Zechariah 7 - 11 - "

Click HERE to read the passage.

As I mentioned earlier, the last 3 books of the Old Testament deal with prophets who are preaching to post-exiled Jews coming back to Jerusalem after 70 years of enslavement in Babylon. Haggai was the first of the three we read. Haggai (whose name means "festive") and Zechariah (whose name means "the Lord remembers") are contemporaries. They are both preaching to the same crowd, but with different messages. God has Haggai preaching a powerful call to arms, urging the people of Judah to get back to rebuilding the Temple. However, God had Zechariah use a series of visions, symbols, and messages to gently encourage the people to take heart, regain courage, and see the future as bright with the promises of God!

God used Haggai and Zechariah at the same time and same place to proclaim to His people 2 different messages, both of which were complimentary to the other. For Haggai, his messages from the Lord were to jar the people out of complacency and self-absorption. Zechariah's messages from the Lord were designed to remind the people of God's promises to His people and that one day He will rule the world - which happens at the end of the age during the 1,000 year reign of Christ.

As we get into chapter 7, it is two years after the visions Zechariah had previously. Now, both he, Haggai, and the Temple priests were confronted by representatives of the people about a certain ritual - fasting. In the Law of Moses, God commanded the Israelites to fast at certain times. While many of the Jews tried to continue the fasting during their exile and eventually dropped out of it, most of them were wondering if this ritual should still be observed now that they're back in Jerusalem rebuilding the city.  The prophets and priests took this message to God, and God spoke through Zechariah - and it was a powerful message!

Here's the message. See if you can learn something from it...“

Godly Acts Mean Nothing To God If Your Life Isn't Holy Before Him!

"Say to all your people and your priests, ‘During these seventy years of exile, when you fasted and mourned in the summer and in early autumn, was it really for me that you were fasting?  And even now in your holy festivals, aren’t you eating and drinking just to please yourselves?

In other words, the fasting meant nothing to God because of the way the people lived!  Doing something "for" God means nothing to God if you're heart and life isn't right with God.  Some people who cuss and live a life that's in abject opposition to the Christian way of life think they earn "brownie points" for going to church. To God, He hates it!  It means nothing to him. You might as well stay home and sleep in. God set up the fasting rituals for a spiritual purpose. He's not interested in rituals as much as He is in our living a life that is pleasing to Him!

"Isn’t this the same message the Lord proclaimed through the prophets in years past when Jerusalem and the towns of Judah were bustling with people, and the Negev and the foothills of Judah were well populated?’”

God reminds the people that this is the same message He gave to His people prior to captivity. They had become tired of listening to God and living for God. While they followed the rituals faithfully, they ignored God completely. Thus, it frustrated God! The people had lost their way. They lost sight of the purpose of the fasting ritual. And now they're doing it again.

This is why God said...

“Your ancestors refused to listen to this message. They stubbornly turned away and put their fingers in their ears to keep from hearing. They made their hearts as hard as stone, so they could not hear the instructions or the messages that the Lord of Heaven’s Armies had sent them by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. That is why the Lord of Heaven’s Armies was so angry with them."

God's Message Of Hope!

Hope is the central theme of chapter 8. God looks through the lens of the future some several thousand years down the road and sees a time when His Son - Jesus Christ - will rule His Kingdom on Earth from Jerusalem and from this truth begins to provide them hope of a brighter day!  While He admits to them that it may seem like an "impossible" task given their current situation, He assures them of this truth!

"All this may seem impossible to you now, a small remnant of God’s people. But is it impossible for me? says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: You can be sure that I will rescue my people from the east and from the west.  I will bring them home again to live safely in Jerusalem. They will be my people, and I will be faithful and just toward them as their God."

Are you praying right now for something that seems like an impossibility?  Good news!  God loves to work the impossible! If we'll be faithful to trust Him in all things, He'll be faithful to fulfill His love and promises to you in due time.

Therefore, because of this promise, God commands them to get back to work on rebuilding the Temple and thus making God the central part of their lives.

The 3 Things God Says He Hates:

1.  Injustice - treating others unfairly! (8:16-17)

2.  Lack of mercy on people - God is a God of mercy and loves it when we're merciful.

3.  Pride and lying 

This is exactly what the prophet Micah said in Micah 6:8 - that we are to live justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.

As we end chapter 8, it's amazing what God tells the Jewish people!  He reminds them that one day the whole world will seek the advice and blessing, not only from Jesus who will be sitting on the throne in Jerusalem, but people all over the world will count it a blessing just to touch the hem of the garment of a Jew!

Wow! Isn't that in contrast to what we've seen in history, and even today?

The Foretelling Of Jesus' Entry Into Jerusalem!

In the midst of prophesying doom to other nations, He gives hope to Israel. He tells them about their future King who will one day ride into Jerusalem on a donkey's colt. This is what happened when Jesus came to Earth during His first visit. He rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey's colt to show humility.  

As we read the rest of chapter 10 and 11, God gives a stern reminder of "why" things went so awry, and why they were exiled. God grew weary with the leaders (or shepherds) of Israel and Judah and weary with the people due to their sinfulness. 

In a symbolic action, God shares with them that (like a real shepherd) His two rods - one called Favor and the other called Union - were broken in two due to their wicked behavior. That's why God says in 11:9-11 -

"So I told them, “I won’t be your shepherd any longer. If you die, you die. If you are killed, you are killed. And let those who remain devour each other!” Then I took my staff called Favor and cut it in two, showing that I had revoked the covenant I had made with all the nations. That was the end of my covenant with them."

Since Israel and Judah both departed from the Lord, the Lord broke His covenant with them.  11:11 - "That was the end of my covenant with them."

More Prophecy Revealed!

If only Judas, the betrayer of Jesus, had read or remembered the Zechariah 11:12 where it says, "If you like, give me my wages, whatever I am worth; but only if you want to.” So they counted out for my wages thirty pieces of silver." 

If he had, it might have given him pause when the religious leaders of the Sanhedrin (Israel's ruling body) offered Judas Iscariot 30 pieces of silver to betray Jesus. That's it!  That's all He was worth to Judas and to the Sanhedrin!

What is Jesus worth to you?  Better yet, is there something you'd be willing to do to give up on Jesus? Your life reveals His worth to you, and to the world!