PM Home Bible Study Group; June 8, 2011
Zechariah 6:9-15
Theme: III. The Question and the Answer Concerning Fasting (7:1-8:23).
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
III. The Question and the Answer Concerning Fasting (7:1-8:23).
Thus far in our study of the Old Testament book Zechariah, we’ve been taken through two major messages from God that were given on two separate occasions. The first one is found in 1:1-6—given in the eighth month of the second year of the reign of the Persian king Darius. It constituted an exhortation to God’s people who had returned from their homeland after seventy years of captivity in Babylon. Though they were in the land again, their hearts were still not right. This passage issued a call from God to “return” to Him. This was followed by a second vision—or perhaps better, a set of eight visions that were all given in the course of one night—a few months after the first. These night visions are found in 1:7-6:15; and in them, God laid out to the prophet His plan for the future of His people, and of the bright prospect of the reign of the Messiah.
In this evening’s study, we’ll be considering the third major message from God—or set of messages—in this marvelous book of prophecy. There’s a sense in which this section is very much like the first message in that it involves a rebuke from God for His people’s behavior in the midst of the circumstances that were present at the time it was given. But there’s a sense in which it’s also like the second set of visions in that, in it, God draws His people’s attention far into the future; and shows them the glorious prospect He has purposed for them. But the combination of the the two—a rebuke for the past and a glorious promise for the future—was intended by God to result in a new motivation to live in the present for His glory; and to inspire the people of that time to rise up and faithfully build the temple that they had been neglecting to build.
This Old Testament prophecy serves as an illustration of the kind of New Testament motivation that should spur the believer on to personal holiness. The apostle John once wrote to his believing brothers and sisters;
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:1-2).
Right now, in Christ, we enjoy the glorious position and privilege of the children of God. We don’t have to work to become His children; but have only to rest in the fact that, by faith, we have been adopted as His children already and are destined to share in the glorious inheritance of Christ Himself. In our present state, that promised future glory has not been revealed in our experience—even though it is fully assured to us in terms of our position before God the Father. But we know that, when Jesus Christ returns to this earth in glory, we will be transformed into His glory with Him; “for we shall see Him as He is”.
And how should the assured prospect of this future glory with Christ impact the way we live our lives in Him right now? John goes on to say;
And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure (v. 3).
Having future glorification in Christ as our assured prospect, we are to strive daily to live out, in our daily experience now, the purity that will be fully ours then. The hope of the complete fulfillment of God’s promise for us as a gift of His grace is to be our motivation for personal holiness in our every day experience; as we, who have the prospect of sharing Christ’s glory, strive to purify ourselves “just as He is pure”.
This New Testament motivation for personal holiness in Christ is pictured for us wonderfully in this Old Testament prophecy concerning God’s glorious promises for Israel’s future. Notice in it . . .
I. THE QUESTION THAT WAS ASKED (7:1-3).
A. The word from God that is described in this passage was given to Zechariah in the context of a question that had been put to him. In the fourth year of King Darius—two years after the first two sets of visions had been given—a deputation of the Jewish people came “to ask the priests who were in the house of the LORD of hosts and the prophets”. The names of the men who came were of a Babylonian origin; which suggests that they were Jewish men who had been born in captivity in Babylon. Some texts say that they were sent “to the house of God”. But many scholars agree that this should be rightly interpreted as saying that these men came from the city called Bethel which was about twelve miles north of Jerusalem; as it’s translated in the English Standard Version, “Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men to entreat the favor of the LORD . . .” (v. 2).
B. The text tells us that they came “to pray before the LORD, and to ask the priests who were in the house of the LORD of hosts and the prophets, saying, “Should I weep in the fifth month and fast as I have done for so many years?” As we read on in 8:19, we find that there were actually four fasts that they had observed:
1. “The fast of the fourth month . . “; which most likely commemorated the the breaking down of the walls of Jerusalem and the final invasion by the Babylonians (see 2 Kings 25:3-4; Jeremiah 39:2-4).
2. “The fast of the fifth . . .”; which marked the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian army (see 2 Kings 25:8-9; Jeremiah 52:12-14).
3. “The fast of the seventh . . .”; which marked the anniversary of the murder of the governor of the remnant of the people in Jerusalem named Gedaliah (see 2 Kings 25:22-26; Jeremiah 41:1-18).
4. And the fast of the tenth . . .”; which commemorated the beginning of Nebuchadnezzar’s siege of Jerusalem (see 2 Kings 25:1; Jeremiah 39:1).
C. These fasts were never commanded by God. But they, nevertheless, became observed by the people during their times of captivity. Because of their repeated observance, they had become a part of their regular sacred calender. Now that the people had returned from their land, and now that the rebuilding of the temple had been commanded, they wondered if they should discontinue these fasts. Because the question had been directed—among others—to the prophets of that time (i.e., Haggai and Zechariah), Zechariah is given an answer from God to pass on to them.
