seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Zechariah 7:1 In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Kislev. 2 The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melek, together with their men, to entreat the Lord 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?”
4 Then the word of the Lord Almighty came to me: 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? 6 And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? 7 Are these not the words the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?’”
8 And the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah: 9 “This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’
11 “But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and covered their ears. 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.
13 “‘When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the Lord Almighty. 14 ‘I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land they left behind them was so desolate that no one traveled through it. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.’”
This is kind of scary. The stupid humans had been enslaved for 70 years.... a lifetime. The stupid humans returned to their homeland and they wanted to ask God if they should still hold certain important church services. I guess maybe they figured that might have been a pagan service.
To me God is talking to the pew warmers..... those stupid humans who are only putting on a show. They wouldn't know the law of Moses.... they wouldn't understand the 10 Commandments. They would have known the words and melodies to every hymn in the hymnal.... but they wouldn't understand what they were singing because they were only there because they were supposed to be there..... so the people would think they were righteous and do business with them. That's what I see here.
The commentary from Bible.org titled this "Avoiding Spiritual Sclerosis".
I had to throw away a magazine article recently. I just couldn’t live with it in my house. It told how I could avoid heart disease and arteriosclerosis. The gist of it was that if I will stop eating the foods that I enjoy and start eating all sorts of things that I don’t especially care for, I may be able to avoid the hardening of the arteries that results from too much cholesterol. I realized that with an article like that in my home, I could never again enjoy a breakfast of bacon and eggs, with an English muffin smothered in real butter. The article went in the trash!
I’m kidding, of course. But I’m serious when I say that many people get spiritual sclerosis—hardening of the spiritual arteries—because they trash the warnings of God’s Word. I have both bad news and good news. The bad news is that like arteriosclerosis, spiritual sclerosis creeps up on you gradually as a result of certain bad spiritual habits that are as easy to fall into as eating too much fatty food. The good news is that, contrary to arteriosclerosis, you don’t have to give up everything you enjoy and begin doing all sorts of things you hate to avoid spiritual sclerosis.
The question involved the keeping of certain Jewish fasts. In 7:3, they mention the fast of the fifth month. In 7:5 Zechariah also mentions the fast of the seventh month. In 8:19, there is mention of two additional fasts, one in the fourth month and another in the tenth month. All were related to the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. In the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem; in the fourth month, he penetrated the city; in the fifth month, the temple was burned; and, in the seventh month, Gedaliah, the Jewish governor, was assassinated and the remnant fled ( 2 Kings 25). For the past 68 years, the Jews had observed these dates as fasts. But now, with the temple going up and Jerusalem being rebuilt, this delegation wondered whether they should continue to observe these fasts.
In his answer Zechariah addresses both this delegation and the whole nation. He points out that the Lord had scattered their ancestors to Babylon because of their spiritual sclerosis—the hardening of their spiritual hearts. He also indicates that the disease may be hereditary. The remnant that had returned from the captivity was showing some initial symptoms that they needed to confront to avoid the disease themselves. In chapter 7, the prophet shows them that…
This is from Bible-studys.org.
The temple was more than half done. All obstacles to the construction were removed by the decree of Darius confirming the decree of Cyrus (Ezra 6:1-14). Now that the temple was being finished, they were sent to inquire of the Lord and the priests whether they needed to continue the fast.
The question is answered negatively (in chapter 7), with two messages and positively (in chapter 8), with two messages. Each of the 4 messages was given to impress upon the people the need to live righteously. As (with chapters 1 to 6), the prophet began historically and then moved prophetically to the time of the Second Advent of Christ.
Once a month.... in the Baptist Church in Kissimmee, Florida..... the preacher would hold up a tiny piece of bread...... and say "do this in remembrance of me" and then the preacher would hold up a little tiny glass cup of grape juice.... and he would say "do this in remembrance of me". All the little tiny glass cups and the little silver plates with the cute little paper doilies..... were kept on a table covered by a cloth that had the word "Remembrance" embroidered on it. Once a month.... only those who had professed faith in Jesus Christ were permitted to take part in the ceremony.
I can see.... clearly.... there use to be a couple of services like this in Babylon. The good stupid humans who remembered and missed God and Judah and Jerusalem and worshiping God in the Temple.... they fasted and prayed to go back home.... at first everyone did it.... so the God would know they were sorry.... but then it got to be a habit. They would plan for the fast by eating plenty before the fast so they were not hungry. They would plan their calendar around the fast so their business would not suffer. Everything had been inconvenient for them.... but they did it because it became the "right thing to do" over the years.... they dreaded it.... it bothered their schedules, their finances..... it made them pretend to put their shiny baubles and pretty coins out of their mind.
When they got to Jerusalem... and got the Temple rebuild well under way..... they said "hey since we're not enslaved in Babylon anymore.... do we have to fast and pray?
I'm pretty sure God smacked His head and exclaimed "how stupid are these humans? The idea is doing what I told them to do.... will they ever get it?"
Of course the churches are closed as I write this..... everyone is supposed to be staying home so we don't spread a virus the health care system is no where near ready to respond to. The churches didn't close when the shooter murdered people in their prayer meeting..... but they are closed now.... because everyone has to stay at least spitting distance from our neighbor so we don't get a virus that will clog up our lungs and kill us.... a virus....a microscopic organism..... has done more damage to us stupid humans than all the bacon in all the grocery stores.
Will there be a big celebration next year? In 70 years will they still celebrate the covid19 closure of the church?
