Thy Strong Word – Zechariah 7: Bethel to Celebrate the Rebuilt Temple or Fast in Spirit?

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Rev. Brian Davies, pastor of Lord of Glory Lutheran Church in Grayslake, Illinois, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Zechariah 7.

Almost two years after the visions, Zechariah addresses a reasonable and serious question in chapter 7: is it time to stop mourning the Exile and to start celebrating the Temple? As its reconstruction neared completion, God’s people were at a turning point.

God answers a question with a question: While the reasons for fasting and mourning the Exile were good, what did God actually command? Have we lost sight of our good intentions and begun to lie to ourselves like Walter White (Breaking Bad spoiler)? God’s people are not doomed to repeat history; the sinful nature never learns or gets better, but the Spirit of Christ is stronger than our sinful nature.

Thy Strong Word is a daily in-depth study of the books of the Bible with host Rev. AJ Espinosa and guest pastors from across the country. Thy Strong Word is graciously underwritten by the Lutheran Heritage Foundation and produced by the LCMS Office of National Mission.

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Zechariah 7

A Call for Justice and Mercy

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. ² Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men to entreat the favor of the Lord, ³ 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?”

⁴ Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me: ⁵ “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? ⁶ And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? ⁷ 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?’”

⁸ And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, ⁹ “Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, ¹⁰ do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.” ¹¹ But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear.^[a] 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^[b] 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.”