A Delegation from Bethel
Zechariah 7: 1 – 14
In the fourth
year of the reign of King Darius of Persia, a delegation was sent
from Bethel to Jerusalem to “seek the favor of the Lord” (v.v. 1,
2).
Verse three:
“Speaking to the priests who belonged to the house of the Lord of
hosts, and to the prophets, saying, ‘Shall I weep in the fifth month
and abstain, as I have done these many years?’”
The men who came
from Bethel were not so bound to the priests they ignored or didn’t
trust the prophets, who by the gifts that has been given them, were
well qualified to answer the question they asked. They were not so
impressed by the words of the prophets they rejected the words of
the priests. They spoke to both the priests and to the prophets,
and, in consulting both; they gave glory to the Lord that one Spirit
works in all called by the Lord.
The delegation
wanted to know if they should continue the fasts initiated by the
priests and observed during the seventy years of captivity and the
twenty years following Cyrus’ proclamation permitting the captives
to return to their homeland.
The captives
observed four anniversary fasts, one in the fourth month, in
remembrance of the breaking down of the wall of Jerusalem (Jeremiah
52:6), another in the fifth month, in remembrance of the burning of
the temple (Jeremiah 52:12-13), another in the seventh month, in
remembrance of the killing of Gedaliah, which completed their
dispersion, and another in the tenth month, in remembrance of the
beginning of the siege of Jerusalem (2 Kings 25:1). Here only one,
that of the fifth month is mentioned.
The question
seems to imply a readiness to discontinue the fast. The question
that may have been on the delegation’s mind, but was not asked,
would discontinuing the fast be evidence of a false sense of
security or add to the displeasure of the Lord. In their present
situation, the people were still in distress, and under the Lord’s
displeasure.
From the human
viewpoint, the Lord has changed His method of dealing with His
people, why continue the feasts? Since the Lord is returning to them
in the way of mercy would, it not be proper to change their method
of performing their duties as the children of the Lord? It seems as
if the main concern of the delegation is the fast held on the fifth
month, the remembrance of the burning of the temple. Now that the
temple was almost completely restored is there any reason to keep
this fast? However, having kept it for seventy plus years the
delegation felt it would not be a good idea to discontinue the fast
without approval from the priests and prophets.
Should we
abandon or alter a good and productive method of religious services,
which we have found beneficial to others and ourselves because of
the changes taking place in our society and the world? What should
be our purpose for coming to the house of the Lord? The delegation’s
purpose for coming to the house of the Lord was to pray and seek the
will of God in this matter of the continuance of the fasts. Our
purpose for coming to the house of the Lord should be to pray and
seek the will of the Lord for our lives and to worship Him. It is
not for entertainment.
When we present
our requests to the Lord, it must be with a readiness to receive
instructions from Him. If we refuse to listen to what the Lord has
to say to us, there is no way we can expect the Lord to accept our
prayers. The question we should bring before the Lord is not, what
will You do for me, but what can I do for You, even though You don’t
need my help.
In His answer to
the question, the Lord of hosts asked the question, “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?”
Here is another
of those questions, although not stated as such, “consider your
ways?’ Consider what you are doing and why. The answer to the
question involves not only the delegation, but to all the priests
and people of the land. We are included in the answer.
The Lord of
hosts asked this question because the question the delegation from
Bethel asked seems to be more concerned about the ceremony than
about the substance of it. They seemed to be boasting of their
fasting, and implying The Lord should have returned to them in mercy
sooner then He did. It appears they are asking the Lord to give them
a reason why He has not returned in mercy to them sooner than He did
as the people in Isaiah’s day asked “Why have we fasted and You do
not hear? Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?
(Isaiah 58:3).
What was the
source of the question the delegation asked, unbelief? If they had
given the fasts the credit that was due to them, there was no reason
why they should doubt that they should lay the fasts aside, now that
the occasion of them was over. Therefore, the first answer to the
question is a very sharp reproof of their hypocrisy, directed not
only to the people of the land but also to the priests who
inaugurated the fasts, and were keeping them to serve some purpose
of their own. The Lord of hosts wanted the priests and the people to
know He was not made a debtor to them by these fasts. In fact, they
were not acceptable to Him.
