Return from Exile: Zechariah 7-10 (1)

Pray Psalm 50.8-13.

“I will not rebuke you for your sacrifices
Or your burnt offerings,
Which are continually before Me.
I will not take a bull from your house,
Nor goats out of your folds.
For every beast of the forest is Mine,
And the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know all the birds of the mountains,
And the wild beasts of the field are Mine.
If I were hungry, I would not tell you;
For the world is Mine, and all its fullness.
Will I eat the flesh of bulls,
Or drink the blood of goats?”

Sing Psalm 50.8-13.
(Austrian Hymn: Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken)
“Not for rituals I accuse you—let your worship to Me rise.
Naught to Me is any use, Who dwells in glory in the skies.
All is mine throughout creation; I your help do not require.
Offer Me no vain oblation: hear what I from you desire…”

Read and meditate on Zechariah 7.1-7.

Preparation
1. What did the people’s representative ask the priests?

2. How did Zechariah respond to their question?

Meditation
It’s always a good idea to make sure our motives for participating in religious activities are what they should be. It’s too easy to fall into the snare of thinking that Christianity and all its trappings—worship, fellowship, study groups, other activities—are primarily intended for us, to gratify some need in us to be loved or to feel OK. We go through the motions of religion—like the people God confronted in Psalm 50—but the heart of gratitude, worship, and faithful obedience is just not there. And if some religious activity we’ve been involved in fails to deliver what we think we need, then we question its value altogether.

This is where the people of Zechariah’s day were. The fast of the fifth month (v. 3) may have been instituted to remember the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and the beginning of Israel’s captivity in Babylon (Jer. 52.12-16). Now that they had returned to the land, did they need to continue that long-standing practice? Times change, after all, you know?

It seems the people felt as if they’d done their duty. No more weeping and fasting; God had brought them home again. They felt sure they could be His people without having to “weep…and fast”. They had done this “so many years” and all they had to show for it was this two-bit temple, this “small thing” they were beginning to despise. Was it really necessary to keep this going?

Zechariah set them straight. Token obedience is no obedience at all. They had only observed that practice—and all their feasts—for themselves, not for the Lord (vv. 4-6). God wants hearts obedience to His Law and all His Word (v. 7). The people to whom Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel preached were captive to self-interest and worldly convenience before they were captives to Babylon. The people of Zechariah’s day were still in that same bondage.

And many believers today are in just the same place, thinking that token obedience is good enough for God. What does that say about the state of our hearts?

Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162.
“In mercy and truth atonement is provided for iniquity; and
by the fear of the LORD one departs from evil” (Prov. 16.6).
Fear is a great motivator to obedience (Ps. 111.10).

“Then you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you.
And this shall come to pass if You diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God” (Zech. 6.15).
Diligent obedience comes from within because we trust God’s words to be true and fear His displeasure (Ps. 19.7-11).

“When you fasted and mourned…did you really fast for Me—for Me?” (Zech. 7.5).
If we don’t do it explicitly for Him, why do it at all? It is God we fear and long to please (Matt. 10.28).

Blessed assurance will only be ours when we trust and obey.

“If you love Me, keep My commandments” (Jn. 14.15).
“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him,
and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (Jn. 14.23).
“You are My friends if you do whatever I command you” (Jn. 15.14).

“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all you mind.
This is the first and great commandment (Ex. 20.1-11).
And the second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Ex. 20.12-17).
On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22.37-40).

When we are fully invested—heart, soul, and mind—our obedience will be authentic.
“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers,
nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8.38, 39).

The real deal.

For reflection
1. Why is it important to keep Jesus as the focus and center of all our Christian activities?

2. What would be some indicators that you were practicing your faith more for yourself than for the glory of God?

3. How can believers help one another keep a proper focus for all our Christian activities?

These fasts were not acceptable to God, unless observed in a better manner, and to better purpose. There was the form of duty, but no life, or soul, or power in it. Holy exercises are to be done to God, looking to his word as our rule, and his glory as our end, seeking to please him and obtain his favor; but self was the center of all their actions. Matthew Henry (1662-1714), Commentary on Zechariah 7.1-7

Pray Psalm 126.2-6.
Pray that God will lead you to weep for your sins, fast to know His will and power, and fill you with joy to sow Kingdom seeds throughout your Personal Mission Field.

Sing Psalm 50.14-23.
(Austrian Hymn: Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken)
“Sacrifice of thanks now render; pay to God your solemn vows.
Let the troubled, each offender, seek Him in the midst of woes.
In the day of strife draw near Him; He will hear, and He will save.
Honor God, rejoice, and fear Him, give to Him your grateful praise.

“All of you My Word despising, who are you to claim My grace?
Praise may from your lips be rising, but you scorn Me to My face.
You approve of all transgressions, scheme against your mother’s son!
I will crush your vain aggressions and destroy what you have done.

“Reckon this, My sinful people, lest My wrath consume you whole:
None shall thwart Me when I seek to crush and break your sin-stiff soul.
He who thanks to Me addressing, follows after what is good,
he shall know the way of blessing coming from the hand of God.”

T. M. and Susie Moore

Two books can help us understand our own captivity and lead us to seek revival and renewal in the Lord. The Church Captive asks us to consider the ways the Church today has become captive to the world. And Revived! can help us find the way to renewal. Learn more and order your free copies by clicking here and here.

And in case you’d like to learn more about not despising the small things of life, order a free copy of our book, Small Stuff (click here), and learn how you can bring glory to God in all the quotidian activities of your life.

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (Williston: Waxed Tablet Publications, 2006), available free by clicking here.