Minor Prophets · Chapter 7 of 14
Zechariah 7
Two years later, delegates come to ask whether they should keep mourning and fasting for the temple's destruction. God answers with a searching question: in seventy years of fasting, did they fast for him, or for themselves? He recalls that former prophets called for justice, mercy, and compassion, not ritual sorrow. Because their ancestors refused, hardening their hearts, God scattered them and left the pleasant land desolate.
What happens in Zechariah 7
In the fourth year of Darius, a delegation asks the priests and prophets whether they should continue the fast of the fifth month, kept to mourn the temple's fall. God's word comes with a probing reply. He asks whether, in fasting and mourning through the seventy years of exile, they fasted for him at all, or whether their eating and drinking were simply for themselves. He reminds them that the former prophets, when Jerusalem was still prosperous, had already declared his will.
That will was not fasting but justice: execute true judgment, show mercy, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the foreigner, or the poor, and do not plot evil against one another. But their ancestors refused to listen, stopped their ears, and made their hearts hard as flint. So great wrath came. Because they would not hear when he called, he would not hear when they called, and he scattered them among unknown nations, leaving the land desolate.
Zechariah 7 in context
The exiles had observed several annual fasts commemorating the disasters that fell on Jerusalem. With the temple now being rebuilt, the delegation wonders whether these mournful fasts are still needed. God's answer looks past the calendar question to the heart.
He echoes a theme running through the earlier prophets, that ritual observance means nothing without justice and mercy, the very failures that had led to the exile in the first place.
Main themes of Zechariah 7
Zechariah 7 (KJV)
1And 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; 2When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer and Regemmelech, and their men, to pray before the LORD, 3And 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? 4Then came the word of the LORD of hosts unto me, saying, 5Speak 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? 6And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves? 7Should 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? 8And the word of the LORD came unto Zechariah, saying, 9Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother: 10And 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. 11But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. 12Yea, 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. 13Therefore 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: 14But 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.
Verses to carry from Zechariah 7
“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?”Zechariah 7:5
“Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother:”Zechariah 7:9
“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.”Zechariah 7:10
Thematic connection
How Zechariah 7 points to Jesus
Jesus takes up Zechariah's message when he confronts religion that keeps its rituals while neglecting mercy. He quotes Hosea's I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and he rebukes leaders who tithe meticulously yet omit the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. Zechariah's God, who asks whether fasting was really for him, is the same Lord who warns against practicing righteousness to be seen by others.
Where the ancestors hardened their hearts as flint, Christ offers a new heart, fulfilling the promise to replace hearts of stone with hearts of flesh. He is the one who perfectly loved justice and mercy, defended the widow and the outsider, and calls his people to a worship that flows from a softened, obedient heart rather than empty observance.
Questions about Zechariah 7
Was God rejecting fasting altogether?
No. God does not forbid fasting; later in the book he even promises to turn these fasts into feasts of joy. What he challenges is fasting emptied of its purpose, kept for self pity or habit rather than turned toward him. The question exposes motive. A fast for God draws the heart to justice and mercy; a fast for self changes nothing. God wants the practice filled with devotion, not simply performed.
Why does God say that because they would not hear, he would not hear?
It describes a sober consequence of persistent refusal. When their ancestors stopped their ears against God's repeated call to justice, they hardened themselves beyond appeal. God's answering silence was not petty retaliation but the reaping of what they sowed. Relationship with God involves listening; a heart that will not hear him eventually finds that its own cries go unheeded, until it returns and softens before him again.
Reflection
It is possible to keep every religious observance and still miss God entirely. Zechariah asks the uncomfortable question: is your devotion for God, or for yourself? Consider whether your worship overflows into justice and mercy for the widow, the outsider, the poor, or stops at ritual.
A prayer from Zechariah 7
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