Sharper Iron — The Post-Exilic Prophets – Zechariah 7:1-14: To Fast or Not to Fast? There’s More than That Question

https://kfuo-od.streamguys1.com/recast/sharper-iron/20240718114735-2024-07-18_SI.mp3
Download Audio File

On December 7, 518 BC, the Word of the LORD comes to Zechariah to answer a question regarding ongoing religious practices. Now that the temple is being rebuilt, a delegation from Bethel wants to know if the fasts observed for the first temple’s destruction should continue or not. The LORD does not give a simple “yes” or “no” answer in response. He questions His people concerning the reason for their fasting—was it for Him or for themselves? He calls them to account, as He had done through former prophets, for only going through the motions religiously while living faithlessly toward their neighbors. Zechariah reminds the people of their fathers’ impenitence that had sent them into exile, lest the current generation fall under the same judgment.

Rev. Merritt Demski, pastor at St. John Lutheran Church, Hanover in Alta, IA, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study Zechariah 7:1-14.

“The Post-Exilic Prophets” is a series on Sharper Iron that goes through the books of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Through the preaching of these faithful men, the LORD sent His Word to His people who returned home after their exile in Babylon. Not only did the LORD encourage His people in the work of rebuilding the temple, but even more than that, He pointed them forward to the fulfillment of all the Old Testament promises in the coming kingdom of our true King and great High Priest, Jesus Christ.

Sharper Iron, hosted by Rev. Timothy Appel, looks at the text of Holy Scripture both in its broad context and its narrow detail, all for the sake of proclaiming Christ crucified and risen for sinners. Two pastors engage with God’s Word to sharpen not only their own faith and knowledge, but the faith and knowledge of all who listen.

Sharper Iron is underwritten by Lutheran Church Extension Fund, where your investments help support the work of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Visit lcef.org.

Zechariah 7:1-14

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.”

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Zechariah 7:11 Hebrew and made their ears too heavy to hear

Zechariah 7:13 Hebrew he

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. esv.org