Zechariah 7
THE building of the temple to replace that of Solomon which the king of Babylon had razed was still not completed, though it had been going on for more than two years without ceasing when the word of Jehovah again came to the prophet. It was now about nineteen years since the return of the remnant from Babylon under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua, and seventy-two years since Jerusalem and Solomon’s temple had been destroyed.
The beginning of verse 2 is rightly read, “When Bethel had sent Sherezer and Regern-melech”; and the errand which brought these men reveals the true state of all the people. They had been fasting and mourning and separating themselves in the fifth month all through the captivity, in memory of the destruction of Jerusalem which occurred in that month (2 Kings 25:99And he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt he with fire. (2 Kings 25:9)); and also in the seventh month, commemorating the assassination of Gedaliah (2 Kings 25:2525But it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the seed royal, came, and ten men with him, and smote Gedaliah, that he died, and the Jews and the Chaldees that were with him at Mizpah. (2 Kings 25:25)); and it occurred to the men. of Bethel to ask if it were necessary to observe these memorial days now that they were back in Israel’s land. Hao they really entered into the meaning of the two fasts, they would have welcomed the days each year as fresh opportunities to pour out their hearts to God because of the continued broken state of the nation, due to past sins not thoroughly repented of.
God then asks a pointed question of all the people and their priests: When they fasted and mourned during the seventy years, did they really fast unto Him? And when they ate and drank, was it not themselves that were eating and drinking? See His answer to the Jews of an earlier day in Isaiah 58:3,3Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labors. (Isaiah 58:3) etc. The fast days were begun well, we may suppose, at least on the part of some; but as the years passed there came a lack of sincerity, and the observances became mere matters of routine; God was not their object.
Israel’s land had been populous; all the people, and not a detachment of them had been dwelling there in peace. Why was this not now? The answer was not far to seek; and it was surely known to every one whose conscience was not utterly hardened, but God now reminded them of their heartless conduct toward Himself (verses 11, 12), which had brought upon the nation a dealing so severe that neither in Zechariah’s time nor until this day has it been ended. The return of the few of which the book of Ezra tells was not the recovery God’s prophets had foretold.
ML 08/29/1937