What the priests
and people were doing was not wrong. They did it in the right way.
The Lord was not charging them with omission or neglect of their
duty. He was charging them with a wrong intent. He was telling them
those who come seeking God’s mercy must first be willing to admit
their faults, a hard thing to do. Those who are zealous for the
performance of a duty ought to examine themselves faithfully whether
they have the right attitude regarding the duty. They must ask
themselves, why I am doing what I am doing.
The Lord of
hosts appeals to the consciences of the delegation. They will be a
witness against them if they have not been sincere in the
performance of their duty and their worship of the Lord. They need
to understand and we need to understand, there is One who is far
greater then the consciences. One who knows the heart and knows all
things will be a witness against them.
The Lord of
hosts makes it very clear what they did was not for Him but for
themselves. In their fasting and worship, there was a form of
godliness but they lacked life, soul, and power. The stress was upon
the repetition of the rituals instead upon the worship of the Lord.
Even those who were seeking to please the Lord and obtain His favor,
and sincere in their intention to find favor in His sight were
wanting. This is why in the sight of the Lord their fasts was a
mockery and provoked Him. They were using the fasts as a covering
for their sin. There fasts were like Jezebel’s fast, or as the
Pharisees’ fasts that rested in outward expressions of humiliation
while their hearts were not humble.
If our fasting
and praying, though frequent and long do not bring us into a
stronger relationship with the Lord. If they do not increase godly
sorrow for our falling short of the glory of the Lord and our
mistakes and alter the temper of our minds and the course of our
lives for the better, they do not at all answer the purpose of
fasting and prayer. They have the same purpose of eating and
drinking. Something we have always done.
In verse seven,
the priests and the people are told what the Lord of hosts has said
is not something new. The question seems to imply they have
forgotten.
Verse seven -
“Are not these the words which 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 in inhabited?”
The good thing
the captives should have done they left undone. On their fast days,
the captives wept and separated themselves from their daily
activities as a sign of their sorrow for the judgments they were
under. This was not enough. What they should have done was search
the Scriptures and they would have seen the reason for God’s
controversy with their fathers, and might have taken warning by
their miseries not to tread in the steps of their iniquities.
The delegation
asked, “Shall we do as we have done, in fasting, the answer is no.
You must do what you have not done, repent of your sins and change
your lifestyle. This is what Zechariah is calling the people to do,
just as the former prophets called the fathers to do.
The affliction
that has come upon the people was to wake them up. Bring them to
repentance. Put in their minds the former flourishing state of their
country: Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous as well as the
cities and country around Jerusalem. However, the Lord, by the
prophets, cried out to the fathers, “amend your ways and doings, or
else your prosperity would soon be gone.” Zechariah told them, "you
should take notice of that, and understand that what was required of
them for the preventing of the judgments they didn’t do. If you
don’t do what is required of you for the removal of the judgments
all you’re fasting and weeping signify nothing." The words of
Zechariah agree with those of the former prophets. Whether people
are in prosperity or adversity, they must leave their sins and do
their duty; this must still be the message of every sermon.
Zechariah dealt
with the fathers’ disobedience and what was the consequence of it in
chapter one and now here again. The disobedience of others and the
consequences should be a warning to us. God’s judgments upon Israel
of old for their sins were written for admonition to Christians (1
Corinthians 10:11).
In verses nine
and ten, Zechariah preached the sermons the former prophets preached
to the fathers of the priests and the people because the same things
were required of them now.
Verses nine and
ten - “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 orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not
devise evil in your hearts against one another.’”
The duties that
are required of the priests and the people here would have
lengthening the tranquility of their fathers. The children must
fulfill the duties that are required of the priests and people to
restore their tranquility. They will not restore their tranquility
through the keeping of fasts and offering sacrifices but by doing
the duties that, they were bound to do by the light and law of
nature. Judges must administer justice impartially, according to the
maxims of the law and the merits of the cause, without respect of
persons and execute the sentence they have decreed. Neighbors must
have a tender concern for one another, and must not only do one
another no wrong, but must be ready to do one another all the good
that lie in their power. They must extend mercy and compassion to
their brothers. The infirmities of others, as well as their
calamities, they are to look upon them with compassion. They must
not deal harshly with those whom they have advantage over and who,
they know, are not able to help themselves. They must not business
transactions oppress the widow, the fatherless, the stranger and the
poor. The must not oppress the weak or take advantage of them. They
must not only do no physical harm to others but also must not
imagine evil against others in their hearts or wish it. The law of
God lays a restraint upon the heart, and forbids the entertaining,
forbids the admitting, of a malicious, spiteful, ill-natured thought
(Deuteronomy 15:9).
