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Zechariah, Prophet of God's remembrance, part 17

Zechariah 7:1 begins a new section of the prophetic revelation:

¹ In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev.

Recall that the work of building the second temple had resumed in the second year of Darius, and it would be completed in his sixth year. So this revelation was given in the middle of this time of reconstruction. It seems that God felt the need to remind the people of their need to fulfill their Old Covenant vow to obey the laws of God and conform to His nature and to the standard of His morality.

Zechariah 7:2, 3 records the occasion of this revelation:

² Now the town of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and their men to seek the favor of the Lord, ³ speaking to the priests who belong to the house of the Lord of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, “Shall I weep in the fifth month and abstain [from food], as I have done these many years?”

The remnant from the tribe of Judah had settled from Jerusalem to the south (Nehemiah 11:25-30), while those from the tribe of Benjamin had settled to the north (Nehemiah 11:31-35). The temple itself sat on the boundary between the two tribes.

These messengers from the town of Bethel were no doubt from the tribe of Benjamin. Now that this remnant had returned from exile and were rebuilding the temple, the question in their minds was this: We have been fasting for seventy years on the anniversary of Jerusalem’s destruction in the ninth and tenth of Av (Jeremiah 52:12, 13). Is there any need to continue this tradition?

Zechariah 7:4-7 gives God’s answer by introducing questions:

⁴ Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying, ⁵ Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, “When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted? ⁶ When you eat and drink, do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves? ⁷ 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 [south country] and the foothills were inhabited?”

God was not interested in merely telling them the answer to their question. He wanted to provoke them to think and discern so that they would understand the logical foundation of their beliefs and practices.

When we eat and drink, is it not so that we ourselves can live? If eating and drinking is for our own benefit, and not for God’s benefit, then the same applies to fasting. Fasting is not for God’s benefit but for ours. It allows us to focus upon God and clear our minds to prepare our hearts to receive revelatory answers to prayer. God Himself needs no revelation, for He knows all things.

The instruction from the former prophets gave the people the word of God—most notably, the laws of God through Moses. The people ought to have heard and obeyed those instructions. (The Hebrew word shema has a double meaning: to hear and to obey.) Yet because their forefathers had refused to hear/obey the word through the prophets, God raised up the Babylonians and gave them dominion over the Kingdom of Judah.

What is the purpose of a traditional fast over the destruction of Jerusalem if the people continued violating His law? The day might come when even the restored city and nation might fill their cup of iniquity and again be sent into exile. The purpose of fasting on the tenth of Av was to cause the people to remember the reason why they came into divine judgment, so that they might avoid repeating that mistake in the future.

Indeed, six centuries later, the land was again destroyed and the people enslaved and exiled by the Romans in the first century. Why? To anyone who believes the prophets, it was because Judah’s cup of iniquity had again filled to overflowing.

From a Christian point of view, this had much to do with their official rejection of Jesus Christ, and their subsequent refusal to repent during their 40-year probationary period that was obtained for them earlier by the prophet Ezekiel. (See Ezekiel 4:6-8.) From a Jewish perspective, it was because the radical followers of Shammai had induced or coerced the people to revolt against their captors in direct violation of the instruction of the prophet Jeremiah.

Zechariah 7:8-14 then gives God’s point of view:

⁸ Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, ⁹ “Thus has the Lord of hosts said, ‘Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother; ¹⁰ and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger [alien, foreigner] or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another…

Notice that justice, kindness, and compassion are not incompatible with each other. Justice is not devoid of mercy and kindness, as long as it upholds the rights of the victims of injustice. For example, a judge has no right to forgive a thief for stealing. He is duty-bound to administer “true justice.” He is duty-bound to issue a debt note to the thief in accordance with the laws of restitution (Exodus 22:1-4). But once he has fulfilled his duty, the victim then has the right to forgive in part or even the entire debt.

We know this as the Law of Victims Rights. It is demonstrated when Joseph forgave his brothers for kidnapping him and selling him as a slave to merchants (Genesis 50:15-21). It is demonstrated again when Jesus forgave those crucifying Him (Luke 23:34). The law will always uphold a victim’s right to forgive sin or a creditor’s right to forgive debt.

Furthermore, God requires that the judges (and all the people) resist oppressing widows, orphans, and foreigners, as long as they respect the rights of others. Everyone was equal under the law (Numbers 15:16). Unfortunately, Jewish tradition led them to consider non-Jews to be on the level of cattle. Even if a foreigner converted to Judaism, he was limited to the outer court of the temple along with women, as if to proclaim that God treated Jews with partiality.

This ungodly practice was refuted by Jesus (Ephesians 2:13, 14). Zionism today has rebuilt the dividing wall and has thereby driven a wedge in the unity that God requires. That dividing wall is included when God says, “do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.”

Zechariah, then, gives the men of Bethel an answer to their question, but the principle behind it is universal. It also provides the general reason why God judged Jerusalem and raised up the Romans to destroy the city and its temple, as Jesus prophesied in Matthew 22:7.

Zechariah 7:11-14 concludes,

¹¹ “But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing. ¹² They made their hearts like flint 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. ¹³ And just as He called and they would not listen,” says the Lord of hosts, “¹⁴ 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.”

Therefore, God does not tell the people to fast or to stop fasting on the tenth of Av, but rather to remember the reasons why God destroyed Jerusalem and its first temple. This revelation, if taken to heart, would prevent a similar disaster in the future. History tells us that the people in the first century failed to heed Zechariah’s revelation. Modern news shows that the Israelis today have again failed to heed Zechariah’s prophecy, setting up “Israel” today for another disaster.