren't letting the land lay fallow every seventh year. These rituals that you come up with, that you think are honoring me. Really, you're doing it for yourself. Many times, and he's using this as a picture. You've been doing this for many, many years, decades. It really hasn't helped. So he's trying to get the message. He's trying to get them back. It comes back to chapter one. What does he say? He's trying to get them back. It comes back to chapter one. What does he say? He says return to me so that I will return to you this all, I think, goes in with that to get them back on the right track of worshiping him.

Speaker 1: 15:53

Then we get to more of God's answer, starting in verse eight.

Speaker 2: 16:01

Steve, can you start at verse eight and read down through verse 14? Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying Thus has the Lord of hosts said Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother, and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor, and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another. But they refused to pay attention, turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing. They made their hearts like flints so that they could not hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore, great wrath came from the Lord of hosts and such as he called, they would not listen. They called and I would not listen, says the Lord of hosts, but I scattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus, the land is desolated behind them, so that no one went back and forth, for they made the pleasant land desolate.

Speaker 1: 17:02

God says a lot here about his view of sin.

Speaker 2: 17:06

Steve, how would we say from this passage God's view of sin is he's saying that his view of sin is one where the people once again think that they're doing the right thing, but they're not. They're not actually obeying him and doing what he wants them to do. I think this harkens back to the days of judges. What is the main theme there? Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. He's saying that look, you called to me, but I didn't hear you because you weren't doing the things that you were supposed to be doing. Therefore, I sent somebody in to make the land desolate. Actually, at the very last there in 14, he says that they made the land desolate. God caused it and created the desolation, but it was because of their actions and what they were actually doing. But it was because of their actions and what they were actually doing.

Speaker 1: 18:03

The original question was, should we continue this fast? But if we look in part of God's answer, look at verses 9 and 10. Here God's answer is commands about holiness and avoiding sin. Look at verse 9. Give out true justice and practice kindness and compassion. He says. Do not oppress the widows and the orphans, the strangers or the poor. Do not devise evil. This was God's command. His answer to the question about fasting was go, do what is good, do not do evil. I find that fascinating about God's character. Does he want more religious activity? What he really wants is for us to do good and avoid evil. Do we see similar commands to this in the New Testament? Steve, I submit we do. Yeah, we do.

Speaker 2: 18:58

In some of the epistles it's brought up there don't forget the widows and the orphans. Take care of it. In fact, that was one of the things that came out of the council in chapter 15 of Acts, that the Gentiles were to do and also what's the greatest command. The law of Christ is to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself, and that Paul writes that love conquers all.

Speaker 1: 19:24

Our God is a God of justice, kindness and compassion, and he wants us to do the same. That's his command here. The response, though, in verses 11 through 13,. What did the people do in response to this?

Speaker 2: 19:39

It says that they turned their shoulder. I think that's kind of an indication that they just turned away from God. It says there that they made their hearts like flint. Well, flint is something that's broken off. You can start fires with it, but it breaks off into sharp shards. There's an indication here that they turned away from God. They hardened their hearts or made their hearts to a point that they weren't respectful of God or loving the God and they just wanted to do their own thing. They again didn't want to obey God. You know, glenn, I've often thought how different would the world be if everybody just obeyed one of the Ten Commandments that were given.

Speaker 2: 20:21

Let's just take stealing as an example. Think about how different the world would be if nobody stole. You wouldn't have houses broken into, you wouldn't have embezzlements from companies, you wouldn't have banks being held up, you wouldn't be having cars being robbed. Really, think of that. Sit down and think of just obeying God in one thing purely. What difference it would make in the world. That, I think, is what God is trying to get across here. You're not doing what I'm asking you to do. You're doing what you want to do and it's causing problems.

Speaker 1: 20:56

It's causing your land to become desolate If no one stole. You also wouldn't have wars, because now one nation wouldn't go over and try to steal somebody else's land, wouldn't have to worry about all the rigmarole you have to go through when you do some legal action, because the fine print is all there to prevent people from stealing. How did the people respond? It says in these verses they refused to pay attention. Our translation says turned a stubborn shoulder, we may say it like turned our back. They refused to listen. They turned their backs on God. They stopped their ears up.

Speaker 1: 21:32

Notice, the action is all from the people, and they all refused to listen and hardened their own hearts. They would not listen. The problem, therefore, is not with God. The problem is with the people that would not listen. They intentionally, they exercised their free will, all right. They refused to listen to God. That's what he's saying here. God had been gracious to Israel and had sent much blessings on them, but they would not listen and turn their backs on the Lord. Is there a problem today, steve, that God has not spoken, or is it the problem that people refuse to?

Speaker 2: 22:11

listen. That's what he's actually saying there. He says there in verse 12, that the Lord of hosts had sent his spirit through the former prophets, giving the law and the words of what they should have done, but yet the people just didn't want to listen to it, didn't want to pay attention to it. Yeah, it's not the case that God hasn't given direction on what we should do. He has done that. It's that we as people just don't want to do what he says we should do.

Speaker 1: 22:43

In verse 12,. It says there they made their hearts like flint. The idea there is it's hard. Flint is a hard stone. They made their hearts hard. Can God reach?

