Daily Thoughts from Zechariah: Why Fast? How to Fast (Zechariah 7)

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. Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men to entreat the favor of the LORD, saying to the priests of the house of the LORD of hosts and the prophets, “Should I weep and abstain in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”

Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me: “Say to all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? Were not these the words that the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous, with her cities around her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?’”

And the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.” But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. 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. “As I called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear,” says the LORD of hosts, “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.” (Zechariah 7, ESV)

It is two years since Zechariah received the visions of chapters 1-6.  It is the ninth month and Israel has just observed a pair of fasts to mourn the destruction of the temple (5th month) and the assassination of Gedeliah, the last king (7th month).  The Temple was being rebuilt, however.  Did they really need to fast over this anymore?  Would we want to fast if the cause for that fast no longer existed?  So they seek a ruling from the priests and the prophets.

Zechariah is moved by Yahweh to prophesy and he asks the penetrating question: “Was your fast for Me, Yahweh?  Were you truly in mourning?  Do you eat again after breaking fast simply to satisfy your hunger or is the celebration that you know Me?”  Zechariah reminds them that this was the message of the former prophets and he charges them in the words similar to Isaiah, Jeremiah and Micah, to do justice, kindness and mercy to one another and especially to those who find themselves unable to protect and provide for themselves.  Israel’s failure to do so had been one of the reasons she had been exiled.  They wouldn’t listen to God’s repeated appeals to do justice, so He wouldn’t listen to their pleas to spare them from being conquered.

What about us?  Are we sincere in our desire to live for God?  Then people’s lives will matter more to us than our own.  We will find ways to minister to the poor.  We will go out of our way to help those who cannot help themselves.  We will treat all people with respect.  We will not oppress the “sojourner” (the one who has immigrated to our country).  We will care for widows and orphans.  And if we do this we will demonstrate that our fasts are true mourning, not just a ritual to impress God.  If there is no need for a fast, our eating will be in celebration of our relationship to Him.