_The question put to the Prophet concerning the Fast.--The Rebuke
given and their Failure shown._
The night visions had come to an end. In them, as we have seen, the
whole future of Israel, their restoration to the land and
regeneration, as well as the theocracy and the judgments connected
with it, were revealed. Nearly two years had passed by since that
memorable night of visions, and during these two years the people
had, obedient to the heavenly visions and encouraged by them, built
the house of the Lord. Soon the temple was to be completed and
worship once more to be restored. A question rose then in the minds
of some of the people about the keeping of certain fast days by which
they commemorated events of judgments upon their nation and city. The
principal day of fasting was the day set apart for remembering the
destruction and burning of the city of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar.
This day was kept by the Jews on the tenth day of the fifth month.
Messengers are sent with this question to the prophet, and this
occasion is used by the Lord to give a new message to the nation
through the prophet.
The seventh chapter is divided into three sections. 1. The occasion
for the prophecy (verses 1-4). 3. The rebuke (verses 4-8). 3. Looking
over the past (verses 8-14). But the seventh chapter does not answer
the question put to the prophet. If a reader of the word stops
reading with the seventh chapter, and does not continue to read the
eighth, he will be much perplexed. The seventh and eighth chapters of
Zechariah go together; in fact they should form only one chapter. The
eighth chapter contains two sections. 1. Promises of blessings again
and teachings concerning their walk (verses 1-17). 2. The solemn fast
days will be no more; instead of them there will be feast days. Whole
nations will seek the Lord and be joined to Israel. Thus the end of
chapter eight answers the question of the people concerning the fast
days. At the first glance we notice that these two chapters, though
starting from a desire of the people in the prophet's day, are yet
awaiting their final and greatest fulfillment. Israel still fasts and
is still the forsaken. Still there is mourning and weeping over the
departed glory, and once a year is the solemn fast kept which reminds
the seed of Abraham of the sad fate of Jerusalem and the Temple,
twice destroyed on the same day.
But let us glance at these sections in these chapters, and make a
short comment on them.
_Chapter VII: 1-4. The question_--It comes from the people of Bethel.
The two men who represent the people have Assyrian names--Sherezer,
meaning prince of the treasury, and Regemmelech, the official of the
King. Perhaps they were born in exile and received their names there,
and may have held the position indicated by their names. Their
concern for a human institution not at all commanded in the word of
the Lord, as it was the case with the fast day in question, shows the
lack of spirituality in them. They should have been more concerned
about true obedience than with an insignificant ceremony. It has
always been so with the people. When the Lord came He said to the
leaders, "Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat and swallow a
camel" (Matthew xxii: 24). And they are still concerned with
ceremonials and know not the true obedience. But the same conditions,
alas! exist too in Christendom. The question itself about weeping on
that day for so many years shows that they were tired of it. It was a
burden to them. If they had the true faith and in it obedience, they
would not have come with that question at all, but with joy and
gladness would they have looked to the future, and known that the
promised restoration as seen by the prophet was surely to come.
_II. The reproof. Verses 4-7._--The word of the Lord comes now to the
prophet. The message is for all the people and for the priests. The
two fasts are mentioned. The one in the fifth month as already stated
was the one in remembrance of the destruction of the city. The fast
of the seventh month was kept on the anniversary of the murder of
Gedaliah at Mizpah (Jeremiah xli). But why did they keep these fast
days? Why do they keep these days indeed still? The Lord asks, "Is it
unto me, unto me?" No, it was not for the honor and glory of God, but
their own selfish interests were at the bottom of it. Indeed God had
never asked them to fast. These institutions were manmade, and highly
displeasing to Jehovah. And is it not so now, not alone with the Jews
but with Christendom? Oh, the manmade institutions and outward
observances which only dishonor God and are for the selfish interests
of the people! The eating and drinking, the fast being over, was not
unto the Lord, but unto themselves. It was obedience the Lord
required. Had they listened to the words spoken by the prophets they
would not have been in captivity, there would have been no need for a
solemn fast. Unbelief was at the bottom of it all, and so it is still
with the nation in dispersion.
III. The closing verses of the seventh chapter _look over past
history_. In the first place the Lord says what he desires to see
done by them: True judgment executed, mercy and truth shown by every
man to his brother, oppress not the widow and the fatherless, the
stranger nor the poor, let none of you imagine evil against his
brother in your heart. These precepts were spoken to them by the
prophets before the captivity. "Wash ye, make you clean; put away the
evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to
do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless,
plead for the widow" (Isaiah i.) But they did the very opposite, and
continued in an outward service without obedience of the heart.
This disobedience became their ruin and brought on the disaster. The
description of their waywardness fits that people in their entire
history. They refused to attend and offered a rebellious shoulder.
They made their ears too heavy to hear, their heart they made an
adamant that they might not hear the law and the words which Jehovah
of hosts sent by His Spirit. These conditions prevailed in a still
intenser form when our Lord Jesus Christ appeared among them. At last
God Himself put judicial blindness upon them and still their heart is
like adamant, but that heart of stone will be removed at last by the
Spirit of God and a heart of flesh given in its place. (Ezek. xxxvi).
And now follows the manifestation of the wrath of Jehovah of hosts.
He had cried and they did not hear, and now they called but He did
not hear. The prayers of orthodox Judaism especially on their fast
days are beyond description and pleading for mercy. Still there is no
answer to the many prayers. "Your new moons and your appointed feasts
my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you;
yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full
of blood." (Is. i: 14, 15. ) Alas! it is worship with the lips. The
believing remnant alone in the future will be heard in their
pleadings, and the Lord will send at last the salvation out of Zion,
and the Deliverer will come who turns away ungodliness from Jacob.
The fourteenth verse puts the dispersion and the judgment before us
in a nutshell. They are whirled among all the nations whom they know
not. The land itself becomes desolate behind them. As soon as the
people leave whose land it is, the land flowing with milk and honey
becomes a wilderness, and when they return it will be again the land
of blessing.
What a testimony the land and the people is! Both speak of God's
righteous judgment, and the truth of His word. A whole nation
scattered among all the nations and still kept intact. Their land
trodden down by the Gentiles, waste and desolate. The land mourneth,
indeed. Prosperity will come to that land again, but not by human
efforts and human wisdom. The attempts of unbelieving Israel now in
transforming the wilderness may prove successful, and colonies after
colonies will be established. The time of Jacob's trouble, however,
will sweep it all away.
The question concerning the fast is answered in the next chapter. The
great and wonderful future of the land, the people, and of Jerusalem,
prosperity and blessing is clearly shown in it. No more mourning, but
joy; no more shame, but honor; no desolation, but restoration and His
people saved from the East and West, nations at last being converted
through Israel's blessing and testimony. We will look at these
promises and let them pass before us in our next chapter.