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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
7:1-8:23 From Fasts to Feasts. This section mentions fasts that commemorate the destruction of Jerusalem, which will be transformed into feasts celebrating its renewal. The renewal gives the people another chance to exhibit a society of justice and love, and to be the vehicle by which light comes to all the world.
7:1-14 Ritual or Reality. Like the former prophets before him, Zechariah emphasizes that ritual without obedience and justice is empty.
7:1 The ninth month of the fourth year of King Darius is after Zechariah's earlier prophecies, , after the ceremony to reestablish the temple but before its completion. The month Chislev overlaps with November/December (see The Hebrew Calendar).
7:2-3 Sharezer and Regem-melech came from Bethel (v. 2) in the north with an inquiry addressed to the priests and the prophets (v. 3). The dual address may be because the question dealt with an issue of ritual to which there was no obvious answer in the law given to Moses. Weeping and abstaining from food and other luxuries were ritual acts of mourning aimed at demonstrating repentance and thereby changing God's disposition toward the penitent (see 2 Sam. 12:21-22). The fifth month (Zech. 7:3) was the month in which the temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar nearly earlier. Now that the temple was being rebuilt, it was natural to question whether there was any need to observe the rite any longer.
7:5 Zechariah's ruling applied not simply to the petitioners but to all the inhabitants of the land, and also included the fast observed in the seventh month commemorating the assassination of Gedaliah (Jer. 41:1-3). seventy years. See note on Jer. 25:11.
7:7 The South is the area to the south of Jerusalem, around Beersheba, while the lowland is to the west of Jerusalem. Though the original inquiry reflected a ritual concern, the Lord's response asks a deeper question: "When you fasted and mourned, was it really out of a concern over the loss of my favor? If you stop fasting and return to normal eating and drinking, does that mean an abandonment of that concern?" If the people had learned the lesson that the destruction of the temple was intended to teach, and had truly repented and turned from their sins, then they could stop fasting. The temple was being rebuilt. But if they have simply been fasting for themselves all along, then their fasting was a waste of time.
7:9-10 The test of true repentance is a life of obedience to God, specifically, true judgments that show kindness and mercy (v. 9) to the widow and fatherless, the sojourner and the poor (v. 10). These naturally disadvantaged groups in society were easy targets for the strong to oppress. This concern for the weaker members of society was what the Lord had required of his people in the former days, before Jerusalem's fall.
7:12 The law and the words of the former prophets were the two parallel means of God's communicating his will to his people, through the priests and prophets. Yet former generations "refused to pay attention" (v. 11) to God's self-revelation. They turned their backs on the Lord, closing their ears and hardening their hearts, thus incurring his anger (1:2).
7:14 The Lord's judgment came upon his people like a whirlwind, scattering them among nations that they had not known. Fittingly, they themselves joined the ranks of the vulnerable classes that they had oppressed, and the land was left desolate.
8:1-23 The Promise of the Future. God is renewing his presence with his people and reaffirming his purpose to bless the nations through them.
8:3 The somber word of judgment on the former generation is not the end of the story. The time of judgment for God's chosen city is reaching an end, and there will be a new beginning (1:14-16). God has returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. In the days ahead, Jerusalem will become the faithful city (cf. Isa. 1:26) and Zion would again be the holy mountain. For God's return to the land to be a blessing, the people must also be transformed, so that the dwelling place of the true and holy God will be peopled by truth-telling, holy inhabitants.
8:4 Old and young, male and female are depicted enjoying their natural habitat. Such an idyllic picture of opposite extremes implies peace and plenty for all ages and both sexes, with images of healthful play and relaxed rest that contrast dramatically with the slave labor, malnutrition, and starvation that had been the fate of former Jerusalem. Certainly, compared with their present impoverished circumstances, the future holds greater blessing.
8:6 Such a transformation may seem a marvelous miracle to Zechariah's hearers, but it is the sort of miracle that the Creator God of the universe does routinely.
8:7 The Lord uses opposite extremes to underscore the comprehensiveness of his salvation: he will save his people from the east country ("the land of the sunrise") and the west country ("the land where the sun sets") and thus from everywhere in between.
8:8 When the Lord returns to Jerusalem, all his people must likewise be brought in, so that the central relationship of the covenant between God and his people can be realized, and they can live together in faithfulness and in righteousness. The promise and they shall be my people, and I will be their God looks back to Jer. 31:33; 32:38; Ezek. 37:23, 27.
8:9 The assurance of God's transforming work is the basis for the people to be strong (cf. Hag. 2:3-9).
8:12-13 With the reestablishment of the temple, the Lord's attitude toward his people has changed. Before its rebuilding, travel was hazardous and agricultural labor was unrewarded. But now, after its reconstruction, there will be a sowing of peace (v. 12), resulting in the blessings of agricultural prosperity and security promised in the Sinai covenant (Lev. 26:4). Through the Lord's sovereign act of salvation, the remnant of this people (Zech. 8:12), who encompass both the house of Judah and house of Israel (v. 13), will receive the peace that unfaithful Israel never possessed. As a result, their name will be transformed from use as a byword of cursing among the nations into a formula of blessing (v. 13), fulfilling the Lord's purpose for them (Gen. 12:2).
8:15 As surely as the Lord carried through his purpose to judge their disobedient forefathers, so certainly the Lord has planned good things for this new generation. The Lord's commitment to bless them should have a twofold impact: it should free them from fear and motivate them to lives of new obedience toward one another in truth, justice, and grace.
8:19 Formerly, the people fasted in the fourth month, when the walls of Jerusalem were breached (2 Kings 25:3-4; Jer. 39:2; 52:6-7); in the fifth, when the city fell (Jer. 52:12-15); in the seventh, when Gedaliah was assassinated (2 Kings 25:25; Jer. 41:1-3); and in the tenth, when the siege of the city first began (2 Kings 25:1; Ezek. 24:1-2). Yet in the days ahead, these fast days would be turned to feast days, seasons of joy and gladness, celebrating the salvation and transformation that the Lord had accomplished for them. In view of this, the people are called to love truth and peace: "love" implies commitment and devotion rather than being simply an emotional response.
8:20-22 This blessing will extend beyond Jerusalem and Judah to include others as well, the inhabitants of many cities (v. 20). Like the people of Bethel in 7:2, they will come to Jerusalem to entreat the favor of the Lord (8:21). It will extend beyond God's own people to include the Gentiles: Many peoples and strong nations shall come (v. 22).
