In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev. Now the town of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and their men to seek the favor of the LORD, speaking to the priests who belong to the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, “Shall I weep in the fifth month and abstain, as I have done these many years?” Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, “Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted? When you eat and drink, do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves? Are not these the words which the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous along with its cities around it, and the Negev and the foothills were inhabited?’”
Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah saying, “Thus has the LORD of hosts said, ‘Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother; and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’ But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing. They made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts. And just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen,” says the LORD of hosts; “but I scattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus the land is desolated behind them so that no one went back and forth, for they made the pleasant land desolate.”
My Understanding: The people of God had been in exile for seventy years as a judgment of God upon them for their rebellion against Almighty God, for their idolatry and spiritual adultery, and for their refusal to repent and to turn from their wicked ways, even though God had sent them messages through his servants the prophets, and had warned them of impending judgment if they did not repent. The time of their exile was now complete, and those who had come out of the exile from Babylon were now inquiring of the priests (of the Lord through the priests) as to whether or not they needed to continue the practice of fasting that had been initiated by the Jews in exile in commemoration of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple. Now that the rebuilding of the temple of God was nearing completion, the people questioned whether or not the practice of fasting over the destruction of the temple was still relevant and necessary.
The Lord’s response to this inquiry, nonetheless, was to cast doubt on the sincerity of the ritual fasting that had taken place. He questioned whether or not the fasting was truly for him. The purpose of fasting is not to be ritualistic and by rote, but it is so we can devote ourselves to prayer and contrition, and so we can intercede in prayer for ourselves, for others, for our nation, our leaders, for life’s situations, for the world as a whole, for revival of the church, for the salvation of souls, and for the healing of the wounded, etc. Yet, it appears by God’s rebuke of them, and their ritual, that he was saying to them that they had turned that time, instead, into a mere ritual devoid of its divinely intended purpose, which was for intercessory prayer and repentance. Instead of the fasting resulting in true repentance and obedience to God and to his commands, it merely became a religious form.
So, the Lord let them know what he truly desired. He desired mercy, not sacrifice. He was not the least bit interested in their (or our) forms of worship, rituals, religious practices, etc. God does not want what we decide to give up or do for him if it does not include us giving him our hearts and lives. He wants us as living sacrifices on his altar, holy and pleasing to him, no longer conformed to the shape of the world, but transformed by the Spirit of God in the renewing of our minds (see Rom. 12:1-2). He has always desired this of his people, and the Old and New Testaments teach the same message. He wants us to dispense true justice (righteousness; honesty; integrity; fair dealings) with others, treating them with love, kindness, fairness and truthfulness. He desires that we not oppress - persecute; or inflict pain upon - those less fortunate, or those weaker than us. He wants no bullies.
And, he requires, as well, that we not plot or devise evil in our hearts towards others, or participate in such evil by approving of it in any way, shape or form. That means we should not hate, be vindictive or seek revenge toward others, or plan wicked schemes intended to harm others, or be in agreement with others doing such, or allowing ourselves to be entertained by such behavior as this. It appears the people who had come out of the exile were guilty of such sins, for God to specifically mention those sins. God was calling them to genuine repentance and obedience, and away from mere ritualistic and formal religion absent of true heart transformation. See this parallel passage in Isaiah 58:
“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD?
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I” (Isaiah 58:3b-9 NIV 1984).
The Lord was speaking to the people in this word from Zechariah (chapter 7) about their ancestors whom the Lord had judged and had sent into exile because of these sins listed here, and because of their refusal to listen to the Lord and to repent, and he was also speaking to those who had come out of the exile, telling them not to be like their forefathers, which apparently some of them were following in their fathers’ footsteps, or there was a danger of such. He was warning them against refusal to listen to the Lord like their forefathers had done. They had refused to pay attention to God, to his prophets and to God’s words and warnings to them. They stubbornly stopped up their ears, because they didn’t like the message, and they made their hearts as hard as flint. So, the Lord was angry with them. He stopped listening to them, and he scattered them with a whirlwind to get their attention and to bring them to repentance and back into a right relationship with God. God was telling this to the exiles who had come out of Babylon as a warning to not repeat their forefathers’ behavior and thus incur God’s wrath as a result.
Yet, the people of God did not lack knowledge of what was right and wrong. They had God’s words through the prophets and they had the history of the Jewish nation and the people who had gone before them as examples of what to do or not to do. They were not ignorant of God’s laws. They were just disobedient. If we don’t obey God, and if we don’t apply his words in reality to our everyday lives, then all of our religious practices are just forms and rituals, because they lack true heart transformation and commitment to Jesus Christ.
We can go through all the forms, sing the songs, lift our hands in the air, and appear to be in love with Jesus. Yet, his word teaches us that love for God is to obey his commands (see 1 John), to love others, and to turn from our sins and to turn to walk in faithful obedience to Jesus Christ, to go wherever he leads us, and to do whatever he requires of us to do, not in our own strength and power, but by the Spirit of God working in and through us for his purposes and for his glory.
When we turn our hearts over to the Lord in making him our Savior and Lord, we enter into a covenant relationship with God not unlike a marriage covenant. We promise to honor, love and obey him, to submit to his purposes and will for our lives, and to turn from our former “single” lives of sin, and to be committed and faithful to him as our only husband and master (see Ephesians 4:17-24).
This is what it means to come to Jesus Christ. It just isn’t taught that much anymore. Some people have changed the gospel into a license for immorality when they teach that repentance and obedience to Christ and his commands are not required for salvation. That is a false teaching, because the New Testament definitely teaches repentance and obedience for true salvation to take place. The false teachers use the excuse that calling for repentance and obedience is legalism and that it negates God’s grace, but that is a false assumption. In actuality, the grace of God is what gives us the ability to repent and to obey, and these are gifts from God, as appropriated to our lives via our willingness to submit to and to surrender to the working of the Holy Spirit of God within us. For, we cannot do this in our own strength or willpower, but it is the Spirit of God working in and through us that makes repentance and obedience possible, as we cooperate with that work.
Not By Might / An Original Work / March 29, 2012
Based off Zechariah 4
“Not by might, and not by power,
But by My Spirit,” says our Lord, God.
“Mighty mountain, O what are you?
Before Christ you will become level ground.”
The hands of our Lord, Savior God,
Formed the foundation of His church.
He alone will complete the work
He began in His servants’ hearts and minds.
Who despises small beginnings?
Much can be done in Christ’s strength within.
Be of courage, and trust your Lord.
All sufficient He is for all your needs.
Opposition and apathy:
Holy Spirit will set us free!
We can be overcomers in our faith
In our Lord, and our Savior, King.
Don’t be troubled by God’s timing.
He has ev’rything in His command.
Hasten to obey His commands fully,
Trusting Him to work all for good.
Not by might nor by human strength,
But by God’s power; strength within;
My dependency now on His working
His will in me in righteousness.
Song Lyrics @ Public Domain
Audio, song lyrics and sheet music (free):
https://sites.google.com/site/psalmshymnssongs2/home/songs/not-by-might
Song on Video:
http://youtu.be/bX2houWB_HE
No comments:
Post a Comment