Zechariah 7
Notes
Transcript
Dates
Dates
We get again a very accurate time right out of the gate. As I mentioned before this a couple years after we finished chapter 6.
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.
So this would be December of 518BC still a more than a year away from the Temple being finished and rededicated.
But at this time we see that a delegation is sent, lets read why.
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?”
What do we think they’re talking about? Why would they send people to Jerusalem to ask priests a question? The world had been broken now for quite a while religiously speaking for the Jewish people. So the people who are still identifying themselves as part of that faith want to hear from the people who are have the definitive knowledge in the place where the Lord dwells. Should they continue this practice of weaping and presumable fasting. Why would they be doing something in that month?
In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. And he burned the house of the Lord and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem.
OOOH that...
So they’ve set a day of mourning essentially lementing this, but have we moved on from the destruction of Jerusalem yet, can we do that?
We get a very God like answer in the form of a question.
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?
That’s a challenge… where did this seventh month come from you asked?
But in the seventh month, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of the royal family, came with ten men and struck down Gedaliah and put him to death along with the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah. Then all the people, both small and great, and the captains of the forces arose and went to Egypt, for they were afraid of the Chaldeans.
The remnant that stayed in Mizpah was either slaughtered or fled to Egypt.
But what likely started as a true mourning and worship of God through the pain of their lost seems to have likely just turned into a ritualized event. It makes me think of the professional mourners in Mark 4.38
They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was. Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement. And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.
And when Jesus came to the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. And the report of this went through all that district.
The ones that have apparently had a job for a long time...
Thus says the Lord of hosts:
“Consider, and call for the mourning women to come;
send for the skillful women to come;
Are those people really mourning or are they just fulfilling a societies obligation to mourn? We do the same stuff today we just don’t realize it. It’s shifted to different things but it’s all the performative parts of society. Polititians are great at it. “I’d like to tell you how sad I am that so many people have lost their lives in this tragic incident.” They’d like to tell you because they aren’t sad but they can’t say that honestly so they’ll tell you they’d like to say that. Virtue signaling is the same thing where you’ll respond to something on behalf of others just so you look good to whatever in group you’re part of. It’s all fake and not real.
Are these people still in mourning? Are they doing this to actually plead with the Lord for their lives to change?
And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves?
This is referring to the sacrifices. What many people don’t realize is that almost every single sacrifice that you did at the temple or at home for the household was then consumed by you and your household. So are you still doing these worship acts as a performative or virtue signaling thing or did you do it in true worship to the Lord?
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?’ ”
Zechariah doesn’t have a new message for he people, the Lord is just saying the same things He has all over again. Like we talked about at the begining. Zech 1.4
Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried out, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.’ But they did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord.
So we are going to get just that, a statement that again calls for repentance.
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.”
Very simple message, don’t be a jerk. Was that good enough?
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.
Well no that apparently wasn’t good enough and they just got stubborn and God responded as expected.
“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.”
They were scattered. It’s the same traditional curse that’s been declared before and it has happened before and is happening in this passage.
ADVERTISEMENT