Speaker 2: 22:55

hard-hearted people. He can reach hard-hearted people, but many times it takes some sort of a tragedy or something else dramatic to get their attention. Paul took a very dramatic act from God Jesus himself dramatic act from God Jesus himself to get Paul's attention. Yes, they can be reached, but it's many times a difficult thing that happens in order to soften their heart to the point that they want to listen and want to actually turn to God.

Speaker 1: 23:27

What he's saying here is that the people responded to God's grace by hardening their heart. We know that God can indeed work on hard-hearted people. He had already told Israel, through the prophet Ezekiel, that he will at one point go in and take out their hearts of stone and give them a heart of flesh. He told them that specifically in Ezekiel 36, 26. We have here this repeating of this idea. You are a hard-hearted people, but I am still going to bless you. He tells us in verse 13 that the people would not listen, so that when the people ask for things, he's not going to listen. Think of that, steve. The people had not listened to God's commands. Therefore, when the people came and asked for something, he wasn't going to answer their prayers. That's what he's saying here.

Speaker 1: 24:23

I'm reminded of the book of Judges, where there was this cycle where God would bless them, then the people would wander, and when they wandered away from God and disobeyed, then he would remove his protection and a series of bad things would happen. The people would cry out and say, oh please, god, we'll never wander again, we'll always be with you. So God would bless them and protect them and drive out the enemies. Then the cycle would continue. They repeatedly would live in a good state and then forget God and not love him and disobey Eventually. When they came and asked God, remove this oppression. And God says it's been too many times, you've done this too many times in a row. I'm not going to answer your prayer anymore, because I've done this several times now. You're not listening. Here's my question, steve Does this happen still today, that because of disobedience, god will not hear our prayers?

Speaker 2: 25:24

I think that that is the case today and God doesn't hear the prayers from the standpoint that they're not being prayed in the proper way or the proper fashion. Not that there's some sort of a formula that has to be done or that you have to repeat a particular prayer over and over and over again and that somehow is going to get God's attention. No, it's the heart, what's the right attitude in praying to God, that God wants to be a loving father to us and that's the relationship he wants. But because of that hardness that the people have towards him, then that relationship isn't there. One of the ways that he deals with that is that he allows the oppression and things to come in and the people come back and say, oh, come back to us, god, we won't do it again. But of course we see that cycle continue where they do actually do it again. Yeah, god wants us to worship and honor him. That's the relationship he wants. But we sometimes have a tendency by nature to not want to have a relationship with him.

Speaker 1: 26:38

Zechariah 7.13 is very clear. God is speaking here. He says just as he called and they would not listen. They called and I would not listen, says the Lord of hosts Very clear, that if we don't listen to the Lord, if we don't hear and respond to his callings, then there will come a day when we need God and we come and ask him for something and he's not going to respond and not going to listen. I think that's a quite clear command in Scripture. Also, note from this verse we have God speaking and he speaks of he called, but I would not listen. Therefore we have and we're going to see it again before we get out of the book the Trinity is supported here in Zechariah.

Speaker 1: 27:25

There it says the people were so bad that the land was desolate Look at the very end of 14, so that no one went back and forth, for they made the pleasant land desolate. The pleasant land, of course, is the land of Canaan, the land of Israel, the land that was originally flowing with milk and honey. So what he's saying there is that it was a pleasant land, it was a good land, but because of their disobedience and hard-heartedness and they wouldn't listen, they made the land desolate I'm reminded of. In the earlier times of Israel's history. There was a time, remember, when Moses sent out spies before they came into the land. It says in Numbers, chapter 13, verse 23, that the spies came back and they brought back some of the produce of the land. They actually brought back one cluster of grapes that was so large that it had to be carried on a pole between two men's shoulders. That was an example of this produce. This land was so productive. It was flowing with milk and honey. It was a very beautiful, productive land.

Speaker 1: 28:46

What happened over the years and the centuries is that the people disobeyed. Because of that, God's judgment fell. Now, by the time we get to Zechariah 7, then the land is desolate, steve. The land is still desolate because the nation of Israel is still hard-hearted and still disobedient. There will come a time, as we're going to see before we get out of this book, when the land is returned to the way it was. But it was desolate in Zechariah's day and it's still desolate in our day, simply because the people are disobedient. What lesson can we take from that here?

Speaker 2: 29:26

in the church age. You know, god told them when they were going into this land that was called flowing with milk and honey them. When they were going into this land that was called flowing with milk and honey, I'm taking you into a land that you didn't cultivate the crops that were there. It's all been set up for you. This is how he's going to bless them through those years that they were there in enslavement, for those 400 plus years. God wants to do things like that for us. If we will only just honor Him and worship Him and build a relationship with Him, give our lives over to Jesus Christ, recognize who he is and what he's done for us His death, burial and resurrection we get eternal life, but we also get a relationship with the one and true living God.

Speaker 1: 30:10

That's what I'm looking for and I trust so are you. We'll stop there today. That brings us to the end of chapter 7, but we're still not finished with God's response to the question that the people ask. We'll pick up on that next time on Reasoning Through the Bible.

Speaker 2: 30:25

Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.