Zechariah 7
v.3
by asking the priests of the house of the LORD Almighty and the prophets, “Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”
These men knew that during their forced exile in Babylon they observed these fasts that remembered the tragic fall of Jerusalem. Now since God’s people were back in the land and the temple was rebuilt, they wanted to know if it was appropriate to continue to these fasts of mournful remembrance.
v.5
“Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?
Instead of actively remembering the sin or tragedy of the past, God wants us to focus on active obedience and an active walk with Him. “There is no need to observe the sad anniversaries of our sins and their accompanying punishment, if once we are assured of God’s free forgiveness. When He forgives and restores, the need for dwelling on the bitter past is over… Too many of us are always dwelling beside the graves of the dead past” (Meyer).
v.9
“This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.
v.10
Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.’
Some among the people of God found it easier to fast a few days a year instead of truly treating others in a godly way. Their bad relationship with others demonstrated a fundamentally bad relationship with the LORD.
v.12
They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry.