ZECHARIAH 7:1-14

-{Zechariah 7}

-Let me ask you a question—why are you here? I don’t mean that in the ultimate metaphysical sense. I’m not asking why you exist or the meaning of life. I’m not asking, WHY ARE ANY OF US HERE? I’m asking why are you here tonight in a church? Why do you show up on Sundays and Wednesdays at a church? What is it you are trying to accomplish.

-I want you to ponder that within yourselves and not just give the churchy answers that people expect—I want to worship God, I want to learn, etc. Because you have to ask yourself: do you really, though?

-And then I want you to ask yourselves why do we do what we do as a church? We do a lot of the same things over and over—why? What is the purpose? What is the function?

-The reason I just want you to reflect on these things because in the passage that we are looking at tonight, the Jews who have returned from exile are confronted with these issues. You say you come to church to worship God, so on and so forth, but are you actually accomplishing what it is you say you want to accomplish.

-The passage that we’re looking at tonight hits on the tension between external religious practice and genuine covenant obedience. Do you go through motions of ritual that are meaningless without actually living out the covenant that you have with God.

Zechariah 7:1–14 LSB

1 Now it happened that in the fourth year of King Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev. 2 And the town of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and their men to entreat the favor of Yahweh, 3 speaking to the priests, who belong to the house of Yahweh of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, “Shall I weep in the fifth month and abstain, as I have done these many years?” 4 Then the word of Yahweh of hosts came to me, saying, 5 “Speak to all the people of the land and to the priests, saying, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted? 6 ‘And when you eat and when you drink, are you not eating for yourselves and are you not drinking for yourselves? 7 ‘Are not these the words which Yahweh called out by the hand of the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and at ease along with its cities around it, and the Negev and the Shephelah were inhabited?’” 8 Then the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah saying, 9 “Thus has Yahweh of hosts said, ‘Judge with true justice and show lovingkindness and compassion each to his brother; 10 and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the sojourner or the afflicted; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’ 11 “But they refused to give heed and turned a stubborn shoulder and dulled their ears from hearing. 12 “And they made their hearts diamond-hard so that they could not hear the law and the words which Yahweh of hosts had sent by His Spirit by the hand of the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from Yahweh of hosts. 13 “And it happened that just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen,” says Yahweh 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 was passing through and returning, for they made the pleasant land desolate.”

-Since the passage gives us a historical marker, I want to give a little context. Zechariah was called to be a prophet to the Jews who returned to Jerusalem from their exile. They had been instructed to rebuild the temple, but they put it off. Zechariah (and Haggai) called them back to obedience. Zechariah was then given eight visions in one night that called the people to holiness and encouraged them by reminding them that God still had a plan for them, because through them the Branch/Priest-King/Messiah would come.

-Now two years have passed, and it is December 518 BC. The people are still working on rebuilding the temple and city and walls. In the midst of the daily grind, I guess you could say that they allowed their passion for God to grow cold. A question about a form of worship is the catalyst for God to rebuke the people about going through mere motions of ritual versus having a living, vibrant relationship with God. The whole episode actually goes through chapter 8, which we will pick up on next week.

-But here, what we see is that the town of Bethel sent some men to represent them. These men went to the Jerusalem to inquire of the priests and prophets about a religious practice that the Jews had started about 70 years prior. The Jews in exile held certain days of the year to be days of fasting and mourning as those days were anniversaries or commemorations of certain events that happened during their time of exile.

-One of those fasts happened in the fifth month of the calendar that they used at the time, and it was in correspondence with the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the temple of God. They would fast and mourn to remember that loss. And this had been something that they had been doing for decades.

-Now, the Jews were wondering if such practices still ought to be done considering that now they had returned to the land. Is it proper to do spiritual practice associated with mourning now that they had been allowed to come back and replant the nation.

-Well, God doesn’t answer their question outright, but instead uses it as a time of rebuke and warning. He asks in v. 5 if all the religious hubbub that they went through all those decades in exile, was it actually to worship God? God asks WAS IT ACTUALLY FOR ME THAT YOU FASTED? Did you fast to get closer to me? Did you fast to repent and seek forgiveness? Did you fast to humble yourselves and seek My face?

-They came to ask a question about their tradition, their rituals, but God confronts them with their motivation or purpose behind the traditions and rituals. Are you actually doing it for God? God doesn’t seem to think so. He says:

Zechariah 7:6 LSB

6 ‘And when you eat and when you drink, are you not eating for yourselves and are you not drinking for yourselves?