The fathers of
the priests and the people were obstinate and headstrong. They
persisted in their transgressions of the law purely from a spirit of
contradiction to the law. If it were possible, they would not listen
to what the Lord told the prophets to say to them. If they could not
avoid hearing what they said, they resolved they would not heed it
and looked another way as if the prophet had not spoken. If they did
hear what the prophet said to them, and, as it seemed, inclined at
first to comply with it, when it came time to respond to what they
heard like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke they pulled away and
would not submit to the easy yoke and light burden of the Lord’s
commandments. On the other hand, they submitted for a short time.
They were like the son that said, I go, but did not go. They filled
their own minds with prejudices against the word of God, and had
some objection to every sermon they heard. They stopped their ears
so they could not hear what the prophets had to say to them.
There is no one
as deaf spiritually as those that will not hear the word of the
Lord. No matter what they hear or see has an impact upon them. No
one is so hard as the heart of a presumptuous sinner and those whose
hearts are made hard by their own hardening, and it is just thing
that God does when He gives them over to a reprobate sense, to the
hardness and impenitence of their own hearts. These stubborn sinners
hardened their hearts on purpose lest they should hear what the Lord
has to say to them by the written word, by the Law of Moses, by the
words of the prophets. They did not regard the words of the
prophets, though they were words that the Lord of hosts sent to
them, though He sent them immediately by His Spirit in the prophets.
In their rejection of the words of the prophets, they insulted the
Lord, resisted the Holy Spirit, and grieved Him. The disobedience of
the fathers resulted in unanswered prayers, scattering, and
desolation.
Verses thirteen
and fourteen - “And it came about that just as He called and they
would not listen, so 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 desolate behind
them so that no one went back and forth, for they made the pleasant
land desolate.”
The Lord was
highly displeased with His people and His displeasure was just. He
required nothing of them but what was reasonable in itself and
beneficial to them, yet they refused to honor Him, and in a most
insolent manner too. What master would be so abused by His servant
and not punish him? Such an implacable enmity as this to the law and
the prophets was that which brought the wrath of the Lord upon His
people. Sins against the Lord of hosts, whose authority is
incontestable, bring the wrath of the Lord of hosts, whose power is
irresistible, upon the abusing servant. The effect of the abuse, as
they ignored the word of the Lord of hosts He ignored their prayers.
As He cried out to them in their prosperity to leave their sins and
they would not hear, but persisted in their iniquities, so they
cried out to Him in the day of their trouble to remove His
judgments, He would not hear them, but lengthened out their
calamities. But the Lord has said it, and will abide by it, “He that
turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an
abomination” (Proverbs 28:9). Iniquity in the heart will certainly
spoil the success of prayer (Psalm 66:18).
As they rejected
their duty and allegiance to the Lord, the Lord threw them about as
chaff before a whirlwind among the nations where they could not
expect to receive any kindness. They violated all the laws of their
land, so God took away all the glories of it: All the country that
was the kingdom of the two tribes, after the dispersion of the
remaining Jews, upon the slaughter of Gedaliah, were uninhabited.
There was not man, woman, or child, in it, until the Jews returned
at the end of seventy years’ captivity. The Lord kept the empty for
their return. For the present, the judgment appears much more
dismal; for what a horrid wilderness must a land be that had been so
many years uninhabited. However, the people must understand it was
by their own wickedness the pleasant land is desolated. It was not
so much the Assyrians and Babylonians that did it they did it
themselves.
The desolation
of a land is always due to the wickedness of its inhabitants (Psalm
107:34). This desolation of the land came because of their willful
disobedience to the law of God. The present generation saw how
desolate sin had made that pleasant land, and they were rejecting
the call to return to the Lord.
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