Zechariah Week 3
In chapters 1-6, Zechariah was having visions and it concluded with a sign-act of making a crown. But now we get into a story where the people come to Zechariah with some questions and God responds to their questions
7:1-7
You remember that both Haggai and Zechariah give us very specific dates for their prophecies. This portion of the book takes place roughly 2 years after the visions took place. Those were in the 2nd year of Darius and this occurs in the 4th.
It’s important to remember what the people are doing in Jerusalem. We know they have returned from exile. We know that their plan is to rebuild the temple. Haggai has encouraged them in the building and now Zechariah is encouraging them in the building and they have been encouraging them for 2 years.
Important to know is also that they won’t finish until the 6th year of Darius. Here’s what Ezra 6:14-15 says:
“And the elders of the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They finished their building by decree of the God of Israel and by decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia; 15 and this house was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.”
The prophets begin prophesying in the 2nd year of Darius, this chapter takes place in the 4th, but they won’t finish until the 6th year of Darius. So these people come with their question right in the middle of the building project.
Some men come down from the town of Bethel, come to Jerusalem with some questions. They’ve heard that the temple is being rebuilt and that prophets and priests have returned to the city and they want to ask for some insight from God
VS 3B - Here’s their question: Should we continue to fast in the 5th month like we have for such a long time? Underline that question. The words weep and abstain are a way of describing fasting and separating yourself to God in a special way.
What’s the 5th month about? Was there some command from God to fast during that month? Nol If God had commanded it, it wouldn’t have been a question. They would have known they needed to do it. But God didn’t command it, they had started this of their own accord. Here’s why. 2 Kings 25:8-9:
“In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. And he burned the house of the Lord and the king's house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down.Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the temple in the 5th month. So the Jews decided they should declare a memorial fast commemorating that moment. And these men had been doing it for so long. Now the temple is being rebuilt. Should they keep doing it? It’s a pretty good question.
They're probably expecting 1 of 2 answers. Either Yes - that moment was so significant and the loss so great that even though we’ve rebuilt you should keep fasting. Or No - the temple is replaced. You can stop mourning the old one and start praising for the new one. You could see how this question probably divided people and they didn’t know where to land
VS 5 - But God responds to their question with a question (much like Jesus always does). But before we get to his question, notice that he says “When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month AND in the seventh month…” Wait! What’s the seventh month? They only mentioned the fifth. Ok. Back to 2 Kings. Here’s what we read in 2 Kings 25:22:
“And over the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, he appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, governor.”Babylon sets up the first governor who will direct Jerusalem since they no longer have a king. And what happens to him?
2 Kings 25:25 - “But in the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of the royal family, came with ten men and struck down Gedaliah and put him to death along with the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah”
Oh c’mon guys! Why are you always killing people? They killed their own governor. Who from accounts in Jeremiah was actually a really good guy who wanted to honor God. They killed him in the 7th month. So some people had also been fasting during the 7th month. But how does God respond to whether they should be fasting for the destruction of Jerusalem in the 5th month and the death of their leader in the 7th month?
Vs 5 - “Was it for me that you fasted?” Underline that. Rather he accuses them of having done all of these things “for yourselves” Underline that in vs 6. That’s a bold claim. He’s telling them that he never liked either of these fasts.
To justify his claim that he has never liked fasts like these he says, “Don’t you remember what I said earlier in the former prophets? Back before the exile?” Well what did he say? Let’s look at Isaiah 58:3-5. Turn there. Let’s read.
They were just rituals that the people did to make themselves feel better about themselves. They made up their own rules (rules that God had never required of them) and then they kept their own rules and patted themselves on the back. This is kind of like the Oscars. The actors determine the categories, the actors vote for themselves, then the actors get their own rewards. “Wow. I just won a prize that I made up for myself and determined that I deserved.” That’s how God viewed their fasts. You made them up. You did them. And then you felt you should be greatly honored by me for doing that thing I never asked you to do.
Can I say that there are many branches of Christianity that make up lots of rituals and tasks that God never asked for? He never commanded them in his word. Some Christians think that God will honor and reward them for saying a certain number of prayers. But Jesus specifically commanded us not to heap up a number of repeated prayers. Some Christians think that God will reward them for taking a pilgrimage to a specific location. There are some churches where the quality of clothing you wear determines your level of faithfulness. “Someone who really loved God would wear a tie or a dress or whatever else”. Or even God should honor me because I have perfect attendance at church or I’ve never missed a quiet time.
Now don’t get me wrong. There is incredible value in many of those things. Yes, you should be going to church. Yes, you should be reading your Bible and praying. I respect people who dress up for church. Those things can all be good. But they cannot become ends in themselves. They cannot become means of patting ourselves on the back and expecting special approval from God. They are useful when they better equip us to love God and love others.
Look again at Isaiah 58. This is what he says in 58:6-7. Fasting would be effective if it was a means of directing your attention outward to others. If it inclined your heart to keep God’s clear commands.
Ok we’ve dwelt on this first part long enough.
7:8-14
He opens in verses 9 and 10 by repeating many of the similar commands he gave in Isaiah. He wants them to care for the poor and the hurting. Underline the phrase “Show kindness and mercy to one another.” This command is not new. This command has been consistent through all of the prophets.
Isaiah 1:17 - learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause
Jeremiah 22:3 - Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.
Ezekiel 18:5-9 - “a man is righteous and does what is just and right— if he does not oppress anyone, commits no robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, withholds his hand from injustice, executes true justice between man and man, —he is righteous; he shall surely live, declares the Lord God.
Amos 5:21-24 - I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies… But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Micah 6:8 - “What does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
This is the clear and consistent message, but how did those people respond to these former prophets? VS 11-12a. We know they didn’t listen. And they were exiled.