-Here, instead of fasting God is talking about their feasting. When you celebrate your feasts aren’t you doing the same thing that you’re doing with your fasts—aren’t you just doing it for yourselves? Aren’t you doing it to feed your lusts and your desires? Aren’t you going through all these motions in order to please yourself or make yourself feel better? Are you doing it to try to ease your guilty conscience or forget about your problems? Your not actually trying to worship God through all these actions, you’re just doing it for yourself.

-You see, if you were actually worshipping God, what you do would lead to a different lifestyle. Sure, you fast on a certain day on the fifth month or the seventh month, but then on the following day you completely forget what it was you were doing the day before, and you go on living for yourself.

-And bring it to our modern situation, you go to worship on Sunday morning, and by Sunday afternoon you go back to your same routine of living for yourself, completely forgetting about the Christ, the Savior, whose name you proclaimed a few hours earlier. You go to Bible Study on Wednesday night, and on Thursday morning all you care about is getting to the weekend.

-And in v. 7 God says through Zechariah that aren’t these the same exact issues that God warned the people of Israel about in the former prophets before and during the exile? Didn’t God warn you in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah and others that their rituals that were done without a heart of love toward God and others was absolutely useless. For example:

Isaiah 29:13 LSB

13 Then the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with their mouth And honor Me with their lips, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their fear of Me is in the command of men learned by rote,

Hosea 6:6 LSB

6 For I delight in lovingkindness rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Amos 5:21–24 LSB

21 “I hate, I reject your feasts, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. 22 “Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. 23 “Remove from Me the tumult of your songs; I will not even listen to the melody of your harps. 24 “But let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

-It’s almost as if no worship is better than heartless worship at all. What good does it do anyone to go through the motions when there is no true devotion to the one true God?

-And God says through the prophet that a heart that is close to God, that truly seeks to worship Him, will lead to a lifestyle of mercy and grace. Look again at what He says:

Zechariah 7:9–10 LSB

9 “Thus has Yahweh of hosts said, ‘Judge with true justice and show lovingkindness and compassion each to his brother; 10 and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the sojourner or the afflicted; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’

-True worship includes a lifestyle reflective of the God you are worshipping. God is a God of justice and lovingkindness and compassion and protection of the vulnerable, and those who would worship Him would do the same. Consider what God desires of His worshippers.

-He tells people that instead of going through dead motions, judge with true justice. This justice extends beyond faithful legal rulings, though it certainly encompasses them. This justice is rooted fundamentally in God’s own character and the rightness of his ways. Those who are in covenant with God desire that just and right things happen to all people at all times.

-I know that concepts of justice in our day and age are fraught with much misunderstanding. The social justice touted by the left-wing radicals is not actual justice but a desire for favored status at the expense of others. That is not the justice of the Bible. The justice of the Bible longs for the good of all people. And this is even further defined by the other descriptors of what God desires.

-It says that God wants His worshippers to show lovingkindness and compassion toward their brothers and sisters. Lovingkindness involves an attitude of steadfast covenant love toward other members of the covenant community. For Israel it would be for other Israelites, for us it would be for others in the Christian community, the church. Rather than a sentimental emotion, it represents a relational commitment rooted in how God himself treats his people. Since God demonstrated steadfast covenant love toward Israel (and now to us the church), the people were expected to exhibit this same characteristic in their relationships with others and not be mean or vindictive. Compassion operates like the deep emotional bond a mother has for her children, requiring patience, forgiveness, and genuine love for others rather than a selfish attitude of retaliation or exploitation.

-And then God says His worshippers treat the vulnerable with love and dignity, and stand up for their rights in the face of evil. It’s not enough to not oppress and it is not enough to not devise evil, but there is also the call to positive action toward those who need extra comfort, care, and protection. That’s is worship.

-The chapter ends with a warning. God says that this mechanical ritual without a heart toward God was one of the many reasons that their ancestors were sent into exile. Many previous generations sinned against God in this way, and that generation to which Zechariah was speaking better take heed and repent.

-And it is something for us to think about as well. What do you think is worship? Without a right heart and motivation and lifestyle to back it up, worship might be a lot different from what you think. We want to pray that God will lead us as a church to have true hearts of true worship that leads to true justice and true compassion to those around us.