Moving from the visions to words directly to the people.
Shifting gears from Zechariah's visions to the events of the time.
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. Zechariah 7:1
Ryrie dates this time to 518 B.C. Chislev is the name of the nine month on the Jewish calendar.
Men from one of the outlining areas came into Jerusalem to ask the priests if the national fasts were going to happen as they had been doing privately since the captivity.
The Lord was the one to reply via Zechariah. He asked these men who proclaimed their fasting during the 70 years if they had actually been fasting unto the Lord. That had to be a painful question to hear. No one wants their intentions questioned, especially when they probably didn't even totally know their own heart. I know there have been plenty of things I did, thinking it was for others or even for God, but the final outcomes served me in some way.
God goes on to ask if the eating and the drink if for themselves (ourselves) as well.
The fast in the seventh month wasn't one of the feasts commanded by the Lord. It was to commemorate an assassinated leader. The Lord is saying, that fast was man-made and not for Me. And furthermore, it wouldn't have happened at all if those in Judah had been faithful in the first place.
The Lord sends a following word through Zechariah:
Thus has the Lord of hosts said, ‘Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother; 10 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.’ Zechariah 7:9
That's pretty convicting. I often think of justice as doling out punishment to offenders. And this is part of justice in the fallen world. But true justics is doing what's right by the people around us, especially the vulnerable.
The message goes on to remember how the people of Judah before captivity refused to live this way with their fellow humans. They became hard-hearted, stubborn, and deaf to the previous prophets. " . . . 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.
Previous prophets heard directly from the Holy Spirit from the Lord of host. Angel army ready to pounce, but Judah couldn't hear, wasn't ready, and had it coming.
Now the post-captivity Remnant wants credit for honoring their suffering.
Again, very convicting. How much pain and suffering have O caused myself and I want credit for it. Not righteous suffering and martyrdom, just suffering that comes from bad decisions. I think this passage is going to haunt me.
And just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen,” says the Lord of hosts Zechariah 7:13
Ouch. Yikes. Ouch. Bazinga.
And since the Remnant was so set on remembering, the chapter closes with God remembering this part of the story:
. . . 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.” Zechariah 7:14
Note to self: God knows my heart, so He knows why I do what I do better than I do. God remembers how things actually happened, not the version I tell myself from my perspective. Those men had been fasting in the seventh month for 70 years to honor their own. Not to honor God. We can't expect sympathy or provision for side quests that have nothing to do with the good works given to us to do.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:10