INTERMISSION

                              Zechariah 7-8

     The prophetic drama on history's stage is temporarily suspended! If you had imagined yourself sitting in an auditorium for sometime, a break for a much-needed stretch would help. Of course, by the time the next chapter begins, approximately two years had passed since Zechariah's vision. The Temple was well on its way to completion. In the audience a delegation from Bethel had some important questions. So the intermission time gave them a chance to corner Zechariah with questions relating to “fasts and feasts.” Chapters 7 and 8 becomes a question and answer session before Act 2 begins. The rest of the Book will be largely an amplification of what was seen in the earlier vision.

     “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. The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Meleck, together with their men, to entreat the LORD 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?’”(Vs.1-3)

     The seventy-year captivity had ended and many Jews returned to help build the temple and the walls of Jerusalem, which still lay in ruins. Sadness and sorrow over Judah’s fall to the Babylonians, led them to set aside certain “days”for fasting. Now that temple was coming to completion, the question arose: “should these fasts be continued or not?”

     There was only one “fast” the Mosaic Law had established: “the Day of Atonement.” Following the destruction of Jerusalem, however, several other “fasts” were added. For example, in July they would mourn and fast over the captivity of Jerusalem and exile of the royal seed from the city (Jeremiah 39:2-9;52:6-7); in August, they mourned over its burning and destruction of their Temple(2 Kings 25:8); in October, they commemorated the murder of Gedaliah whom Nebuchadnezzar had placed as their governor (Jeremiah 41:43); and in January, they fasted in remembrance of the day Nebuchadnezzar began his siege of Jerusalem(Jeremiah 39:1;52:4).

     “Then the word of the LORD Almighty came to me: ‘ask all the people of the land and the priests. “When you fasted and mourned in the firth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?” (Vs.4-6)

     The answer Yahweh begins with is very personal: “what were your motives in theses fasts?” They felt sorry for Jerusalem’s destruction but the spirit of true repentance was absent. Instead, their fasting turned mostly to feasting which satisfied themselves but not the Lord. “Their hypocrisy appeared because they showed more concern about a ceremony of human institution than about moral obedience...they falsely made the fast an end intrinsically meritorious in itself, not a means toward God's glory in their sanctification” (Jamieson Fausset and Brown, pp.724-725). The rest of chapter 7, Zechariah explains what the Lord desired (vs.8-10), what His people actually did (vs.11-12) and what God had to do (vs.13-14).
     “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor in your hearts do not think evil of each other’” (Vs.9-10).

     Did they do what God said? No! Verses 11-12 indicate that “they refused to pay attention…. turned their backs and stopped up their ears…made their hearts as hard as flint.” God warned Israel and Judah over and over again through His prophets, but they refused to listen and repent. So God sent Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Judah and Jerusalem and “scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations…the land was left so desolate…they made their pleasant land desolate” (v.14). For 70 years the land remained desolate because of their disobedience and rebellion.

     “Again the word of the LORD Almighty came to me. This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘I am very jealous for Zion; I am burning with jealousy for her’” (8:1-2)

     Zechariah then moves from the past history to the present. Dr. McComiskey explains the transition: “The previous chapter (7:14) left us with a mental picture of the land lying in eerie desolation during the captivity. In the discourse here, however, we have a different picture: Jerusalem’s streets ring with the voices of playing children as elderly people look on” (The Minor Prophets, p.1137). While present blessings are intended to give His people some consolation in the midst of their struggles to rebuild Jerusalem’s temple and its walls (vs.9-11), the picture God outlines extends to the distant future when he “returns to Zion and dwells in Jerusalem…called the City of Truth” (v.3). This beautiful scene paints the streets with children playing together in peace under the watchful eyes of the elderly (vs.4-5).

     Zechariah then tells of a great in-gathering of people from east and west as they pour into Jerusalem. “I will save my people from the countries of the east and the west. I will bring them back to life in Jerusalem; they will be my people, and I will be faithful and righteous to them as their God.” Old Testament prophetic books are replete with prophecies of Israel’s blessings in the millennial kingdom. Repentant Israel will then flourish like a fruitful vine yielding its lushes grapes (vs.12-13). Under God’s favor and promptings, they will “speak the truth to each other, and render sound judgment in their courts; no plotting evil against their neighbor, and not swearing falsely (vs.16-17).

     With the intermission almost over the prophet gives the delegation from Bethel a final word of encouragement. He goes back to the original question about the different “fast days” and tells them that one-day the “fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions and happy festivals for Judah” (v.19). The final picture is filled with praise, worship and joyful celebration as people from all nations pour into Jerusalem to seek the LORD Almighty (v.22). Then he closes with these words in verse 23: “In those days ten men from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the edge of his robe and say, ‘Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.”

     One can almost feel the rustling sounds of the crowds taking their places before the next scene opens. Dr. Coleman Luck sets the stage for the next act when he states, “From visions, the style of the book now changes to direct discourse from the Lord through Zechariah. The rest of the book is largely an amplification of that which has gone before, with a number of very striking parallels” (Zechariah, p.69).

                     ZECHARIAH 7-8

          TWO YEARS PASS BY ON HISTORY'S STAGE
          BEFORE THE NEXT PROPHETIC PAGE
          REVEALED GOD'S COSMIC MYSTERY PLAN
          FOR ISRAEL IN THEIR PROMISED LAND.

          THE INTERMISSION TIME WAS SPENT
          WITH QUESTIONS BETHELITES HAD SENT
          ABOUT IMPORTANT DAYS TO FAST
          THAT CALLED FOR MOURNING FROM THE PAST.

          THE PROPHET SOUGHT AN ANSWER CLEAR
          FOR SCATTERED JEWS BOTH FAR AND NEAR
          WHO WERE RELEASED FROM BABYLON'S HAND
          AND GIVEN BACK THEIR CONQUERED LAND.

          BUT SPECIAL DAYS TO MOURN AND WEEP
          HAD TURNED THEIR FAST FOR FOOD TO EAT
          THE CALL FOR JUSTICE, LOVE AND GRACE
          WAS ABSENT FROM THE HEBREW RACE.

          A STRONG REBUKE FROM YAHWEH CAME
          BECAUSE OF ALL THEIR SIN AND SHAME
          THEY WOULD NOT TURN AND DO HIS WILL
          UNTIL HIS JUDGMENT DID FULFILL.

          YET IN THE MIDST OF THEIR DISTRESS
          THE PROMISES OF PEACE AND REST
          TURNED ISRAEL'S NIGHT OF GLOOM AND PAIN
          TO LASTING PRAISE THROUGH YAHWEH'S NAME.

          THE LORD ALMIGHTY SPOKE IN LOVE
          ASSURING JUDAH FROM ABOVE
          THEIR TEMPLE SOON WOULD BE COMPLETE
          AND ALL OPPOSED WOULD FACE DEFEAT.

          BUT THEN HE LEAPS THROUGH SPACE AND TIME
          WHERE FEAST AND DANCE WILL THEN COMBINE
          AS KING MESSIAH CLAIMS HIS THRONE
          THE SOVEREIGN LORD WILL REIGN ALONE.