II. THE REBUKE THAT WAS GIVEN (7:4-14).
A. The answer was “the word from the LORD of hosts” (v. 4); but it was not an answer that they would have anticipated. God lets them know their fasting was not something that God looked upon as sincerely done in humility of heart toward Him: “When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during those seventy years, did you really fast for Me—for Me?” (v. 5). Apparently, their fasting was accompanied by eating and drinking for themselves (v. 6); and was simply a matter of cold formal religious ritualism for them.
B. Verse seven suggests that the whole matter of fasting would not have been an issue at all if they had obeyed God’s word through His prophets back in the days before their captivity—” when Jerusalem and the cities around it were inhabited and prosperous, and the South and the Lowland were inhabited” (v. 7). They did not heed the prophets that God had sent to them in the times before the captivity (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah), and would not heed the warnings to repent. And so, what good was all their fasting without a sense of sorrow over their failure to repent? What good was their fasting without the recognition their obedience to God would made fasting unnecessary in the first place?
C. God, it seems, then gives Zechariah another message in which He outlines the kind of obedience that He had called them to long ago: “Execute true justice, show mercy and compassion everyone to his brother. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. Let none of you plan evil in his heart against his brother” (vv. 9-10). These words sound very much like the sort of things that God said, back in Isaiah 58:3- 9, that He truly desired from the fasting of His people. But instead, “they refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears so that they could not hear. Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Thus great wrath came from the LORD of hosts” (vv. 11-12). The consequence of all this was the very captivity that God promised He would bring (vv. 13-14).
III. THE PROSPECT THAT WAS DECLARED (8:1-17).
A. But in the light of this sad rebuke, Zechariah is given yet another word from “the LORD of hosts” (v. 1). In it, He communicates that though His people had been unfaithful to Him, God had not lost His zeal for them. In fact, we’re told that He was zealous for Zion “with great zeal”; and that “with great fervor” (or “heat of rage”) He was zealous for her (v. 2). He had made a commitment to her—and He was going to fulfill that commitment—that He would return to her and dwell in the midst of her (v. 3). Though she seemed to suffer great humiliation at the time, He promised that, one day, the safety and blessing of Jerusalem would be such that old folks would st in the streets of the city—”each one with his staff in his hand because of his great age”; and that it would “be full of boys and girls playing in its streets” (v. vv. 4-5). It may seem at the time that it would be heard to imagine such a thing; but God asks, “Will it also be marvelous in My eyes?” (v. 6). Nothing He promises is too hard for Him to fulfill. He would indeed bring His people from all directions; and they shall dwell in the city. “They shall be My people and I will be their God, in truth and righteousness” (v. 8).
B. The people were to translate this promise into an encouragement to rise up and carry on the building project (v. 9)—just as they had been encouraged to do by the prophecies giving through Haggai and Zechariah (see also Ezra 5:1-2). And what’s more, they were to watch for the change of fortune that God would bring about for them. The words of verses 9-13 sound very much like those of Haggai 2:10-19. They were to be encouraged that God’s blessing of the land would follow their faithfulness to build. Twice God exhorts them “Let your hands be strong” (vv. 9, 13); and He promises them that “just as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you, and you shall be a blessing” (v. 13).
C. God again speaks of His determination to bless them—a determination that is just as strong as His former determination to punish them in the past (vv. 14-15). And what were they to do in response? They were to behave now in the very way that they had neglected to behave in their fasts: “‘Speak each man the truth to his neighbor; give judgment in your gates for truth, justice, and peace; let none of you think evil in your heart against your neighbor; and do not love a false oath. For all these are things that I hate,’ says the LORD” (vv. 16-17).
IV. THE RESPONSE THAT WAS CALLED FOR (8:18-23).
A. The thrust of what God speaks to His people through Zechariah is that of giving them a new motivation for holy living through the prospect of His future blessing. And now, in yet another specific word through Zechariah, God translates that motivation to them in terms of the very fasts that they had been inquiring about: “Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘The fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be joy and gladness and cheerful feasts for the house of Judah'” (v. 19a). And notice God’s commanded response to this glorious promise of the fasts being turned into feasts: “Therefore love truth and peace” (v. 19b). In other words, the promise of this glorious future through grace was to become the motivation for living pure lives before Him in the present.
B. God further expresses that hope in terms that could only be understood as speaking of the millennial reign of Christ: “Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Peoples shall yet come, inhabitants of many cities; the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, “Let us continue to go and pray before the LORD, and seek the LORD of hosts. I myself will go also.” Yes, many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD'” (vv. 20-22). This is clearly speaking of the time described in Isaiah 60:5-7: “Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall swell with joy; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you. The multitude of camels shall cover your land, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold and incense, and they shall proclaim the praises of the LORD. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together to you, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you; they shall ascend with acceptance on My altar, and I will glorify the house of My glory.” As verse 23 says, “Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”’”
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If the promise of God’s future kingdom blessing on Israel should have served as the motivation for the people of that time to ‘therefore love truth and peace’ (8:19), how much more should the prospect of full glorification with Jesus Christ be the motivation for holiness in our lives today?
Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure (1 John 3:2-3).