Zechariah Chapter 8

Zechariah chapter eight closes the period of answering that the Lord gives to the people as to what they were supposed to do about fasting. He shows the people again His grand vision of the future and reminds them to be righteous, not to fear, but to be strong. He doesn't directly answer the question about fasting, but he does set before them His heart and leaves their response with them.

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Well, welcome to the Acts 242 podcast. Uh today we're talking about Zechariah chapter eight. It's uh the close of the second section of Zechariah. The first uh six chapters take took up those eight visions that Zechariah had in one night. And then chapter seven uh starts with this question from the people of Bethel. Two years later, they come and they say, Should we keep on fasting? A very simple question. They fasted on the fifth and the seventh months, and they wanted to know now that the 70 years were over, and Haggai and Zechariah had both prophesied that the Lord was coming back in blessing. They wanted to know, do we do we need to keep fasting? Or is it, you know, something where if we stop it's gonna get bad again, you know? And uh Zechariah gives the word of the Lord to them and to more than just them, to all the people, and he asks the people, Why are you fasting? Uh was it really for me? And then he says, you know, look at why you're in this condition. Think back. How did you how did you get here? Um it wasn't like everything was just fine and dandy, and then just boom, you're in all this world of trouble. There was a long path downwards. And he calls on the people to repent and to remember that he had called with profit after profit to the fathers, to their fathers, and that they had refused to listen. And he says, Essentially, now it's reversed, just as your fathers called, or just as I called to your fathers and they refused to listen now. Now your fathers called to me, and I'm refusing to listen to them, or I refuse in the past tense to listen to them. But he reminds the people that there was a reason that they were there, and that just abstaining from food a couple of times out of a year didn't do anything unless they repented and actually dealt with the evil that was in their midst. But Zechariah is this prophet that is calling the people back to Jerusalem and seeking to encourage them. The 70 years are over, and now it's time for the people to come back and be encouraged. And so the Lord's answer goes on throughout chapter 8 in several parts to this same question of should we fast or continue this fast or not? The first part of the answer is eight verses long, and it's the Lord telling the people that there is blessing ahead of them. And you might think, well, what does this have to do with the question about fasting? But what the Lord is seeking to show them is that his heart is toward them. They don't have to manipulate the Lord with some religious fast in order to get what they want, if you will. And maybe that's a poor way to put it, but I think that that's what they were thinking is that we're doing this fast, it will get us what we want. The Lord is saying, I have a purpose. He says, He starts out, I am exceedingly jealous for Zion. Yes, with great wrath, I am jealous for her. And so the Lord says he's gonna come back and he's gonna dwell in Jerusalem, and he says that Jerusalem will be called the city of truth, harking back to some of those elements, the messianic elements that were part of the first eight um visions that he prophesied. How the temple's gonna be built and it's gonna be glorious. He talks about old men and old women sitting in the streets of Jerusalem and streets being filled with boys and girls playing in its streets. Doesn't that sound like one of the visions where he talks about um Jerusalem being inhabited without walls because of the number of people in it and etc. It's a future day, and he even references it as being future because he says, if this is too difficult in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, will it be also be too difficult in my sight? You know, try to imagine going to some war-torn place where things are just bombed out. I mean, I think of Gaza or Ukraine right now, but it's just the old story of war that some army comes through and ravages a place, and in these days they bomb it out. In those days, they went down and Nebuchadnezzar's men, you know, broke down all the walls and all the big houses and burned a whole bunch of stuff and then left. And now, of course, 70, I guess 72 years have gone by, and the people have been back for about 20 of those years, but it wouldn't really, it wouldn't be a big city. It wouldn't be nice walls everywhere. This would have been a hard thing. Imagine living in a wasteland, and someone shows up and says, Yeah, there's gonna be old men and old women sitting in the streets here, and yeah, right down on that street, down there on Fifth Avenue, there's gonna be just boys and girls running everywhere and playing in the streets, and uh, and uh he he also says that he's gonna bring his people back from the land of the east and from the west, and they'll live in the middle of Jerusalem, and and uh and I will be their God in truth and righteousness. I mean, this is uh incredible blessings that are prophesied. And for the people in that day, it just was too, I think, difficult, because he says, if it is too difficult in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days. But it's the Lord that's promising this. He says, Will it also be too difficult in my sight? So this first answer that he gives, or this, I shouldn't say first, I guess maybe third now, but this next answer he gives, the first of chapter eight, he is telling them, I intend to bless you. I am coming back. He reminds them of what he'd already revealed to Zachariah, that there is this blessing that is in store for this city, because the Lord has this city in one place, he says, as the apple of his eye, and these people as the apple of his eye. But he goes on and he says, Um, you know, that's future, that's messianic. But he says, Thus says the Lord of hosts. This is verse nine, and it covers down to about verse 17. He says, Thus says the Lord of hosts, let your hands be strong, you who are listening in these days to these words from the mouth of the prophets. So this is very direct to the people in this day. And he reminds them of all the hardships that they went