Hearts Like Flint
February 11, 2020
Commentary
In this chapter it now seems that two years have passed since the visions occurred in the first six chapters. A delegation had been sent to Jerusalem from the exiled Hebrews in Babylon to seek a definite solution to an apparently troublesome problem (vv. 1-3). For the previous 70 years, the people had been holding a fast in August to remember the destruction of Jerusalem (II Kings 25:8,9). These visitors were to ask the priests and prophets whether it was necessary to continue to fast during the month of August in commemoration of the temple’s destruction. Now that the temple and Jerusalem are prospering, why should they continue to weep annually and officially.
In this second half of this seventh chapter we find Zechariah’s prophecy:
- Showing what God desired (vv. 4-10).
- Telling what the people actually did (vv. 11-12).
- Indicating what Jehovah had to do (vv. 13-14).
The Israelites had lost their sincere desire for a loving relationship with God. Zechariah told them that they had been fasting without a proper attitude of repentance or worship. The Lord denounces the disobedience of the people who sent them and the hypocrisy of the hosts. Fasting had been carried out as a mere formality and not by an act of true repentance. Their eating and drinking had been for their own benefit (v. 6).
Application
It is not because I go through various formalities of religion that all is well between me and God? Outward formalities are worthless if my heart is not right with God.
Zechariah 7:1– 14 (NET)
1 In King Darius’ fourth year, on the fourth day of Kislev, the ninth month, the Lord’s message came to Zechariah. 2 Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melech and their companions to seek the Lord’s favor 3 by asking both the priests of the temple of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies and the prophets, “Should we weep in the fifth month, fasting as we have done over the years?” 4 The message of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies then came to me, 5 “Speak to all the people and priests of the land as follows: ‘When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh months through all these seventy years, did you truly fast for me—for me, indeed? 6 And now when you eat and drink, are you not doing so for yourselves? 7 Should you not have obeyed the words that the Lord cried out through the former prophets when Jerusalem was peacefully inhabited and her surrounding cities, the Negev, and the foothills were also populated?’”
8 Again the Lord’s message came to Zechariah: 9 “The Lord of Heaven’s Armies said, ‘Exercise true judgment and show brotherhood and compassion to each other. 10 You must not oppress the widow, the orphan, the resident foreigner, or the poor, nor should anyone secretly plot evil against his fellow citizen.’
11 “But they refused to pay attention, turning away stubbornly and stopping their ears so they could not hear. 12 Indeed, they made their hearts as hard as diamond, so that they could not obey the law of Moses and the other words the Lord of Heaven’s Armies had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies poured out great wrath.
13 “‘Just as I called out, but they would not obey, so they will call out, but I will not listen,’ the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says. 14 ‘Rather, I will sweep them away in a storm into all the nations they are not familiar with.’ Thus the land became desolate because of them, with no one crossing through or returning, for they had made the fruitful land a waste.”