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6. Zechariah 7: “How to
Ruin Your Religion and Your Life”
Golden
Nursing Center in Mannington, NJ –Evening Service on 6/17/2010
(edited
June 2019)
Verse 1: “And it came to pass in the fourth year of king
Darius, that the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the
ninth month, even in Chisleu;”
Zechariah lived at a time of restoration for the
nation of Israel. The Medes (modern day Iran) had taken over Babylon (modern
day Iraq) at that time and permitted God’s People to return to their homeland
in Palestine.
Verses 2-3: “When they had sent unto
the house of God Sherezer and Regemmelech, and their men, to pray before the Lord, And to speak unto the
priests which were in the house of the Lord
of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month,
separating myself, as I have done these so many years?”
A “religious” delegation is sent to Jerusalem
to ask a question about their rituals and religious practice.
Verse 4: “Then came the word of the Lord of
hosts unto me, saying,”
Zechariah is moved by the Spirit
of God to answer these questions. But unlike his ten wonderful visions, this
message will be different and much more PRACTICAL:
Verses
5-6: “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?”
Exactly how had Israel ruined
their worship services? How had they wound up defeated and captive in Babylon
for 70 years?
Verse 7: “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?”
They had ignored God’s clear
message to them even before their captivity when it had come through men like Jeremiah
and Isaiah. Will they hear it now? (Hey, will we hear it today?) This is God’s
plan for his people, then and now:
Verses 8-10: “And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying, Thus
speaketh the Lord of hosts,
saying, Execute true judgment, and shew 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.”
People sometimes say that the
gentleness and love of Christ just can’t be found in the God of the Old
Testament – they must have skipped over this little book of Zechariah!
Verse 11: “But they refused to hearken, and pulled away
the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.”
70 years prior, the people of God
had rejected this message.
Verse 12: “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.”
This is recorded for our benefit,
I think, not to bring shame to them anymore. It should put to shame all of us
who still, even under the New Covenant, will not listen and obey it.
Verse 13: “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:”
So
there it is, there’s the result: a ruined religion AND a ruined life:
Verse 14: “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.”
You can’t say you are turning to
God without also turning to those around you who are in need. The Lord will not
permit it—no matter how many steeples we build or golden altars. Over 500 years
later, Jesus put it this way in Matthew chapter 22, verses 35-40 as He was
answering a question:
“Then one of them, which was a
lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the
great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is
the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang
all the law and the prophets.”
To doubt, reject, or
ignore Christ’s clear message today, whether you consider yourself to be in or
out of the Church, is the road to ruin.
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