20250417

the fast that really matters

Zechariah 7:1-14

Zechariah 7:1 In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of Yahveh came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, Chislev.
Zechariah 7:2 Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer, Regem-melech, and their men to plead for Yahveh’s favor
Zechariah 7:3 by asking the priests who were at the house of Yahveh of Armies as well as the prophets, “Should we mourn and fast in the fifth month as we have done these many years?”
Zechariah 7:4 Then the word of Yahveh of Armies came to me:
Zechariah 7:5 “Ask all the people of the land and the priests: When you fasted and passionately demonstrated sorrow in the fifth and in the seventh months for these seventy years, did you really fast for me?
Zechariah 7:6 When you eat and drink, don’t you eat and drink simply for yourselves?
Zechariah 7:7 Aren’t these the words that Yahveh proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem was lived in and secure, along with its surrounding cities, and when the southern region and the Judean foothills were lived in?”
Zechariah 7:8 The word of Yahveh came to Zechariah:
Zechariah 7:9 “Yahveh of Armies says this: ‘Make fair decisions. Show faithful love and compassion to one another.
Zechariah 7:10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the resident alien or the poor, and do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’
Zechariah 7:11 But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they closed their ears so they could not hear.
Zechariah 7:12 They made their hearts like a rock so as not to obey the law or the words that Yahveh of Armies had sent by his Breath through the earlier prophets. Therefore, intense anger came from Yahveh of Armies.
Zechariah 7:13 Just as he had called, and they would not listen, so when they called, I would not listen, says Yahveh of Armies.
Zechariah 7:14 I scattered them with a windstorm over all the nations that had not known them, and the land was left desolate behind them, with no one coming or going. They turned a pleasant land into a desolation.”

the fast that really matters

Chislev was the month designated for fasting, to remember the destruction of Jerusalem. Now that the temple was being rebuilt, some of the people requested that the fast be discontinued. Zechariah’s answer from the LORD was that the fast that really matters is a change of heart, resulting in a change of life. If that does not happen, it does not matter if there is a physical temple or not. God wants his spiritual temple in the land. We are it.

LORD, turn us into people who demonstrate your kindness and mercy and justice to others. Soften our diamond-hard hearts.