These last verses of chapter 7 are a pleading with the people. You know what happened last time I gave these commands. Please. Please, don’t let it happen again. Listen! You can’t continue to ignore God’s plain commands without consequence.
8:1-8
So we’re wondering if the people of Zechariah’s day will obey this time around. And here in this section, God doesn’t answer that question directly, but instead he predicts what the incredible future blessing is going to be like for them.
He starts by saying I’m jealous for you - this isn’t sinful wicked jealousy. This is appropriate jealousy. God says I am incredibly invested in what happens to you. I want your affections to be directed toward me where they belong.
Then he says the key phrase as to why they’re going to experience this blessing in VS 3 he says, I have returned to Zion - underline that. They will be blessed, because God will be there.
He references people sitting and playing in the streets. This just emphasizes how safe it will be and much abundance there will be since they’re not all suffering, hiding, and starving
VS 6 - he says, this might seem marvelous to you, but it’s not to me. The word marvelous here means too difficult or even impossible. God says, this sounds impossible to you, but it’s certainly not impossible for me
VS 7 - 8 He concludes that because he is now in Jerusalem, we will bring his people from all over back to Jerusalem and he will be their God
8:9-13
You’ll notice that this section is bookended by the same words - “Let your hands be strong” They open verse 9 and they close verse 13. Underline those two lines.
Why is it important that their hands be strong? He’s fighting off their discouragement. It’s easy to start a new project with enthusiasm. But when it takes a long time, it’s hard to keep working on the project with enthusiasm. It would be easy for the people to think, “What’s the point? Why are we bothering here? Not much has changed for us.”
VS 9 So he reminds them, “remember when you first started this project with the encouragement of the prophets (that’s Zechariah and Haggai)” and he says “remember how no one was receiving any money and no one was safe?” This is a bit of a throwback to Haggai’s message from several weeks ago. In Haggai he said, all of you are putting money into bags with holes in them. You put on clothes but aren’t warm. You eat but are never full” They were in a bad situation prior to the work on the temple.
It would be easy to think that they’re just doomed to misery forever like the people who got exiled. But VS 11 He says You’re not going to get the same results as they did.
Instead vs 12-13, you’re going to be receiving incredible blessings. This should give them motivation for work. I’m promising good things to you, so your work actually means something.
This is an interesting principle. Because we might think that promising someone a reward would actually lessen their resolve to work. If you are out in the field digging holes with a shovel, and I come and tell you that at the end of the day, I’m going to give you the greatest payment you’ve ever experienced and it’s not going to be based on how hard you work, but rather on my generosity. We might think - awesome. I’ll just put down this shovel and at the end of the day, I’ll still get tons of money. The reward seems to encourage laziness.
But that’s not what’s happening here. Here is saying that your efforts will produce rewards because I’m generous. They still have to sow if they expect to harvest. God has commands for them and he will use their faithfulness to his commands to bless them. That’s like when God says, I’m going to save thousands of souls from hell - we shouldn’t respond with “Great. I’ll just sit on my couch and eat Cheetos while God does the work” No, God will save people and it will be because he is good, but he has planned to do it through our sharing the gospel. Instead of causing laziness, the promise should cause us to labor because we know that our efforts will not be worthless. They’ll be fruitful! FEAR NOT, BUT LET YOUR HANDS BE STRONG!
8:14-17
I don’t really have anything new to add here. Let’s jump to the next two verses
8:18-19
Ok. Remember where we started this conversation? The people asked Zechariah if they should fast in the 5th month? God says, I don’t like your fasts in the 5th and the 7th months. Now he’s talking about fasts in the 4th, 5th, 7th, and 10th months. What are these extra ones?
I’ll spare you the cross references, but the 10th month is when the siege against Jerusalem began and the 4th month is when they breached the walls of the city.
Underline the word “fast” each of the 4 times it appears here.
Now circle the line “Shall be to the house of Judah…. Cheerful feasts” God is going to turn their fasting into feasting - the exact opposite.
He’s telling them instead of looking back at the past and mourning, I want you to look to the future and celebrate. It’s possible to spend so much time mourning what was lost that we don’t think about the immeasurable riches that we stand to gain in the future.
8:20-23
Underline the words “Entreat the favor of the Lord” It appears in vs 21 and it appears in vs 22. I read that line and immediately thought… I’ve heard this before. Why is this phrase significant and then when I looked into it I realized “Oh! Back in 7:2.” The people came to Jerusalem to entreat the favor of the Lord.
God is turning the journey the people made from Bethel to Jerusalem into an objection lesson. “You wanted to know how to please God and what he expects of you so you entreated the favor of the Lord” In the future, all the nations will come to Jerusalem seeking the Lord’s will. Those big nations that seem strong and troublesome will come forward to know me.
This is a beautiful picture of lost people seeking salvation from God and knowing where to find it - among God’s people
I’ll conclude with the story of John Paton, a missionary to the islands of Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean - he left everything he had and went to the mission field to live among people who were renowned for being violent cannibals. He was threatened all the time, with people even following him all day holding weapons pointed at his head. His wife and child died of disease and he often slept on their graves afraid the cannibals would take the bodies. At one point he moved his work to a neighboring island and had to start over learning a new language and building new relationships. Things started very similarly, but over time the people saw God in Paton.
And he reported that instead of having to go to them with his message of the gospel, people began coming to him to ask about it. They wanted to be with Paton because they knew that God was with him.
His story is unbelievably fascinating and some have called his missionary autobiography one of the greatest ones ever written.
God promises to give the reward. We aren’t called to be lazy, but to work knowing that he will bless the outcome in ways we can’t imagine.