Remember... #7

Read Zechariah 7

Background: Having shared his eight visions about God's restoration of Israel, then the ceremony of installation for the High Priest as a sign of home and comfort, Zechariah now records the interaction of the people with God through the priests concerning a pressing question: "Should they continue to observe all the fasts they had begun during the exile which commemorated all the steps of the fall of Jerusalem?" God gives four answers to their question. Chapter 7 covers the first two. First, they were to search their hearts to see that they had not been fasting for God; it was a self-righteous ceremony they did to try to look righteous and manipulate Him. Second, they were to demonstrate repentance through changed actions.  God had constantly called them to demonstrate they understood who they were by the way they treated one another: with humility and justice.  But they repeatedly refused to do so.  Any fasting or sacrifices would be meaningless without changing their actions.

Key Verses:

12 They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the Lord of hosts. 13 “As I called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear,” says the Lord of hosts, 14 “and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and the pleasant land was made desolate.”

Thoughts: The key was their hard-heartedness.  If they did not change that, they would end up in the same situation all over again.  When will we ever learn?