through. You know, he says there was no wage for man or any wage for animal. Can you imagine living in a city where you can't find a job like at all? And even if you happen to be so fortunate as to have a donkey, you couldn't hire it out or do anything with it to make money. I mean, talk about hardship and hard conditions. He says, There was no wage. This is how it was. And he says, and I said, All men one against another. I mean, it just was no peace. He says, but now I will not treat the remnant of this people as in the former days. Again, he's telling them, you don't have to fast. These things are things that I plan to do. I brought in these difficulties, and now I intend to give you peace. It says the vine will yield its fruit, the land will yield its produce, the heavens will give their due. Everything around you is going to start working again, if you will. And uh, and he says that you will become a blessing to the people around you. Don't fear, let your hands be strong. And again, he reminds them, don't fear. But he does remind them again. He says, also let none of you devise evil in your heart one against another, and do not love perjury, for all these are what I hate, declares the Lord. So he reminds them that they are under responsibility, but not a responsibility to fast, rather a responsibility to do righteousness. So that's kind of the next part of his answer. The first part is look, there's this blessing in the future. Don't you see that my heart is towards you? And then the next, the next part is, and more than that, I intend to bless you right now. Everything's going to go well, but you need to uh speak the truth to one another, judge with truth and judgment and peace in your gates and and these things. He says, You need to do these things, but I intend to bless you. That's where your focus should be. And now we come to the last part of the chapter. This is verses 18 through 23. And I think I'll read, at least I'll go through this a little bit more verse by verse, because this is uh kind of the ultimate or the final. This is where he's building to, and he gives a somewhat direct answer on these fasts. So he says, Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the fast of the fourth, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth months, will become joy, gladness, and cheerful feast for the house of Judah. So love, truth, and peace. Now, there is some disagreement as far as okay, how do we interpret this? Does this mean they were to keep fasting? Or does this mean that they weren't to keep fasting? But everything that the Lord has set up until this point is, you know, your fasting, he seeks for people to fast him and truly seek after him. That's a uh a steady principle of the of the Lord. But just doing this religious fasting is not something that draws the people closer to him. And so he says, look, these fasts, these times of this sorrow, they're going to be replaced in this future day, this plan that I have, all of there, there won't be any of this in this future day. Rather, there's going to be joy, gladness, and cheerful feasts for the house of Judah. He says, So love, truth, and peace. And again, he directs their mind. He says, So he doesn't say, so keep fasting until that happens, but he reminds them, what I am looking for is truth and peace, and as he had just said earlier, righteousness. So he doesn't, and this is, I think, the wisdom of God, that he does not directly answer the question. He doesn't say, Yes, keep fasting. He doesn't say, no, stop fasting. I don't want any fasting. He just sets before them his heart and he leaves it with them to respond as they ought to respond. And that is how it is left to us. That is how it is left to all the people of God. The Lord sets before us his heart. He says, This is what I am looking for. This is what I want for you. And he looks for us to respond. And for some of us, at some times, that will mean that we fast, but not in this religious way on the fifth and the tenth and the seventh and the fourth months, but rather a true fast of crying out to the Lord, a fast like Daniel or like the apostles. But he goes on, and the Lord just again reminds him, he reinforces this future plan of blessing. Thus says the Lord of hosts, it will yet be that peoples will come, even the inhabitants of many cities. The inhabitants of one will go to another, saying, Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts. And then the other one will reply, I will also go. So many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts. In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. I mean, try to imagine the president of the United States and cabinet ministers and how, you know, the Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader, whatever else. Imagine them going to Jerusalem, clinging onto the garment of just finding a Jew, you know, just a Jew on the street and saying, Would you please let us go with you? We've heard that God is with you. And and going and showing up in Jerusalem. And it says, many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek the Lord of hosts, and getting down on their knees and seeking the favor of the Lord, it says. Well, I say we, and what I mean by we as the Gentiles, not the Church of God, so I should be careful with that. But the Gentiles are going to be dependent on the Jews for all their blessing in that future day. And uh it's just uh so contrary to God's mind that there would be anti-Semitism. So, in any case, this is the plan, this is what the Lord of hosts gives them as an answer. And maybe to our minds, and I'm sure to these minds at this time, these very legal Jewish minds, they thought, that's not an answer. What am I supposed to do with that? Am I supposed to fast or not? I just wanted you to tell me, should I fast or not? And instead, you talk a lot about all these wonderful things that are coming in the future, how we need to do righteousness and you know, do justice and and all of these sort of things. Well, am I supposed to fast or not? But the Lord, again, he sets before them and he sets before us his heart, and he leaves it to us to respond. And if we do respond with a fast, um then it should be a right fast. It should be a one one that is truly us in our hearts seeking after the Lord and seeking for his favor. So that's really uh the end of this section. Next week we'll go into you know, as far as the uh the the kind of the next part of the book in chapter nine.