A Question About Fasting
Study note
Two years after the night visions, people from the town of Bethel sent messengers to the temple to ask the priests a question. For seventy years during the exile, they had fasted and mourned in the fifth month to remember when the temple was destroyed. Now that the temple was being rebuilt, they wondered if they should keep doing this. God's answer surprised them: their fasting had been for themselves, not for Him.
1 During King Darius's fourth year, on the fourth day of the ninth month (Kislev), the LORD gave another message to Zechariah. And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of the LORD came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Chisleu;
2 The people of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, along with their companions, to seek the LORD's favor. When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer and Regem-melech, and their men, to pray before the LORD,
3 They also brought a question to the priests at the LORD's temple. They asked the prophets too. "Should we keep fasting and mourning in the fifth month? We have done it for many years." And to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?
4 The LORD of Armies gave me his answer. Then came the word of the LORD of hosts unto me, saying,
5 "Ask all the people and priests this. 'You fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for seventy years. Were you truly doing it for me?'" Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?
6 "'And when you ate and drank, were you not eating and drinking for your own pleasure?'" And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?
7 "Are these not the same things the LORD said through his earlier prophets? Back then Jerusalem and all its nearby towns were doing well. People were settled peacefully in the southern hills and the western foothills." Should ye not hear the words which the LORD hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain?
What God Really Wants
Study note
Instead of answering the question about fasting directly, God told the people what He truly wanted from them. He wanted them to be fair and honest, to show mercy and kindness, and to protect the weak. God reminded them that their ancestors had refused to listen to these same instructions. They had hardened their hearts, and as a result God had scattered them among the nations.
8 Then the LORD gave another message to Zechariah. And the word of the LORD came unto Zechariah, saying,
9 "The LORD of Armies says: 'Make fair and honest judgments. Show genuine kindness and compassion to one another.'" Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother:
10 "'Stop taking advantage of widows, orphans, foreigners, and poor people. Stop plotting evil against each other — do not even let the thought cross your mind.'" And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.
11 "But your ancestors stubbornly refused to listen. They dug in their heels and plugged their ears." But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.
12 "They hardened their hearts like diamond so they would not have to hear the law or the messages the LORD of Armies had sent through his Spirit to the earlier prophets. That is what made the LORD of Armies so furious." Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts.
13 "'When I called out, they ignored me. So when they called out, I ignored them,' says the LORD of Armies." Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the LORD of hosts:
14 "'I blew them away like a storm, scattering them among nations they had never seen before. The beautiful land they left behind became such a wasteland that nobody even traveled through it. They turned their paradise into a desert.'" But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate.