The Need for Brotherly Love

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 •  5 min. read  •  grade level: 9
Zechariah 7-8
ZEC 7
ZEC 8
The day came when a delegation was sent to Zechariah asking him if it were necessary to continue to mourn in the fifth month. It was in the fifth month Nebuchadnezzar had reduced Jerusalem to rubble (2 Kings 25:88And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzar-adan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem: (2 Kings 25:8)). What a sad day it was for her who had been great among the nations (Lam. 1:11How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! (Lamentations 1:1)). Perhaps the people felt that since a nominal recovery had taken place it was not necessary to grieve over their former sorrows and God's government upon them.
The Lord's words to Zechariah in Zech. 7:5, 65Speak 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? 6And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves? (Zechariah 7:5‑6) are most searching: "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? And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?" (Contrast this with 1 Cor. 10:3131Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31).) The fifth month marked the destruction of Jerusalem, while the seventh month marked 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)). The Lord exposed the people's hearts. To ask the question if mourning were necessary was only to show the sorrows were not properly felt nor God's chastening hand regarded. Perhaps these fasts were carried on because it was felt to be appropriate.
How much do we outwardly continue on with today simply because it is deemed suitable, but it is not done as a true response from the heart? A sense of obligation to meet our responsibilities is not sufficient in itself to maintain us in any exercise the Lord may lay upon us. The questions we raise often indicate our spiritual state. The people sought to cover their insensitivity to the Lord's voice in pious expressions.
The message continued. "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?" Zech. 7:77Should 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? (Zechariah 7:7). The people had disregarded previous prophetic ministry. Perhaps they wanted ministry "for their day," yet their error was in not heeding the words of the earlier prophets. They did not need a new line of teaching, but they needed to follow the teaching God had faithfully given. Some might argue, "But those days were better than today." Just so, and the reason things were not as they once were is indicated in the following verses:
Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and show mercy and compassions every man to his brother: 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. But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. 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. 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: 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. Zech. 7:9-149Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and show mercy and compassions every man to his brother: 10And 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. 11But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. 12Yea, 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. 13Therefore 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: 14But 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. (Zechariah 7:9‑14).
In a word, the people's sin lay in their attitude and actions to one another, especially to those in need. Is there a tendency to minimize brotherly love in stressing the superior quality of divine love? We should never set one truth against another. Philadelphia means "brotherly love.”
The months that were noted for fasting, the fourth (the month the enemy first entered Jerusalem), the fifth and seventh, will be known by joy and gladness, truth and peace. A positive testimony will be rendered to other nations (vv. 18-23). What blessed results flow from obeying God's Word and giving brotherly love its due place among God's people. We are to value and contend for all truths of Scripture, yet not in a bitter and harsh manner.
God connects His character of judge with the manner in which we serve and with our relations one to another. "Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire. Let brotherly love continue." Heb. 12:28, 29; 13:128Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: 29For our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:28‑29)
1Let brotherly love continue. (Hebrews 13:1). "Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door." James 5:99Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door. (James 5:9).
W. Brockmeier